Whether you’re a single professional or the mother of two, finding the time to cook healthy, nourishing food can be difficult. That’s why meal chef prepared meal kit subscriptions have become so popular.
These companies deliver ingredients and chef-inspired recipes to your home, promising to allow you to whip up blackened mahi-mahi with herb risotto in less time than a frozen pizza.
Sounds like a delicious deal, right? But not all prepared meal services are savory. Some are overpriced while others send you prepackaged raw food and ask you to do all the prep work.
To help you choose a meal kit that’s right for you, we’ve compared Table & Twine to three popular delivery services: Blue Apron, HelloFresh, and Clean Eatz.
The results? Table & Twine wins every time.
Jump Ahead
What Is Table & Twine?
Established in 2020, Table & Twine is a meal service dedicated to busy people who love food. Dedicated to both flavor and convenience, Table & Twine delivers both. service dedicated to both flavor and convenience.
Unlike most meal kit subscription models, where customers must spend hours in the kitchen prepping, chopping, and cooking, our chefs do most of the work. You simply finish the meal at home in about 15 minutes.
By pan-searing beef to a few degrees below completion and par-cooking vegetables, we allow you to enjoy an individual restaurant-quality dinner in 15 minutes or less.
What’s even better? Table & Twine fits your lifestyle. Be it a quick bachelor’s meal or an elevated family get together, we have you covered. We can also accommodate a variety of dietary restrictions, from vegetarian to gluten-free.
Table & Twine vs. Blue Apron
Founded in 2012, Blue Apron has been on the meal kit scene for quite some time. In the years since, the company has fine-tuned hundreds of recipes, including vegetarian, carb-conscious, and diabetes-friendly options. Despite these healthy offerings, Blue Apron still falls short when compared to Table & Twine.
Cook Time
Whipping up a Blue Apron recipe requires a hands-on approach. Though the ingredients are pre-portioned, you’ll still need to do some mincing and dicing. Some recipes even call for more advanced culinary techniques like fileting fish or twining a roast. As a result, meals take between 45 and 50 minutes to make, plus clean-up time for all the pots and pans you’ll use.
For comparison, all individual Table & Twine meals can be completed in about 15 minutes or less. Hoping to make your life easier, our professional chefs handle most of the mixing and chopping for you. That means when dinner time rolls around, you’ll just need to do a little cooking to heat and put the finishing touches on your meal.
Serving Sizes
When customers order from Blue Apron, they can select a meal plan for either two or four people. Though these serving sizes work for some families, they don’t accommodate single professionals or households with varying palettes.
Table & Twine offers a better solution. Since featured meals are packaged in serving sizes of one, two, and four, they’re perfect for busy professionals and families of all sizes. Plus, with Table & Twine’s single-portion meals, every family member can order exactly what they want, much like going to a restaurant. So, even if your partner or kids are craving tacos, you can still enjoy a fresh, seasonal salad with burrata.
Table & Twine vs. HelloFresh
HelloFresh is a subscription service that delivers step-by-step recipes and pre-portioned ingredients to your doorstep. HelloFresh shares Table & Twine’s mission of providing families with quick and tasty meals, but there are some major differences between our company and theirs.
Customization
HelloFresh customers can individualize their meal plan by selecting the number of meals they want each week, ranging from two to six. This level of customization is fine for some, however, if you want easy, restaurant-quality meals every day of the week – and possibly every meal of the day – HelloFresh is quite limiting.
Table & Twine offers a more personalized culinary experience. You can order as many meals as you like each week, with no commitment whatsoever. You also have the option of purchasing dinner, lunches, desserts, and appetizer items. No matter if you’re hungry for a house-made pulled pork sandwich or a fresh, seasonal salad, we’ve got you covered.
Environmental Impact
Countless studies have proven that meal kits are good for the planet since they cut down food waste. However, some subscription services are more environmentally conscious than others.
In comparing Table & Twine vs. HelloFresh, the winner is obvious. HelloFresh ships your meal boxes from distribution centers in Texas and Arizona. Table & Twine gives customers the option of picking up meals on-site or having them delivered from our local kitchen. That means your meal will only travel ~15 miles as opposed to 1,000. Table & Twine only uses reusable, recyclable, and biodegradable packing material and we keep it to a minimum; no tiny bottles of vinegar or packs of sriracha to go in the garbage. You can also return clean packaging back to us for recycling and sustainable reuse.
Table & Twine further minimizes environmental impact by incorporating local, seasonal produce. In the wintertime, you can expect Brussels sprouts and chard from a North Carolina farm. But come summer, expect fresh tomatoes and peppers.
Table & Twine vs. Clean Eatz
In 2013, Clean Eatz emerged as a health-conscious cafe in Wilmington, North Carolina. Since then, the business has evolved into a meal delivery service that ships high-protein, low-carb dinners to customers’ doorsteps. Though Clean Eatz appeals to gym rats hoping to cut fat and gain muscle, these frozen meals leave foodies and families craving more.
Freshness
The primary difference between Clean Eatz and Table & Twine is freshness and quality. Our meals are prepared by local, professional chefs and promptly delivered to your kitchen, where you spend 15 minutes – or less – putting the finishing touches on the meal. This approach ensures that your food is always fresh and tastes like it’s straight out of a restaurant.
Clean Eatz adopts a different approach. After these macro-conscious dinners are produced in bulk, they are frozen and then shipped. Once you receive your keto cheesy beef taco bowl, you can either microwave the food, reheat it in the oven, or transfer it to a skillet. However, as the company’s website warns, the freezing and reheating process may create excess water that you’ll need to drain off. At Table & Twine fresh, seasonal, and local define us. All of our meals are prepared using fresh, whole foods; just like you would find in a local, chef-driven restaurant.
Vegetarian Options
There’s a misconception that high-protein meals must include meat. Clean Eatz subscribes to this notion, including animal protein in almost all of their meals. Since many of their dinners also include dairy, this service isn’t for plant-based eaters.
At Table & Twine, we’re committed to accommodating all of our customers. That’s why we make chef-prepared vegetarian meals like artisan street tacos with roasted fajita vegetables and include a grilled tofu option on all of our Bistro salads and bowls. We also offer nut-free, dairy-free, and gluten-free options.
Is Table & Twine Right for Me?
Let’s face it: Table & Twine isn’t for everyone. If you want to eat soggy, microwavable food or spend hours julienning peppers, cooking raw chicken, and creating a sinkful of pots and pans to wash, then you should opt for a different meal delivery service. However, if you crave healthy, flavorful meals that require a mere 15 minutes of prep time, then we’re right for you.
To start enjoying delicious, chef-prepared food, order online today!
