7 best meal delivery services UK 2025; tried and tested

AS the nights draw in and the pavements get slippery, a good meal kit is a cosy shortcut to dinner you actually want to eat.

The best meal delivery services turn weeknights into less faff and more flavour, with fresh ingredients, clear recipe cards, and portions that help reduce food waste.

Whether you’re leaning into healthy eating, going plant-based for January, need gluten-free options, or you just want to simplify meal prep, the best services make staying in feel like a win.

We’ve cooked our way through the UK’s most popular meal kit and ready-meal brands, focusing on taste, value and how easy they make life when it is dark by 5 pm.

How we tested

• Hands-on cooking: We prepared at least three recipes per service, where applicable, following the recipe cards exactly to judge timings, difficulty, and washing up. For ready-meal services, we tested across cuisines and protein types to assess variety and consistency.
• Freshness and quality: We checked ingredient quality on arrival, shelf life across the week, packaging sustainability, and how well pre-portioned kits reduce food waste.
• Taste and nutrition: We scored meals on flavour, balance, and portion size, as well as the breadth of healthy eating plans, including plant-based, high-protein, calorie-conscious, and gluten-free options.
• Price and delivery: We compared price per portion, delivery windows, reliability in colder weather, and introductory offers. Prices and promotions were accurate at the time of testing and are subject to change.
• Long-term experience: Several of us have used these services personally for months, so we factored in real-world consistency beyond a single box.

We regularly test adjacent subscriptions to keep our benchmarks sharp, including the best flower subscription services and wine deliveries, as seen in our Naked Wines review, so you can trust our verdicts across various lifestyle services.

See our recent guides and reviews for more on how we test and compare.

Mindful Chef

Mindful Chef (from £7.50-10 per portion)
Introductory Offer: 25% off first four boxes

Pros: Excellent ingredient quality and seasonal recipes; satisfying portions for two genuinely serve two; strong, healthy eating focus, with lots of plant-based options

Cons: Pricier than most, and the intro offer is less aggressive than rivals

Rating: 10/10

Mindful Chef doesn’t offer the same amount of choice as some of its competitors, with only 20 to 25 recipes to choose from each week.

However, every single recipe reads like it’s from the menu of a high-end bistro: recipes available at the time of writing include “Wild-caught Hake with Korma-spiced Lentils & Tomato Chutney”, “Five-spice Duck, Sesame Roast Potatoes & Veggies” and “Free-range Maple & Mustard Chicken, Asparagus & Potato Salad”.

And if we have one rule when we visit a restaurant it’s this: the smaller the menu, the better the food.

And having tested it a few times now, we can testify that each recipe is well-considered, and the menu changes each week according to which ingredients are in season.

And the ingredients Mindful Chef sends are also the best we encountered, both in quality and quantity.

Unlike more affordable recipe boxes, it’s not stingy with the protein: a sharing steak we recieved was 400g and as big as our head, a portion of salmon for two was 300g, and a meal of pork steaks with romesco butterbeans comprised two juicy, butcher-sourced slabs of pork.

While we think it’s worth it, there’s no denying Mindful Chef is expensive; meals start from around £7.50 per person (if you’re feeding two people) and go up to almost £10 per person for more expensive ingredients.

It’s also true that its introductory offer — 25% off your first four orders — isn’t as good as some of its competitors.

If you want to know more, read our full Mindful Chef review.

Delivery: Typically £5.99, often free on introductory boxes; Cost: Roughly £7.50 to £10 per portion for two; Plans: Two to five recipes weekly for one, two or four people

Gousto

Gousto (from £4.50 per portion)
Introductory Offer: 50% off first box, 40% off second box and 20% off all boxes for two months

Pros: Fantastic variety with new recipes added constantly; competitive pricing and strong new-customer promos; options for one through to larger households

Cons: Ingredients arrived mixed, so you need to sort per recipe

Rating: 9.5/10

If affordability is top of your list of priorities (and we don’t blame you), then we’d point you in the direction of Gousto.

At £35.74 for three meals for two people with delivery, it’s the cheapest recipe box we’ve come across, and that’s before you take into account its worldbeating offer for new customers: 50% off your first box, 40% off your second and 20% off all boxes for two months.

It also has the widest selection of meals, with a staggering 500 recipes available every month.

There are people on the Sun Shopping team who have used Gousto for years without having the same recipe twice.

Over 185 of those monthly recipes are veggie, too, meaning that there is something for everyone, and large families will love that it offers an option for five people.

All the meals we tried were tasty, quick and healthy, and we loved the choice of cuisines available; as well as popular Chinese, Mexican and Indian dishes, there are recipes inspired by the food of Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Brazil and the Philippines.

Another really small detail we like is that Gousto’s standard delivery window ends at 7pm, meaning that you’re guaranteed to get dinner on the table by 8pm.

Hello Fresh’s standard delivery ends at 9pm, which is too late for many people (including us).

Our only tiny niggle is that, unlike Mindful Chef and Hello Fresh, Gousto doesn’t group ingredients together by recipe, which makes things a bit disorganised when it comes to cooking.

Read our full Gousto review for our full thoughts.

Delivery: Usually £3.99, sometimes free during promos; Cost: From around £4.50 per portion for two; Plans: Two to five recipes per week for one to five people

Hello Fresh

Hello Fresh (from £4.45 per portion)
Introductory Offer: 50% off first box, 20% off your first month + free dessert for life

Pros: Fast, tasty dinners with minimal washing up; big weekly choice and frequent “speedy” recipes; tempting intro deals

Cons: Protein portions can be modest on some recipes; standard delivery can be late evening without upgrades

Ratings: 9/10

It’s nearly 15 years since the founders of Hello Fresh, Dominik Richter, Thomas Griesel and Jessica Nilsson, started delivering recipe boxes to the hungry people of Berlin.

Despite some stiff competition, it’s still the most famous name in the recipe box business, with thousands of recipes, millions of customers and billions in profits under its belt.

Several people at Sun Shopping have tried it, and we were all impressed by the variety, ease and tastiness of the recipes.

Each meal contains multiple elements, which helps to keep things interesting and nutritious, and there’s an incredible amount of recipe choice.

Despite the number of elements, of the recipes we tested, Hello Fresh’s took the least time to make — none took more than half an hour to make.

They resulted in the least washing up, too, which is a bonus.

Our only complaint about the food was that Hello Fresh creates the impression of being generous with its portions by over-supplying cheap carbs, while being a bit stingy with protein — this was even true of the “premium ingredient” recipe we tried, which cost an extra £3.99 per portion.

We also learned the hard way that Hello Fresh’s standard delivery window lasts until 9pm, meaning that you might not get your ingredients in time to cook that night’s dinner.

However, you can pay extra to get it delivered before 12pm.

For the most part, though, Hello Fresh goes off without a hitch — it’s competitively priced, and it runs extremely attractive offers for new customers, too.

Its current offer includes free dessert for life, which is something we’ll never turn down.

For more info, check out our full Hello Fresh review.

Delivery: Around £4.99, often free for the first month; Cost: From roughly £4.45 per portion for two; Plans: Two to five recipes per week for two to four people

Frive

Frive (from £7.65 per portion)
Introductory Offer: 40% off first week, 20% off next two weeks

Pros: Tastes great with balanced, nutritionist-approved recipes; flexible plans across one to four meals a day; packaging is streamlined and easy to recycle

Cons: Pricier than cooking from a kit; microwave required and shorter fridge life

Rating: 8.5/10

For some people, cooking a meal just isn’t feasable day-to-day.

However, a lot of ready meals are overly processed, lack nutritional value and contain a lot of nasties like salt, sugar and saturated fats, as well as artificial ingredients and preservatives.

Not to mention most of them taste like mud.

With Frive (the artist formerly know as Lion’s Prep), that description couldn’t be further from the truth.

Claiming to be “The UK’s Highest-Rated Meal Service”, its ready meals are approved by nutritionists, made with 100% whole foods, and endorsed by A-list actors, singers and athletes.

And most importantly, they’re all phenomenally tasty — more tasty than any ready meal we’ve tried before.

We tried several meals, including Coconut Lime Leaf King Prawns, a Lamb Burger, a Lemongrass Coconut Sea Bass Curry and Teryaki Salmon, and there wasn’t a bum note.

The meals can look deceptively small on first glance, but thanks to the fact that they’re high in protein and macro balanced, they’re actually really filling.

Unlike a lot of meal delivery services, Frive is designed to supply up to four meals per day, meaning there’s a variety of breakfasts, snacks and smoothies on offer alongside the main courses you’d expect.

Our only qualm is that the meals can’t be heated in the oven, so make sure you have a microwave before you order a delivery.

And because they’re delivered fresh, most meals have to be eaten within three or four days of delivery (but we’d rather that than a box full of preservatives).

It’s also expensive — three meals for two people will cost £48.30, compared to just £36.48 at an affordable recipe box service like Hello Fresh.

However, this doesn’t offend us massively; after all, you have to factor in an added cost for chefs to prepare your meal for you.

Delivery: About £6 or free once you hit the plan threshold; Cost: From around £7.65 per serving for two; Plans: 3, 5 or 6-day plans, up to four meals per day for one to four people

Green Chef

Green Chef (from £6.49 per portion)
Introductory Offer: 30% off first four boxes

Pros: Specialised plans for specific goals and diets; creative plant-based recipes and satisfying portions; a good range of cuisines

Cons: Slightly pricier than the biggest rivals; some recipes require more prep and washing up

Rating: 8/10

Green Chef puts a lot of emphasis on its USP of being a nutritionist-approved recipe box.

It’s certified organic by the US’ Department of Agriculture, all of its chefs are registered nutritionists, and it provides specific meal plans for people following Keto, calorie-conscious or high-protein diets.

The question is: does the food taste any good?

Thankfully, the answer is yes — we were surprised to enjoy every single meal we tried, and we’d specifically recommend Green Chef to vegetarians: over a third of Green Chef’s meals are veggie, and the brand finds creative, exciting ways to use vegetables.

A highlight was the Hoisin Duck-Less Wraps, which were super easy to prepare and delicious; we genuinely could have been eating shredded duck.

The meat options are diverse too. Despite only having 37 recipes available on the week we tested it (plenty enough, but less than, say, Gousto or Hello Fresh), there were meals featuring duck, pork, steak, turkey and lamb, as well as the obligatory chicken.

Our only real qualms were that it’s a bit more expensive than its main two competitors, and its recipes do require a bit more prep and washing up, too.

Read our Green Chef review to find out more.

Delivery: Usually £4.99, sometimes free with promos; Cost: From about £6.49 per portion for two; Plans: Two to five recipes per week for two or four people

Cook

COOK (from £4.75 per portion)

Pros: Wide range of hand-prepared meals and sizes; no subscription, just order when you need it; consistently tasty and convenient

Cons: You will need freezer room and sometimes extra sides; portion sizes can run small, especially single servings

Rating: 8/10

The Cook website has a huge variety of meals to choose from and various serving sizes to suit every household.

Like many services, the value increases the larger the portions are, although prices aren’t too bad compared to some of the other services we’ve reviewed.

We ordered some one-person and two-person meals and specifically chose some that didn’t require any extra sides, such as rice and noodle dishes.

A few of the options sounded delicious but didn’t come with any sides, such as the Chicken Tikka Masala.

So it’s worth checking what is included in each of the dishes and whether you’d need to purchase anything additional to accompany it.

We found all the meals to be tasty, and it’s a dream to just bung them in the microwave and not have to stress about washing up.

We also loved that it’s not subscription-based, so we could simply stop ordering whenever we liked without having to cancel.

Most of the meals required around 4-6 minutes in the microwave, but a couple required an hour or so in the oven.

As with Field Doctor (below), we find the portion sizes to be quite small. The one-person meals, in particular, left us pretty hungry in the evenings.

We had an issue with one of our meals, so we reached out to customer service and were extremely impressed with their response.

Overall, while these might not be the most satisfying meals in the world, each was extremely tasty, and they’re a lifesaver in an emergency.

Delivery: Typically £3.50 to £8.95 depending on method; Cost: From £4.75 for one, from £7.95 for two; Plans: No subscription, minimum order applies

Field Doctor

Field Doctor (from £6.99 per portion)
Introductory Offer: 25% off your first two orders with code THESUN25x2

Pros: Dietitian-designed meals with clear health focus; useful quiz and plans to personalise your box; convenient and freezer-friendly

Cons: Portions can feel light for dinner; not every dish packs the same punch in flavour

Rating: 7.5/10

Field Doctor’s website prominently features a quote from Hippocrates: “Let food be thy medicine.”

It’s obvious from the company’s site and branding that it sees itself as much as a pharmacy as it does a meal delivery service: its frozen ready meals are designed by dieticians, and you start your Field Doctor journey by answering a health quiz.

This allows you to be nice and specific about any health conditions. If you’re a menopausal pescatarian with a soy allergy, you’ll still find a couple of meals you can eat.

Field Doctor claims that nine out of ten people feel better after eating a Field Doctor meal, and we can back up this claim; we ate a lot of them as lunches, and the wealth of slow-release carbs, vegetables, and protein meant that we dodged any dreaded afternoon sleepiness.

However, the reason we ate a lot of them for lunch is that they’re not very big; if you have a big appetite and eat one of these for dinner, chances are you’ll go to bed hungry.

And while some of the meals were delicious (the Salmon Teryaki and Beef Ragu Penne were standouts), others, like the Piri Piri Chicken, felt underseasoned.

Finally, with prices for one starting at £6.99, there’s no getting around the fact that these are expensive frozen ready meals (however, they probably contain double the nutrition of your average supermarket ready meal).

For more info, read our full Field Doctor review.

Delivery: Around £5.50, often free when you order more meals; Cost: From £6.99 for one, from £11 for two; Plans: Minimum order applies, single or double portions

What to know before you order

• Ingredient freshness: Look for chilled packaging that keeps fresh ingredients safe on the doorstep in colder weather. Most services time boxes to arrive by early evening, with earlier slots available.
• Diet flexibility: If you require gluten-free, plant-based, or dairy-free options, please check the filters in the menu before subscribing. Many services also support low-calorie or high-protein plans for January resets.
• Waste and storage: Meal kit portions help reduce food waste, but ensure you have sufficient space in the fridge for box day. Ready meals require a freezer or fridge and a microwave for the fastest results.
• Price and promos: Introductory offers can be strong. Compare the per-portion cost after the offer ends to get a true picture.