WHEN you’re busy, it’s easy to spend your weeknights on autopilot.
After a long day at work, a crammed commute, and maybe even a workout, there’s not much brain power left to think about what to have for dinner.
This means I used to end up eating the same boring meals over and over again with little to no variation.
Gousto's tagline is ‘Who says Tuesday can’t taste like Saturday?’, aiming to entice hungry shoppers to ditch their usual weeknight meal in favour of the flavourful, easy-to-make recipes you get in a Gousto box.
With a passionate love of food and cooking, I never saw myself becoming the kind of person who lived off the same three quick and easy meals on rotation, but a busy schedule leaves you looking for any way to save time.
So when I stumbled upon Gousto's , I thought the recipe boxes looked like a way to save time while still getting to enjoy cooking and sit down to a home-cooked meal.
Pros:
- Great recipe variation
- Easy-to-follow recipes
- All the ingredients are delivered straight to your door
- You get to do the fun parts of cooking without having to shop or plan
- You can cancel at any time
- Affordable (especially with our discount code)
- Helped me to lose weight
Cons:
- Sometimes the recipe calls for basic ingredients most people will have in their fridge or pantry that aren't included in the box
- Automatically signs you up for a subscription
Rating: 9/10
- Variety: 10/10
- Taste:10/10
- Portion size: 10/10
- Easy to follow?8/10
- Easy to cancel?8/10
- Quick to cook?8/10
How I tested Gousto
Get 50% off your 1st Gousto box, 40% off your 2nd box and 20% off your 3rd and 4th boxes with code SUNGOUSTO50
I've been using meal delivery services for nearly three years now.
I love the convenience, lack of meal planning required, and variety of recipes.
Gousto has been my go-to for around two of the three years, I and have tried hundreds of its recipes.
While I've tested a few different services over the years, I always come back to Gousto as I feel it has the best variety.
I order four meals a week, and my boxes arrive on Sunday ready for the week ahead.
Gousto review: Quickfire Q&A
How much is Gousto? It depends on a few factors, but at full-price, meals start from £3.78 per portion. You can save 50% on your first box (plus 40% off your second box, and 20% off your third and fourth boxes) using our discount code, SUNGOUSTO50.
How does Gousto work? Choose how many meals you want, how many you're cooking for, and the recipes you want to cook, and the fresh ingredients will be delivered to you. You still have to do the fun part — the actual cooking — but none of the annoying planning or shopping.
How many recipes are there?Impressively, over 500 per month, with around 200 available at any one time.
Who's it best for?Busy people who want a homemade, tasty meal every night but don't have the time to be cooking from scratch.
I'd also recommend it for those who are looking to eat more healthily or lose weight. I only ordered low-calorie dinners in the 6 months leading up to my wedding and lost around a stone.
What we loved:The amount of choice, the easy-to-follow recipes and the generous portion sizes.
What we didn't:Honestly? Not much. You'll automatically be enrolled into a subscription when you order your first box, so make sure that you cancel if you don't want to continue.
Gousto review: The Nitty Gritty
First impressions
I get my Gousto parcels delivered on a Sunday, so I have everything ready to cook during the week.
In most ways, it works the same way as other meal delivery services.
Most of the ingredients are free-floating in the box, but the ingredients that need to be kept cool are in a separate bag being kept cold by ice bags, so if I'm a little late to put everything in the fridge it's not the end of the world.
Getting started
Get 50% off your 1st Gousto box, 40% off your 2nd box and 20% off your 3rd and 4th boxes with code SUNGOUSTO50
Often, when flipping through the recipe cards on a Sunday, I genuinely struggle to decide what to cook because everything not only looks good, but is extremely different.
Different ingredients, different cuisines, different flavours; the variation is incredible.
The variety in the meals has always really impressed me, and many of the meals feel far more expensive than the price would suggest — it's a nice way to feel like you're treating yourself on a weeknight.
For two people, prices start at £4.40 per portion, but you can take that down to £2.20 with our exclusive discount code,SUNGOUSTO50.
How does Gousto work?
If you’re new to meal kit delivery services, the process is super simple.
You head over to the Gousto website and click ‘get started’. This will prompt you to choose how many people you’re shopping for and what size box you’d like, and enter your postcode.
You then choose your desired delivery date and specify where you'd like your parcel left if you're not in when it arrives.
There’s an array of meal plans to choose from, including plant-based, ‘Everyday Favourites' and meals that can be made in under 10 minutes.
Over time, there will also be a section with recommendations specifically for you, based on what you've ordered previously. I've found these to be pretty spot on too.
Once you’ve selected your meals, it'll be time to check out.
When you’re checking out it will say ‘start your subscription’, and the subscriptions can be delivered weekly, fortnightly, or monthly. You can skip, unskip or pause your subscription whenever, so you can change your mind at any time.
The Gousto box will arrive on the date you requested and will contain the ingredients for each of the meals you selected along with recipe cards with easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions.
Is Gousto worth it?
If you’re looking for a service that will deliver you the ingredients you need to make a restaurant-quality meal at home, look no further than Gousto.
Cooking fancy meals usually requires a few ingredients that are a little out of the left-field, meaning you often have to buy produce in larger quantities than you’d like to, creating waste and taking up room in an already packed pantry.
A Gousto recipe box comes with all the ingredients you need perfectly portioned for the recipes you’re making, limiting food waste and letting you flex your chef muscles.
Get 50% off your 1st Gousto box, 40% off your 2nd box and 20% off your 3rd and 4th boxes with code SUNGOUSTO50
How much is Gousto?
The price of a Gousto box varies depending on how many meals you want to receive and how many people you're feeding.
You can choose boxes feeding one to five people. For one to four people, you can choose two to five recipes per week; for five people, you can choose only two or three.
The smallest box — two recipes per week for one person — ends up being pretty costly; it's £18.99 per order, working out at £9.50 per portion (although your first box will be cheaper than that thanks to the discount code).
The biggest box — five recipes per week for four people — is £61.75 at full price, working out at £3.09 per portion.
So as you can tell, things get a lot cheaper if you bulk order.
How to cancel Gousto
Cancelling your Gousto box couldn’t be simpler; just head to your subscription settings and click ‘pause’. When your subscription has been paused, all the orders you have coming up will be cancelled until you unpause them.
One important thing to remember is that pausing will only remove empty scheduled orders, if you’d already picked your recipes you’ll have to cancel the order individually through the ‘upcoming deliveries’ tab.
Gousto alternatives
There's a smorgasbord of alternatives for Gousto — and we've tested many of them for our review of the .
One of the most high-profile is , which like Gousto, is at the more affordable end of the spectrum, and like Gousto, runs enticing offers for new subscribers.
One of our favourite alternatives is , which provides some of the best-quality ingredients we've encountered from these sorts of services and has a great seasonal recipe selection. However, it is quite expensive.
