Juliana's
Photograph: Ali GarberJuliana's
Photograph: Ali Garber

The best meal kits in NYC you should order right now

Not in the mood to cook dinner from scratch but still want to whip up something fresh at home? Try these meal kits from great local restaurants and national providers.

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Meal kits in NYC continue to be massively popular. New York restaurants consistently stepped up to the challenges of the pandemic, from constructing cool outdoor dining set-ups to pivoting to takeout and delivery operations to offering amazing meal kits to make at home. It's officially stock-up season, and local restaurants as well as national providers are ready with dinners and prepared foods that can be pulled out when you're feeling a little lazy. (Guilty!) Here are some tasty options that we'll be indulging in.

Best meal kits for NYC delivery

HelloFresh

OUR RATING: 5/5

HelloFresh is not only committed to delivering delicious, sustainably sourced ingredients, but the company also turns cooking into a merry activity. Through its app, social-media channels and blog, HelloFresh offers chef-led video tutorials and Facebook Live events hosted by a dietitian to help families create a variety of healthy meals. Kids love dishes like steak and potatoes, burgers and veggie stir-fry. 

PROS: High sustainability standards for ingredients; meals for vegans, vegetarians and other special diets; delivery everywhere in NYC

CONS: No lunch recipes, plus only one breakfast option per week

AVG COST PER MEAL: $8.74/meal for the family plan (feeds four, includes 2–3 meals).

Plated

OUR RATING: 5/5

Every week, sign up for a minimum of two nights and choose from 14 easy-to-make meals and two dessert options, including surefire hits like buffalo chicken pizza and peach and berry empanadas. Seasonal and organic produce, antibiotic-free poultry and sustainably sourced fish and beef with no added hormones translate into dishes that are healthy and nutritious—and with a Le Cordon Bleu–trained chef at the helm, you know the food is going to be delicious.

PROS: The company meets special dietary needs, and recipes with high customer ratings return as encore recipes available for a full month. flexible subscription and delivery throughout NYC and beyond; and tips and cooking demos via apps, Facebook Live and Morsel by Plated.

CONS: Recipes include a breakdown of ingredients and any potential allergens, but ingredients are prepared in facilities that also handle milk, fish, eggs, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat and other potential allergens.

AVG COST PER MEAL: From $9.95/meal for three servings per night plan (feeds four, 2–4 meals per week).

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Sun Basket

OUR RATING: 5/5

Those looking for paleo, gluten-free, dairy-free, soy- free or vegetarian options will enjoy spending time in the kitchen cooking with premeasured ingredients befitting their diet. The family menu, co-created by Justine Kelly, Sun Basket’s co-founder and Executive Chef, feeds families of four and includes easy-to-follow “Kids can!” steps so little chefs can help in the kitchen. They’ll get to learn new skills as they tackle favorites like mojo-marinated carne asada fajitas. Customers must opt in for a minimum of three recipes a week, and deliveries take place Mondays or Wednesdays.

PROS: Reaches more than 98 percent of the U.S., including all of NYC; offers a weekly recipe book with step-by-step instructions, along with video tutorials on facebook featuring local and celebrity chefs

CONS: No dessert options but provides healthy dessert recipes.

AVG COST PER MEAL: $10.99/serving in family plan (feeds four, 2–4 recipes per week).

Martha & Marley Spoon

OUR RATING: 4/5

All five NYC boroughs can call upon this meal service, a collaboration between Martha Stewart and Marley Spoon, for preportioned ingredients and step-by-step instructions to create two, three or four meals a week. Marley Spoon taps into Stewart’s archives of more than 18,000 recipes, so even picky eaters will find meals to enjoy, like banh mi turkey burgers, cheesy fajita pizza and pork chops with yellow pepper puttanesca. Ingredients are locally sourced, but the majority of beans, pastas, canned tomatoes and grains come straight from Italy.

PROS: Families can select from 10 recipes every week, and flexible subscription allows for skipping weeks. Delivery Mondays through Saturdays.

CONS: No breakfast, lunch or dessert options

AVG COST PER MEAL: $8.20–$9.50/serving under 3–4 people plan (feeds four), 2–4 meals per week.

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Blue Apron

OUR RATING: 4/5

The family plan from Blue Apron removes the stress from menu planning with four dinners, each of which can feed a family of four, delivered to your door every week. Novice cooks learn how to tackle new recipes; premeasured ingredients reduce the amount of food going bad at the end of the week. Kids will gobble up red, white and blue pizza and crispy chicken tenders, while parents kick their meals up a notch with Blue Apron Wine, a monthly subscription of six vinos that pair well with the available meals.

PROS: Nationwide delivery Tuesday through Friday as well as Monday and Saturday for some locations; an online cookbook contains a searchable database of the entire recipe collection; iPhone app, articles and social-media channels with recipes, info on seasonal ingredients and how-to videos

CONS: Limited offerings for people with dietary restrictions. Meals also come as combo packages, so less flexibility in picking the exact set of meals you want.

AVG COST PER MEAL: $$7.49–$8.99/serving under the family plan (feeds four, 2–4 recipes per week).

Nurture Life

OUR RATING: 4/5

Have kids of many ages? This plan has it all! Yummy, organic, ready-to-eat options for toddlers—mashed yams and French green peas or mac and cheese with cauliflower, and baby foods like butternut squash puree and turkey or garnet yam and Golden Delicious apple puree— add variety to their diet and have them reaching their chubby fingers for more. Plans cater to three baby stages at 6, 8 and 10 months old (choose from 8- and 14-meal plans) and toddlers aged 1 to 3 years old. You’ll also find plans for kids ages 4 to 8, 9 to 13, and 14 and older (5- and 10-meal plans): think mac and cheese with cauliflower and teriyaki salmon over brown rice.

PROS: Delivery everywhere in nyc; lunch and dinner choices for toddlers and breakfast, lunch and dinner for babies; facility is free of peanuts, tree-nuts and shellfish.
CONS: No meals are specifically for grown-ups, but try a lunch option from the 14-and-older plan.
COST PER MEAL: Various pricing; depends on age group.
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Green Chef (now owned by HelloFresh)
Green Chef (now owned by HelloFresh)

OUR RATING: 4/5

HelloFresh acquired Green Chef, a meal-kit delivery service that offers certified organic meals, in 2018.

PROS: Green Chef offers a Family Plan that includes two four-person meals per week. There's an Omnivore plan (for those who enjoy meat, seafood and vegetarian dinners) and Carnivore plan (geared more towards those who want meat with every meal). When you sign up, you'll get two meals free for your first week.

CONS: This meal-kit service is well-suited to families with adventurous eaters. While there are some new takes on flatbreads and meatballs on offer, most of the menu items incorporate food that will likely please the adult audience more (read: loudly incorporates veggies)—unless your kid's older or a food explorer, that is. It's also very pricey, so there's more at risk.

AVG COST PER MEAL: $11/meal under family plan; $94/box including shipping (two meals that serve four people each per week).

Purple Carrot

OUR RATING: 3/5

Those looking to transition their family diet to 100 percent plant-based meals will receive farm-fresh produce and collect an arsenal of healthy recipes when they sign up for Purple Carrot. Offerings like potato and rosemary flatbread with broccoli and butternut mac and cheese with Swiss chard and garlicky bread crumbs will quickly become go-tos for homemade dinners. This service is great for vegans, vegetarians and those with lactose-intolerance or for folks who’d like to have a more eco-conscious diet, and there’s even a gluten-free meal plan available that’s low in soy and refined sugars. Meal kits are shipped every Monday and delivered within one to two days.

PROS: Meals come with recipe cards; the company’s Facebook page is full of how-to videos.

CONS: Meals are preselected by an in-house chef.

AVG COST PER MEAL: $12–$13/meal (feeds three or four, 2 meals per week).

Best meal kits from NYC restaurants

  • Pizza
  • Brooklyn Heights
  • price 2 of 4
Juliana's
Juliana's

Patsy Grimaldi's pizzeria is offering "Take-and-bake" versions of its most popular pies: Margherita, white, pepperoni, and Pizza Special No. 1 (mozzarella, scamorza affumicata, pancetta and scallions). Each pie has been par-baked in the shop's 800-degree coal-fired oven—the pizza arrives fresh ready to be baked, sliced and served!

  • Korean
  • Gowanus
  • price 2 of 4

You're on your own when it comes to recreating the experience of a late night out singing karaoke at this Gowanus Korean BBQ spot, but the BBQ itself is another matter. Order their "Galbi BBQ Kit To Go" to get 10oz of raw soy-marinated prime short ribs ready to cook from the comfort of your own apartment. (As for the karaoke, there are plenty of YouTube videos for that.)

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  • Taiwanese
  • East Village
  • price 2 of 4
Mimi Cheng's
Mimi Cheng's

Available for pick-up and delivery, the Frozen Dumpling Meal Kit ($67.50) from this family-run wonton den include 30 frozen dumplings in your choice of pork-and-chive, chicken-and-zucchini, or veggie flavors. Thirty hand-rolled scallion pancakes and a 12-ounce bottle of the restaurant's secret sauce round out the kit. 

  • Steakhouse
  • Williamsburg
  • price 4 of 4

For the first time ever (in its 133-year history!) the Brooklyn steakhouse Peter Luger is offering delivery. On top of its prepared meals, you can also snag a porterhouse for two raw, ready to cook, with a bottle of Peter Luger's steak sauce.

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  • Caribbean
  • East Village
  • price 2 of 4

This lively restaurant recently launched a "Jamaica in a Box" kit which comes with everything you need to cook a meal at home—including an instructional video from chef Andre Fowles and even a curated reggae playlist. Each box comes with a three-course Miss Lily's meal: Jerk chicken, jerk corn, sides of rice and peas, cucumber escovitch and mango chutney and banana pudding for dessert.

  • Eclectic
  • West Village
  • price 1 of 4

The West Village soup counter offers frozen 10-ounce and 22-ounce versions of each of its hearty broths, including grass-fed Beef, vegan Seaweed-Mushroom, and Spicy Nonna (chicken broth, roasted garlic, Calabrian chili paste). Buy them individually ($7 for 10oz, $13 for 22oz) or as a six-pack (starting at $35). 

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  • Mexican
  • Chinatown
  • price 2 of 4

Check out the "Do It Yourself" section on the website of this vegan Mexican spot for things like guacamole, rice, vegan chorizo and more to recreate their delicious vegan dishes from your own kitchen.

  • Chinese
  • Nolita
  • price 1 of 4

Have a craving for dumplings? You can get 1.5 pounds of frozen dumplins of any kind right now from Nom Wah Nolita. (Their dim sum menu is also available for pickup or delivery.)

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  • Soul and southern American
  • Harlem
  • price 2 of 4

This iconic Harlem restaurant is selling its own line of items including hot sauces, dry rub spices and more, along with recipes to recreate their dishes using the products.

  • Italian
  • Flatiron

Fresh pasta kits (anolini, tagliatelle) from this Flatiron spot are available for $40 and feed two. You can also get some ready-for-the-freezer containers of sauce, including pomodoro, prosciutto-and-pork ragu, and sausage ragu. Choose two sauces with your pick of pasta, starting at $40. Peace out, Prego. 

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  • Japanese
  • Noho
  • price 2 of 4

Make weeknight meal-planning infinitely easier with the frozen Japanese comfort foods from this Bleecker Street spot. Freezer options include chickpea curry, beef shortrib congee, pork tonkatsu cutlets, dan dan sauce, and soy koji–marinated flank steak. You'll have yourself a Japanese feast in the time it takes for your oven to preheat! Also try the fried chicken karaage which is marinated and fried before it arrives, so all you have to do is bake it.

  • Cafés
  • Little Italy
  • price 2 of 4
Maman
Maman

Ready-to-bake cookie dough is an absolute godsend, especially when it comes from one of our favorite bakeries. The chic French cafe is offering a cookie dough kit ($49), each yielding up to two dozen cookies, in flavors like brown butter cranberry oatmeal, double chocolate peppermint crunch, nutty chocolate chip, and caramel chocolate hazelnut. 

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  • Latin American
  • Fort Greene
Colonia Verde
Colonia Verde

Along with easy-to-assemble meal kits and pantry staples (hola, blue corn tortillas), the Fort Greene restaurant is offering frozen arepas ($8 for five) and pao de quiejo, Brazilian cheesy bread ($9 for a dozen). Just pop 'em on a sheet tray and toss them into a 400-degree oven. 

  • Delis
  • Lower East Side
  • price 2 of 4

To us, winter isn't complete without a big hulk of meat. Luckily, the Lower East Side legend is offerings by-the-pound packages of its famed brisket ($32), pastrami ($34), turkey ($32), and corned beef ($32), which can be stored in your freezer for up to three months. 

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  • Contemporary Asian
  • Downtown Brooklyn
  • price 2 of 4

The menu at this Shanghainese street-food spot is a vast one: Serving up to six, the family-style freezer meals include curry chicken ($35), sweet-and-sour pork ribs ($40), and braised tofu ($35), as well as soup dumplings and uncooked noodles. (The frozen spicy soup dumplings are a must-have as well!)

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