Chef’d Review

UPDATED March 11. 2024.
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Important update: On Monday, July 16, 2018, Chef’d meal kit service ceased operations. Its founder and CEO Kyle Ransford cited unexpected circumstances with funding for the business. We are sad to say that the company will no longer be processing orders and that the world of meal kits has lost a true giant, well-loved by numerous home cooks across America.

Chef’d is meal kit delivery service that is known for its incredible variety of recipes and high quality of ingredients. It operates in partnership with famous chefs, great culinary brands, popular food media, and the best restaurants, bringing you perfect meal ideas for nearly every taste. Join us as we explore its exquisite offer in this objective Chef’d review.

Chef'd Homepage

How Chef’d Works

Chef’d is a candy store for lovers of good food. You can browse and shop commitment-free, as it does not require a subscription. There are hundreds upon hundreds of meal kits at your disposal, curated by some of the best chefs in the country. Pick the ones you want to cook, throw them in the cart, and just proceed to the checkout, like in any other store.

In order to help you choose the perfect meal kit more easily, Chef’d has introduced the Personalize option. It allows you to state your preferences, so Chef’d can suggest the best meal kits for your taste, skills, and needs.

How Chef'd Works

Apart from a la carte ordering, Chef’d also allows you to pick a meal plan and receive weekly deliveries of meal kits of your choice. All plans are designed in cooperation with its famous partners. Read more about them in the Meals and Recipes section of this Chef’d review.

What Makes Chef’d Different

It would not be wrong to say that everything about Chef’d is different, starting with the very concept it employs. It does not force you to subscribe to its services but allows you to order as often as you want, whenever you want, whatever you want, and as much food as you need. If you prefer getting meals on a weekly basis, this option is available as well.

Some meal deliveries work on their own, some partner with one famous chef to make their offer pop, and Chef’d partnered with dozens of them, along with renowned food brands and associations, making its offer unparalleled in the industry.

What also makes it special is the unbelievable number of different dishes on its menus, which has already gone north of 400. These dishes differ in every possible aspect, from preparation time and complexity to cooking method, ingredients, and their suitability for different tastes and dietary needs. It is virtually impossible not to find something you like and want to recreate in your kitchen, using the high-quality, excitingly fresh, pre-portioned ingredients handpicked by the Chef’d team.

It also has a great referral program that lets you receive gifts while giving. Every time you send a friend $10 to spend at Chef’d and this friend makes a purchase, you get $10 as a thank-you gift.

If you want to send a gift worth more than $10, without expecting anything in return, you can opt for one of the gift cards at your disposal. You can send gift cards worth $25, $50, $75, $100, $150 or $200 and let someone enjoy the benefits of shopping at Chef’d without spending a dime. There are three options at your disposal: e-mail gift cards, when you are in need of an instant gift, physical gift cards if you feel like paper is more personal, and group gift cards if you want to spend big.

Meals and Recipes

Chef'd meal options
Diabetes
Gluten-Free
Paleo
Vegan
Vegetarian
Weight Loss

When shopping for meals a la carte, picking the meals you like without limiting yourself to only one plan, you can take a look at all of them in one place and decide which ones you want to try out. However, with hundreds of dishes at your disposal, it takes a lot of time to check out the entire offer. Luckily, you can sort them by 5 categories: New Arrivals, Best Sellers, Price – Low to High, Price – High to Low, and A-Z.

meal Chefd

If sorting by categories does not help, you can take a look at the featured dishes and menus, narrowing your choice down to chefs’ recommendations. Still, our favorite way of shopping at Chef’d and the one we used most while writing this Chef’d review is by browsing the Collections section.

Collections feature recipes for nearly every occasion and mood. There are as over 50 collections at your disposal, ranging from 10 Minute Meals, 500 Calories Or Less, And Quick And Easy To Around The World, Fusion Foods With Flare, and Kids In The Kitchen.

Collections Chefd

As we have mentioned before, although you do not have to subscribe to its services, Chef’d offers this option as well. You can choose from 5 different plans, which include American Diabetes Association, Atkins, Weight Watchers, The New York Times Cooking, and Spoon University meal plans. The recipes are created in accordance with the philosophies and criteria of the eponymous brands.

What is wonderful about Chef’d is that it can help you realize any culinary idea you have in mind. You can prepare a great dish in just 10 minutes or spend 12 hours making the perfect grilled ribs. You can choose between meals for true carnivores and those for vegetarians. It offers a world of possibilities and allows you to pamper your senses and take care of your health at the same time.

Pricing

The prices at Chef’d are not exactly low, but considering the quality, we can honestly say that they are rather reasonable. There are hundreds of meals in the offer and just as many prices that vary depending on how fancy the meals are, what kind of ingredients they require, and of course, the number of servings. The most inexpensive meals are breakfasts such as almond butter toast, kale scramble, and overnight oats with berries, which all cost $10 per 2 servings. The priciest items on the menu are, for example, Australian Prime Wagyu Filet, which costs $149 for 4 servings, and Prosciutto Wrapped Sea Bass, which costs $117 for 4 servings. However, these are not the priciest meals per serving. Most of the time, the most expensive meals cost around $20 per serving.

If you opt for a meal plan, you can save some cash on your orders. With recurring orders of 1-2 meals, you save 5%, with 3-4 meals per week you get a 10% discount, and all ongoing orders of 2 or more meals come with free shipping.

Prices Chefd
For Two People (2 servings)
Meal typeMeal kit pricePrice per serving
Breakfast$10.00 - $36.00$5.00 - $18.00
Lunch$9.00 - $48.00$4.50 - $24.00
Dinner$9.00 - $80.00$4.50 - $40.00
For Four People (4 servings)
Meal typeMeal kit pricePrice per serving
Breakfast$23.00 - $63.00$5.75 - $15.75
Lunch$11.00 - $86.00$2.75 - $21.50
Dinner$11.00 - $149.00$2.75 - $37.25

Delivery Areas

Chef’d delivers throughout the contiguous United States via OnTrac and FedEx. Unfortunately, it does not ship to Alaska and Hawaii. You can choose the delivery day that suits you best. The usual delivery days are between Tuesday and Saturday, between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. You do not have to be at home at the time of the delivery, as long as there is a safe place for the driver to leave your food.

For orders that cost less than $40, the shipping costs are $10. Every delivery over $40 comes with free shipping.

Chef’d Pros And Cons

To make sure Chef’d meets all your standards and expectations, it is important to know its biggest advantages and disadvantages. With a short overview of its pros and cons, you can easily decide if Chef’d is the right meal kit service for you.

Pros
  • More than 400 dishes
  • Partnership with the best chefs and culinary brands
  • A la carte ordering
  • Excellent meal plans
  • Good discounts and perks
  • Nice selection of gift cards
  • Referral program

Cons

  • Does not deliver to Alaska and Hawaii
  • Not too affordable

Sample Dishes

If you subscribe to Chef’d, you can easily prepare culinary masterpieces using only the ingredients and recipes found in your meal kit box. You may not be a pro chef just yet, but with Chef’d, you can easily make restaurant-grade meals. You don’t have to take our word for it – check out the images below to get a better idea of the types of dishes you can enjoy with Chef’d.

Bottom Line

Chef’d is a meal kit delivery service that truly aims to please. It is as flexible as it can be, allowing you to order without a subscription, as often or rarely as you wish. With hundreds of dishes in its offer, it has one of the largest and most varied selections of meals we have encountered. It works together with the biggest names in the food business and brings you incredibly creative and innovative dishes, as well as classics and meals ready in a flash or those that take half a day to make. It is truly one of the best meal delivery services currently available.


User Reviews (16)

Chef'd is rated 3.5/5, based on 16 user reviews.

The Chef'd reviews listed below reflect the opinions and experiences of real users and are in no way influenced by the service reviewed here. Before publishing each review, our team checks whether it was submitted by an actual user in an effort to prevent false or spammy reviews.

  1. | July 20, 2018

    I have been trying to reach Chef’d for two days via their customer service number, emails, and facebook. No answer and my order last month was late and is not even here this month. Are they closed? A company who won’t even answer their customer service number. Beware before you buy from them. Call them to see if they are still even in existance.

    • jeanne | July 27, 2018

      Terrible. This is what made me hesitate to try any of these companies. I have read similar experiences online from other people. It looks like they shut down recently, but will make a return:https://progressivegrocer.com/shuttered-meal-kit-service-chefd-return-physical-stores

    • Melinda Thompson | July 28, 2018

      They are closed, I read. I tried to sign up and after creating an account it said ” thank you for waiting while we redirect you” , but never redirected me. Then I read somewhere else they went out of business or something.

  2. | February 9, 2018

    I’ve been looking for a service like this for years, the meals are so gorgeous and easy to cook. I’d also like to know where they get the ingredients, it’s like they shop on a different planet.

  3. | January 19, 2018

    It’s not exactly cheap but sooooo many options! I want to try them aaaaaallll!

  4. | January 7, 2018

    I’ve tried Blue Apron and Hello Fresh, and Chef’d is my favorite. While I do think the Chef’d meals take a little more cooking skill (ie, not for novices or people who don’t know how to cook), the flavors and quality have been so much better — and the selection is much much broader. I’ve been doing it for about a year now and the New York Times recipe plan has been so fun — never would have tried cooking lamb otherwise!

  5. | August 30, 2017

    The nutritional info on the site is misleading and they had me eating much more calories than I should until I finally did the math.

  6. | August 25, 2017

    The company is definitely not equipped to handle problems on the fly. They ruined my Thanksgiving dinner by sending me one box I ordered and completely forgetting about the other.

  7. | August 18, 2017

    The recipes are straightforward enough but they’re not catering to beginner cooks. For example, not everyone knows that you shouldn’t cut the meat and vegetable on the same surface, and the recipes don’t provide such details.

  8. | August 15, 2017

    My Atkins meal plan with Chefd started out with a box full of meat and blood. Everything went straight for the bin.

  9. | August 3, 2017

    I really like that I don’t have to subscribe to order food from chefd. Their recipes are the best and everything tastes amazing!

  10. | July 27, 2017

    Decent food and menus but the customer service never answered the phone or any of my emails for that matter.

  11. | July 21, 2017

    Chef’s allowed me to try out some gourmet meals I never had ingredients for in my pantry. They probably also sent higher quality items than I would’ve bought on my own.

  12. | June 20, 2017

    I ordered 3 meals with fish and they didn’t deliver them to my door but to the leasing office in my complex which isn’t open during hours I can get there. So frustrating.

  13. | May 30, 2017

    Packaging was good, ingredients were ok, and delivery was timely, but there’s something seriously off with the overall taste. I did everything listed in the recipe and the taste is just well, bad.

  14. | March 21, 2017

    Great, but way too pricy. I only order on special occasions.

  15. | January 4, 2017

    Hands down, the best I’ve ever tried! Beef Stroganoff is to die for!

  16. | November 21, 2016

    Awesome produce, love the recipes, just wish it was a bit cheaper, I’d like to try out some of the plans.

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