Based in Austin, Texas, in 2010, Snap Kitchen affords fully-cooked, heat-and-eat meals through a weekly subscription. Snap delivers to fifteen totally different states, affords in-store choose up in shops in Austin, Houston, and Dallas, and might be discovered at choose Entire Meals Market places.
Snap Kitchen says its purpose is to “empower busy folks to eat nicely with out compromise,” believing that you just don’t have to decide on between well being and comfort. The corporate additionally cares about sustainability and demonstrates this by providing absolutely recyclable packaging. It has donated over 4 million meals to charities as a service to the group.
Meals are created by cooks with enter from the Snap Kitchen’s employees registered dietitians. Subscribers can select from Snap’s low carb, Entire 30, excessive protein, keto-friendly, and paleo meal plans. All meals are free from gluten, soy, preservatives, synthetic sweeteners, and added hormones. We tried the service to see what it’s all about.
Pricing: Easy and Simple
Snap Kitchen affords two weekly meal supply subscription choices at both six or 12 meals per week. You’ll be able to select from any eating regimen class for each plans and delivery is free.
Weekly plan choices abstract:
- 6 meals per week: $75.99 ($12.67 per meal)
- 12 meals per week: $125.99 ($10.50 per meal)
How It Works: Getting Meals Is a Snap
Signing up for Snap Kitchen on-line is fast and simple from a desktop laptop or cell gadget. When establishing an account, you may preview the menu, choose your meal plan and most popular supply dates, after which fill your field with meals. Use filters to view meal choices by eating regimen class or by the calorie vary, protein sort, allergens, and goal ranges for carbs, sodium, and fiber.
You don’t need to decide to a particular eating regimen with Snap Kitchen. You’ll be able to combine meals from any of the totally different eating regimen classes with ease. Simply make sure to enter your order appropriately because you gained’t be capable of change it after your order is locked in. As soon as your first field is dispatched, your subscription will robotically renew on the weekly charge except you skip per week or cancel your account.
Snap Kitchen solely affords contemporary, by no means frozen, heat-and-eat meals. Every meal is designed to serve one, so this service works nicely for busy folks with entry to a microwave or typical oven. What you see is what you get, because the meals can’t be custom-made. Nevertheless, the corporate affords a wide range of totally different taste profiles.
Snap Kitchen retains it easy, providing 35 meals that may work for lunch or dinner and only one possibility for breakfast.
The meals are packaged in order that home made sauces and dressings are added after reheating for optimum taste and texture. Elements embrace a wide range of animal proteins, resembling beef, bison, pork, poultry, and seafood. Meals additionally embrace greens and grains together with a lot of rice plus quinoa and gluten-free pasta.
Selecting Meals: Meals With Enchantment
Scrolling by way of the menu, you might be met with a wide range of colourful and engaging meals that promise taste and aptitude. Snap Kitchen retains it easy, providing 35 meals that may work for lunch or dinner and only one possibility for breakfast.
You gained’t be capable of customise your meals or exclude particular substances and there aren’t any meal add-on choices. However relying in your supply space, you may be capable of add chilly brew espresso, kombucha, packaged salads and soup, and healthful snacks resembling plantain chips, pumpkin seeds, almond butter packets, and beef jerky to your field.
The menu consists of some seasonal choices, new meals, all-time favorites just like the Korean barbeque meatballs, and classics with comfort-food vibes just like the turkey meatloaf and ranch burger entrees. Nevertheless, whereas the entrees are diverse, you gained’t discover a lot choice of vegan or vegetarian entrees.
When deciding on your meals, needless to say the meals have a refrigerated shelf lifetime of three to seven days.
Your subscription will renew every week except you keep in mind to go in and skip a supply or cancel your subscription. There isn’t any strategy to order on-demand or to solely order one meal. The automated renewal might be a problem for busy (or forgetful) folks.
With loads of overlap, there are 35 complete meal choices throughout the six eating regimen classes. The choices change, however right here is how the menu formed up on the time of this assessment:
- Seven Excessive Protein choices such because the bison quinoa bowl with peppers and onions
- 9 Steadiness entrees which have a tendency to incorporate a extra liberal carbohydrate for dishes just like the baked ziti with Italian beef sausage
- Eight Keto-friendly dishes just like the Cajun salmon with braised greens and bacon
- Eight Low-carb picks together with the romesco hen with grilled kale and mushrooms
- 13 paleo meals just like the za’atar hen with lemon-roasted potatoes
- 12 Whole30 resembling almond-crusted salmon with roasted carrots and zucchini
There have been 5 new entrees listed on the menu when ordered, together with a seasonally applicable turkey and butternut squash stuffing with cranberry sauce. The menu additionally consists of six entrees labeled as favorites together with the cod piccata with garlic roasted cauliflower and Korean BBQ meatballs with sesame broccoli and carrots we reviewed.
You’ll be able to skip or make modifications to the menu gadgets, supply deal with, and fee technique up till 11:59 p.m. CT on the day earlier than your lock date, which may fluctuate however is a couple of week earlier than the scheduled supply.
What We Made
We didn’t filter for any meals restrictions and selected a mix of member favorites and people with totally different taste profiles. We went with the six-meal plan and obtained all meals as promised per week later. For the aim of this assessment, we’ll share suggestions on the 5 meals under, which spotlight the number of the meals we obtained:
- Cod piccata with garlic-roasted cauliflower
- Almond-crusted salmon with roasted carrots and zucchini
- Turkey meatloaf with potato-turnip mash and inexperienced beans
- Korean bbq meatballs with sesame broccoli and carrots
- Steak road tacos and Spanish rice pilaf with salsa verde
Packaging: Largely Environment friendly
The meals arrived in a compact cardboard field with 29 items of recyclable packaging inside. The meals had been saved completely chilly utilizing three strategically positioned ice packs. Every meal got here in a two-piece BPA-free recyclable plastic meal container, every with a sticker label. 5 of the meals additionally included a two-piece ramekin inside to carry taste boosters like barbeque or marinara sauce. The meals had been saved in place with cardboard dividers and the recyclable insulating field liner.
Whereas most packaging was important for retaining the meals cool and safe throughout delivery, there have been a few further items of paper that appeared pointless. The heavy inventory paper packet filled with a postcard and two stickers did not add to the expertise and we felt this may very well be eradicated.
The field was well-packed and the meals was chilly to the contact though it shipped about 36 hours earlier than and traveled by way of a number of southern states within the early fall warmth.
Word: Individuals residing close to pickup places can subscribe to a Native Meal Plan and choose up their meals or use an area courier as a substitute of choosing normal delivery through FedEx, UPS, or Ontrac.
Buyer Help: A number of Avenues
Snap Kitchen usually offers clear details about its meals and the service.
Every meal consists of microwave directions on the label. Nevertheless, Snap Kitchen recommends reheating within the oven as the popular technique. It could assist to print the oven-reheating directions subsequent to the microwave ones (or direct clients to the web site) since utilizing the traditional oven is most popular.
The corporate offers a helpful FAQ part that’s simple to seek for and is recurrently up to date. This was useful to us in studying extra about how the meals are shipped, whether or not the packaging is recyclable, how the service works, and what the totally different dietary designations imply. As a service, the corporate additionally affords a handful of academic and well timed weblog posts to assist wholesome consuming as nicely. This can be a good service for patrons since they is likely to be visiting the positioning every week.
Total, we had a constructive customer support expertise. Fortunately, all meals had been delivered as promised with no points when it comes to high quality or freshness. However when issues come up, the corporate affords a handy on-line chat to rapidly join with buyer assist in addition to e mail and telephone which have an extended response time. We reached out to customer support twice (as soon as by chat and one other by telephone) to type out an admin situation that arose after we canceled our account. After contacting them the second time by telephone, the difficulty was resolved inside a couple of minutes.
Diet: A lot of Protein
Snap Kitchen hits the mark for the diets it helps. Diet data for every meal is accessible on the level of buy, making it simple to see how the meals will match into any eating regimen or consuming plan. Total, Snap Kitchen does a great job disclosing the big eight food allergens and sesame on the label. Although most are clearly marked, a few meals didn’t embrace allergens on the web label.
True to keto and low-carb model, most meals heart on animal protein and are excessive in protein. The corporate’s cooks do a great job pairing the meat, fish, or poultry with high-quality greens so as to add fiber, colour, and enhance the general nutrient worth of the dish. Nevertheless, some meals are decrease in energy and should depart you wanting extra meals.
Snap Kitchen does point out consuming clear in just a few locations—highlighting that its meals accommodates no preservatives, antibiotics, synthetic sweeteners, hormones, or different “junk.” However contemplating the corporate’s deal with restrictive diets, the positioning doesn’t lean too closely into eating regimen language, opting as a substitute for an eat higher, really feel higher motto over one about weight reduction. Nonetheless, there’s an underlying theme round clear consuming.
The Cooking Course of: Very Easy
Meals might be prepared inside about 3 minutes or much less, the place the cooking course of consisted of opening the packaging, following the cooking directions, and checking if the substances have been completely cooked.
The microwave heating directions on the package deal had been clear and applicable for the person meals. Nevertheless, the meals are a lot better when reheated in a traditional oven, which is Snap Kitchen’s most popular reheating technique. The issue? You’ll solely know this if you happen to occur to learn the directions for every meal on the web site. There, you can find heating directions for each oven and microwave reheating choices.
Typically talking, the instructions had been clear. Nevertheless, there have been occasions when the meals wanted greater than the advisable time within the oven, and when microwaving, it might be simple to overlook to take away the plastic ramekin. Most meals weren’t applicable for reheating on the stovetop, and it could have helped to separate the elements a bit to make sure even cooking.
Taste, Freshness, and High quality: Above Common
Borrowing from worldwide cuisines but introduced as acquainted, Snap Kitchen offers a various choice of taste profiles. The substances are top quality and are delivered contemporary. Total, the meals had been well-seasoned and engaging. We didn’t want so as to add salt and didn’t discover that any of the dishes had been overly salty.
Typically, folks may keep away from meals like turkey meatloaf as it may typically be dry. However Snap Kitchen did a great job including moisture to the meatloaf and making it style like one thing you’d make at house. The salmon within the almond-crusted salmon was certainly dense and a bit dry—although nonetheless fantastic to eat. Then again, the cod piccata was a welcome addition to the week. The fish was moist and flaky and seasoned nicely, with a tangy lemon sauce and capers to drive the flavour house. Although the piccata was a favourite, we would have liked so as to add extra greens because the portion was small—with solely 5 small cauliflower florets, we had been left feeling hungry and had so as to add extra meals to dinner.
The steak tacos had been tender, however they lacked taste with out the salsa verde on prime. Although these road tacos are a member favourite, this one missed the mark when it comes to presentation because the gentle corn tortillas crumbled and fell aside after heating. With or with out the sauce, the Korean BBQ meatballs had been a favourite and left our tasters wanting extra. Although the rice acquired a bit powerful upon heating within the oven, the meatballs had been tender and flavorful.
Snap Kitchen says on its web site that its purpose is to supply protein “as responsibly as attainable, whereas nonetheless retaining our meals accessible.” There are just a few particulars obtainable about sourcing, together with utilizing cage-free and licensed humane egg whites and liquid complete eggs, in addition to wild-caught shrimp and cod.
Snap Kitchen Is Good For
Snap Kitchen says its purpose is to empower busy folks to eat nicely with out compromise, and it appears to hit the mark. The meals are tasty, nutritious, and simple to arrange. You’ll be able to set and overlook the subscription and have lunch and dinner able to go on most days of the week. Nevertheless, it’s not a great match for vegans, vegetarians, and anybody who prefers to prep and prepare dinner meals.
The corporate’s cooks do a great job pairing the meat, fish, or poultry with high-quality greens so as to add fiber, colour, and enhance the general nutrient worth of the dish.
The Competitors: Snap Kitchen vs. Mother’s Meals
We in contrast Snap Kitchen to Mother’s Meals as each providers present warmth and eat meals that cater to particular dietary wants. And each are created with cooks and dietitians on the group and embrace a mix of consolation meals and globally-influenced flavors.
Snap Kitchen, nonetheless, is considerably costlier (beginning at $10.50 per serving in comparison with $6.99 per serving) and caters to busy individuals who want a low-carb, higher-protein eating regimen that does not have components. Mother’s Meals targets senior adults with meals designed to assist handle continual illness. The meals usually include preservatives and components and have a tendency to have a extra comfort-food focus. Plus you need to use Medicaid, Medicare, and different well being plans to get Mother’s Meals. That’s not an possibility with Snap Kitchen.
Last Verdict
Snap Kitchen offers a wide range of tasty and wholesome meals for the busy particular person following a low-carb way of life, and it’s value a strive. Nevertheless, whereas the meals are handy and fairly flavorful, Snap Kitchen gained’t work for all diets.
Methodology
We ordered, cooked, and evaluated meals from 27 meal supply providers to get a way of every one’s choices, diet profiles, costs, and, in fact, flavors. We contacted the customer support groups at every of the businesses, stuffed out surveys, and wrote detailed evaluations about every one.
Our writers are all registered dietitians and relied on their analysis and its ensuing knowledge to tell their evaluations.