Tired of compromising between convenience and nutrition with your weekday meals? As a nutritionist-designed ready meal service, Dineamic promises to deliver restaurant-quality dishes that are both healthy and convenient.
What sets Dineamic apart is their focus on fresh (not frozen) meals, ethically-sourced ingredients, and their roots in professional sports nutrition. Available through both direct delivery and major supermarkets, they’re becoming increasingly popular with busy professionals and health-conscious Australians.
After ordering and testing over 20 different Dineamic meals across multiple weeks, I can share exactly what works (and what doesn’t) with their service.
From portion sizes and taste to nutrition and value for money, this review covers everything you need to know before placing your first order.
Dineamic Prepared Meals Review
Summary
Dineamic delivers fresh, nutritious ready meals that actually taste homemade, with competitive pricing starting at $11.50 per meal and smart eco-friendly packaging. Best suited for busy professionals and health-conscious eaters who want convenient, healthy meals without sacrificing taste.
Overall
-
Ordering - Website - 6/10
6/10
-
Food - Quality - 9/10
9/10
-
Ordering - Meal Choice - 8/10
8/10
-
Food - Taste - 9/10
9/10
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Ordering - Delivery - 7/10
7/10
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Value For Money - 7.5/10
7.5/10
Pros
- Fresh, tasty meals that taste genuinely homemade
- Innovative eco-friendly packaging with minimal plastic
- Available in supermarkets to try before subscribing
- Good value with subscription discounts (up to 12% off)
- Strong range of low-gluten and dairy-free options
Cons
- Fixed $15 delivery fee with no free shipping threshold
- Limited vegetarian/vegan options (only 10 total)
- Short 3-hour delivery window for refrigeration
- Some meals can be watery
- Pouch meals can be messy to heat in microwave
Get Healthy with DineamicExplore their range of prepared meals.
Dineamic was founded in 2008 by Jason Johnson and Karen Inge. If Jason’s name sounds familiar to some of you, that might be down to his history playing in the AFL between 1997 to 2008. He played 184 games for Essendon.
Originally designed to provide nutrition-ready meals for athletes, Dineamic has since expanded to provide food for anyone through their own subscription service and partnerships with grocery stores.
They have a straightforward mission – to make Australians healthier and happier.
Page Contents
Getting Started with Dineamic
Dineamic offers both flexible one-off orders and subscription meal plans.
Their subscription service is straightforward – simply choose your meals and select weekly, fortnightly, or monthly deliveries. The more meals you subscribe to, the bigger your discount.
While you’ll need to plan ahead as orders can take up to a week to arrive, the subscription system is flexible. You can easily pause, modify, or cancel your deliveries at any time. This combines the convenience of regular deliveries with the freedom to adjust your plan as needed.
Their meals are also available through multiple channels:
- Direct delivery through their website
- Coles, 7-Eleven, and IGA stores nationwide
- Selected Woolworths stores in Victoria
This accessibility makes it easy to try a few meals before committing to a larger online order.
Meal Variety and Options
Dineamic’s menu is split into four main categories:
- Ready Meals
- Meals For Two
- Soups
- Snacks & Drinks
The core of their service is their single-serve ready meals, with an impressive selection of 42 different options when I ordered.
There’s a good range of different protein sources, although like most prepared meal services, this is dominated by chicken dishes.
Protein Source | Percentage of Menu |
Chicken | 43% |
Beef | 24% |
Pork | 5% |
Fish | 2% |
Lamb | 7% |
Vegetables | 19% |
Each meal comes with a detailed ingredients list, along with a full set of nutritional values, so it’s easy to pick meals that fit into your dietary goals.
Meals For Two
Dineamic offers a smaller range of 16 ‘Meals for Two’ that are designed to provide the bulk of a dish for two people.
All 16 meals would also need you to cook some form of carbohydrate (rice/pasta) or salad to make a full dinner, so it’s not quite as convenient as the single-portion ready meals.
I would liken this offering to Dinner Ladies and introduces the option for couples, families, or housemates to share the same meal.
Soups
Dineamic’s range includes 7 different soups, perfect for those seeking a light lunch or watching their calorie intake. Each generous 400g portion is designed for one person – I can confirm from experience that sharing would leave you hungry!
The flavors are creative and appetizing, featuring options like:
- Creamy Roast Pumpkin
- Minestrone & Quinoa
- Parsnip & Carrot
- Chicken, Vege & De Puy Lentil Soup
These soups combine comforting classics with more adventurous combinations, all while keeping calories low.
Snacks & Drinks
Dineamic offers a selection of health-focused snacks and drinks alongside their meals, though the range feels somewhat limited and inconsistent.
Their snack options focus on protein and natural ingredients including:
- Fancy Plants Chocolate Pots
- KOJA Oat Bars
- Power (Protein) Balls
When I mention the range is slightly confusing, it’s because you’re limited to just a couple of flavours of each snack. Then, there’s a ‘Date, Honey, Quinoa & Walnut Muesli Slice’ which is the only snack of its kind available.
The same story continues with the drinks, which includes:
- Bobby Prebiotics
- Rokeby Farms Smoothies (Espresso, Banana, Chocolate)
- Impressed Cold Pressed Juices
While the quality of these items is good, the limited flavors and seemingly random selection makes it hard to rely on Dineamic as your complete snack and drink solution. I’d love to see them expand this range with more consistent options from their featured brands.
Nutritional Review of Dineamic Meals
What immediately stands out about Dineamic’s meals is their use of fresh, recognizable ingredients. Unlike some competitors, their meals are refreshingly free from preservatives and artificial additives.
Given Dineamic’s origins in athlete nutrition, I was curious about their nutritional profile:
Average Calories per Meal: 391 kcal
Average Protein per Meal: 25.5g
These numbers position Dineamic alongside health-focused services like Lite n Easy, ChefGood and YouFoodz rather than fitness-specific meal services. For comparison, even the lowest-protein fitness meal service we’ve tested averaged 28.5g of protein per serve.
If you want to maximise your protein intake but minimise calories, Dineamic’s Braised Beef & Mushroom dish will provide an impressive 30g of protein for just 271 calories.
Special diets and food intolerances
Dineamic provide a split of recipes by key dietary requirements, so it’s easy to see whether they support different needs. I’ve counted up how many standard meals they have:
- High Protein – 21 Meals
- Low Calorie – 20 Meals
- Low FODMAP – 10 Meals
- Low Gluten – 27 Meals
- No Added Dairy – 25 Meals
- Vegetarian – 6 Meals
- Vegan – 4 Meals
Dineamic shows particular strength in their ‘High Protein’ options with 21 meals and maintains good variety in ‘Low Gluten’ (27 meals) and ‘No Added Dairy’ (25 meals) categories. The ‘Low FODMAP’ selection, while smaller at 10 meals, still offers decent variety for those following this tricky diet.
However, Dineamic meals aren’t listed as totally free from potential contamination, so if your allergy is severe I wouldn’t recommend taking the risk of eating Dineamic.
The plant-based options are quite limited, with just 6 vegetarian meals and 4 vegan options. This small selection would feel particularly restrictive for regular customers. If you follow a vegetarian or vegan diet, you might want to consider specialized services like Garden of Vegan and Soulara instead.
Delivery Options
Dineamic’s delivery areas are quite limited, primarily centred around Australia’s largest metro areas:
- Melbourne
- Sydney
- Brisbane
- Perth
- Adelaide
- Hobart
Some regional areas in NSW and VIC are also covered, though service is generally limited to areas surrounding these major cities.
All deliveries incur a flat fee of $15, with no free shipping threshold available. This makes Dineamic slightly less competitive than other top meal delivery services which typically offer free delivery on larger orders.
How much does Dineamic Cost?
Dineamic’s pricing varies depending on what range you’re buying from:
- Ready Meals – $11.00 – $13.00
- Meals for Two – $16.00
- Soups – $8.00
- Snacks – $3.50 – $4.50
- Drinks – $4.00 – $5.00
Most of Dineamic’s ready meals are priced at $11.50, placing them slightly below the average cost for ready meals in Australia. The Meals for Two offer particularly good value – at just $8 per portion plus your choice of sides, they’re an economical option for couples.
Dineamic also offers progressive discounts based on order size:
- 3% off orders over $80
- 4% off orders over $100
- 6% off orders over $140
Better yet, you can double these discounts by subscribing to regular deliveries (choose weekly, fortnightly, or monthly). The subscription is flexible – you can change your meal selection before each delivery, making it a great way to save while maintaining variety.
For example, a $140 order would save you a 6% discount ($8.40 off) as a one-off order, or a 12% discount ($16.80 off) with a subscription.
Get Healthy with DineamicExplore their range of prepared meals.
My Dineamic Review Box
Dineamic delivers meals in large cardboard boxes with their brand colour (purple) covering a large portion of the front.
Unpacking all the meals was where my Dineamic experience started to improve. I had found plenty of options that I was looking forward to eating.
The soups and ‘Meals for Two’ are packaged in soft plastic pouches rather than trays like the ready meals.
Unpacking all the meals was where my Dineamic experience started to improve. I had found plenty of options that I was looking forward to eating.
The soups and ‘Meals for Two’ are packaged in soft plastic pouches rather than trays like the ready meals.
How’s The Food?
Dineamic consistently impressed me with their flavorful meals. Their clever use of herbs and spices, combined with fresh, simple ingredients, creates dishes that taste genuinely homemade.
It’s clear that Dineamic are focused on using fresh, simple ingredients to create their meals, as dishes often felt very homely. The kind of food you’d want to cook at home if you had the time.
One of my favourites was this Chicken Fajita, which had tender chicken along with perfectly cooked brown rice.
Occasionally, I found meals to be quite watery. This is a very common problem for ready meals, as the process of cooking/reheating tends to release a lot of the water content from vegetables.
This wasn’t a huge issue for me as it didn’t affect the flavour and I still enjoyed each dish.
I’m personally not a huge fan of soup, mostly because I don’t find it very filling. So, I paired the Chicken, Vegetable & Du Puy Lentil soup with a roll of crusty white bread and found myself impressed with the flavour.
Considering how few calories are in a 400g serve of soup (141 kcal) I’d definitely recommend these soups for anyone who’s on a calorie-controlled diet.
Cooking the prepared meals
Meals can be cooked from chilled in 3-4 minutes, or from frozen in 5-6 minutes. I did find the issue of watery meals is more pronounced when cooking directly from frozen, so I often let meals defrost before cooking.
Dineamic actually do something very different to other services with their packaging, which I thought was genius.
To start with, they provide meals vacuum-sealed in packaging that can be thrown straight into the microwave. This makes it incredibly easy to grab a dinner out of the fridge and have your food ready in just a few minutes.
The tray itself is recyclable cardboard instead of plastic. The tray is then lined with a thin plastic film around the base, and a separate film placed over the top of the food.
This means you can easily peel the top film away when the meal has finished reheating. The plastic provides a low-friction surface to easily pour your meal out onto a plate/bowl. Importantly, you won’t leave any food stuck in nooks/crannies of the tray to try and scrape out.
Your tray can then be recycled, with the thin plastic film torn off and placed in the bin. This is significantly more environmentally friendly than most other services.
One downside of this tray design is that eating food directly out of the tray is a bit tricky because a fork can easily poke through the plastic film. I much preferred the (admittedly more civilised) approach of pouring my meals onto a plate.
A Brief Pouch Heads Up
Whilst the main ready meals are cooked in a tray, you’ll find the soups and ‘Meals for Two’ arrive in pouches. These can be cooked in the microwave by simply snipping a bit of the corner off to let steam escape.
However, in my case this created quite a mess.
I’m not sure whether this was because the package is very tall, or perhaps I snipped off too little/too much of the corner. Whatever happened, quite a bit of my Thai Green Curry ended up on the microwave plate.
I’d recommend heating the pouch contents on a hob instead. It’s a good job the Thai Green Curry was actually delicious, although I would have enjoyed a few more vegetables.
My Overall Thoughts on Dineamic
After thoroughly testing Dineamic’s service, I was genuinely impressed by their consistently delicious meals and innovative eco-friendly packaging. Their commitment to quality ingredients shines through in every dish, while competitive subscription pricing makes them an attractive option.
The wide availability through supermarkets is particularly valuable, as you can easily sample meals before committing to larger online orders. Their range of dietary options is solid, though vegetarian and vegan choices remain limited.
The service could improve by expanding their snack selection, while the fixed delivery fee and short delivery window are frustrating. However, these are minor concerns compared to the overall quality of their core offering.
For busy professionals and athletes seeking healthy, convenient meals, Dineamic delivers excellent value through their balanced, nutritious offerings.
I’d recommend starting with a few supermarket meals to test portion sizes and taste – if you enjoy those, their subscription service provides a reliable solution for regular healthy meals.
Get Healthy with DineamicExplore their range of prepared meals.
Competing Services
The most similar service available currently would be ChefGood. Much like Dineamic, they focus on using fresh ingredients to create delicious meals. If you’re not sure which one is right for you after reading my reviews, why not try a box from both?
I’d love to hear about other people’s experiences with Dineamic – were they similar to mine? Did you find my Dineamic review useful? Let me know in the comments section below!