What a horrible, horrible experience. This was an absolute nightmare for us. We've tried other meal prep services in the past, but we decided to give the locally-sourced "fresh" option a try. We started with one week of 3 meals to try it out. The food was delivered on time, but that was the last positive experience we had.
First off, the instructions for each meal were often wrong. They would call for a certain amount of water to boil something, for instance, but it would be way less water than necessary, so it would burn to the bottom of the pot. We had to improvise and figure out how to fix it, but I mean - isn't the whole point of this thing that it takes some of the stress out of cooking?
Second, the food was AWFUL. I mean, inedible. We started with the Buddha Bowl, which is basically rice and chickpeas with some carrots and cauliflower on top. The sauce for it tasted like feet and the texture was hard to stomach. Our second meal was the beet gnocchi - the instructions were wrong again and the food was totally flavorless. The side "salad" that came with it was shriveled cabbage and beans tossed in some kind of liquid - it honestly looked and tasted like middle school cafeteria food. Our third meal was Aloo Gobi with cauliflower and potatoes. Again, the instructions were wrong, but more than that, the food was like eating leftover hospital food. We had to drench the food in our own teriyaki sauce just to be able to swallow it. Each day was grosser than the last.
Third, the food gave us terrible diarrhea for the whole week. We were running back and forth to the bathroom at least 3 times a day every day that week. It might still have been more pleasurable than the food, though.
Finally, and MOST importantly, their customer service was rude, condescending, and unprofessional when we brought up these concerns. We sent them an email at the end of the week politely letting them know about some of the struggles we had in case they wanted to look into them more. We received a one line response that said "Eating fresh, unconventional food is not for everyone!" In other words: "We're not sorry - this is not our fault. You people just can't handle real food." After asking for a refund, they sent another email letting us know how each of our problems with the food was actually our fault:
(1) The diarrhea wasn't food poisoning, it was just "high-fiber" food that our digestive systems couldn't handle. We eat very well for the remainder of our meals, with whole grains and fibers making up a significant portion of our diet. They have no idea what our diet is like - they just assumed that we normally eat like crap so that we get diarrhea when we eat well. So unbelievably condescending.
(2) The instructions weren't wrong, they were intended to be "guidelines" and they hope that their customers "take creative liberties" to make the food how they want. Was I supposed to see "Add 1.5 cups of water to pot" and read "Do what you feel - cooking is an art form maaaaaan"? They advertise that you can try new recipes, but then expect you to be able to improvise with these recipes you've never tried before? Again, this is our fault, not theirs.
(3) The food wasn't inherently bad, we just didn't enjoy it because we don't know what good food tastes like. There's a difference between not liking a particular flavor or ingredient and not liking the food because there is no flavor or terrible texture. If your food needs teriyaki sauce to taste like anything, it's not good food.
Look, I get that they're a small local company trying to pay fair wages to their farmers and workers. Maybe we had an off week, or maybe the food is just generally that bad. Either way, it doesn't mean they need to be condescending to their customers when they have a bad experience. All we wanted was an apology or at least an acknowledgment of the problems we had, but they refused to give that. Terrible experience through and through. Never again. read more
