I'm the caregiver for a patient with medical conditions that require a specialized diet. Since I'm neither a great cook nor an expert on nutrition, I decided to scour the Internet for meal delivery services that provide meals for individuals with special dietary needs. Magic Kitchen is one of them. It provides meals for "average" people (those without special needs) as well as those with special needs. The special meals are designed by professional dietitians to accommodate appropriate restrictions on, say, sodium, potassium, and carbohydrates for various medical conditions.
The meals are prepared in Kansas City, KS, and shipped to customers via FedEx Home Delivery on Mondays through Wednesdays. You'll receive the meals usually within 3 days of shipment. The meals are packed into thick-walled Styrofoam (expanded polystyrene) coolers with dry ice, and remain frozen until you receive them, even if the delivery is delayed two days, as happened with my recent order just prior to Christmas 2015. FedEx Home Delivery is generally reliable, though there were hiccups during the holiday season. Still, FedEx's tracking system is superior to UPS' (FedEx gives intermediate checkpoints as the delivery truck traverses the country), so you get a general sense of the location of your order.
Meals that accommodate special dietary needs can seem "tasteless" to the average American palate. For example, a renal diet requires low sodium and potassium, so meals for renal patients will taste very bland (very low salt) to most everyone. However, your taste buds will adjust within a couple weeks to the new diet, and you'll start tasting the REAL food, rather than the salt or sauces that mask or overpower the flavor of the food. The patient I care for, as well as I, have found this to be the case with the renal meals. (I'm not a renal patient, but I figure I'd also benefit from low sodium, potassium, etc.)
With this mind, I'd say the meals are good in two respects -- They meet patients' specific dietary needs, and they microwave pretty well. Magic Kitchen prepares these frozen meals probably as well as frozen meals can be prepared. However, let's face it. Frozen foods generally don't taste as good as or have the same natural texture of fresh food. So, Magic Kitchen's meals are appreciated by patients with special dietary needs, but they aren't the end-all, be-all of home delivered meals. I have chosen to make Magic Kitchen a "backup" to the meals of a local fresh-meal delivery service that offers renal meals. Their meals are fresh, not frozen, so are superior in taste and texture. It's more expensive than Magic Kitchen (as you'd expect), but it's worth the extra cost.
The Styrofoam/polystyrene coolers are a MAJOR PAIN to deal with. I thought I'd have no problem donating them to local charities, selling them on eBay, or offering them for free local recycling via Freecycle After absolutely no success through these venues, I was fortunate to find a firm (the subsidiary of a local garbage dump) that does accept and recycle polystyrene. Considering I live in one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country, I couldn't believe there was only one venue to dispose of the coolers, short of just dumping them in the trash. On that basis, I imagine it would be nearly impossible in smaller communities to do anything with the coolers, other than to simply dump them.
I suggest first-time customers call Magic Kitchen's customer service department to see how they can save on shipping charges, which can easily top $30 per shipment if not for special promotional offers.
In conclusion, Magic Kitchen is a reasonably priced meal delivery service that offers well prepared meals. It is especially good for individuals with special dietary needs. Be realistic, though: Magic Kitchen's meals are frozen and will not be as pleasing to the palate as freshly prepared meals. Still, it's worth considering if you're too busy to cook good meals, can't cook specialized meals, or hate to cook ... and can afford the service. read more