Getting meals delivered to your house no longer suffers from the stereotypes of TV dinners or greasy takeaways. These days, it’s easy to get fresh, nutritious dinners delivered to your door from a wide range of highly reputable services in Australia. That’s why we’ve collected this list of the best meal delivery services in Australia.
If you find yourself struggling for time during the week, you want to explore different cuisines, or you just don’t enjoy cooking then trying a meal delivery service can be revolutionary for you and your family.
- HelloFresh – BEST OVERALL
- My Muscle Chef – BEST PREPARED MEALS
- YouFoodz
- Lite n Easy
- Marley Spoon
- Pepper Leaf
- MACROS
- EveryPlate
What are home meal delivery services?
Having been around since 2012 when HelloFresh launched in Australia, the concept of meal delivery kits isn’t a new one to most Australians. However, you may not have given one a try before, so I wanted to quickly explain the concept.
Most services work through a subscription model where you will sign up to a number of meals/portions per week, which will be delivered in a chilled box on your chosen delivery date. These subscriptions are always totally flexible and can be cancelled at any time, also providing the ability to choose which meals you receive each week.
Meal delivery services come in two distinct types, Meal Kits and Prepared Meals.
- Meal Kits – Provides a box with all the ingredients needed to cook up a full meal at home.
- Prepared Meals – Single portion meals that have already been cooked and just need reheating in the microwave.
When choosing which meal delivery service is right for you, you should be considering factors such as budget, convenience, taste and your lifestyle.
What makes a good meal delivery service?
We rank all meal delivery services on a set of criteria that includes:
- Taste – Does the food have good taste and texture?
- Quality – Are the ingredients high quality and not damaged during delivery?
- Variety – Is there a wide range of options, including special diets such as gluten free or plant based? Do the options change on a regular basis?
- Website – Is it easy to order from the website and understand the nutritional detail of each meal?
- Delivery – Do they offer lots of delivery options at a reasonable price?
Every service on this list has been tested personally, with a detailed review of each service provided. Me and the team try a different meal delivery service most weeks of the year, so we’re able to spot which services provide a top-notch experience.
Australia’s best meal delivery services
Our crack team of reviewers are continually testing different meal kits to find the best possible experience for our loyal readers. Each service gets rated across 6 different categories which averages to a total score. Through this rating, we can reveal the best meal delivery services in Australia.
Here are the top 8 services we’ve found (in order!).
1. HelloFresh (8.6)
Type: Meal Kit
Not only is this our firm favourite here at Food Box Mate, HelloFresh also came out on top of our 2021 meal kit survey voted for by readers of this blog. I’m constantly amazed by the level of quality even an amateur cook like myself can achieve with HelloFresh meals, based on quality ingredients and clear recipes. They provide a strong range of different meals each week alongside options such as a Family or Vegetarian box, which make them an incredible meal kit all-rounder.
If you haven’t tried a meal kit before, HelloFresh is definitely the place to start.
Cost: 2 People / 3 Meals at $65.95 + Shipping. 4 People / 5 Meals at $159.80 + Shipping
Delivers To: All Metro Areas & Most Rural Areas across Australia.
Best For: All-round experience, meal quality and recipes.
2. My Muscle Chef (8.4)
Type: Prepared Meals
My Muscle Chef provide incredible ready-to-heat meals that aren’t just for people looking to ‘gain muscle’, as I find their name quite misleading. They have managed to create a line-up of meals that all taste delicious, with strong health credentials for any fitness goals. They package their meals in unique vacuum-sealed packs that need just 2 minutes in the microwave to be fully cooked. This packaging helps to retain the texture/flavour of the ingredients within, meaning no more mushy ready meals.
You can purchase My Muscle Chef meals at a wide range of supermarkets, although you’ll find a small discount and much wider variety purchasing through their online store.
Cost: Individual meals cost between $9.55 – $11.40 + Shipping.
Delivers To: Over 4,200 postcodes across Australia, including all major towns and cities
Best For: Saying “this is too good to be a microwave meal”, meeting fitness goals.
Try My Muscle Chef TodayGet $20 off your first order with code WELCOME20
3. YouFoodz (7.7)
Type: Prepared Meals
Don’t expect fine dining from YouFoodz, they took away a lowly 6/10 on taste when we reviewed their prepared meals. However, they feature near the top of this list thanks to their budget price making them perfect for people trying to save a little money. They came 2nd in our analysis of the cheapest prepared meals services (over 20 services!) and still regularly offer discounted orders for existing customers. This means you can end up paying just ~$7 per meal!
They have a super simple website and have no lock-in purchasing so you’re free to trial the service for a week knowing that you won’t ‘accidentally’ receive any more deliveries.
Cost: Most meals cost around $9.95 (+Shipping) but can be significantly cheaper with regular offers.
Delivers To: All major cities and a wide range of rural areas.
Best For: Budget conscious people who enjoy the convenience.
Up to $140 In YouFoodz SavingsThis link gets you up to $140 off across your first 4 boxes
4. Lite n Easy (7.7)
Type: Prepared Meals
Lite n Easy bring an incredible sense of community to the weight loss journey, without getting trapped into the gimmicky world of fad diets. Their food is closely calorie controlled and you’re able to purchase all your snacks, breakfasts, lunches and dinners for the entire week in one go. This make it really easy to limit your calorie consumption. Lite n Easy is available in 1200, 1500 and 1800 calorie plans making it suitable for anyone looking to lose weight.
The meals themselves can be a bit hit or miss, but you have full control over which meals get delivered so you can focus on purchasing just the meals you love.
Cost: 10 Meals are $11.40 each (+Shipping) and 21 Meals are just $10.40 each (+Shipping)
Delivers To: 24-hour delivery to most places in Australia.
Best For: Weight Loss
Try Lite n Easy TodayDiscover weight loss meals with Lite n Easy
5. Marley Spoon (7.6)
Type: Meal Kits
Marley Spoon are the closest direct competitor to HelloFresh, delivering packaged ingredients for you to cook tasty meals at home. We love Marley Spoon because they offer an incredible variety of meals to choose from each week, making them the best option for anyone with a controlled diet (e.g vegetarian/vegan, gluten free, dairy free). Marley Spoon recipes have always delivered comforting home-style food using quality ingredients that will suit the whole family.
We have also recognised Marley Spoon as the healthiest meal kit in Australia after investigating comparable meals across all the main meal kit services.
Cost: 2 People / 3 Meals at $67.50 + Shipping. 4 People / 5 Meals at $170.00 + Shipping
Delivers To: Most Eastern Metro locations with limited service to regional areas
Best For: Special diets, calorie control, picky eaters.
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6. Pepper Leaf (7.3)
Type: Meal Kits
If you’re looking to support an Australian business with a focus on fresh produce from local Australian farmers, then Pepper Leaf may well be the right meal kit for you. Being one of the smallest meal kit providers, they work directly with small farms to get the best ingredients to their customers. The downside is that they offer quite a small menu which won’t be suitable for any picky eaters and they are a bit more costly then their competitors.
Pepper Leaf are the only service to offer single-person meals, which we reviewed when finding the best meal kit for solo eaters.
Cost: 2 People / 3 Meals at $77.90. 4 People / 5 Meals at $198.90
Delivers To: Metro areas in VIC, NSW, SA and ACT.
Best For: Fresh, local produce.
Save $40 on Pepper LeafGet a discount on your first order with this link
7. MACROS (7.3)
Type: Prepared Meals
MACROS focus heavily on the fitness market, offering various meal plans specifically designed to meet your macro-nutritional needs. They have various options available including their Sculpt, Performance and Muscle Gain plans, as well as the recently launched Weight Loss plan. We’ve found that the quality of meals can be quite variable, though most are delicious so it won’t be hard to find meals you enjoy.
The convenience of having meals ready to go, especially when trying to eat healthily, is a game-changer for helping hit your fitness goals. MACROS meals are even integrated with MyFitnessPal making it easy to track your macros.
Cost: 10 Meals are $10.95 each (+Shipping) and 21 Meals are just $9.95 each (+Shipping)
Delivers To: Most metropolitan areas including Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane
Best For: Fitness and dietary goals.
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8. EveryPlate (7.1)
Type: Meal Kits
EveryPlate sit within the budget range, offering the cheapest meal kits available in Australia. Despite this, they manage to deliver consistently enjoyable meals with fresh, quality ingredients. If you think services like HelloFresh and Marley Spoon are a bit expensive, then we highly recommend giving EveryPlate a try as they cost 35% less than their counterparts. This can get you down to less than $4 per serving!
Since the service launched in November 2020, they still have a slightly limited range of recipes. However, we see this as a small price to pay for the cost savings.
Cost: 2 People / 3 Meals at $38.94 + Shipping. 4 People / 5 Meals at $99.80 + Shipping
Delivers To: Most major metropolitan and rural areas in NSW, VIC, ACT and QLD.
Best For: Budget conscious, simple family meals.
We hope you enjoyed this rundown of the best meal delivery services in Australia. It’s definitely worth giving a few different services a try before you find the one that works best for your lifestyle.
However, meals aren’t the only things that food boxes can provide you. We also review various subscription food/drink boxes that you (or a friend) might enjoy. Here are our favourites.
Top Discovery Boxes in Australia
Good Pair Days (9.0)
Type: Wine Discovery
Without a doubt, Good Pair Days offer the best personalised wine discovery experience in Australia. The Good Pair Days experience is full of humour, information, personalisation and smart little touches that make this our most recommended subscription box.
If you’re looking to explore a few more Australian wines, then a Good Pair Days subscription will allow you to try multiple different grape varieties / wineries without breaking the bank.
Cost: Subscriptions start at $51 for 3 wine bottles delivered.
Delivers To: All across Australia
Best For: Casual wine drinkers.
Try Good Pair Days TodayGet a FREE $38 bottle with your first order - click here!
GoodnessMe Box (8.4)
Type: Snack Discovery
GoodnessMe offer a monthly box of interesting products to try, allowing you to explore new foods and improve your snacking habits. Each box is presented beautifully, packed full of high quality health foods curated by the GoodnessMe team each month.
At just $25 per month, this is incredible value and you’re guaranteed to discover new products that you wish you’d known about sooner!
Cost: $25 per month for the standard Discovery box.
Delivers To: All across Australia
Best For: Snackers, Healthy Eaters.
Check out the GoodnessMe box from just $25Discover new health foods every month
Have any services you’d like to see added to this page? Let us know in the comments below.