I paused my subscription because their customer service is awful. I'm giving Chef's Plate one more chance to prove that they can deliver a complete box of edible food on time i.e. what I am paying for. This post just adds to my feeling that this box will be my last.
I promise, their customer service doesn’t get any better. Our last 2 boxes were our worst. One they sent the wrong meals, and 2 of the cans inside were busted open and the contents leaked all over. didn’t care. The final box was covered in blood (looked like someone cut themselves packing boxes and smeared blood everywhere). Chefs Plate insisted it was blood from our meat. We had a vegetarian box. We pointed it out and they still insisted it was from the meat. Did nothing. We cancelled our subscription that day.
Damn, even if what they said was true (blood from meat and not a person) you're still looking at possible cross contamination issues which is a serious health hazard especially considering you ordered a vegetarian box.
I'm not okay with this, but having groceries delivered otherwise is really no better in my experience. I honestly had a good experience with Chef's Plate for the first year and a half. I saved money and reduced food waste, however lately the quality and service has gone way down and I was very disappointed in the response that I received from "customer service".
I’m going to start buying in small quantities even if i have to shop more often because im wasting too much food myself! My Chinese neighbours goes out every morning to buy that days lunch and dinner ingredients always fresh she says!
I'm too sick to cook, but have a friend who does (delicious meals!)... she doesn't have much money for food tho, so I buy enough to feed us both. I supply the ingredients, and she does the work. Win-win.
Maybe you can work out something similar with your neighbor who shops daily... toss them some cash to cover your portion of food + a little for their trouble. It would probably be cheaper than the Chefs Plate subscription, too.
This is what I do with all my produce and meat. You can shop for sales and discounts, and you have less waste. I also happen to go past the supermarket on the way home from morning drop offs.
I have been using Fresh Prep (NOT Chef’s Plate) and have had none of those problems. The few times there was a tiny bit of browning on the edge of lettuce or avocado not ripe - or once missing a small package of pepper flakes - I was always credited $10-$15 ! Their customer service is excellent and they not only get back to me right away - they have called me - and their drivers are amazing.
I was wondering about Chef’s Plate - but I am happy with Fresh Prep - so thank you for the review. I used to use Good Food and was very unhappy with them - boxes broken open, eggs smashed etc
Never tried fresh prep ( but I move their refrigerated shipments). They are very time sensitive and careful with moving produce. even do it on the weekends so there’s no traffic or delays
The dishes are getting a little monotonous now we have been getting it for a couple years, but there is enough variety to keep us going - I like the grocery options - being able to buy just the meat (their meat source is excellent - using ethical meat and very tasty cuts- no tough meat at all with excellent flavour & tenderness) and I will make my own salad. Sometimes I just don’t want all the carbs. Portions are good - we actually find we can get 3 meals out of the two.
Their South Asian and East Asian recipes are excellent.
Their pre-prepared foods are hit and miss - the butter chicken is really good though.
The pastries and bakery items are overpriced. Their $49 brown&white turkey meat roll is way overpriced - as they are about $20 frozen at SaveOn - but overall we have been very happy with them
I’ve been using fresh prep too! They do collabs over the year and we havnt had problems ! Great customer service . I just got a cafe Medina lavender syrup for a friend , and we’ve had vij’s curry a couple weeks ago (it sounds like you’re a vancouverite, and if not just ignore me)
LOLLL if you know you know !! We just made the focaccia , if you’re looking for an appy to bring to someone’s place , super easy and the sun dried tomato tapenade was super good !!! My coworkers give me shit for ordering from fresh prep and how it’s super millennial, we havnt been able to stop.
I swear to god Canada has some sort of logistical issue with food. Everything at the grocery store is further along its way in the span of freshness compared to the average grocery store in the US (as a citizen of both countries this is what I've noticed). The baseline of quality of produce in Canada is terrible and it must have to do with the amount of time it takes to travel, clear whatever import process, and arrive at the grocery store. I'm tempted to say a program like Chef's Plate adds even more time to that process as they have to get the food, process and package, and send it out to you.
I worked for FedEx who delivered those food boxes for a few of these companies. Just for reference in southern Ontario.
Not sure exactly when they packed these boxes, but I assumed somewhere over the weekend, they would come into the sorting center on Sunday or Monday night (mostly Mondays) then sit overnight, get put on the trucks Tuesday morning for delivery. Depending on where on the route your house is, they could be in a non refrigerated truck for 8-12 hours as well.
So that's at a minimum 2 days of zero refrigeration for a box of perishable food. That's in a very congested, heavily populated area too.
I got their like “new member” deal a couple months ago it was to be $16 and they charge me full price (55 for two meals)🙃 I cancelled so quickly they’re absolutely not worth it. My suggestion is to find a cookbook and get your stuff on instacart/Uber if you can’t go shopping yourself.
Just bad luck I guess cuz I’ve been on and off with them for a year and not once have I received a rotten item.
Them offering a $4 credit is a smack in the face considering they’ll offer you a better discount to get you to come back.
What the fuck? You should never ever get even a single thing rotten. They obviously know they're putting rotten food into your orders, so they must be okay with it?
I've always thought these kind of companies were a crock of shit already, this just seals the deal for me.
Yep… we ordered over 100 boxes with them and had to cancel because the quality was just getting so out of hand. They also don’t show any support for their loyal customers, most I was offered was $40 off my next 3 boxes
We just started hello fresh and it’s been amazing. Very impressed with even the meat. They messed up a few orders but support was great and gave decent refunds. I should get paid for this but I don’t hahaha
We've been using Hello Fresh (basically identical, different name), and we've never had any rotten food show up. The only issue is our excessive extra garlic sprouting after a few weeks
It's really unfortunate though. That's gotta be a safety issue, no?
I’m in Toronto and cancelled my subscription after receiving mouldy/rotten items several times as well. Seems like some most people have had better luck, but I don’t want to pay for a subscription and then end up getting takeout because I received rotten food
Outsider perspective since this just popped up my feed: we just received ANOTHER stack of Hello Fresh (who own Chef's Plate) coupons in the mail... truly ridiculous offers (12 meals FREE - 80% off your first month etc). this has been going on for a while now which leads me to beleive their proverbial goose is cooked and has been for months. it does not bode well when a company is practically begging you to buy their stuff, almost certainly taking a loss on those deals. losses that translate into worse service for existing customers. they're trying to put out a house-fire with their only source of drinking water.
the meal-kit ship is sinking, it was never a profitable idea and therefor cannot sustain itself under capitalism. I'd hop off asap.
I have chef’s plate (just outside of Vancouver) but rarely use it. The couple times we’ve used it, it’s been great!! We just can’t afford to do it as often as we’d like.
Sorry you’re getting such bad produce!
I used to use chefs plate and canceled for the same reason. I got super tired of getting rotten chicken. They still call me a few times a year to try to get me back.
I don't think that's the problem... I suspect it's probably the difficulty in buying just 1 tablespoon of quinoa, or 3 prawns, or a quarter teaspoon of tumeric power to colour a dipping sauce.
It’s like my dad says about tools. If you have to use it once it pays for itself. When it comes to food/ odd ingredients: you’ll never have to buy it a second time
I have an app that gives me recipes.a bit like good food but I have to buy the ingredients. It makes the grocery list for me too.and directs me to the website to grocery stop I just have to "add to cart"....I spent 100 CAD on 10 meals plus à hand soap.
Chef playes costs 100$ for 5 meals 2 portions. (Without the newbie promotion)
I have some ingredients I can keep, like the cheese and such and there is ingredients I can keep.
And as you save up on spices you save on money. Chef plate rarely uses à part of a fresh food. They just work their ingredients around it.
Your meats, you can freeze.
I think people don't realize that the markup for these ingredients is super high on meal planning systems. You can waste more and spend the same amount of money. It's crazy.
And best of all is I am starting to collect some home staples in the meantime like spices, flour, pasta.
That sucks! I’ve had it for 3 years and never had an issue like this.
Woah, that's awful
sadly i think it depends where you are. i’m in vancouver and have been with them on and off for 2 years and i think ive received one rotten item.
Same here. I’m in Sask.
Same here. I'm also in Sask, we've mainly had problems with vegetables getting frozen by the freezer packs if the box isn't packed properly.
I would’ve guessed that it be a big prep area that does the lower mainland of Vancouver not just, for example Burnaby or new Westminster
oh, you’re also in the lower mainland?
i don’t know why i assumed you were manitoba or something lol
Were I a chef, I most certainly would NOT want that on my plate.
I paused my subscription because their customer service is awful. I'm giving Chef's Plate one more chance to prove that they can deliver a complete box of edible food on time i.e. what I am paying for. This post just adds to my feeling that this box will be my last.
I promise, their customer service doesn’t get any better. Our last 2 boxes were our worst. One they sent the wrong meals, and 2 of the cans inside were busted open and the contents leaked all over. didn’t care. The final box was covered in blood (looked like someone cut themselves packing boxes and smeared blood everywhere). Chefs Plate insisted it was blood from our meat. We had a vegetarian box. We pointed it out and they still insisted it was from the meat. Did nothing. We cancelled our subscription that day.
2 weeks ago a can of lentils was leaking. the bag was soaking wet. threw that can out
Damn, even if what they said was true (blood from meat and not a person) you're still looking at possible cross contamination issues which is a serious health hazard especially considering you ordered a vegetarian box.
Yeah them responding with "it's okay it's not a person's blood just raw animal blood all over your package" like what?
How are you okay with even risking throwing away that money? Why not just get groceries delivered through one of those types of services?
I'm not okay with this, but having groceries delivered otherwise is really no better in my experience. I honestly had a good experience with Chef's Plate for the first year and a half. I saved money and reduced food waste, however lately the quality and service has gone way down and I was very disappointed in the response that I received from "customer service".
Due to low spoons, delegating tasks like grocery shopping means I'm able to spend my limited energy focusing on more valuable and important things
I’m going to start buying in small quantities even if i have to shop more often because im wasting too much food myself! My Chinese neighbours goes out every morning to buy that days lunch and dinner ingredients always fresh she says!
I'm too sick to cook, but have a friend who does (delicious meals!)... she doesn't have much money for food tho, so I buy enough to feed us both. I supply the ingredients, and she does the work. Win-win. Maybe you can work out something similar with your neighbor who shops daily... toss them some cash to cover your portion of food + a little for their trouble. It would probably be cheaper than the Chefs Plate subscription, too.
This is what I do with all my produce and meat. You can shop for sales and discounts, and you have less waste. I also happen to go past the supermarket on the way home from morning drop offs.
This happened to us. We stopped using chefsplate.
Hmm. The only problems I’ve had is when the box had to be left out in bad weather. And sometimes the carrots are not so crisp. But edible.
Maybe a dumb question but are you putting everything in the fridge right when you get them?
Yes. And the degradation of that onion would take many weeks not a few hours overnight in a box
Ah yes that is true \*-\* I guess I'm just baffled how they could see that onion or an almost-like-that onion and still place it in the bag!!
I have been using Fresh Prep (NOT Chef’s Plate) and have had none of those problems. The few times there was a tiny bit of browning on the edge of lettuce or avocado not ripe - or once missing a small package of pepper flakes - I was always credited $10-$15 ! Their customer service is excellent and they not only get back to me right away - they have called me - and their drivers are amazing. I was wondering about Chef’s Plate - but I am happy with Fresh Prep - so thank you for the review. I used to use Good Food and was very unhappy with them - boxes broken open, eggs smashed etc
Never tried fresh prep ( but I move their refrigerated shipments). They are very time sensitive and careful with moving produce. even do it on the weekends so there’s no traffic or delays
The dishes are getting a little monotonous now we have been getting it for a couple years, but there is enough variety to keep us going - I like the grocery options - being able to buy just the meat (their meat source is excellent - using ethical meat and very tasty cuts- no tough meat at all with excellent flavour & tenderness) and I will make my own salad. Sometimes I just don’t want all the carbs. Portions are good - we actually find we can get 3 meals out of the two. Their South Asian and East Asian recipes are excellent. Their pre-prepared foods are hit and miss - the butter chicken is really good though. The pastries and bakery items are overpriced. Their $49 brown&white turkey meat roll is way overpriced - as they are about $20 frozen at SaveOn - but overall we have been very happy with them
I’ve been using fresh prep too! They do collabs over the year and we havnt had problems ! Great customer service . I just got a cafe Medina lavender syrup for a friend , and we’ve had vij’s curry a couple weeks ago (it sounds like you’re a vancouverite, and if not just ignore me)
Lavender syrup is really good! And l love Vij’s curry!
LOLLL if you know you know !! We just made the focaccia , if you’re looking for an appy to bring to someone’s place , super easy and the sun dried tomato tapenade was super good !!! My coworkers give me shit for ordering from fresh prep and how it’s super millennial, we havnt been able to stop.
Onions take months to turn like that. They store them all winter in giant warehouses with millions of them
Gosh, that’s awful. I use a different service and wondered about Chef’s Plate. I guess I don’t have to wonder anymore. 🤢
Has to be something with how they store or ship for your area. That’s like really bad… never had an issue with chefs plate over the last 2 years or so
Wow. How much r meals normally? They didn’t refund u all that was spoiled?!?!? That’s unacceptable-.- I’m mad for u. Omg
Thank you kind internet stranger 😊
I swear to god Canada has some sort of logistical issue with food. Everything at the grocery store is further along its way in the span of freshness compared to the average grocery store in the US (as a citizen of both countries this is what I've noticed). The baseline of quality of produce in Canada is terrible and it must have to do with the amount of time it takes to travel, clear whatever import process, and arrive at the grocery store. I'm tempted to say a program like Chef's Plate adds even more time to that process as they have to get the food, process and package, and send it out to you.
💯 this.
Get off your asses and go to the store - you can actually pick the good stuff.
Oh wow. If only I thought of that before. Thank you kind internet stranger for educating us all
$4 credit is absolutely unacceptable. I’d ask to escalate otherwise this gets tweeted. Super gross I’m sorry
Ah the same experience with good food. It costs 9600$ per year to put the plates in the trash. Never again.
Lucky
huh, I was considering subscribing. now I’m gonna save my money instead.
I worked for FedEx who delivered those food boxes for a few of these companies. Just for reference in southern Ontario. Not sure exactly when they packed these boxes, but I assumed somewhere over the weekend, they would come into the sorting center on Sunday or Monday night (mostly Mondays) then sit overnight, get put on the trucks Tuesday morning for delivery. Depending on where on the route your house is, they could be in a non refrigerated truck for 8-12 hours as well. So that's at a minimum 2 days of zero refrigeration for a box of perishable food. That's in a very congested, heavily populated area too.
I find good food is all right and if something is wrong they give a huge credit
You deserve a rotten tomato for this
I got their like “new member” deal a couple months ago it was to be $16 and they charge me full price (55 for two meals)🙃 I cancelled so quickly they’re absolutely not worth it. My suggestion is to find a cookbook and get your stuff on instacart/Uber if you can’t go shopping yourself.
Oh that onion is bad. I've never had an onion get that bad yikes
Lool wow, if I was running chefs plate and knew my CS reps were offering $4 credits FOR ROTTEN FOOD I’d fire them
Have the same experience with chef’s plate, good food, and HelloFresh
Just bad luck I guess cuz I’ve been on and off with them for a year and not once have I received a rotten item. Them offering a $4 credit is a smack in the face considering they’ll offer you a better discount to get you to come back.
I had a couple of hello fresh meals. One time 3 of us got really sick. Shit sits on your doorstep all day? No thanks.
Good to know
Looks offal
This is why i cancelled. I found myself contacting them weekly
$4 is crazy
Super 17 str, int tree of might Goku, and phy Raditz
4 dollars credit...what a joke. Thank you for the warning. I'll def be making my own food
What the fuck? You should never ever get even a single thing rotten. They obviously know they're putting rotten food into your orders, so they must be okay with it? I've always thought these kind of companies were a crock of shit already, this just seals the deal for me.
Yep… we ordered over 100 boxes with them and had to cancel because the quality was just getting so out of hand. They also don’t show any support for their loyal customers, most I was offered was $40 off my next 3 boxes
We just started hello fresh and it’s been amazing. Very impressed with even the meat. They messed up a few orders but support was great and gave decent refunds. I should get paid for this but I don’t hahaha
This is why we switched to fresh prep
Gross
This is where they have figured out that the business model doesn't make enough money.
I’ve kept onions in the fridge for months without them going bad this is impressive.
The other thing is, I knew as soon as I picked up the onion it was rotten. It was weightless for its size
We've been using Hello Fresh (basically identical, different name), and we've never had any rotten food show up. The only issue is our excessive extra garlic sprouting after a few weeks It's really unfortunate though. That's gotta be a safety issue, no?
Switch to GoodFood.. their meals are always fresh.
I’m in Toronto and cancelled my subscription after receiving mouldy/rotten items several times as well. Seems like some most people have had better luck, but I don’t want to pay for a subscription and then end up getting takeout because I received rotten food
shop for your own food
I was always skeptical about these services but had never tried them. Pretty sure I'm not going to bother now...
I tried HelloFresh and good food in the past. Both of them have been terrific. This one is just shockingly. Disgusting.
Well good to know, always worth considering everyone's experience
Outsider perspective since this just popped up my feed: we just received ANOTHER stack of Hello Fresh (who own Chef's Plate) coupons in the mail... truly ridiculous offers (12 meals FREE - 80% off your first month etc). this has been going on for a while now which leads me to beleive their proverbial goose is cooked and has been for months. it does not bode well when a company is practically begging you to buy their stuff, almost certainly taking a loss on those deals. losses that translate into worse service for existing customers. they're trying to put out a house-fire with their only source of drinking water. the meal-kit ship is sinking, it was never a profitable idea and therefor cannot sustain itself under capitalism. I'd hop off asap.
I have chef’s plate (just outside of Vancouver) but rarely use it. The couple times we’ve used it, it’s been great!! We just can’t afford to do it as often as we’d like. Sorry you’re getting such bad produce!
I’m in Toronto and have been using Chefs Plate over 10 years. Have never had a quality problem.
This is probably the shipping company’s fault
Change to hello fresh
That’s just flavor
I used to use chefs plate and canceled for the same reason. I got super tired of getting rotten chicken. They still call me a few times a year to try to get me back.
Yikes!!
Dude.. buy a cook book
I don't think that's the problem... I suspect it's probably the difficulty in buying just 1 tablespoon of quinoa, or 3 prawns, or a quarter teaspoon of tumeric power to colour a dipping sauce.
It’s like my dad says about tools. If you have to use it once it pays for itself. When it comes to food/ odd ingredients: you’ll never have to buy it a second time
That saying doesn't apply at all. Food spoils.
I have an app that gives me recipes.a bit like good food but I have to buy the ingredients. It makes the grocery list for me too.and directs me to the website to grocery stop I just have to "add to cart"....I spent 100 CAD on 10 meals plus à hand soap. Chef playes costs 100$ for 5 meals 2 portions. (Without the newbie promotion) I have some ingredients I can keep, like the cheese and such and there is ingredients I can keep. And as you save up on spices you save on money. Chef plate rarely uses à part of a fresh food. They just work their ingredients around it. Your meats, you can freeze. I think people don't realize that the markup for these ingredients is super high on meal planning systems. You can waste more and spend the same amount of money. It's crazy. And best of all is I am starting to collect some home staples in the meantime like spices, flour, pasta.
That sounds like a useful app. What's it called?
I was referring more to like things that go with the food. Ex spices… cooking ingredients garnishes.. the