CookUnity Review: I Was Blown Away by the Chef-Created Meal Delivery Service
Two truths: I like to make most of my meals at home; I travel a lot of and have inconsistent work hours. These competing realities often leave me with crisper drawers full of produce that decomposes a little more each night I'm too tired to put energy into preparing dinner. To fix the problem, I've tried multiple meal delivery services and kits over the years, but haven't found one I reliable turn to.
CookUnity caught my attention with its lineup of fully prepared meals created by chefs, many with some serious street cred. James Beard Award winners like Marcus Samuelsson, Jose Garces, Marc Forgione, and Esther Choi have all dreamed up recipes for the service, to name a few. Add to that price tags that are equally impressive—on average, $11 per meal for what purports to be restaurant-quality food—and I knew I had to give it a try.
Spoiler: I'm officially putting CookUnity at the top of my roster. The service provides tasty, satisfying meals with no meal-prep labor required beyond deciding which dishes to try each week. Keep reading for my full review of CookUnity.
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What's it like to order from CookUnity?
When you hit CookUnity's homepage, you have the option to click to see a sample menu for your region. For each dish, you can see the chef's name and brief bio, as well as all ingredients and nutrition facts. The service very much has a “get to know the people behind your meal” ethos. Photos of the chefs are right there on the packaging, and the service correctly assumes that their reputations will draw you in.
Like what you see? Add your zip code, answer three questions about your preferred proteins, allergens to avoid, and the amount of meals you would like to receive each week, and enter your payment info to create an account and order your first delivery.
Choosing my meals felt like ordering from a restaurant menu. There was a ton of cuisine and dietary variety to browse; beyond the usual vegan, pescatarian, and gluten-free options, there were dishes that claim to offer GLP-1 balance or fit the profile for the Mediterranean diet.
After looking through the 350-plus options for my region (including at least 30 kid-friendly meals and 37 breakfasts), I decided on veggie and quinoa enchiladas, a Sri Lankan lobster curry, vegan pasta alla vodka, red wine short ribs, a Mexican pork bowl, and a gochujang tofu rice bowl.
I selected my delivery day and window; for the six-meal plan, the earliest I could get my meals was a week out. This was a bit later than I hoped for, but I did like that CookUnity allows you to skip future orders at no added cost—perfect for when I have to travel for work.
Overall, the delivery was smooth and simple. I received a text the morning of the delivery reminding me my order would arrive that day, then a follow-up message once a more solid window of arrival was confirmed. Everything arrived stacked neatly on top of each other in an insulated bag with ice packs to keep things fresh, and the package came with handles for easy transport.
How much does CookUnity cost?
On average, CookUnity’s meals cost $11 each. As with most similar services, the more you order, the less each meal costs. My six meals cost $12.29 per serving. You can order as few as four meals and as many as 16 per week. Compared to restaurant takeout and delivery, CookUnity costs much less.
What I liked about CookUnity
I was impressed with the amount of available options for those with food allergies or intolerances, including over 150 gluten-free and 120 vegetarian options. Even though I personally don’t have allergies, I picked a range of meal that cater to different requirements to see if the diet-specific options were just as good as the others. Verdict: a resounding yes. The vegan option I selected from Chef Emily Peck, vegan pasta alla vodka with eggplant “meatballs,” was full of flavor. The pasta stayed al dente and never became gummy or mushy, while the cashew-based sauce re-emulsified when I heated it to provide a thick coating on each noodle.
As promised, the meals were quick and easy to heat and eat. The packaging is microwave- and oven-safe, so you can pop it right in without dirtying any dishes. Because cooking instructions are standard across every meal (350°F for 12 to 15 minutes in the oven, or two to three minutes on high in the microwave), it was easy to prepare multiple dishes at once, something that came in handy when I was making dinner for myself and my nephew. The most work required was removing the prepared sauce containers before heating.
But most importantly, the taste, quality, and texture of the food were completely unexpected—and I mean that as a complement. No joke, most of the dishes felt like sit-down restaurant quality, when I'd been anticipating fast-casual. The short ribs fell off the bone, the lobster was tender (miraculously, for a prepared meal!), vegetables stayed crunchy and firm. I was especially impressed with the quality of the rice in the lobster curry and bowls I ordered—perfectly fluffy and well-seasoned. (The only exception was the short rib dish, which, while still delicious, got a little soggy because excess water from the Brussels sprouts leaked into the whipped sweet potatoes.) I also appreciated that many of the meals came with extra sauces for dipping or mixing, such as the Mayan sauce for the Mexican cochinita pibil bowl with herby green rice.
What I didn’t like about CookUnity
CookUnity doesn't claim to be a "healthy" meal service, but even still, I was surprised by the caloric load for many of the dishes; some meals cross the 1,000-calorie threshold. It’s no secret that chef-quality can translate to high-in-fat, because restaurants tend to use much more oil, butter, and other less-than-healthy ingredients to emulsify and create delicious sit-down plates. Is this tastier? Usually, to be honest, But it means you have to pay a bit more attention to select lower-calorie meals if that's your goal.
Each meal comes with specific instructions on storage times. The dishes I received stated that they would not last past five days upon delivery. There are no instructions or suggestions in regards to freezing a meal for later use, so you must use each meal within the specified date range. So if an unexpected event has you dining out, you made be forced to toss meals in the trash.
The original delivery window, given to me without the ability to choose a specific one, was a full 12 hours. As someone who works in an office, I was nervous the food would arrive while I was gone and be left sitting outside all day in the heat. Luckily, the food was delivered in the afternoon and it was packed with plenty of ice packs in an insulated delivery bag. Nothing got funky or smelled strange even after sitting outside for a few hours.
The verdict
CookUnity's calling card is its chef-created menu. It positions itself as being able to give you access to restaurant-quality meals in your home, on any given Tuesday, and for less money than ordering delivery. In my experience, it delivers. I would reorder chef Bong Le Jo’s gochujang tofu rice bowl with soy mushrooms and spinach over a takeout replica any day. And while CookUnity might not be less expensive than grocery shopping, it's certainly more affordable than a week's worth of meals from a restaurant (just think of all you're saving on delivery fees and tips!).
Another strength is the number of options CookUnity has for people who follow particular eating plans or have dietary restrictions. While other services may have a handful of vegan or gluten-free meals available each week, CookUnity has pages of recipes for each.
If you’re looking to learn how to cook and put meals together, I would opt for another meal kit service (check out our full list of recommendations here). But if you’re searching for quick, highly personalized, and delicious meals that need a low mental load to get onto the table, CookUnity is a great place to land. I know I'll be coming back for seconds.
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Source: This story originated with Bon Appétit.
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