Home Bistro Review

Home Bistro went a long way from a small New York company to one of the largest businesses in the area. In 2009, it was acquired by its biggest competitor, DineWise. Together, they created a restaurant-grade gourmet meal delivery system that covers the contiguous United States. 

The meal delivery service is famous for its top-quality, innovative, chef-prepared meals that it delivers straight to the doors of its many satisfied patrons. Keep reading our Home Bistro review to learn more about the company and determine whether it is the right fit for your dietary needs and preferences. 

How Home Bistro Works

The team behind Home Bistro wants to change the way Americans eat by focusing on two crucial aspects of every successful diet –personal food preferences and the overall meal preparation process. Unlike many other meal delivery services that have a pre-set list of programs for you to choose from, Home Bistro offers a wide range of individual meals and meal combos that you can order at your convenience.

You can freely browse the entire menu or shop by dietary preference and get as many ready-made meals as you want, whenever you need them. The meals are freshly made with natural ingredients, delivered frozen, and take mere minutes to reheat.

Apart from being a convenient home dining solution, Home Bistro meals also make great gifts for all kinds of occasions.  In case you want to treat your friends to a couple of meals of their choice, you can order Home Bistro gift certificates, with values ranging from $25 to $1,000.

While you do not need a subscription in order to shop at Home Bistro, you can subscribe if you prefer regular deliveries. Should you choose to subscribe, you can receive your favorite meals and combos every 1, 2, 3 or 4 weeks and modify, pause or cancel your subscription anytime. Furthermore, you get to save 5% in comparison to one-off purchases.

If you have any questions, a live chat is available during business hours – from 9 AM to 5 PM Eastern Standard Time. You can also contact the company’s customer support staff via the official email. While researching for this Home Bistro review, we talked to the support staff a few times and were pleasantly surprised by how professional and friendly they were.  

Home Bistro’s official FAQ section, on the other hand, leaves much to be desired. Some of the important questions are answered, yes, but many of them are left out. We definitely hope Home Bistro will improve this aspect of its service in the future.

What Makes Home Bistro Different

Home Bistro challenges the notion that food is just an industry. That’s why the company brings a combination of skill, ethics, and innovation into preparing the finest meals available with the freshest ingredients. 

One of its major advantages is that its kitchen is run by a Certified Executive Chef, which is a certificate presented by the American Culinary Federation and one of the highest standards a chef can receive. Fun fact – only 1/4 of 1% of chefs in America earn this distinction. 

Home Bistro is also committed to providing the best possible dietary programs for families, no matter if they’re solely interested in fantastic gourmet cuisine or looking for a healthy meal plan that can help them lose some weight and maintain the results long-term. 

With Home Bistro, you don’t need to concern yourself with grocery shopping ever again. The company sources only 100% natural ingredients from suppliers as close to home as possible. It constantly improves its menus and introduces different flavors to make each dish as satisfying and heart-healthy as possible. Its relationship with renowned meat suppliers allows it to use poultry, beef, and pork of the highest possible quality. 

On top of everything, the CEO of Home Bistro offers his unconditional guarantee that every customer will be satisfied with its food. You can replace any item you’re not happy with or receive a refund, depending on the circumstances. In his own words – “If you don’t love our new food – then it’s on me.” 

Meals and Recipes

As you might have deduced from our Home Bistro review, this is a company that’s very passionate about food. All the dishes are prepared for excellence and the quality remains even throughout the entire menu. Furthermore, you have a wide range of options to choose from every time you order.

At all times, the service offers nearly 40 individual meals and about 20 meal combos. In addition to meals and combos, you can purchase SUPERBowls, the company’s simple, delicious, microwave-ready solutions for a healthy lunch on the go.

With individual meals, you can filter the available dishes by nearly 20 criteria and browse meals by main ingredients or suitability for different diets. As far as special diet options go, you can order diabetic-friendly, cancer support, dairy-free, gluten-free, heart-friendly, low-carb, lower-sodium, Paleo, and vegetarian meals. You get to try out gourmet delights like Hanger Steak With Romesco Sauce, Moroccan Ratatouille With Peri Peri Sauce, and Roasted Harissa Shrimp With Gratin.

If you opt for meal combos, you can get 6, 7, 10, 12 or 14 meals at once. You can opt for best sellers, luxurious dinners for two, lunch and dinner combos, Mediterranean delights, Body Shred meals, and meal combos for special diets, like Paleo, diabetes-friendly, heart-healthy, and vegetarian.  In case you want to trust the Home Bistro team with designing your menu, you can opt for Chef’s Choice combos and enjoy a varied diet based on top chef favorites.

Home Bistro is one of the few meal delivery services offering special top chef meals. Ayesha Curry, Richard Blais, and MasterChef Claudia Sandoval will make your home feel like a five-star restaurant. And what’s best about these special offers is that there’s always some discount or coupon making them more affordable than regular meals. This means you can try these dishes risk-free and discover a whole new world of culinary experiences.

Finally, SUPERBowls come in packs of 7 and 14 and they are suitable for diabetics and individuals on lower-sodium diets. SUPERBowls come in the form of comforting pastas, stir-fries, soups, chilis, and more.

The recipes are pretty creative. Along with the more classic meals, you can also find innovative meal options based on exotic cuisines. These include either revamped classics with an awesome new twist or something completely original. 

Portion Size And Nutrition Facts

Home Bistro meals normally yield a single serving, so they can work for singles, couples, and families alike. The standard serving size is 14 ounces. The average calorie count is 500 to 700 calories per serving, although some items can have as few as 300 calories. More than half of the menu items contain fewer than 700 mg of sodium per serving and you can always find at least 2 dozen dishes that are low in carbs. The same goes for diabetes-friendly and gluten-free meals.

Heating And Storage Tips

Since Home Bistro meals arrive frozen, all you need to do is make enough room for them in your freezer and consume them within a few months. As we mentioned earlier in this Home Bistro review, you can reheat your meals in minutes, thawed or frozen, depending on your preferences.

You can use a microwave or reheat your meals on a stovetop. If reheating in a microwave, you should pierce the pouches and reheat them for a minute at a time, until heated through. This is the faster method. However, the service recommends reheating meals on a stovetop by placing the pouches in a pot of boiling water for 10 to 15 minutes. Each meal comes with specific reheating instructions, so you cannot go wrong.

Pricing

One of the best features that Home Bistro offers is the chance to order as many individual dishes as you want/need. All individual prepared meals are priced per serving. 

The cost of individual meals starts at $14.00 and goes up to $28.99. The prices of meal combos and packs start at $101.99 (the price of a 6-meal pack) and go up to $322.99 for the 14-serving Table For Two™ Dinner Collection. The SUPERBowls cost $85.99 and $149.99 for 7 and 14 Lunch Bowls, respectively. Of course, if you subscribe, you get a 5% discount on every order.

Home Bistro also features a rewards system where you can accumulate points to get discounts on your meals, packs, and combos. The points-to-discount table goes as follows:

• 1,000 points – $10 off
• 4,000 points – $25 off
• 5,000 points – 20% off
• 7,500 points – $50 off
• 14,000 points – $100 off
• 30,000 points – $250 off
• 50,000 points – $500 off

You get 1,000 points just by creating an account, which means your first order comes with an automatic $10 discount. Every $1 you spend with Home Bistro gets you 10 points. What’s more, you receive 2,000 points for referring a friend. You also get 1,000 points as a birthday gift every year.

Delivery Areas

Just like many other meal delivery services, Home Bistro offers nationwide home delivery. Its delivery map covers all parts of the contiguous United States, meaning Alaska and Hawaii are unavailable. Deliveries are made Wednesday through Saturday.

All of the orders are shipped by FedEx and marked as “Driver Release,” which means that the package is delivered to your address and left at any exterior door, with no signature required. Most orders ship within 1 to 3 business days upon receipt and individual orders cannot be shipped to 2 different addresses. Home Bistro doesn’t ship to P.O. boxes. 

Home Bistro Pros And Cons

To make sure Home Bistro meets all your standards and expectations, it is important to know its biggest advantages and disadvantages. With a short overview of its pros and cons, you can easily decide if Home Bistro is the right meal delivery service for you.

Sample Dishes

Home Bistro provides its happy customers with finger-licking chef-prepared meals that can suit virtually any taste. With this meal delivery service, you can enjoy restaurant-grade dishes in the comfort of your own home without breaking the bank. Take a look at our curated selection of Home Bistro meals to get a glimpse of the delights that await you on its menu.