Sad Hello Fresh Fail!

You may have seen me post a couple times about Hello Fresh before and I've had two great experiences with them both, but third time was not third time lucky. I sadly forgot to either cancel the week's delivery or choose my own meals so I ended up getting a surprise selection of meals. I got an email saying it was shipped, but sadly no reminder to select. Obviously, partially my own fault but also, not quite useful from the company. Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised by the meals themselves, but not some other parts which I will talk about in a minute. Onto the meals! 

Meal 1: Chorizo Crusted Penne

After the last chorizo meal I wasn't holding out much hope for this one but I actually quite enjoyed it. It was quite a simple cheesy pasta dish with chorizo and breadcrumbs. I loved the added crispy texture that the breadcrumbs added, however I personally felt the chorizo just added an extra unnecessary step and didn't add much to the dish itself. 

Rank 2: 7/10

Meal 2: Soy and Honey Chicken 

When I first opened this one up, I thought I would love it. I've been craving sticky white rice for a few weeks and after falling in love with the homemade sweet and sour chicken, I was excited to try another variety. Sadly, this was awful. The green beans tasted like dirt, the rice was tasteless and the chicken was really poor quality meat, with an awful vomit-inducing sauce. Even my partner didn't like it, which is saying something because he eats most things. 

Rank 4: 1/10

Meal 3: Thyme Roast Chicken

I've actually already had this meal but I did love it, ranked it high on my Hello Fresh profile and that's presumably why they sent it again. It wasn't quite as good as the previous time but still my favourite meal of this week's box. I actually had to cook this the day I got the box because unfortunately, the chicken went out of date the next day. That was a little frustrating because I like to meal plan ahead and it somewhat messed up the entire week. I did however message Hello Fresh through twitter and they were incredibly helpful, which I'll talk about at the end.  

Rank 1: 9/10

Meal 4: Pork Sage and Onion Spaghetti 

This one was surprisingly nice. It wouldn't be something I would select myself to be honest, but I ended up really liking it. I love pork but I've never cooked with pork mince and it was so nice. The portions were huge and so I ended up splitting it into 3 portions, freezing two and taking them to work for lunch. I didn't like the cavolo nero (kale like vegetable) at all so it was a little faffy to pick that out, but other than that it was really flavourful and delicious. 

Rank 2: 7/10

Like I said, I did contact customer services for the box, because despite getting random meals, it was still poor quality. The meat that I received just wasn't "hello fresh". Like I said, two of the meats went out of date the day after the box arrived, and another was just chewy and poor quality. With Hello Fresh you can also get extras for additional costs, and this week I chose sourdough bread, which also didn't arrive. After going through far too many security questions, I ended up getting offered a credit for my box, however I declined this wishing to have a refund because of the disappointment. The customer service was actually great and after paying around £26 for the box, I got a £15 refund, which I thought was really great of them and they were very apologetic. 

If you want to see my other two meal subscription boxes from Hello Fresh, look here and here. Like I said, I do genuinely love the subscription, I just had a poor experience this week. Try your own with £42 off your first few boxes too!