When hunger strikes, we don’t often have the time to prep and cook a nutritious meal from scratch. Enter our pick of the best meal delivery services in the UK:
It’s all well and good stocking up on the best protein bars for a post-workout snack, but they’re no replacement for proper meals. Getting in shape depends more on what you do in the kitchen than in the gym, but finding the time and energy to rustle up nutritious, macro-managed meals day after day is easier said than done – which is exactly why meal delivery services like these exist.
Best meal delivery services in the UK
- Fresh Fitness Food (£26 per day, freshfitnessfood.com)
- Mindful Chef (From £5.50 per two-person meal, mindfulchef.com)
- Detox Kitchen (From £31.40 per day, detoxkitchen.co.uk)
- Fuel Hub (£7.50 per meal, fuelhub.co.uk)
- Swaledale Meat Boxes (From £75.95, swaledale.co.uk)
- STOCKED Food (From £2.65 per meal, stockedfood.com)
- Après Food (From £4.95 per serving, apresfood.com)
- No 1 Food Prep (From £5.20 per meal, no1foodprep.com)
- The Good Prep (£120 for a 5-day plan, thegoodprep.com)
- Muscle Food (From £2.57 per meal, musclefood.com)
- Prepped Pots (From £2.49 per meal, preppedpots.com)
Read on for our full reviews and ratings of the best meal delivery services in the UK.
Fresh Fitness Food
£26 per day, freshfitnessfood.com
Taste: 4.5/5
Variety: 4.5/5
Nutrition: 5/5
Overall: 5/5
Delicious, sustainably sourced and protein-rich food combined with fully biodegradable packaging makes Fresh Fitness Food the number one on our list of meal delivery services for fitness enthusiasts with an environmental conscience.
Before you sign up, you get a comprehensive phone consultation with an adviser, who recommends your meals based on your training goals, then the rest is taken care of.
Mindful Chef
From £5.50 per two-person meal, mindfulchef.com
Taste: 4/5
Variety: 4.5/5
Nutrition: 5/5
Overall: 4.5/5
Mindful Chef’s recipe boxes make healthy eating easy and appealing. All the meals are gluten-, dairy- and refined-carb-free, and the company’s impressive range of vegan meals shows there needn’t be sacrifices with a plant-based approach.
Mindful Chef offers a flexible subscription service to suit individuals’ lifestyle with no tie-in, no minimum spend and no hidden fees. What’s more, Mindful Chef is the only recipe box delivery service to offer one-person (100% recyclable) boxes, meaning anyone who lives alone can also enjoy the experience of cooking healthy, nutritious meals without the worry of leftover ingredients going to waste.
Detox Kitchen
From £31.40 per day, detoxkitchen.co.uk
Taste: 4.5/5
Variety: 4.5/5
Nutrition: 4/5
Overall: 4.5/5
Using ingredients free from wheat, dairy, chemicals and refined sugar, not to mention 100 per cent recyclable packaging, Detox Kitchen is as wholesome as the best fitness meal delivery services can be.
We tried the Active Protein package, with a daily 1,800-calorie offering of breakfast, lunch, dinner and pudding, plus a juice, a drink, a nut pot and a snack.
Fuel Hub
£7.50 per meal, fuelhub.co.uk
Taste: 4/5
Variety: 4.5/5
Nutrition: 4.5/5
Overall: 4.5/5
Nutrition, flavour and sustainability are at the heart of this rapidly growing small business created by a husband and wife team in Warrington. There’s an ever-changing menu of 30 ready-made meals to choose from, delivered chilled to your door.
All dishes are made from fresh, seasonal produce and packed with protein – our favourites the lamb kofte and beef rogan josh deliver more than 50g protein each and are less than 650kcal.
Swaledale Meat Boxes
From £75.95, swaledale.co.uk
Taste: 4.5/5
Variety: 4.5/5
Nutrition: 4/5
Overall: 4.5/5
Meat lovers who struggle to reconcile their penchant for stakes with their long-term fitness goals should check out Swaledale’s meat box deliveries. Our pick of the 13 meat box selections (plus two pure steak options) from this Yorkshire butcher is the Nutritionists Meat Box, hand-picked cuts of meat selected for their essential vitamins and minerals – plus they’re all packed with protein, and are fresh and delicious.
You get 12 different prime cuts, including feather blade, onglet, flat iron and minute steaks, as well as liver, shin, bone marrow, ox heart and beef bones for stock. If any of those sound daunting, there’s plenty of advice on the website for cooking techniques and recipe ideas. They may require a little time to prepare and cook, but it’s worth every minute and one box will fill you freezer with quality cuts from grass-fed lamb and beef for months.
STOCKED Food
From £2.65 per meal, stockedfood.com
Taste: 4/5
Variety: 3/5
Nutrition: 5/5
Overall: 4.5/5
STOCKED’s unique block approach allows you to pack your freezer full of these tasty frozen meals, earning it a spot on our list of the best meal delivery services. They’re high in protein and fibre, low in fat and not an ‘E’ number in sight. Each pack includes eight blocks, which is enough for 2-4 meals, depending on your appetite.
You just need to add your own rice, noodles, pasta or other carbs and dinner is ready in less that 10 minutes. The range isn’t huge but highlights include sausage arabiatta, jerk chicken, harissa jackfruit and chick’n satay.
- Read our full STOCKED Food review
Après Food
From £4.95 per serving, apresfood.com
Taste: 4.5/5
Variety: 3.5/5
Nutrition: 4/5
OVERALL: 4/5
High-quality, organic ingredients are the name of the game with Après Food – founded by professional chef Catherine Sharman. The meals are full of flavour and most of the Mains hover around the 20-30g protein per serving mark.
Variety isn’t as great as some of the bigger-name meal companies, and the costs can add up if you need meals for two (most only serve one), but if you’re just looking for two or three dinner options per week to save for busy days, this is a tasty and nutritious option.
- Read our full Après Food review
No 1 Food Prep
From £5.20 per meal, no1foodprep.com
Taste: 3.5/5
Variety: 4/5
Nutrition: 4/5
Overall: 4/5
Born out of No1 Boot Camp’s much-loved meals, No 1 Food Prep has taken the dishes served at their fitness retreats and turned them into delivery meals you can try at home.
Whatever you’re after in a meal delivery service, choose the best package for you – from ‘Plant Lite’ to ‘Meat & Fish Max’ – or opt for a more tailored approach using the bespoke Meal Builder tool.
The Good Prep
£120 for a 5-day plan, thegoodprep.com
Taste: 4/5
Variety: 4/5
Nutrition: 5/5
Overall: 4/5
Fresh ingredients and pleasantly surprising portion sizes make The Good Prep one of the best fitness meal delivery services we had the pleasure of taste-testing.
We tried the all-vegan ‘Power & Plants’ plan, which was filled with high-protein vegan foods, but there are several more to choose from – and there’s even the option to create an entirely bespoke set of meals based on your personal preference.
Muscle Food
From £2.57 per meal, musclefood.com
Taste: 3.5/5
Variety: 4/5
Nutrition: 4.5/5
Overall: 4/5
As the name suggests, protein is the primary ingredient in most of Muscle Food’s offerings, with meat bundles such as 5kg of chicken for £27 the popular choice.
Pre-made – including plant-based meal delivery kits – meals tailored to your goals are also an option, as are ‘Easy Cook Kits’ for kids and just about any other nutrition product you could wish for. One of the best meal delivery services for fitness fans.
Prepped Pots
From £2.49 per meal, preppedpots.com
Taste: 4/5
Variety: 4.5/5
Nutrition: 4.5/5
Overall: 4/5
Another offering from Muscle Food, its Prepped Pots range is a selection of 25 fresh, wholesome and filling meals. You can choose to have between 7 and 20 meals delivered every 1-4 weeks, and can skip, pause or cancel your subscription at any time. (The bigger your subscriptions, the bigger your discount off all future deliveries.)
Each meal is created as an ideal complete meal portion for an adult. There are lots of mouth-watering (and mostly chicken) dishes to choose from, each with around 30g protein per serving. Highlights include falafel and giant cous cous and Levi Roots’ three spicy chicken and vegetable dishes.
