When it comes to making dinnertime a breeze, there is not much that comes close to a meal box delivery service.
If you’ve done your research on Australian meal box delivery services, then you’ve likely come across Marley Spoon, and for a good reason. The service offers some of the best experiences out there when it comes to the delivery of dinner or lunch to your home, and with high-quality ingredients that are healthy and pre-cut for you, you’re in good hands here.
However, you’re likely wondering a little more about Marley Spoon’s experience in Australia, so we have some information in our review below.
The Cost of Marley Spoon Here in Australia 
For meal delivery kits, it is always important to take a look at the cost-per-box and look into any information you can find on the prices per meal.
If you’re finding that the price of each meal is a little too costly or defeats the purpose of skipping the grocery queue, then it might be worth looking elsewhere. However, we’re happy to say that Marley Spoon is quite affordable when it comes to family-sized boxes.
The service offers their meal boxes from $58 for a package for two people featuring two meals, which is a little more costly than what you will find at the store. However, moving up to three and four dinners, you’ll find that the $76 and $96 costs are a little more than HelloFresh.
When we get up to the meal costs for families, however, the price comes down a fair bit, and you’ll be able to compare a Marley Spoon meal box plan for four people 3 times a week can be up to $8 cheaper than HelloFresh.
In all, we’d choose Marley Spoon for the larger families out there, rather than couples.
The Perks of Marley Spoon
To give you a little more insight into why it might be worth your while to switch to Marley Spoon, or to at least try out the service, we have some pros and cons for you. You’ll be able to rely on these to add a point of difference between all the meal kit delivery services.
A Large Range of Meals
One of our favourite parts of Marley Spoon is the meals on offer.
You will find more selection here when compared to just about all of the other meal box delivery services in Australia with a vast 27 menu items to pick from, and that means you’re going to have a hard time finding something on offer that you don’t want to eat.
There are vegetarian, healthy, gluten-free, family meals, and meat and fish options to choose from here.
Great Quality Ingredients
As with all meal box delivery programs, you want quality and healthy foods.
We are happy to say that Marley Spoon offers one of the best ingredient selections out there and provides foods sourced directly from Aussie farms, which means you’re getting a farm-fresh assurance here with most of the meals you’re choosing.
On top of this, the recipes have been developed to be of the highest quality and are delicious no matter what your flavour palate.
Created for Simple, Fast Dinners
Like most meal services, the Marley Spoon solution is fast and saves time.
When it comes to getting the hang of dinner, Marley Spoon makes the process incredibly simple and can have your entire family’s meals done in just thirty minutes, and that means you’re spending less time cooking and more time with your family.
To add to this, you’re able to use Marley Spoon to help streamline your day in that you won’t need to spend as long at the supermarket shopping for your dinner ingredients, given that they’re all already pre-packed and good to go.
The Downside to Marley Spoon
As you would expect, not every brand is perfect, and even the best out there have their downsides. That in mind, Marley Spoon does have a few minor issues that might be a dealbreaker for some — though these weren’t too much of an issue for us.
A Lot of Plastic
With most delivery solutions, there is a lot of plastic coming into play with Marley Spoon, and this means you are generating quite a bit of waste here.
You’ll find that because all of your ingredients are individually wrapped that you’re getting a lot of extra plastic building up in your kitchen, needing to be thrown away from time to time. It is good to keep in mind that all of these items have been designed for multiple uses, though you can only store and re-use so much plastic.
Store Credit Refunds
A minor issue for us is in the form of refunds on the service.
When it comes to getting your money back for missing items or the service letting you down from time to time, you’re only going to be getting store credit here rather than anything else – at least without a bit of a fight.
Delivery Issues from Time to Time
A second issue we need to point out is that there are sometimes delivery hiccups here and there.
This means you might find a delivery comes late, or you are missing some ingredients in your box that could ruin a recipe. With that in mind, you will need to be mindful and prepared for a package to come without some essentials now and then.
Slower Cooking Times
Unlike some of the other meal delivery services, Marley Spoon doesn’t seem to accurately hit their meal prep time.
A lot of the 30-minute meals can sometimes take longer than this, defeating the purpose of relying on a meal box delivery service. You will have to factor in a little extra time per-meal, which means 30 to 40 minutes and sometimes more.
Opening the First Marley Spoon Box
If you’re ready to make your first Marley Spoon order and get cooking with the brand, then we have a couple of things to expect below.
One of Marley Spoon’s favourite parts is the ingredients and their organisation. The boxes are so well organised, and everything is laid out perfectly so that you’re able to get started with as little confusion as possible.
To add, you will find the recipes and instructions neatly laid out here, which makes it easy to get started cooking your meals.
One thing to note is that some of the packages, particularly the paper bags, will melt if the ice packs leak in the box. You may have to move the items in these bags to the fridge as soon as possible.
Making Your First Marley Spoon Meal
When it comes to cooking the meals in the box, we’re happy to mention that the recipe cards are straightforward to follow and come with all of the information you’ll need before cooking.
There are plenty of carefully outlined instructions here to make sure you’re doing everything right, and on top of this, you’re getting some added information on these cards that make the process a little simpler.
You’ll see the following information on the meal cards:
- Cooking Times
- Difficulty Levels for Each Meal
- Nutritional Information per Meal
- Any Allergens
With all of those tidbits featured on the recipe cards, you’re able to get started cooking with ease using Marley Spoon.
The Takeaway
As you can see above, Marley Spoon offers one of the most streamlined and affordable meal box delivery experiences for the larger families. It may be a little more costly than most when getting meals for couples, though this isn’t by much.
The delivery experience is streamlined, and you’re going to find that the recipes are all easy to make, even if they do take just a few minutes longer than what the cards say.
In all, Marley Spoon is a fantastic meal box delivery solution for time-poor Aussies looking to spend less time in the supermarket and the kitchen.
