Marley Spoon Meal Plan - An Unsponsored Review

You may remember last month I posted my first and sponsored review of EveryPlate meal plan. My goal is to do a different plan each month and let you know what we think and the differences. These are all unsponsored so just my full and honest opinion. This month up we tried Marley Spoon & Martha Stewart.

We're trying a different meal service each month and this month we tried Martha Stewart's Marley Spoon. Come read my full, unsponsored review!

First Impressions

Their service seem to work very similarly to Everyplate. I was easy to use and set up nicely. Just like a Everyplate, each week your three meals are picked for you but you can swap these out for other meals if you want. There is a few more options to choose from maybe around 10. I did like that they had a place to keep your favorite recipes in the app. Other than that there wasn’t a huge amount of differences at first.

I receive my first box from Marley spoon on February sixth. Everything was correct in the box but I did not feel like the ingredients looked as fresh upon first impressions. This is a super dumb thing but I didn’t like the cards as much because it was almost a full sheet of paper. One of the papers was for the two person meals but I had ordered the 4 person meal so I had to adjust all the measurements by doubling them. That was a little confusing to figure out. There were a few more staples I needed to provide for in these meals vs Everyplate, but it was all basic pantry stuff. Butter, flour that sort of thing. Still, it was nice that Everyplate provided more of the staples.

The first thing I cooked was Brown Butter Ravioli Alfredo with Panko Roasted Broccolini. I was excited about this one because it sounded like all the best things. However, the pasta was average and the side dish was gross. It’s very hard to prepare and I didn’t really understand the directions and I cook a good amount. We didn’t really eat the broccoli. The pasta was edible but we didn’t finish it and we didn’t eat the leftovers. So I ended up throwing them out. In a nutshell, we did not enjoy these meals nearly as much as Everyplate. I actually only ordered three weeks worth of meals before he decided to switch to a different plan. Not that they were all awful but for the most part it wasn’t very good. Here’s a rundown of each meal.

Just a note that the third box was missing quite a few ingredients. I had this happen with one of the boxes from EveryPlate. I have to say that Everyplate handled it much better. From the EveryPlate box that was missing a packet of honey and the ground beef. They credited me $30. From Marley Spoon I was missing half a meal and they credited me $19. It was also easier to get a hold of EveryPlate. They had a chat option and they took care of it right away. Marley spoon I had to email and it took exactly 24 hours for them to email me back. It was three days of back-and-forth with them for me. They both offered to credit my next full price box.

The Remaining Meals

Sheet pan mojo salmon with roasted brussels sprouts and salsa Fresca. The brussels sprout side was honestly one of the best sides ever. I will definitely make that again. I loved it! Of course because it was brussels sprouts and onions so my kids didn’t eat it. The salmon and rice were kind of bland. My family usually eats salmon even though they’re not big fish fans, but nobody ate this one. But again the side that was awesome for me.
Homestyle chicken and cheddar biscuits with pot pie gravy. This meal took well over an hour to prepare and the chicken was not good. The biscuits and broccoli were very good. I ended up not eating the chicken.
Roasted chicken with broccoli and cheddar rice casserole. This one was good and I love the rice casserole the broccoli was great but the chicken was nothing special.
Roasted gnocchi with squash tomatoes and fresh Riccota. This one was a huge disappointment. I made it three days after it arrived in the squash was bad. I had to throw it out because it was mushy and bruised and had fungus. I tried to prepare the rest of the meal without it but it was really gross. I ended upthrowing it all out and we had leftovers. Such a waste!
Tortellini and pink sauce with Italian chop salad. This again was fine, nothing special. It tasted like a typical tortellini and vodka sauce that you could get anywhere. The salad was good but I was the only one that ate it because it was a little spicy.
Mexican flautas with ground turkey and guacamole. This was the meal that was missing half of when I receive my box. End up getting the ingredients at the grocery store. It cost me about $19 which is what they credited me but I ended up with a lot of leftover things that I’ll probably never eat. I thought the food was just OK but my husband and daughter liked it a lot. I liked that there was a turkey option. The guacamole was fine but I’d rather have Wholly guacamole if I’m gonna have store-bought guacamole.
Crispy Lemon Parmesan chicken with roasted broccolini. I loved this one! The chicken was very good and the broccoli and it was great. Everybody ate broccoli but my kids thought the chicken was a little spicy. I probably put a little too much pepper on there.
The last meal we had was sweet-and-sour meatballs with garlic mashed potatoes. I thought this was very good and my husband loved it. I didn’t love the mashed potatoes and the kids didn’t love the mashed potatoes had peas in it. I did think the meatballs were excellent though.

Cost Breakdown

This meal plan was definitely way more expensive than EveryPlate. For Marley Spoon there was a deal to get started but I think that’s the case with every meal plan. Here’s what we paid for each week. I ended up canceling after three weeks because it just wasn’t worth the price for us.

For box and the one we ended up paying a total of $72.77 which was $24.26 per meal and $6.06 per serving
Second box $107.58 Which was $35.86 per meal And $8.97 per serving
Third box the same as the second – $107.58.

I’m not sure if this was actual price or if I was still part of a deal. It’s all very confusing once you sign up how your starter deal gets applied. For comparison, my first box from EveryPlate was $4.74 a serving the second and third boxes were $3.74 per serving. The fourth box was $4.29 per serving. So, EveryPlate was WAY cheaper.

The Verdict on Marley Spoon

Overall, Marley Spoon was definitely not as good to me. I didn’t like the food as much and it was way more expensive. Another thing that bothers me about this one was there wasn’t enough ingredients. For example, there would be one small shallot and it would tell me to add three-quarter cup of shallot. I didn’t even get half of the measurement for the shallot that they gave me. This happened quite a few times. I felt like a ingredients were very skimpy. Here are the two carrots they sent which didn’t come close to making the amount I needed for the recipe.

I have no problem telling you that I did not like Marley Spoon. There were a few good meals but the price was way more than I would be normally willing to pay for these meals. It was missing items, at least one case of bad ingredients and sometimes not enough of the ingredient. I felt like, at this price point, they should really have stepped up their game up a little more.

Super Quick Comparison

	Everyplate	Marley Spoon
Cost	√
Food Taste	√
Quality of Ingredients	√
Ease of using Recipe Cards	√
Customer Service	√
Food Choices		√
App		√

Have you tried Marley Spoon? Have a different opinion? Tried a different meal plan you have an opinion on? Let me know what you think! Thanks for stopping by!

April