Dinnerly is one of the cheapest meal kit delivery services in America. Their meals are simple, delicious, and easy to cook—and they start at just $4.99 per serving!
All the Dinnerly meals are designed with simplicity and minimalism in mind so you can say goodbye to stressful meal planning and trips to the grocery store. The cooking techniques are familiar, and the simple recipes come with unique and interesting ingredients and flavors to keep dinner interesting.
They offer a variety of meal kits to suit different dietary preferences and a large market selection of fresh produce, lunches, breakfasts, and many other add-on items. There is sure to be something for everyone.
We revisited our in-depth, hands-on Dinnerly review to bring you all the updates and new offerings for 2024. Read on to learn more about Dinnerly and what the meal kit delivery service offers.
In A Glance – Intro to Dinnerly
To make it short and sweet, Dinnerly is one of America’s cheapest meal kit delivery services!
Launched in 2017, Dinnerly is relatively new in the meal kit arena. The company is here to deliver simple meal kits that create fuss-free, delicious, and affordable weeknight meals. Just because the price is low does not mean you will receive ingredients akin to junk food!
Dinnerly is all about making home-cooked meals accessible for everyone. The meal kit service is cost-effective, but that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice flavor or quality. They offer one of the largest menus of all the meal kit delivery services with seasonal items. Most recipes are quick and easy to prepare with fewer than six ingredients and take less than 30 minutes to cook.
Dinnerly ensures that it provides you with the same high-quality ingredients as other meal kit companies but at a fraction of the cost. Its approach to keeping prices low is very simple and clear.
You can use digital recipe cards instead of the glossy printed cardstock, fewer ingredients per dish (which also means less chopping and cleaning for you), and simple packaging with no fancy marketing campaigns. These business practices pass the savings on to their subscribers and keep costs affordable.
At the end of the day, you get a delicious dinner for two for about $10 in total!!
Pros and Cons of Dinnerly
Pros:
- Easy, affordable meal kits with oven-ready and microwaveable options
- Delicious familiar meals and uncomplicated cooking techniques
- A great rotating selection of over 100 recipes per week
- Quick customization options and a large selection of add-ons
- Cater to different dietary needs and preferences
Cons:
- Recipes lack the complexity found in pricier meal kits
- To reduce packaging, not all ingredients come separated by meal
- It may not support more restrictive dietary preferences
Who Should Use Dinnerly?
Dinnerly was created for people who like home-cooked meals but who don’t like overpaying for the good things in life. They make your evenings easier with delicious recipes that contain fresh, pre-portioned quality ingredients delivered directly to your door.
The service is an excellent fit for those looking for affordable meal kits that offer the convenience of not having to grocery shop, meal plan, or spend a ton of time in the kitchen.
The flexible meal plans are perfect for anyone on a budget, students, and larger families with picky eaters. Subscriptions are flexible, and meal plans offer everything from meal kits to cook fresh at home to microwaveable and oven-ready options and lots of great add-ons to make breakfast, lunch, snacks, and even dessert fast and easy.
Meal Plans
Dinnerly offers two different subscription plans to choose from with personalized preferences:
- Two-person box – which serves two hungry people between two to six times a week
- Family box – which serves four hungry people between two to six times a week
What Diet Does Dinnerly Support?
Although the service focuses on low prices, it also offers extensive diet support. Once you choose your servings and number of meals per week, you can select from several dietary preferences to help customize your weekly deliveries.
Dinnerly offers gluten-free friendly options, low-calorie, low-carb, crowd-pleasing recipes for picky eaters, vegetarian and vegan meals, and quick and easy recipes. You can also add preferences for proteins, including beef, poultry, shellfish, pork, lamb, or fish. There are several options each week for tofu lovers as well.
Dieticians work closely with the chefs when designing the meals to ensure you get quality, nutritious, and flavorful recipes. No matter your preferences, you can always view the entire menu each week and make any changes or modifications to your weekly delivery up to seven days before.
Variety & Style of Meals Kits
Dinnerly offers one of the largest weekly menus, full of over 100 delicious recipes. Most of the items on the menu are classic recipes that require very little prep and are easy to prepare. Cooking methods are simple and familiar and don’t require any special equipment.
The recipes contain less than six ingredients and are ready in less than thirty minutes, so you can spend less time in the kitchen and more time enjoying delicious home-cooked meals. There are plenty of options for vegetarian meals, no-gluten-added meals, low-calorie meals, and kid-friendly meals.
Quality of Ingredients
We were pleasantly surprised with the contents of the Dinnerly Box—the vegetables looked super fresh, the cheeses and pasta were high-quality, and the meats were all grass-fed and looked just great! It truly seems like Dinnerly aims to provide the same high-quality ingredients as other meal kit companies but at a much lower cost. Dinnerly costs almost half of what some other meal kit companies charge.
Dinnerly takes a straightforward and clear approach to ensuring it can maintain its low prices. It uses simpler packaging and recipes with fewer ingredients per dish. Keeping the ingredient list shorter means less prep and less mess, too!
Low costs are also possible thanks to local sourcing of seasonal produce. Depending on availability and the recipes selected, you can find some organic produce. All ingredients are prepackaged and portioned to make cooking a breeze.
Our Experience with Dinnerly – Is It Tasty?
We have used the Dinnerly service for the past six years and have always enjoyed each delivery. However, a few things have changed with the service, so our team re-tested Dinnerly for two weeks in 2024 to update our past reviews.
As part of our review process for each meal kit company, our meal kit review team tries and tastes various meals from the company menu over two weeks. Despite their low prices, we found the meals to be of the same excellent quality and the delivery box was easy to sort and well-insulated. The produce was fresh, and we were pleased to find that they now include the option to receive full recipe cards for each order. If you feel more eco-friendly, you can opt out of the recipe cards and utilize their user-friendly mobile app or website for step-by-step cooking instructions.
One of the dishes we tried and loved was the Stir-Fried Beef Lettuce Wraps, which had great sweet teriyaki-ginger seasoning and top-quality lettuce. The beef was sweet, savory, and well-spiced. The fresh, crisp lettuce cups were filled with a delicious twist on sticky sushi rice and then topped with the seasoned beef and scallions. It was a fun and filling meal!
We also loved the Asparagus-Gruyere Ravioli with Peas and Ricotta with a lemon-parm sauce. This fast meal came together in less than 20 minutes and was as pretty as it was flavorful. The beautiful striped ravioli was fresh with an asparagus and gruyere filling. We were pleasantly surprised by the addition of fresh mint and a bright, savory lemon and parmesan sauce. The peas were delicious and fresh and added that finishing touch.
Another household favorite was the Mediterranean Pulled Pork Gyros with Garlic Sauce and salad. The pork came pre-cooked for easier prep time, and the marinated tomatoes felt like an extra special touch. The pork was crisped with authentic ras el hanout spice, wrapped in a warm pita, and drizzled with a wonderful creamy garlic sauce.
Other Recommended Dinnerly Meals to Try:
The diverse Dinnerly menu offers something to appeal to everybody. Here are a few more of their most popular meals:
- Thai Beef and Coconut Rice with Shredded Lettuce
- Oven Beef Fried Taquitos with Salsa and Sour Cream
- Feta and Apricot Jam Panini with Arugula Salad
- Grilled Mediterranean Sliders with zucchini, Peppers, and Pita
- Saucy Skillet French Onion Meatballs with Egg Noodles
- Pork Piccata with Lemon and Parsley
The Cooking- Is it Easy to Use?
All of the meals are simple and come with easy-to-follow instructions. You can choose to have recipe cards delivered with your order or use their mobile app to follow along. Everything requires very little prep and requires no complicated cooking methods or techniques.
The recipes come together in under 30 minutes, and many can be prepared in less than that. The ingredients are fresh and pre-portioned, so very little time is spent in the kitchen, and you still get a delicious home-cooked meal.
For added simplicity, the one-pot meals require very little cleanup, and the oven-ready options are even easier. If you aren’t feeling like cooking or are short on time, you can opt for one of the microwaveable meals, which are fresh, premade, and ready in minutes.
How to Get Started with Dinnerly?
Getting started with Dinnerly is easy! All you need to do is sign up for the service via their website or app. First, you choose your preferred plan from the two plans offered (two-person or family), pick your preferences, advise your location, and select your delivery day and payment method.
The last step is to choose which meals you want to try from the menu of over 100 recipes every week. Once you have made your selections, you can select any add-ons, and you will receive your first box shortly after your order date. When you receive your delivery, just unpack the ingredients, choose your first meal, and enjoy your delicious and super affordable home-cooked meal!
We also must point out that Dinnerly understands that you may only want to cook for some weeks, so the service is entirely flexible. You can skip any week that doesn’t work for you or pause your subscription anytime. You can also change the number of portions you would like to receive in your weekly box.
Add-On Options- How Does it Work?
The weekly menu has numerous subscription add-on options, such as desserts, breakfast, and premade meals. You can choose as many items as possible to supplement your recipes and make your week even easier.
They have everything from smoothies to pasta, sauces, fruits and veggies, extra proteins, and even charcuterie boards and pizza kits. The options rotate weekly, just like their recipe menu, so you always get to try new things and keep your pantry stocked.
Inside the Dinnerly Delivery Box- Is it Well Organized and Eco-Friendly?
In this Dinnerly review test, all the ingredients were delivered in a labeled medium-size box. The refrigerated proteins were packed at the bottom with ice packs to keep them cool during delivery. As part of Dinnerly’s cost-effective approach, the ingredients are not separately packed for each meal kit, so some sorting is required, but this only takes a few minutes.
Dinnerly does a great job at reducing packaging and working with suppliers to use eco-friendly materials. The box and insulated separators are recyclable; if you don’t wish to reuse the ice packs, those can be recycled as well. Even the ingredient packaging can be recycled, reducing your carbon footprint.
Website & Ordering Process
The Dinnerly website and mobile app are user-friendly and very easy to navigate. You can fully manage your orders and account online. Registering, changing plans, skipping or pausing deliveries, and updating delivery preferences and payment methods are easy.
You can also see past orders and future weekly menus, including the recipes, ingredients, and nutritional facts of each dish. You can view the menu up to four weeks in advance and swap meals or make changes up to seven days before your delivery.
To sign up, click or tap the “sign up” button and then follow the process, which involves choosing your preferred plan, selecting dietary preferences, picking your delivery day, and adding a payment method. The last thing you need to do is select which meals you want to try from their weekly menu or let Dinnerly do that based on your preferences.
What Do Customers Think of Dinnerly?
Customers love the convenience and simplicity of Dinnerly meals. They appreciate the family-friendly and less time-consuming approach to home-cooked meals and the ease of cooking everything.
One subscriber on Reddit shared, “I’ve had Dinnerly and Home chef. I like Dinnerly more but there is a learning curve to the type of meals you may like and are filling. I used to think every meal needed meat but Dinnerly got me hooked on awesome vegetarian meals. I also like their different ethnic inspired dishes.”
A customer also wrote on Reddit “I actually like Dinnerly because I’m a really picky eater and their meals are VERY basic. So that’s a plus for me. They are definitely the simplest of all the kits.”
Another user said “I love Dinnerly! Their recipes are basic, but as a family of 5 with three kids under 10, it works for us. It’s more like a home-cooked meal that my kids are willing to eat, less ingredients, and less time-consuming to prepare and cook overall. I would recommend Dinnerly to anyone.”
Customer Support
Dinnerly has an excellent customer service team, and finding information is easy with their extensive help section and FAQ. If you need to reach them directly for any questions or concerns, you can do so in a few different ways:
- Help section on the Dinnerly website: https://support.dinnerly.com/hc/en-us
- Contact form: https://support.dinnerly.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
- Phone number: 888-267-2850, Monday to Friday between 9 am-10 pm CST and Saturday between 9 am-9 pm CST
Delivery Areas
Dinnerly currently delivers to most places in the contiguous US, so it may be delivered to your address. Before ordering, you can always enter your zip code without entering any payment information to make sure they deliver to your area.
Your delivery area will determine what days you can receive a delivery. You can also customize delivery days that work with your schedule or pause anytime if you are going to be out of town.
The Bottom Line- Is it Worth It?
If you are looking for easy and delicious home-cooked meals, but don’t want to pay too much, Dinnerly is a great option for you!
The company delivers simple yet tasty recipes that create almost effortless and affordable home-cooked dinners. From our Dinnerly review process, we found that the ingredients Dinnerly provides are high-quality and always fresh. Even though the price is low, the result is a great meal every time.
For the price, quality, selection, and convenience, we recommend giving Dinnerly a try. The large selection of recipes and menu items means you won’t get bored, and the flexible subscription makes it easy to fit into your life when needed.
