Please note: I wrote this review in October of 2015, but have just more recently found site jabber and though this might be helpful here as well...

I tend to say something nice or say nothing at all. This is only the second bad review (at the time I originally wrote this) I have ever given online. Green Chef is a huge ripoff and their customer service is nonexistent. I now only review if something is really exceptionally good, or truly awful and my input might help others.

I purchased a Living Social voucher with them for 2 times three meals. I found that on their website that new customers could get four meals free on their first order. Thus, I placed and order as a new customer. I then placed another order using my Living Social voucher.

Admittedly, I've been extremely busy lately with losing a job in June, scrambling to find another one asap, and starting another just a couple of weeks ago. - I'm working 12-14 hour days, plus working steadily at home on weekends, so I have no time to prepare meals right now. I arrived home last Friday to find a big warm box at my door from Green Chef. O. K. My bad for not realizing I'd placed the order to arrive that day.

I immediately panicked about where I was going to put all the food given the size of the box (back to that in a moment). I then went online to cancel/postpone my second shipment due in another 7 days, but I was unable to do so (suspicious how they have it set up so that if you forget you've got an order placed, your stuck with the following week's order as well). I called Green Chef and left a message. They never returned my call. IM was down, so I e-mailed them right away and requested a delay, giving my reasons for doing so. They did not respond to my e-mail for two days, and then informed me that it was too late to cancel. The order did not leave their facility for another three days following their message to me. What's worse, instead of billing me for two meals on the first order and honoring my Living Social Voucher on the second order, they used my Living Social voucher on the first order and billed me $78 for the second shipment. I don't recall seeing anything on my Living Social voucher that stated that the deal was only good for new customers. But if there was, they should have notified me of the problem before indiscriminately charging me their top rate on my second order.

1. Requests to hold an order: There are other online food delivery companies that allow people to cancel as late as 5 pm on a Friday for shipments that are scheduled to be delivered the following Monday morning. Why does Green Chef, a company that does no food preparation at all, need more than 7 days advance notice to cancel/hold on a shipment? Oh, and the other companies respond to calls on weekends as well.

2. Freshness Claim: Their claim that their food is all fresh is nonsense. I received one seafood item that was frozen, and the other two dishes were vegetarian. An orange in one of those orders was going bad when it arrived.

3. Package and Order Size: The panic I had about where to place all the food was unnecessary. In the huge box that arrived, at least two thirds to three quarters of the contents were foam and ice packs. The amount of food that arrived easily fit into one Fresh and Easy plastic grocery bag with room to spare.
Note: Sadly Fresh and Easy is no longer in business:(

4. Price: Two of the three dishes I received the first week were Vegetarian. They consisted of a sweet potato, 3 carrots, some cauliflower, some pasta and/or grain,... Not much. Now this week's order - the one they refused to allow me to postpone/cancel - consists again of two vegetarian dishes and a seafood dish. I'm sorry, did they say $26 for mac and cheese that I have to prepare myself?... Even at the more than half-off price of $35 with the Living Social Voucher, this program is a Huge Rip Off!

5. Customer Service: The young rip-off artists at Green Chef may think they're slick, but they have no concept of customer service or fair pricing. Knowing that I am a new customer and I admittedly made a mistake, they could have done something to try to help me out this one time. After all, my request was in on the Friday prior to the next Friday's delivery. It's not like I waited until just a day or two in advance.

Sadly, all Green Chef had to do was pick up the phone and speak with a customer who had attempted to contact them by three separate means. Try to help the customer out just a bit, and more often than not customers will return again and again... And even if Green Chef still refused to bend their rigid rules, they would at least not have gotten this review... That's O. K. I don't need Green Chef. There are other companies that are building loyalty with me...

Let's face it, all Green Chef did was put a few things in our grocery bag/box, and provide us with a recipe (one that according to others lacks measurements and is hard to follow). We, the customers still have to do all the cooking. If they want to gouge customers with $80 grocery bags filled mostly with pasta and a couple of veggies, they will not last long with any vaguely intelligent customer.

P.S.: I didn't inventory my order either. I could easily have been shorted ingredients as well, given what others have written about this company online.

For background... We currently get HelloFresh and we love it! They do everything in there power to right any issues (which there are few) even if it isn't their fault, they go out of their way. We've also tried Sunbasket, Blue Apron, and Plated. All also delicious.

I've been thinking of getting a second service to supplement our HelloFresh. When I got an offer to try Green Chef for a week for just the shipping I thought what could go wrong? Well, there is no app which is annoying, as all the others have user friendly apps. But this wasn't a deal breaker. The price is $20+ more than the other services but I had looked at the meals for the week ahead of time and saw a yummy polenta dish which I was excited to try. (On the menu before you sign in there are no categories and it appears to have choices like every other food delivery service I've tried and they say all over that it's easy to change choices). THE TRUTH IS... THEY PICK YOUR MEALS FOR YOU. The meals are separated into categories carnivore, omnivore, vegetarian, and so on. My husband usually likes there to be meat but I don't mind either way and I knew we'd both like the Southwest Shepard's pie with polenta dish (vegetarian). I chose omnivore thinking I could get what I wanted but we aren't allowed to have the polenta dish. The only specifications you can make if you don't like one of your assigned dishes is if you are a carnivore or omnivore you can chose meats you don't eat. If you are a vegetarian, vegan, gluten free you cannot make any choices. I tried to munipulate the system and say I didn't like the meats offered that week to get a veggie alternative for the week but it pulls a veggie option that's prechosen. I called thinking surely I'm missing something but all I was told was "I'm sorry that's the way it is" even though eliminating the meats on my list pulled the other two vegetarian options into my list, I was told there is just no way I can have the chicken dish AND the polenta dish even if I paid the higher price. Huh? So you offer the two dishes I want and I can find a way to have the two other veggie dishes but the polenta is just not for me unless I choose the vegetarian option and then if I do I'm stuck no choices at all. So disappointing! And customer service doesn't care at all. Luckily I read the reviews and skipped the first paid week as you are charged the day the first box arrives for the next week's box (i. E. Haven't had a chance to try it yet).

Other services are much better! Any I've tried are better by far! Green Chef is not a good choice!

I felt I needed to write this review because the 1 star reviews did not seem fair. So sorry this is long review but I want to give you a full picture, if you think you want to try GreenChef.

Background on me. I grew up cooking with my Mom and Grandma, cooking for 7 people. So I'm no newbie in the kitchen. I love to cook, experiment with new food and make up recipes of my own. I chose to try GreenChef when a friend recommend it to me as I work full time and some days I'm just too lazy to go the store and figure out what's for dinner.

What do I think of GreenChef? This company is great! Every Week there are 9 different recipes to choose from, depending on your meal plan: Vegetarian, Omnivore, Carnivore, Gluten Free, Paleo (price point varies depending on the plan, website is very clear on pricing). Also within the those categories you can opt out of certain food if you do not like it. Example my husband can't eat any pork products, it gives him migraines. So I unchecked the "Pork" box and it takes away any recipes for that week that has pork. Meals are between 450-780 calories per meal and take between 20 - 40 minutes to cook. Each week you get 6 meals (3 meals for 2 people - they also have bigger packages for lager families). It is easy to skip deliveries if you are out of town or have more time on your hands that week etc. All gets delivered to my front door. Well packaged and insulated, keeps the food cold until I get home.

We get the Omnivore Plan. Each week we get 2 recipes with meat and 1 vegetarian (No Meat Mondays anyone?). It is plenty of food - The one reviewersaid "this is for light eaters" - I don't think so. Meals are correctly proportioned. Sometimes (not all the time) but sometimes I even have left over's for my lunch the next day. (My friend also says the same thing - she is on the Paleo Meal Plan). My hubby is a big guy - and can be a picky eater. He is always satisfied and loves the meals.

Another reviewer said "we got Chorizo Seitan - not meat!" That is correct, it was a vegetarian dish, even has a green leaf symbol next to the name - so yea no meat! If you don't want vegetarian dishes - switch your meal plan to carnivore, paleo or gluten-free so all 3 meals come meat. It's that easy.

Instructions are step by step with full color pictures. They are well written and easy to follow. I would recommend for beginner on up to experienced cooks. Also all ingredients are packaged and color coated with each recipe card.

The recipes are delicious! I think you will always get one every now and then that maybe was not your favorite. (But I cook things on my own or order something at a restaurant that is not all that great too - so...).

Customer service is also great. One week, one ingredient did not get put in my box, SAD DAY! I e-mailed customer service they got back to me the same day, apologized for the missing ingredient, said they would let the shipping department quality control be notified and they credited my account for the missing ingredient.

It's Organic! - which maybe is why it costs a little more than other sites. And Green Chef Is Certified by CCOF. Also pretty much everything can be composted or recycle.

Lastly You can cancel at any time. I have not tried to cancel as I dont want too but you can if you want. I love them! I will be a Green Chef for a very long time.

Use this link to get 4 meals free when you buy 2

http://greenchef.com/invite/z6rpx8