I don’t need to tell you, dear reader, that lockdown continues, and again, we’re all trying to find variety in simple things. Food. Drink. Stuff to do.
We’re still muddling through. And I’m still grateful to meal boxes for saving me from having to make proper decisions about meals. It’s one decision I can make in advance and then forget about until I come to cook it. Until recently we’ve been using Hello Fresh, but it was suggested we give Gousto a go. So, well, we did.
And colour us a little impressed.
Let’s start at the beginning, with how it works. You pick up to four meals from a list of around fifty. You pick how many people you want to feed. You pick a date for delivery. Everything gets delivered on that date, and you have your meals ready to cook as and when you need them.
The packaging is mostly recyclable, so there’s only a small amount of plastic involved. If they can’t supply something, they will email you ahead of your delivery to confirm, and let you know of any recipe adaptations. The only things you need to supply is the odd bit of oil or butter, seasoning and water. Simple.
So, what’s the difference between the two? On the downside, Gousto is slightly more expensive, but only around £5 or so across the week. There are fewer maximum meals per delivery (four versus five). But on the positive side, you have bigger choices – around twenty more to choose from and there are more fish and vegetarian dishes too.
Flavour wise everything is great. We love the extra choices, and variety – like the Chinese banquet option we’ve picked for this week. Oh and every so often, you also get bonus treats too. One week is was a wooden spoon to cook with, another week it was a big bar of chocolate. And as with Hello Fresh, if anything goes wrong, they’re quick to offer help, and correct it, or offer compensation for the product.
Overall, we love it. So much so that we’re probably going to alternate between the two offerings. Whilst I like Gousto more, there’s something to be said for having that extra day organised in advance.
If you fancy giving it a go, I’ve got a big old discount here (for up to 20 people, so when it stops working they’ve all gone!) with 50% off your first box, and 30% off your first month. And if you sign up and like them, you’ll get a discount code of your own to share around too.
In the interests of transparency, this discount gives me money off my next box too, so if you’d rather not, hit Google to search for an alternative code.