Sun Basket Meal Delivery Service Review

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you may have noticed the countless advertisements and commercials for “home delivery meal services”. This isn’t like your typical service where you view an online menu, make a selection, pay and receive a ready meal. On the contrary, instead of receiving a prepared meal, you receive raw ingredients. Along with those ingredients, you’re supposed to receive a recipe card that informs you of the proper steps to take to prepare that meal.

For this post, I want to focus on a meal service that has been making headlines as recent due to their awaited IPO; Sun Basket.

Sun Basket is a home delivery meal service that charges $11.49 per serving. As a customer, you’re required to order at least 3 meals to receive a delivery from them. Each meal consists of two servings, so keep in mind, if you’re just ordering for yourself, then you better prepare yourself to eat those leftovers!

In an industry where these meal services have been popping up left and right, I was interested in finding out as to why a company such as Sun Basket has pulled through the dirt and set themselves up at the same level as Blue Apron, Green Chef or Hello Fresh.

It was quick to find out that Sun Basket places a large priority on their organic ingredients. They assure their potential customers that all their produce is organic and non-GMO. When it comes to their meat, they point out in their FAQ that their meat is free of antibiotics and artificial hormones.

If you head over to their Menu page, you do have the opportunity to review what meals are available for the following week before you sign up as a customer. You’ll notice that each meal that is displayed is already prepared, and under the name of the meal, you may find the tags attributed to that meal. If I click on the first meal on that page, I’m looking at the following:

On this page, I’m able to see the calorie count per serving, the ingredients that come with the meal, and the instructions to prepare the meal. Most importantly, this meal is “Paleo, Gluten Free, Dairy Free, and Soy Free”; so that is pretty impressive!

As of this post, Blue Apron and Sun Basket are really the only too companies that provide a wide range of options for customers with a selective food need.

I mentioned earlier that you must order at least 3 meals to receive a delivery box, and when you do, you can expect to receive the following box to be delivered:

Once you open up the box, you’ll find your three meals packed as following:

Within every paper bag, all the ingredients to prepare the meal are found, as well as a recipe card. On this recipe card, you should find all the information you would typically find from viewing that specific meal on their website. Sun Basket does try to pride itself on providing you with healthy meals, even though it is fair to say that intaking 600+ calories in a meal isn’t fantastic if you are looking after your weight.

There was one thing that did impress me when it came to Sun Basket, the fact they do not cover all the states in the US due to their limit of facilities. They seem to stand strong behind the idea of providing their customers with fresh ingredients so if they feel that a specific state is too far from a nearby facility, they simply won’t allow customers from that state. With that being said, if you’re located in KS, MT, MN, AK, HI, SD, NE or SD; you won’t be able to purchase Sun Basket. I am guessing that if Sun Basket is successful with their IPO, they shouldn’t have a problem with building more facilities are catering to all the states in the US.

While I was researching for reviews on Sun Basket, I came across a website known as ReviewingThis that put together quite an extensive review on Sun Basket. The author actually detailed the ordering process from start to finish as well as photos of the ingredients and cooking process. In this review, I found it impressive in how well Sun Basket actually packaged up the meals. You’ll find a photo that shows that the meals are packaged with 3 inches of foam surrounding the meals from all sides, and that any meat that comes with the meal is actually found on top of an ice pack. I do suggest reading that review first, since the author does a good job in explaining what to expect, and the comment section is filled with questions and answers that you may have yourself. As a heads up, the author does share a promo code or a coupon code that allows you to snag three free servings with your first order.

I suppose that the question you have to be asking yourself at this point is whether Sun Basket or any home delivery food service is suitable for your circumstance. If you’re someone who takes frequent trips to the supermarket, and knows their way around a kitchen, then likely you won’t find much benefit from such a service, and you shouldn’t be paying a premium. As I’ve said, a meal for two people will run you between $20-$25 depending on the company providing you with the meals. If you head over to the store yourself, and look up an online recipe either on this site or elsewhere, you’ll likely be able to cook up the same meal for half the price.

The people that ultimately benefit from such a service are those who don’t have the time to run to the market. Those who are tired of throwing away spoiling produce or meat, considering that a company such Sun Basket sends you just enough for two full servings. Most of all, it’s all about being an all-in-the-box solution. You pay $25 for two servings, and you receive everything you need to cook a great meal.

There is one thing that I particularly support when it comes to Sun Basket and it’s the fact that they actually donate any food that they do not ship to their local food banks. While capitalism has always been great in this country, I also believe that having a company which gives back is vital to grow your profits and conscious.