Blue Apron: Meal Kit Delivery

Review by eFreeware

If you have ever wanted the convenience of a meal kit without signing up for a delivery every week, Blue Apron's app is built with you in mind. The company has shipped more than 530 million meal kits over the years, and the current version of its app is arranged around ordering what you want, when you want it, rather than locking you into a recurring plan.

That shift is the main reason to look at it. The catalog runs past 100 meals at any time, and the developer has added quicker formats alongside the traditional recipe kits, so the app now covers everything from a five-minute pre-made dish to a full recipe you cook yourself. For a household trying to cut down on takeout or shorten the weeknight dinner routine, that range is the appeal.

Ordering meals without a weekly commitment

The headline change is that no subscription is required. You order the meals you want without committing to weekly deliveries, which removes the usual friction of meal kit services: the fear of forgetting to skip a box or paying for food you did not choose. The app is the place where that ordering happens, and the developer presents it as the convenient front door to the whole service.

The menu rotates, so the selection is not static. The developer lists more than 100 meals to choose from at a given time, spanning different cuisines and formats, and highlights bestsellers and customer favorites such as Roasted Red Pepper Pasta, Guajillo Chicken & Veggie Bake, Four-Cheese Enchiladas and Chimichurri Salmon Grain Bowls. Rotating menus are a reasonable way to keep repeat customers interested, though it also means a dish you like may not be available every time you order.

The app itself is free to download, carries no ads and lists no in-app purchases. The cost of the food is a separate matter handled through the service, so I would treat the app as the ordering tool rather than a storefront with its own fees.

Dish by Blue Apron: pre-made meals for busy days

The first of the new formats is Dish by Blue Apron, a line of pre-made meals. The developer says these contain at least 20 grams of protein each, use no artificial colors or flavors, and can be ready in as little as five minutes. That combination points to a specific use: a quick lunch or a dinner on a night when cooking from scratch is not realistic.

What appeals to me here is the protein figure. Twenty grams is a meaningful amount for a prepared meal, and it suggests these are positioned as proper food rather than a snack. The five-minute preparation time is the other draw, since it puts Dish in the same territory as reheating leftovers but with a meal you chose from a menu rather than assembled yourself.

The trade-off is that pre-made food is pre-made. You are trading control over ingredients and seasoning for speed. For anyone who mostly wants dinner solved quickly, that is a fair exchange.

Assemble & Bake and the one-pan approach

The second new format, Assemble & Bake, is aimed at people who want to cook but not to spend the evening doing it. These are one-pan meals with pre-prepped ingredients, five minutes or less of active time, and minimal cleanup once everything is in the oven. You assemble, bake and eat, which is about as simple as home cooking gets.

The app is pitched as a good fit for cooking with kids. That makes sense given the format: pre-prepped ingredients and a short hands-on stage leave room for children to take part without a long, fiddly recipe. It is the sort of thing that works for a family that wants a shared kitchen activity without a two-hour project.

I would expect Assemble & Bake to suit households that already enjoy oven cooking and want a middle ground between a full recipe kit and a ready-made meal. The active time is short, but the oven still has to do its work, so this is not an instant option in the way Dish is.

Classic meal kits and the recipe catalog

The traditional meal kits remain the core of the service. These are easy-to-follow recipes meant to get you creative in the kitchen without spending hours there, with some ready in as little as 15 minutes. Recipes are written for any cooking level, with options for every occasion, from a quick weeknight plate to something more involved.

That range is what separates the kits from the two newer lines. If you want to actually cook, learn a technique or serve something that looks like a project, the kits are where that happens. If you want the shortest possible path to a meal, Dish or Assemble & Bake cover it. Having all three in one app means you can move between them depending on the day rather than choosing one style of eating for good.

Customer comments in the app mention cooking, eating and cleaning up in under 45 minutes, and recipes being simpler than expected. Those are individual reactions rather than a guarantee, and I would read them as an indication of the kind of experience the service is aiming for rather than a promise about any particular dish.

What the app requires and where the limits sit

The important practical point is that this is an ordering app for a delivery service. Everything it offers depends on Blue Apron delivering food to you, so the value of the app rises and falls with whether the menu on a given week appeals. The app is free, but the meals are not.

There is also a membership layer. Blue Apron+ is presented with free shipping on every order, members-only perks and unlimited access to Tastemade+, and the developer offers a 30-day free trial. That is an optional program layered on top of the ordering, so it is worth reading the terms inside the app before starting one.

The other limit is inherent to the format. Meal kits and pre-prepped meals ask you to cook or at least assemble and bake, and they commit you to eating what is on the menu that week rather than whatever you feel like. Anyone who wants a restaurant-style experience with no kitchen involvement at all will find the recipe kits and bakes of limited use, though the pre-made Dish line is closer to that.

The app's own store presence reflects a mixed reception: it holds a 3.8 average from 7,710 ratings, with 500,000+ installs since its release in September 2017.

Who the app is built for

Judging from its stated focus, this app is for people who want meal kit convenience without a standing weekly order. The no-subscription model and the rotating catalog of more than 100 meals suit someone who wants to order in bursts, skip weeks freely and pick dishes to match the schedule rather than the other way around.

It also fits households with a mix of needs. A parent who wants a short, kid-friendly cooking project has Assemble & Bake. Someone who wants lunch handled in five minutes has Dish. A cook who wants to try a new recipe on a weekend has the classic kits. The three formats cover different moods within one ordering account, which is a more useful arrangement than a single style of box.

The 3.8 average suggests the experience is not universally loved. If you are already a Blue Apron customer, or you have been curious about meal kits but put off by subscriptions, this is the version of the service the developer has built for you.

A flexible option for households that want dinner solved

Blue Apron's app makes the most sense for people who want the meal kit experience on their own terms. The removal of the subscription requirement is the strongest argument in its favor, and the three formats give you a genuine choice between cooking a recipe, assembling a bake or heating something pre-made.

I would go in expecting to plan around the rotating menu and to treat the membership as an optional extra rather than a necessity. The app is free and uncluttered by ads, the catalog is broad, and the quick formats address the nights when cooking is not going to happen. For a household that wants faster dinners and flexible ordering, it is a reasonable place to start.

If you are looking for a service that removes the kitchen from the equation entirely, the recipe kits and bakes will not do that, and the pre-made line is the part that comes closest. Everyone else with an interest in cooking less laboriously has something here worth trying.

What's new in version 5.28.0

Small bug fixes and improvements.