Over the last two weeks we trialled Dinnerly home delivered recipes and ingredients to make meals at home to determine their suitability for families.
Please note: We are not being paid to write this review. The food was free, but the opinions expressed in this article are our own and genuine. This post contains compensated links.
Dinnerly – what is it?
Dinnerly claims to be the most affordable way to do dinner. A low-cost spin off of Marley Spoon and from $5.75 per person, Dinnerly is Australia’s most affordable meal kit!
Like many of its competitors, they choose recipes and select fresh ingredients and deliver them on a subscription basis to your door.
There is a range of options in terms of available meal choices so we put our hand up to try it out for two weeks and report back!
Dinnerley – the recipes
Over the two week period we tried 6 different recipes. The claim from Dinnerly is that they provide simple recipes and I would have to agree with that. We had recipes like one pot braised chicken, spaghetti bolognese, Mexican beef with sweet potatoes and honey & lemon chicken stir fry.
There was one recipe that had tofu. I have never cooked tofu before and sadly, I failed on my first attempt. If you haven’t cooked tofu before but would like to try – I urge you to follow the recipe… not ‘wing it’ like I did. It won’t work… trust me on this!
Dinnerly – the ingredients
The ingredients are fresh. During our trial we didn’t experience any problems with the ingredients or the packaging of the ingredients. One thing I did notice compared to other meal delivery services is that there were less ‘variety’ of ingredients for each meal. There wasn’t as much ‘pfaffing’ about with a tonne of ingredients. I guess, true to their word, they are more simple than other options.
The other thing I noticed was that we needed a few more ‘pantry items’ that are sometimes supplied by others. Eg sauces and spices/seasoning.
Dinnerly – the price
So here’s the really good bit. It’s about half the price of the competitors! We trailed the family box which is only $69.00. You get 4 portions per recipe and 3 different recipes per week. So it really is half the price. As I said above you don’t get some of the additional ingredients that the others give you – so you will need to have a few more ‘pantry items’.
The other element that keeps the price down for Dinnerly is the fact that they don’t send you a recipe card. This is in your account online with them, so I choose to print mine out so I had them with me on the kitchen bench as I cooked.
What did the kids think?
We fed Masters 11 and 9 and Miss 7. They all enjoyed the simple meals and lack of ‘spice’ (and even if there was spice, you can always leave it out of the recipe!).
Master 11 even happily ate his in the car on the way home from Taekwondo!
What did the parents think?
I was pretty happy with the price, the quality of ingredients and the service. I did think the recipes were a bit dull as we prefer to eat a variety of types of food – our eating mantra is ‘we eat a wide and varied diet with food from around the world’… and I thought Dinnerly was better suited to families that preferred more standard recipes that were simple in design. Probably a real winner for fussy eaters though as they supplied all the kids favourites!
Food delivery discounts & coupons codes
You can try Dinnerly as well as Hello Fresh.
If you would like to try Hello Fresh with $59.99 off your first order – click here
RELATED: Hello Fresh video review – click here
