The Good Kitchen: A Review

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.

In addition to a subscription service, The Good Kitchen offers a la carte meals and sells some meals on Amazon and at Walmart.

This article reviews how The Good Kitchen works, its pros and cons, and whether it’s worth the cost.

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 vegetarian, paleo, gluten-free, and keto diets.

In addition to its subscription-based meal delivery service, the company claims to offer several a la carte meals, as well as meals available on Amazon and at select Walmart locations.

However, it appears that the a la carte Amazon meals are currently unavailable as of this publication.

The Good Kitchen is an excellent 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 does not offer vegan menu options, and many of the meals feature animal-based proteins.

The Good Kitchen allows you to order 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 20, or 30 meals at once.

You can choose to have your subscription shipments sent weekly, biweekly, or monthly, 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.

Meal costs vary depending on how many meals you order and whether you choose a recurring order. The company’s website claims that meals ordered on the subscription plan fall between $11.50 and $15. One-time orders are priced higher than this.

The more meals you order on a subscription, the lower the price per serving will be. The Good Kitchen also claims to price meals depending on protein.

Pricing for a one-time order is as follows:

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.

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 that even ingredients it uses that are not organic are not genetically modified (non-GMO). Currently, the company does not 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’s rotating menu features a wide variety of recipes suitable for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, such as:

• Apple Sage Chicken with Braised Cabbage
• Beef Barbacoa and Scrambled Eggs with Roasted Pico de Gallo
• Turkey Chorizo Frittata with Pimento Cheese Grits
• Citrus Shrimp with Quinoa and Spiced Cauliflower
• Harissa Butternut Squash with Cauliflower Za’atar Rice and Tahini Tossed Kale
• Mojo Pork with Black Beans and Cilantro Cauliflower Rice
• Tex-Mex-Style Chorizo Scramble

The Good Kitchen makes no claims about weight loss. Thus, 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.

Some people might find it difficult to stick to diets that eliminate entire food groups such as dairy. Because The Good Kitchen also offers keto, paleo, primal, and Whole30 meal plans, this service may make it easier to stick to one of these diets.

The Good Kitchen is an ideal meal delivery service 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 The Good Kitchen 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.

This service is also flexible 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 will not be a good option 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.

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 to some other popular meal delivery services:

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.

Some reviewers report shipping problems as well, but these seem to be related mostly to the carrier rather than The Good Kitchen Itself.

Additionally, some reviewers 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.

However, it was difficult to find reviews more recent than early 2021. It’s possible that The Good Kitchen has addressed some of these issues in the meantime.

Healthline editors also noted that the meals were very compact, which made storage easy and efficient.

To get started with The Good Kitchen, choose the “Build Box” button on their 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 do not 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.

Is The Good Kitchen organic?

Not completely, but they use some organic ingredients. They use 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, mustard greens, nectarines, apples, grapes, cherries, pears, peaches, bell peppers and hot peppers, celery, and tomatoes.

Which is better, The Good Kitchen or Snap Kitchen?

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.

Which is better, The Good Kitchen or Freshly?

Both The Good Kitchen and Freshly offer meals that cater to dietary needs such as gluten-free and dairy-free. However, Freshly seems to offer more plant-based options than The Good Kitchen.

The Good Kitchen uses higher quality ingredients, including all non-GMO ingredients and some organic produce, while Freshly states that their ingredients, for the most part, are not organic or non-GMO.

However, Freshly is significantly less expensive and seems to offer a wider variety of meals for different dietary lifestyles.

Is The Good Kitchen worth the price?

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.

Does The Good Kitchen offer a free trial?

No, but they do offer a “100% satisfaction guarantee” and say that they will provide store credit to try other meals if you dislike the flavor of a dish.