CookUnity Overview
Summary
What separates CookUnity from other services I have tried is that they are focused specifically on connecting YOU, or me, to chefs around the country. That means it’s not one centralized kitchen that just cranks out meals that are optimized to make the company the most amount of money. These meals come from a select number of chefs that they have entrusted to cook up meals and send them your way.
I also enjoyed the fact that when ordering from CookUnity, you could browse things by chef. Each chef has a page that lists their qualifications and specialty. If you like what you hear, you can then order your meals from this chef. I have never seen an experience like that.
I feel like this meal delivery company is focused more on the taste of the meals so this might not be the best option for those of us on a diet or trying to lose weight. However, there are options for Keto, Paleo and Low Calorie meals. For meal delivery services more focused on dieting and weight loss I recommend either Factor or Trifecta. If you wish to see how the two compare to each other, be sure to read our Factor vs Trifecta comparison here. The CookUnity experience definitely resonated with the foodie in me though.
Keep reading to see my entire CookUnity review where I will go over their menu, the types of plans they have, the customer service experience, and much more.
The CookUnity Menu
Due to how CookUnity is structured, they are uniquely positioned to provide any type of meal you could possibly want. As the company grows I can definitely see it expanding into breakfasts, sides, and snacks.
However, even now they have the largest menu I have seen yet. Because each chef is responsible for their own menu, they are able to crowd source a whole lot of recipes and we, the foodies, get to reap the benefits.
Variety
Like I mentioned before, CookUnity menu is so far the best that I have seen. They have over 200 recipes available and new ones added weekly.
However, I will add that not all recipes are available everywhere. Due to the unique nature of CookUnity, what you see available might be different than what I see. That is because the chefs are located all around the US and are dedicated to serving different regions of the country.
On the menu, you will find everything from seafood, red meat, pork, poultry, and a large selection of vegetarian and vegan meals to choose from.
When first signing up, you will be prompted to select the three proteins you like best. From there you can view all the meals that will be available for your specified delivery date.
You can order from one chef or mix it up and order from a few to see what you like.
You can even filter down your list based on your dietary or protein preferences.
Once you have narrowed down your list, you can click into any meal and see the ingredients as well as the nutritional information (more on that later). There are even reviews from hundreds of other CookUnity users with detailed feedback on what they liked and didn’t like from the meal.
When ordering my box, I decided to try a few different chefs and here are some of my favorite meals that I ordered:
Chicken Tikka Masala by Andres Mendez – Gluten Free and High Protein
Peruvian Grilled Chicken & Veggies by Maribel Rivero – Low Carb, Gluten Free, Dairy Free
I wish I didn’t have other meal services to review because I just want to keep eating that Peruvian Chicken!
Dietary Choices
While CookUnity isn’t tailored to any specific diet, there are recipes that can go along with most diet plans.
I liked that you can filter meals based on a number of preferences. You can choose from:
- Keto
- Paleo
- Low Sodium
- Dairy Free
- Gluten Free
- Low Carb
- Low Calorie
- By meat
- Or go vegan/vegetarian
You can only select one filter at a time so that is kind of limiting but overall, the experience was good.
There are plenty of selections available for each category as well so you won’t be lacking of choice. For my region, I saw that there were 32 low calorie meals, 20 low carb options, 16 vegetarian meals, 13 vegan recipes. From the meal delivery services that I have tried thus far, CookUnity by far has the most complete menu I have seen.
Keep in mind that these menu options are different region by region and change weekly even within a certain area.
Macros and Ingredients
Healthy options, vegan options, dairy free options, and more. It’s options on options over here at CookUnity. With that, you would expect to see a detailed breakdown of what you are ordering and going to be putting in your body.
Well if you’re like me and are interested in that, you will be happy to find out that any nutritional information is easily accessible on the CookUnity website and even when you get your meal box.
Before ordering, you can click into any meal you are looking at and see everything from the ingredients, the nutritional information, the macronutrient ratios, heating instructions, and even a blurb from the chef himself!
Here is an example of what you will be able to see once you click into a recipe. In this case, we are looking at the Grilled Shrimp and Quinoa Bowl:
I really like how all the information I need is on one easy to navigate page. This makes it convenient for me to narrow down the meals I want to eat and the meals that might contain too much fat or carbs for me.
Unboxing
There is nothing like getting that box on your doorstep. It’s just something about getting something new, and in this case delicious, that gets me excited every time.
I have been let down by the packaging design of other meal delivery services before but CookUnity knows what it is doing.
All the meals come in recyclable and compostable packaging. This is a great news for many because meal delivery services like these use a lot of packaging to ensure freshness. It is always great to see a company focused on reducing plastics and ensuring that the materials they use can be recycled or reused.
My CookUnity box came with insulated liners which were made of recycled materials and can be recycled after use. In my box, there were also gel packs which can be frozen again, reused, or disposed of.
Additionally, CookUnity offers the option to leave your old box out when waiting for the new one to come in. They will pick it up and recycle what can be recycled and reuse what can be reused. This is an excellent feature for us worried about sustainability.
Overall, I found the packaging of the meals to be clean, modern, and easy to read. They even come with a QR code on the meal which you can scan to quickly see heating instructions, ingredients, and the macros for each meal.
Meal Prep – It doesn’t get easier than CookUnity
It doesn’t get much simpler than this. CookUnity is a ready to eat meal service, meaning all your have to do is pop these meals into the oven or microwave and you will be eating shortly.
That means no chopping, no cutting, no oil, and best of all no clean up. That is what I love about these services. I am not the greatest cook in the world so I like to have meals that are either very easy to cook or ones that are cooked for me.
When I ordered CookUnity, I initially planned to use these meals as lunches to take to work with me. I only ordered 6 figuring it will last me all week plus I will have an extra one for the weekend.
However, they tasted so good, I ended up eating all 6 meals by Thursday! Not a bad problem to have.
Since the meals do come ready to eat, I recommend sticking them in the fridge right away. According to their website, meals can be stored for 4-7 days. So if you are planning on eating some after that time period, I recommend putting those in the freezer so they last longer.
For the meals I took to work, I ended up microwaving them. The whole process took about 5 minutes and was simple. I felt like the meals tasted fresh as if they were cooked on a skillet right before. Although, to get the best flavor and freshness, I do recommend sticking these in the oven which I did end up doing for a couple of the meals.
Each meal comes with heating instructions so if you are unsure, you can always refer to those.
Shipping and Delivery
This is the category that CookUnity doesn’t necessarily excel at. I think because it is still a relatively new service, there are some gaps.
For example, CookUnity delivers to most of the 48 states. The states they are currently NOT delivering to are South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and West Virginia. If you are unsure if you can get meals delivered from CookUnity, you can always check by entering your zip code here .
The days on which you can receive deliveries are also limited. However, for me, they were fine. I like to receive my meals right before the week starts so I can plan out what I will be eating that week and decide what to take to work.
For my zip code, I was able to have Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday as the delivery days. For other zip codes, this may be different. However, I do wish this was more flexible.
One area where CookUnity gets a star in this category is that shipping is FREE. Yes, you heard that right! Free. That is rare for a meal delivery service so I guess I am fine with limited delivery days.
Once you place an order, you will also be able to track your shipment through UPS and you will also have the option to reschedule a delivery if it hasn’t been sent out yet (just don’t wait too long).
Subscription Options and Pricing
The subscription options for CookUnity are pretty straightforward.
When initially signing up, you will be able to choose from a variety of meal plans. The lowest plan starts at 4 meals per week and goes up all the way to 16 meals per week. The cost per meal also scales down with more meals purchased.
Here is the breakdown of their meal options along with the price for each:
- 4 meals at $54.36 per week or $13.59 per meal
- 6 meals at $73.74 per week or $12.29 per meal
- 8 meals at $93.52 per week or $11.69 per meal
- 12 meals at $134.28 per week or $11.19 per meal
- 16 meals at $177.44 per week or $11.09 per meal
Of course, they usually have introductory offers where you can try their service at a discounted price. If you wish to take advantage of my special discount code, just follow this link for an extra 30% off.
The sign up process for me was extremely easy. Here is how you sign up:
- Choose your plan – how many meals per week do you want to receive?
- Choose your delivery date – for me, I had the option to get them either Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday of the following week
- Choose your preferred proteins – you can pick up to three but don’t worry, you can change these at any time later
- Pick your meals – CookUnity will recommend you a few meals to choose from or you can apply the filters I discussed earlier to find exactly what you are looking for
- Finishing creating your account and checkout – The whole process took me maybe 15 minutes with the bulk of the time spent choosing between the many meals.
And like with most other meal delivery services, if you go on vacation or just want to skip a few weeks, you can always pause your subscription through the “My Account” screen on the website.
CookUnity Customer Service
Now comes the part where CookUnity gets the biggest ding.
After going through the entire process up to this point, I was ready to declare CookUnity the best meal delivery service hands down but I later found out that their customer support is lacking.
First, it’s hard to find anybody to contact at CookUnity. There are easy to find links for an FAQ section but that really wasn’t what I was looking for.
After browsing around a little more, I was able to find an email I could send support related questions to. They didn’t specify any working hours so I am unable to report those. However, when I reached out to them about a specific question about a meal I ordered, they responded later the same day which was nice.
I wasn’t able to find a phone number or chat option (except a chatbot) easily, however, after emailing with the customer support rep, they provided me with a phone number to call for support as well.
Overall, I want a little more from their support. Especially since most of their competitors have email, chat, and phone support available either 24/7 or most of the week and weekends.
Hopefully, this is something they can address moving forward so I won’t ding them too much for now.
And The Verdict – CookUnity’s strengths overshadow its weaknesses
As far as taste is concerned, CookUnity is by far the best ready to eat meal delivery service that I have tried so far.
They offer the biggest menu out of all these types of services and they are fairly priced. While CookUnity isn’t focused on specific diets, they have plenty of options for people wanting to stick with Keto or for people who are strict Vegetarians or Vegans.
At first glance, CookUnity seems a little more expensive but when you factor in the free shipping, they cost about the same or less than Fresh and Easy, Freshly, and Trifecta.
The only downsides I found were limited customer support options and fixed delivery days. I don’t think these are a deal breaker for most people though. I know it wasn’t for me.
For most people, this would be the delivery service I would recommend hands down. Go ahead and give them a try, and if you use my link, you will receive a special discount for a limited time.
I do get a commission from these links. I hope you understand that I take my time in writing these reviews and the website upkeep isn’t cheap either. You clicking my link helps me write more reviews that other people can use to make informed decisions so I hope you strongly consider it!