Healthline meal delivery score: 3.6 out of 5
The Good Kitchen is a meal delivery service offering a variety of fully cooked meals to suit various dietary needs and preferences. The company prides itself on sourcing high quality, mostly organic ingredients.
This article reviews how The Good Kitchen works, its pros and cons, and whether it’s worth the cost.
The Good Kitchen
- convenient, fully cooked meals delivered to your home
- free of gluten, soy, and peanuts (important for those with allergies or intolerances)
- paleo, Whole30, and vegetarian options
- strict ingredient sourcing guidelines
- multiple purchase options, including subscription, a la carte, and in store
- more expensive than comparable meal delivery services
- doesn't offer vegan options
- $9.99 to $14.99 shipping cost per order
What is The Good Kitchen?
The Good Kitchen is a meal delivery service that offers fully prepared, heat-and-eat meals made with high quality ingredients. These meals can be frozen for up to 1 month if you have more than you need. Just pop them in the freezer by the sell-by date listed on the package.
The service provides options for several eating patterns, such as Mediterranean, paleo, plant-based, and keto diets.
Who is The Good Kitchen for?
The Good Kitchen is a good fit for anyone who is on a specialty diet — like paleo or Whole30 — or needs to avoid certain ingredients, such as gluten, soy, peanuts, or dairy. Many of the meals are paleo-friendly and Whole30 compliant.
The Good Kitchen provides a great deal of convenience for people following these diets who might otherwise need to cook most of their meals at home from scratch.
If you enjoy cooking or dislike premade meals, The Good Kitchen will not be the right fit. Additionally, while many of the meals are dairy-free, the Good Kitchen doesn’t offer vegan menu options, and many of the meals feature animal-based proteins.
What our tester says
Kristin Currin-Sheehan, a Healthline editor, tested The Good Kitchen and shared her experience with the meal delivery service.
She found the website less intuitive, mentioning, “I didn’t like that you couldn’t order meals in logical quantities.” The limited options for meal quantities and specific delivery days were inconvenient, and she wasn’t alerted when her meals were about to arrive.
Currin-Sheehan did, however, appreciate the variety of meals, but given that she opted for the Mediterranean plan, she expected more seafood options.
She was impressed by how good the textures were but noted, “I actually air-fried most of my vegetables to retain the crunchiness.” She also commented on the lack of seasoning, saying, “I found the food severely underseasoned — especially salt. The sauces were very bland.”
Despite these few drawbacks, Currin-Sheehan enjoyed several dishes, including the Grilled Chicken Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing, Chicken Salad with Cabbage Slaw (Spicy), the “Grateful” Black Bean Bowl with Kale and Tahini Sauce, and the Santa Fe Veggie Hash with Baked Eggs and Cashew Chipotle Cream.
She praised the salmon, saying, “The salmon was DELICIOUS. I could tell they took all the fishy taste out of it. It was chunky, not completely smooth and when you add salt and pepper, it had a great taste.”
Currin-Sheehan concluded that The Good Kitchen is a great choice for people who prioritize texture and want the freedom to season their meals to taste. However, she suggested improvements in the ordering process and shipping notifications.
Meal selection and meal plan options
The Good Kitchen allows you to order 6, 8, 10, or 12 meals at once.
You can choose to have your subscription shipments sent weekly or you can place a one-time order.
After selecting your meal plan, you can select the meals you want to order. Every meal is free of gluten, peanuts, and soy. In addition, this service offers many Whole30 Approved meal options, which may also work for those who are following primal and keto diets.
Price and delivery info
Meal costs vary depending on which meals you choose, ranging from $10.99 to $19.99, and whether you opt for a subscription, which offers a 5% discount.
If you choose the subscription, you’ll be automatically charged each week, but you can skip a week or cancel anytime, as long as you do so before the order date.
Shipping is $9.99 for most orders in the continental United States and $14.99 for California, Arizona, Texas, Oregon, and Washington. If you need delivery to Hawaii or Alaska, you can contact customer service via email to review your shipping options.
Ingredients, food quality, and menu
The Good Kitchen has strict sourcing guidelines for its ingredients, using only grass-fed or grass-finished beef, along with pasture-raised eggs, lamb, and poultry. All seafood is compliant with Seafood Watch standards.
The Good Kitchen also prefers farmers who follow animal welfare and sustainability practices. The company chooses organic produce as often as possible.
What’s more, to minimize pesticide exposure, the company buys organic varieties of any produce listed on the Environmental Working Group (EWG) Dirty Dozen. Foods on the EWG Clean Fifteen list may be either organic or conventionally grown.
However, the company says it aims to use ingredients that are organic and free of GMOs. Currently, the company doesn’t offer an option to filter for meals that are made with 100% organic ingredients.
The Good Kitchen’s meals are also free of gluten, peanuts, and soy, so they’re safe for people with allergies to these foods.
The Good Kitchen menu features a wide variety of rotating recipes suitable for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, such as:
- Chicken Fajita Bowl with Cilantro Rice
- Grilled Chicken with North African Style Vegetables
- Asparagus Egg Scramble with Pesto and Roasted Purple Potatoes
- Pork Egg Roll in a Bowl with Sautéed Cabbage and Carrots
- Beef Burger with Mushroom Topping and Sweet Potato Wedges
- Ethiopian-Style Lentils with Braised Collards over Brown Rice
- Arrabbiata Sausage and Peppers with Sautéed Zucchini
Does The Good Kitchen support weight loss?
The Good Kitchen makes no claims about weight loss. So, you shouldn’t expect to lose weight when using the service.
However, many of the company’s meals are nutritionally balanced, featuring a protein source usually served alongside a vegetable or starch.
Additionally, most clock in at 500 calories or fewer. Therefore, these meals may make it easier to stick to a reduced calorie diet, which is important for weight loss.
Does The Good Kitchen support specialty diets?
Some people might find it difficult to stick to diets that eliminate entire food groups. Because The Good Kitchen offers keto, paleo, primal, and Whole30 meal plans, this service may make it easier to follow one of these diets.
Is The Good Kitchen worth it?
The Good Kitchen is a good meal delivery service option for people who follow a gluten-free diet or have an allergy to peanuts or soy.
Although it’s more expensive per serving than competing services, some competitors may not be able to accommodate people with food allergies or gluten-related disorders.
You may benefit from this service if you follow a keto, paleo, or Whole30 diet. The convenience of prepared meals can save you time at the grocery store and in the kitchen.
The Good Kitchen allows for flexibility in its number and frequency of deliveries. With its subscription plan, you can order as few as 5 meals per month or up to 35 meals per week, so it can be a great fit for large and small households alike.
However, The Good Kitchen meals will not be a good fit if you follow a vegan or primarily plant-based diet. And because the meals are meant to be individual portions, they will likely not be appropriate for people who have a larger family to feed.
The Good Kitchen vs. competitors
There are several competitors in the prepared meal and meal kit delivery space. Many of them cater to specialty diets, food allergies and intolerances, or customers who want organic produce.
Here’s how The Good Kitchen compares with some other popular meal delivery services:
| The Good Kitchen | Factor | Hello Fresh | Snap Kitchen | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price per serving | $10.99+ | $10.49+ | $9.99+ | $11.34+ |
| Shipping | $9.99 ($14.99 for CA, AZ, TX, OR, and WA) | varies | $10.99 | varies |
| Diet-specific meal plans offered | • dairy-free • gluten-free • high protein • low carb • paleo • pescatarian • peanut-free • soy-free • vegetarian • Whole30 | • calorie smart • chef’s choice • keto • flexitarian • protein plus • vegan & veggie | • family-friendly • fit & wholesome • high protein • low calorie • low carb • meat & veggies • pescatarian • plant-based • under 20 minutes • veggie | • gluten-free • high protein • keto • low carb • major allergen-free • paleo • vegan • vegetarian |
| Delivery options | • weekly or one time • 6, 8, 10, or 12 meals | • weekly deliveries • between 6 to 36 meals per week | • meals for 2 or 4 people • 2 to 6 recipes week per week | 6 or 12 meals per week |
| Type of meals | prepared meals | prepared meals | meal kit | prepared meals |
| Ingredient quality and sourcing | • 100% grass-fed beef • pasture-raised pork, lamb, turkey • Seafood Watch-compliant seafood • some organic ingredients • GMO-free | • some organic • sustainably sourced seafood • antibiotic-free vegan meals | • Seafood Watch-compliant seafood • mostly nonorganic ingredients | some organic ingredients |
Customer reviews and brand reputation
Although all the reviews on The Good Kitchen’s website are positive, the service has mixed reviews elsewhere, especially regarding taste.
While some reviewers say the meals taste great, others say they are overly mushy and often overseasoned. A couple of reviewers have also reported that the meals can be gritty, as if there may be dirt in them from produce that was not thoroughly washed.
Our Healthline editors found similar results, noting that many of the vegetables were soggy, specifically in the Citrus Herb Chicken with Spinach and Butternut Squash and the Vegan Paella.
That being said, our editors did note that the meals were very compact, which made storage easy and efficient.
The Good Kitchen has a 3.0 rating on Trustpilot, with comments regarding both customer service and the small portions of the meals.
Other reviewers report shipping problems as well, but these seem to be related mostly to the carrier rather than The Good Kitchen Itself.
Additionally, some of the Good Kitchen reviews say it’s very difficult to get in touch with customer service via phone or email.
This has led to issues such as customers being unable to cancel their subscription because they couldn’t log into their account or being unable to request a refund or report shipping issues.
How to get started
To get started with The Good Kitchen, choose the “Build Box” button on its website. This takes you to a menu page, where you can choose how many meals you’d like and how often.
New customers may qualify for a promotional discount, and The Good Kitchen may occasionally offer seasonal sales or deals.
You’ll need to choose and pay for your meals by the weekly deadline (Thursday at 11:59 p.m. EST). You have until this time to choose or change your meals or skip your shipment. If you don’t skip a shipment before this time, your card will be charged and your box will ship.
Your meals will be shipped fresh, with ice packs to keep them cool. Each will have an expiration date printed on it. You can store The Good Kitchen meals in the freezer for up to 1 month as long as they are frozen before the expiration date arrives.
Frequently asked questions
Not completely, but they use some organic ingredients. The Good Kitchen menu features organic versions of all foods appearing on the EWG’s Dirty Dozen, a list of produce items that contain the most pesticides. These foods are:
- strawberries
- spinach
- kale, collard, and mustard greens
- grapes
- peaches
- pears
- nectarines
- apples
- bell peppers and hot peppers
- cherries
- blueberries
- green beans
The Good Kitchen and Snap Kitchen are similar, but The Good Kitchen has much stricter quality standards for their ingredients, while Snap Kitchen is less expensive.
Based on your needs, one or the other may be a better fit.
It depends on your dietary needs and budget. If you eat a strict diet that can be difficult to follow, like paleo or Whole30, or need to avoid certain ingredients due to allergies or intolerances, The Good Kitchen provides an extremely convenient ready-made meal option.
However, because it is more expensive than comparable services, it may not be worth the price if you don’t have these dietary needs or preferences or if you’re looking to feed more people than just yourself.
No, but it does offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee and says that it will provide store credit to try other meals if you dislike the flavor of a dish.
The bottom line
The Good Kitchen is a prepared meal delivery service that caters to people with specific dietary needs and preferences. It offers subscription meal delivery and a la carte ordering.
The company uses high quality meats and mostly organic produce to create meals that are appropriate for paleo, vegetarian, and Whole30 diets. Additionally, all the meals are gluten-, soy-, and peanut-free.
The Good Kitchen may be a good fit if you follow one of those diets or need to avoid gluten, peanuts, or soy.
