“Work is busy and I just don’t have time to prepare meals this week”

“I’m going away for the weekend and won’t have time to do my usual meal prep for the week”

“My partner is away this week and I just don’t have the support I would normally have to prepare meals”

Working as a Vegan Dietitian on the Gold Coast, these are all common complaints I have heard and situations I have found myself in at one time or another. Sometimes people just push through and sacrifice time doing other probably more enjoyable things. Other times people will just serve quick easy meals like baked beans on toast (which there is absolutely nothing wrong with). Then there have been times where clients ask for recommendations on meal delivery services that could help.

Following a vegan lifestyle has meant attracting clients who are vegan or interested in pursuing a vegan lifestyle themselves. I also see clients who are interested in increasing their consumption of plant-based meals. So, knowing which vegan meal delivery services provide plant-based options on the Gold Coast has proven to be important.

To make life easier for you, I trialled some of our vegan meal delivery options. You’re welcome!

Only lunch/dinner options were trialled, no breakfast or snack options. I have tried to keep each review as objective as possible and have broken down each review into seven areas of interest:

• Ease of ordering
• Cost
• Delivery
• Packaging
• Taste
• Portion size
• Kid-friendly

Garden of Vegan

Ease of ordering

A seamless website makes ordering Garden of Vegan super easy. Pop in your postcode and if you live in an eligible area you are taken straight to choose your meals. Photos of the meals help you to decide what looks appealing. I love that you can choose which meals you want, rather than a set menu style.

Cost

Prices of meals vary based on each meal. There is a minimum spend of $79. You can get a discount by ordering more meals. We ordered 16 meals, which came to a total of $265, and worked out to be $16.60 per meal.

Delivery

The delivery day varies based on where you live. Gold Coast is a Sunday, which I found very convenient for planning my week. The box was left in an agreed upon location and I was notified of its arrival. It was packaged to remain cold should I not have been able to collect it immediately.

Packaging

Listed as recyclable.

Taste

All the meals we tried were delicious. They tasted fresh, had good texture and a good level of flavour. The ‘spicy’ options had a decent level of spice, enough to break a sweat.

Portion size

I would say the portion sizes were similar to a standard supermarket frozen meal. This meant that some of the lower fat, lower protein options were not as filling. There were a couple of higher fat curries that were satisfying.

Kid-friendly

A good selection of kid-friendly options like pasta, potato bake, and shepherd’s pie was available and enjoyed by our daughter.

Marley Spoon

Ease of ordering

It is widely advertised that Marley Spoon now has vegan options, but without setting up an account you are not able to get a clear indication of how many options are available. The subscription box option is only listed as vegetarian. Only after signing up and paying for your box, are you then given access to the weekly menu and allowed to choose your options. I found the vegan options to be very limited and, on the week I ordered, the majority of the meals were listed as spicy.

Cost

There were only two options – A box for two and a box for four. Obviously, this determined the price. We purchased the box for four, which cost $150.55 and came with 16 meals. This worked out to be $9.40 per meal.

Delivery

The box arrived just before lunch on a Monday and we received a text notification with a picture of where it had been placed. The box had insulation and ice packs to keep it cold.

Packaging

All packaging was listed as recyclable and there was more detailed information on proper disposal listed on the website.

Taste

I was not overly wowed by the taste of any of the meals. The two curries we received were remarkably similar in taste, the main difference being spice level. I was able to omit the chilli from the stir fry, thinking this would allow my daughter to be able to try it. Unfortunately, the tempeh had a spice added to it and she refused to eat it. Probably one of the more disappointing meal deliveries for taste, but this is purely my opinion and based only on the meals we received that week.

Portion size

One of the more generous options for portions sizes, particularly the meal kits. I would say these kits would feed a family with two adults and two kids easily. We had generous-sized meals with generous leftover portions, just the two of us.

Kid-friendly

Based solely on the meals available the week we ordered our meals, I would say no. The plant-based options were limited and the majority of them were too spicy for our daughter’s young tastebuds.

Soulara

Ease of ordering

Another seamless website with photos available to view all the menu options. The downside for me was having to stick to a specific number of meals and not having 16 meals as an option.

Cost

Like most other options price varies depending on how many meals you order, the more meals the lower the cost per meal. We ended up ordering the box of 18, which cost $171.10 total. This worked out to be $9.50 per meal. I will say that this ended up being too much for us and we ended up freezing some meals.

Delivery

Delivery day for us was Friday, which was not ideal for our personal lifestyle but could work well for others. The box was left in an agreed upon location and we were notified via text with a picture of the location once it had arrived. The box had an insulated bag and cold packs to keep the food cool should we not have been able to collect it immediately.

Packaging

All packaging was listed as recyclable.

Taste

The meals tasted fresh, had retained good texture, were packed full of flavour and there was variation between them.

Portion size

Similar sizing to a standard frozen supermarket meal. However, they seemed more filling and satisfying. I think this was predominantly due to the meals containing good sources of plant protein, complex carbohydrates, and fat.

Kid-friendly

Not a huge selection of kid-friendly options. The “go-to” mac and cheese was laced with jalapenos so that was a no-go for our daughter. Likewise, the noodle option was also spicy. The Bodhi Bol went down a treat though.

Pacha Yumma

Ease of ordering

Fairly straightforward online ordering process. No pictures, which did make it slightly harder to choose which foods were appealing. Having a well-written description of each item did help. There was a large selection of options and no minimum requirement which was great to see.

Shortly after ordering, I received a very friendly phone call from Dayna explaining the process and giving me further information on the packaging and collection of the food.

Cost

On my first inspection of the website, I did find the pricing slightly confusing. There was not a clear indication of portion sizing and $25 for one dinner felt like it should be feeding more than one person. We ordered 4 dinner meals for $100.

Delivery

I chose to collect the meals rather than have them delivered because the pick-up location was conveniently located for me. However, delivery is available for orders over $100. We collected our meals on a Monday evening, which put dinner straight on the table and the rest were saved for the remaining weeknights.

Packaging

This is where this company really shines. All meals come in reusable glass containers, which are given back on collection or delivery of your next set of meals. I love this concept!

Taste

The meals tasted like I had a chef in my kitchen each night. You could tell they were all handmade with so much love. Fresh and packed full of flavour.

Portion size

For one person the portions were huge! Our dinners were full-sized meals with a side dish. Having said that it wasn’t quite enough to stretch to two hungry adults. I need to try the lunch or one-pot wonder options to get a better idea of ideal portions for our family.

Kid-friendly

I could see some kids enjoying these meals. The veggie bake was delicious and creamy. The pulled mushroom burger with seasoned wedges would go down a treat. The curry was lovely and mild. Unfortunately, our daughter was not interested in trying any of the meals this week so I can’t say for sure.

Herbidoor

Ease of ordering

A landing page with step by step instructions is always a good start for an online ordering system. Pictures for each of the meals made choosing appealing options easy. If anything it was hard to narrow it down to just 16, which is what we have determined is the best number for our family for a week.

Cost

With many different pack options or the ability to order separate meals, the cost can vary quite significantly. There did not appear to be a minimum spend, which could be appealing to some people. We ordered 16 meals for $200, which worked out to be $12.50 per meal. Shipping was free. In hindsight, I probably could have reduced this cost by buying a pack and just adding some extra meals.

Delivery

The meals arrived on a Monday afternoon via a courier service. They rang our doorbell and we were able to collect the box immediately. The box did have insulation and a cold pack should we not have been available.

Packaging

All packaging is listed as recyclable.

Taste

It was easy to tell these meals were produced on a mass scale, the flavour was good but not comparable to some of the fresher options available. The menu had a huge variety of options, which did mean the meals tasted quite different from each other so there was no taste fatigue. Overall, the meals were pleasant and catered to the masses.

Portion size

Similar sizing to a standard frozen supermarket meal. Most of the meals contained a good variety of plant protein, fat and complex carbohydrates and were therefore quite filling and satisfying, but some did options did leave me wanting something more.

Kid-friendly

The milder flavour was an advantage when trying to convince my daughter to taste the meals. Lots of pasta options were a hit, but even the shepherd’s pie seemed to appeal.

The Rustic Bowl

Ease of ordering

Ordering happened via a private message on their Facebook page. The response was fast, the interaction friendly but directive. Meals come in sets of 5, with a new menu released each week on a Wednesday. This may not be ideal for those wishing to choose certain meals, but all the meals looked delicious to me, so I was happy to stick with the set menu.

Cost

The set menu came at a price of $49.50 plus $5 for delivery and it was advertised that you could add extra meals at a cost of $9.90 per meal. We bought 10 meals for $104, which worked out to be $10.40 per meal.

Delivery

The meals were delivered to our home around lunchtime on a Sunday by the owner of the company. We happened to be home, so I am unsure of the process if you need the meals left unattended.

Packaging

The pie arrived in a biodegradable burger box and the rest of the meals were in plastic containers that were recyclable plastic.

Taste

All the meals were delicious. It was easy to tell the meals were homemade with lots of love. Special mention goes to the savoury mince pie. The crust was incredible, the perfect amount of crispiness and flakiness. The filling was savoury, but not too salty and the peas and gravy just topped it off. Honestly, one of the best, if not the best, vegan pie I have eaten.

Portion size

Very generous portion sizing. Every meal was filling and satisfying, and none left me looking for something to fill the gaps afterwards.

Kid-friendly

Given there was no option to choose our meals I was surprised to receive meals my daughter chose to eat. We had spaghetti, which is always a good kid-friendly option, but she was also willing to try and actually enjoyed the spinach and “ricotta” cannelloni.

BKA Vegan

NOTE** BKA Vegan is no longer offering a meal delivery service. I have however chosen to leave this review in as I really enjoyed the food and hope to see them come back to providing delicious vegan food to the people of the Gold Coast very soon **

Ease of ordering

Online ordering system with pictures of meals and quantities listed made this an easy system to follow.

Cost

Prices vary depending on whether you are looking to purchase a meal or share style foods. We purchased 10 meals for $100, which worked out $10 per meal as delivery was free.

Delivery

Our meals were delivered on a Friday night and were not packaged to be kept cold, so we had to rush home to get them in the fridge. I theorise that this was due to the recent change from restaurant-based business to meal delivery business within a short time frame and with limited resources or whilst trying to utilise what resources were already available to them. We were notified of the arrival of our meals via friendly phone call.

Packaging

Meals were packaged in aluminium foil trays or plastic containers; both were recyclable provided they were cleaned before placing in the recycling bin.

Taste

Special mention goes to the Pastitsio. This dish was creamy, had great texture from the lentils and a hint of nutmeg which made it extra special. The other meals were also delicious. It was easy to tell the meals were adapted from a restaurant menu.

Portion size

Generous portions had me full and satisfied after each meal. Even the roast dinner which was just vegetables was surprisingly filling.

Kid-friendly

The Pastitsio was also a hit with our daughter. Essentially just a pasta bake in her eyes, it ticked all the kid-friendly boxes. She also enjoyed some of the roast vegetables and tofu with rice, so overall I would say there was a good selection of kid-friendly options available.

I hope this list can provide you with enough insight to choose a meal delivery service on the Gold Coast that provides vegan or plant-based options and fits within your own individual needs. If you know of any companies that I have missed and would like to see them added please contact me via email hello@kindnourishment.com.au

If meal delivery isn’t for you and you prefer to create your own masterpieces in the kitchen, check out my latest winter plant-based recipe book here for some inspiration!

Important Note **

Nothing about this blog post has been sponsored, funded or subsidised and any opinions given are that of my own (as a paying customer) and do not represent that of any of the companies mentioned.