Review: Blue Apron

For many years, Blue Apron has been one of my favorite meal kits out of the dozens I've tested. It was No. 1 in our buying guide, and my colleague Adrienne So even gave the service its own love letter. I recently retested the service to ensure that our coverage was up to date, and I'm dismayed to announce that, while it's still a good meal kit subscription service, Blue Apron is no longer my top pick.

I still think it has its merits, and in no way would I call it “bad.” It's undeniably convenient to have ingredients shipped to your door, because who actually likes going grocery shopping? And the dishes I've tried have been mostly good. But I had some issues with this round of testing that have led me to believe that other services might be a better use of your time—and money.

A Fly in My Soup

Photograph: Louryn Strampe

After speaking with the lovely PR folks at Blue Apron to start a round of retesting, they confirmed my recipes: Sour Cherry-Dijon Chicken, Chimichurri Shrimp, Fall Harvest Grain Bowls, Southwestern-Style Egg Bites, and Double Chocolate Cake. Only three of the five were actually cookable upon arrival.

It started with the eggs that were packed inside my shipping box, which had broken and coated everything inside. I rinsed everything off and packed it into my fridge. No use in crying over broken eggs, or whatever that old adage is. That night, I cooked the chicken dish, which was mostly tasty, except my chicken had a defect known as “spaghetti meat"—a muscle abnormality that causes chicken breast to appear soft and stringy, like spaghetti. It's usually not obvious on the outside of the meat (it wasn't in my case), but these internal strings turn tough upon being cooked and alter the texture of the finished dish, making it more fibrous. I only discovered the abnormality after I cut into the cooked chicken breast. I would have realized it earlier if the instructions called for cutting into the protein earlier—for example, if the breasts were to be butterflied—but since I was cooking it whole, I didn't catch the issue until dinner was served.

I know it's silly to expect that a meal kit service delivers the highest-quality butcher-grade cuts of meat, and despite it being unappetizing, I still ate it. My chicken was tougher and stringier than it would have been without the defect, but “spaghetti meat” is still safe to eat. It's just less delicious. And despite that issue, the rest of the meal was pretty good. I reached out to the PR folks and mentioned it, since I would have done the same with customer service if I'd been a paying customer. They said they'd send two replacement meals—Pork Schnitzel & Pancetta-Potato Salad, as well as Beef Over Curry-Spiced Rice. (For customers, if an issue is encountered, Blue Apron typically offers a credit toward your next box or order.)

Photograph: Louryn Strampe

I tried to keep it cooking, but kept running into similar issues. Turns out the protective film on my ready-made egg bites was punctured and the insides had gotten wet—whether it was with eggs from the initial shipping fiasco or just condensation, it was hard to tell. I threw them out.

I went to make my Fall Harvest Grain Bowls. I was so excited—it reminded me of a similar version of one of my favorite takeout foods ever—but lo and behold, my arugula was completely wilted. I managed to make the rest of the dish, sans arugula. It was very good—the farro warm and toasty, the goat cheese creamy, the apples sharp, the sweet potatoes slightly spicy. I really liked this meal. But it would have been better (and healthier) with arugula.

Photograph: Louryn Strampe

Then I went to make my Chimichurri Shrimp. My nose wrinkled. Something was definitely off. What do you know—my shrimp was going bad just two days after delivery. At this point, I checked my refrigerator to make sure there wasn't something going wrong on my end. The rest of my groceries were as fresh as the day I'd purchased them, my milk still going strong a week and a half after its “sell by” date. The common denominator was Blue Apron.

The Good, the Bad, and the Sticky

Photograph: Louryn Strampe

I managed to make my Pork Schnitzel—the roasted veggies and sauce were delicious, though the pork could've used more seasoning than the recipe-required “salt and pepper.” Still, it was a success. I made the chocolate cake and didn't love the bready texture, but my partner deemed it a victory. I whipped up the Beef over Rice and it was so good I could've sang a song. I would write 700 words on this dish alone if I could. It was delightfully balanced and so good that I ate both servings (and I am not a leftovers person). It almost made up for the rest of it. Almost.

It's also important to note that, in both shipments I received, all three sugar packets that were required for my recipes had burst. Blue Apron ships weekly boxes with meat on the bottom under ice packs, produce packed in the middle layer, and an assortment of "knickknack" bags that corral the rest of the seasonings, sauces, and spices for each dish. The insides of my knickknack bags were coated in sugary syrup, since the pre-measured packets had burst. I was able to rinse off the rest of the ingredients inside the bags and supply my own sugar, but it's another indicator that something has gone amiss at Blue Apron since I initially tested the service years ago. Even if some of these issues could be attributed to my nemeses at FedEx, the shipping partner doesn't make the chicken defective or the ingredients old.

Photograph: Louryn Strampe

I'm a product reviewer. It's my job to rinse off sugary packets of sour cream and throw out stinky shrimp. But if I were someone just getting home from work, looking forward to cooking dinner, and surprised by the unusable ingredients, I'd be annoyed as hell. If I were a busy mom just trying to get dinner on the table, faced with the task of coming up with something else or going to the godforsaken grocery store while I already had a stressful day and the sun was setting at 4:30 pm, I'd be a stronger word than “annoyed.” Replacement meal credits are nice, but they don't help when you're short on time and so hungry you might just keel over. Anecdotally, the Blue Apron subreddit is full of similar stories. This is the first time I've tried the service since it was acquired by Wonder Group last year, so maybe we can attribute the issues to that. Maybe I just got unlucky twice in a row. But in any case, a meal kit service has one job to do, and Blue Apron just didn't this time around.

For a long time, Blue Apron was the gold standard by which I judged all other meal kits. My coworkers have loved the service, too, and I still appreciate the customizable menus. I still like the wide variety of recipes and the end result of them (when they're cookable). I still like the service as a whole. I just wouldn't call it my favorite anymore. With price points similar to other services we recommend, maybe one of those would be a better use of your time and money.