Dinnerly

The affordable meal kit, by its own description

Dinnerly is a subscription meal kit: fresh, portioned ingredients and simple recipes arrive at your door, and you do the cooking. Its homepage calls it "the Affordable Meal Kit", and the press page describes it as the first subscription meal kit service to offer meals starting at $5.99 per serving. It launched on July 11, 2017, and is designed, in its own words, for unfussy, affordable weeknight cooking. The site's footer names the operating company as MMM Consumer Brands Inc.

The pitch is simple food at a low price. Recipes follow 5 simple steps, "because an hour of chopping and slicing and mixing is too much", and the company calls its meals picky-eater approved. It doesn't pretend to be a gourmet kit, and that honesty is part of its appeal.

How ordering works

The plan structure is published on the press page. You pick a 2-person or 4-person plan, and for either one you choose 3, 4, 5 or 6 meals per week. Each week you choose your recipes from a menu of 100+ options, and the menu page lets you look several weeks ahead (it showed weeks starting 9/14, 9/21, 9/28 and 10/5). Recipe cards are digital: you download or print them from your account, or read them on a phone or tablet while you cook.

Beyond dinner, the Market lets you add ready-to-heat meals, desserts, breakfasts and other extras to your box when you edit your recipes. The menu also includes a few premium upgrades, such as double-protein versions or large shrimp, and swaps like Impossible or lamb in place of beef on some dishes.

The site doesn't set out its skip or cancellation rules outside the account area, so check them when you sign up.

What it costs

Meals start at $5.99 per serving, or per person as the homepage puts it. The introductory offer is separate: new customers get up to $180 off their first 5 boxes, spread across those deliveries, so early boxes cost well under the regular price. The menu page includes a Price Category filter, which suggests recipe prices vary, and the homepage says the expanded menu gives "even more price flexibility". Shipping fees aren't stated on the site; you'll see them at checkout. There are also hero discounts and corporate gifting vouchers.

The food

The menu is big and familiar. On one week's menu: Cajun BBQ Chicken with Roasted Brussels Sprouts & Garlic Rice, a Low-Carb Grilled Chicken Fajita Bowl, Baked Cheese Ravioli with Mozzarella, Sweet & Sour Pork Tenderloin, a Pumpkin Chicken Curry, Tex-Mex Beef Tacos, Shrimp Scampi, a Greek-inspired Pork Gyro, Spiced Fish Tacos with flounder, Red Coconut Curry Rice Noodles, a Bunless Burger, Miso-Honey Glazed Tilapia and Roasted Kung Pao Tofu. There are weekend projects too, such as Beef Bourguignon, Braised Beef Enchiladas and a Slow Cooker Jambalaya, and seasonal specials like an Oktoberfest bratwurst on DIY pretzel buns and a run of Fall Vibes dishes with pumpkin and apples.

A few recipe types stand out for busy households. Dinner Winner dishes are aimed squarely at kids, with a chicken taco bowl, a cheese calzone with homemade marinara and classic mac and cheese with crispy breadcrumbs. Several recipes use Readymade Chicken, an already-cooked chicken component that cuts the hands-on time on dishes like a BBQ chicken taco or a Mediterranean pita. And the menu isn't only dinners: it includes classic walnut brownies, yogurt crumb cake doughnuts, a griddle cake breakfast sandwich with bacon and a cheesy potato hash, and 2-for-1 sides such as pesto green beans with creamy mashed potatoes.

Recipes carry tags you can filter by: Low-calorie, Low carb, Kid friendly, Veggie, High protein, Nutritious, Optional Spice and a Climate Hero label. Filters also cover cook time, protein, meal type, price category, allergens, dish type and cuisine. Cook times run from 10-15 minutes up to 3+ hours for a few slow dishes, with most weeknight options in the 15-20, 20-30 or 30-40 minute range. The site says ingredients come from trusted suppliers and doesn't make organic claims.

Diet coverage is decent for a budget kit. The low-carb line includes no-noodle lasagnas, bunless burgers, an eggplant parm rollatini and a harissa-spiced salmon with zucchini. Vegetarian choices on the same menu included black bean stuffed sweet potatoes, pimento cheese veggie melts with sweet potato fries and Greek-inspired vegetarian gyro tacos, and there's at least one gluten-free ravioli option. It isn't a specialist diet service, though, and the allergen filter is a filter, not a promise about the kitchen.

Where it delivers

The press page says Dinnerly is available nationwide, covering 93% of the U.S. population. The site doesn't name the areas it misses or give delivery days, so you confirm your zip code during sign-up. Packaging and recycling get their own page linked from the footer, as does an Ingredient Hub. Orders are managed online or in the Dinnerly app, which the site links for download. For help, customer service has its own section, and the accessibility statement gives a phone line, 888-267-2850, alongside a web form. The company also works with brands on in-box product sampling and sells vouchers for corporate gifting to employers, schools and other groups, which is worth knowing if you're thinking of Dinnerly as a gift rather than for yourself.

What's left open, and who it suits

The site is thin on logistics: no shipping fee, no delivery-day list, no stated cutoff and no plain statement of skip and cancel rules outside the account. The $180 offer is generous, but it's spread across 5 boxes, so the regular price is what you'll pay once those introductory boxes are used up.

Dinnerly suits budget-minded households, families with picky eaters and people who want a very wide menu of straightforward dinners. The 2-person and 4-person plans with 3 to 6 meals a week cover most household sizes. It's less suited to anyone who wants organic ingredients, a strict medical diet, or restaurant-style cooking, and people outside its coverage area will need another option.