Top Chef Meals Review
Top Chef Meals is an attention-worthy meal delivery service founded by Paul Ghiron, the former President of The Crystal Spoon Corp. It was created with the idea of offering a wider range of healthy, affordable meal options to people who don’t have the time or desire to cook. It offers a vast variety of a la carte meals, as well as meals for seniors, people on the Paleo diet, and people who are trying to lose weight. Learn more in this detailed Top Chef Meals review.
How Top Chef Meals Works
Top Chef Meals truly lets you get creative with designing your menu, as it allows you to order breakfasts, lunches, dinners, desserts, and extras a la carte. It even lets you pick your sides and sauces. You have nearly 400 entrees and side dishes at your disposal, so it is highly likely you are going to find a bunch of them that you want to try out.
The service allows you to create your own custom meal plan in accordance with your diet. You can create a Paleo, keto or low-carb meal plan and choose from half a dozen additional options for special diets, including low-sodium, diabetic-friendly, renal-friendly, low-fat, gluten-free, and dairy-free.
Top Chef Meals also offers special meals for children and seniors, making sure that its selection offers a lot of options for patrons of all ages. It further provides easy order meal packages for a variety of tastes, which can be customized to your taste.
You need to order at least 9 dishes, but apart from that, there are no ordering rules or commitments of any kind. After you make your choice, all you need to do is proceed to the checkout and wait for the wonderful gourmet meals to be delivered to your doorstep. It is that simple and convenient.
What Makes Top Chef Meals Different
The folks behind Top Chef Meals are dedicated and highly experienced professionals who do their jobs with incredible passion. Top Chef Meals’ cooking team includes over a dozen of culinary experts who make sure that every dish is just perfect. The prices are surprisingly reasonable and all ingredients are responsibly grown and locally sourced whenever possible. It is a company whose exemplary practices are superior to those of many of its competitors.
We are truly impressed by its selection of meals for different dietary needs and we cannot help but praise its excellent meal delivery for seniors. Not only does the company offer meals that optimally suit the needs of people past a certain age, but it also makes healthy eating perfectly affordable for goldenagers.
It further stands out as one of the rare meal deliveries that aim to satisfy the needs and tastes of the whole family. It has an entire menu section exclusively dedicated to customizable meals for kids that work great as both school lunches and healthy meals at home.
Meals And Recipes
When it comes to ordering a la carte, you are truly spoilt for choice. As suggested before in this Top Chef Meals review, there are over 70 entrees and more than 300 side dishes to choose from and new ones are added regularly. The sides are divided into starch and vegetable sides and you can add one from each category to every meal. You can even add extra proteins to fuel your workouts and give you the energy you need to complete all your daily tasks.
You can order breakfasts, lunches, dinners, senior meals, kids meals, soups, shakes, and desserts, as well as extras, such as fresh, not frozen meals and thank you, condolence, congratulations, and get well cards. You can filter the meals by several criteria, including low-carb, Paleo, keto, low sodium, diabetic, renal, gluten-free, dairy-free, and low-fat.
With easy order packs, you once again have plenty of choices, including sampler packs and packs for special dietary needs and preferences. You can order comfort food, seafood specials, Top Chef Meals favorites without seafood, vegetarian dishes, meat lovers pack, meals without beef, meals without seafood, diabetic dishes, low-sodium dishes, low-cholesterol/low-fat dishes, chronic kidney disease, and renal dishes. The packs usually contain 9 items, but you can also opt for 1-meal packages and customize the selection of meals in your pack.
Heating And Storage Tips
With the exception of fresh, never frozen meals in the Extras section of the company’s menu, all Top Chef Meals items are delivered flash-frozen. They are prepared fresh and frozen the night before delivery. You should keep your meals in your freezer until you are ready to eat. They are at their best during the first 3 weeks after delivery, but you can keep them in your freezer for up to 4 months.
Before reheating your meals, you should thaw them in your fridge overnight. Once out of the freezer, they can sit in your fridge for up to 4 days, but we recommend eating them within 24 hours. Each meal comes in an oven-safe, microwave-safe tray and takes just 2-3 minutes to heat. Specific heating instructions are provided on the package. For optimal microwaving results, you should start by heating your meal for 1-2 minutes and then increase the heating time in 15-second or 30-second increments, until the meal is heated through and the temperature is just right.
Pricing
The prices at Top Chef Meals are truly affordable, no matter which special diet option you may choose. If you are ordering a la carte, you normally pay between $2.75 and $10.75 per dish. The average price per full meal is just under $8. Easy order packages usually (9 meals) cost up to $90.
The minimum order amounts to $55 per delivery. The shipping fee is $19.95 for deliveries that cost less than $110 and $9.95 for orders over $110. If you order exactly 21 meals (no more, no fewer), you get to enjoy free shipping. Overnight “Front Door” deliveries are available on Wednesdays and Sundays. The overnight shipping costs amount to $9.95 for orders that cost less than $110 and shipping is free for orders of $110 or more.
| Individual Meals | |
|---|---|
| Meal | Price per meal |
| Breakfast | $4.95 - $6.25 |
| Lunch/Dinner | $7.25 - $15.65 |
| Dessert | $3.25 - $5.00 |
Delivery Areas
Top Chef Meals delivers to all 48 contiguous US states. At the moment, the service is unavailable in Hawaii and Alaska. All orders are shipped via FedEx. No signature is required. Once shipped, your order should arrive in 1 to 3 days, depending on your location.
If you live in Elmsford, NY, you can also pick up the meals yourself and avoid paying for shipping. You can pick up your meals Monday through Friday, from 8:30 am till 6 pm.
Top Chef Meals Pros And Cons
To make sure Top Chef Meals 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 Top Chef Meals is the right meal delivery service for you.
- Nearly 400 items on the menu
- Breakfasts, lunches, dinners, desserts, and more
- Great customization options
- Affordable prices
- Meals for kids and seniors
- Meals for special dietary needs
- Does not offer free shipping on all orders
Sample Dishes
With Top Chef Meals, you get delicious meals prepared by pro chefs at affordable prices. To find out what kinds of delights you will receive in your delivery, we have chosen a couple of sample dishes that accurately represents its offer and can help you decide if it is the right service for you.
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- Dijon Salmon
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- Flounder Almondine
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- Lasagna
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- Turkey Meatloaf With Mushroom Gravy
Bottom Line
Top Chef Meals is an excellent meal service that offers meals for a vast range of tastes and dietary needs. It offers nearly 400 items on its menu, each prepared fresh, ready to eat in 2-3 minutes, and good for 4 months in your freezer. Its easy order packages are designed to suit the needs of the majority of its customers and allow you to order your meals in just a few clicks. The high quality of its meals and more than reasonable prices make it a safe choice and we honestly recommend you give it a shot.
I used to write dining out reviews for a local paper here in Long Island. I’m a very satisfied customer. Love most of the foods i’ve ordered and find the delivery and customer service excellent. I do have a suggestion though. Is there any way to add a lobster tail to a beef meal like filet mignon? (My favorite). Problem is, it’s hard to get to sample new meals that sound and look tempting since I have limited freezer space and keep reordering my favorites!
Gloria, Thank you for the review. To answer your question (YES) we already have a Surf & Turf meal that includes a lobster tail and sliced flank steak on the menu. Here is a link to meal: https://topchefmeals.com/content/gourmet-line-surf-turf-lobster-flank-steak?destination=node/2 And incidentally, we do deliver nationwide contrary to what is listed above
I have been ordering these meals for a year now for my 85 year old Mom and have tried a few when I visit. Both of us love cooking and together have spent many years preparing, serving, and enjoying our meals. As Mom aged and meals began to be a problem, I ordered these for her, against her will, and she has, with only an exception or two, thoroughly enjoyed Top Chef dinners. Directions are detailed and highly specific to the individual meal, she has no difficulty following them, and Mom is especially impressed with their fish and fresh vegetables. Customer service has been great and they even noticed and called me regarding a meal I ordered that contained an ingredient Mom likes to avoid. After reading some of the one star ratings, I wonder if we’re eating the same food. Not only does it taste good but she gets to maintain more independence and I can be assured she’s eating nourishing meals.
I ordered 10 different meals for my parents. There were 3 sets of directions and no matter how cooked the meals were so bad they could not eat them. Soggy, tasteless and meat like cardboard. After the 4th set of meals we threw the rest in the trash. Top Chef customer service was pathetic and ignored the complaint. A total waste of money and the worst customer service!
I ordered these for my elderly mom who lives alone. She said they were tasteless. She tried 4 different meals and they were all bland and disappointing. I won’t order from them again.
I am glad they have many followers because these are the worse meals i have ever eaten. i have tried to cook like the directions and made adjustments, but still cannot make them taste good. I had the pork chop and cooked it like it said and it was still bleeding when i took it out. it was already tough and knew if i had cooked it more it would be like rubber. There is no taste to the meals and very bland. Even the sauce they give you is bland. Sorry i will not order any more of these meals.
Perfect for a senior!! My father-in-law lives alone and never learned how to cook. He resisted the idea of meal delivery, but we finally decided to just go ahead and send a bunch of Top Chef meals for his freezer. and see what happens. We’re so glad we did. They arrived perfectly packaged; they’re simple to reheat. And he absolutely loves the food. Everything about this experience has been great.
I’m a single mom and was looking for fast and healthier options for myself and my daughters. I was excited when I found topchefmeals.com. Unfortunately, when cooked exactly as recommended by the company, the food was soggy and sitting in a puddle of water. I was very disappointed. I contacted customer service via email and was EVEN MORE DISAPPOINTED as this was the horrible message I received in response… “I have talked with management and we have had no other complaints (from any customers) regarding the food. Considering we have shipped out literally thousands of meals in the last few weeks, many Chicken Cordon Bleu in the mix therefore it is unfortunate that our food is not to your liking including that “you” found it unacceptable, while I am sorry that you feel this way it seems we are not the right fit for you. Likewise, our company policy still holds and I cannot refund your order or do we take food back.
We appreciate you taking a chance on us, it is unfortunate that it did not work out as we both lose in this situation.
Kindest regards,
Laura Price”
Save your hard earned money for the many other home meal services available!!!
Unfortunately there are many dishonest people in this world who want to get everything for free. We stand by our product 100%, but when we come across the few dishonest ones we have to hold our ground. This person who is actually 39 (with two daughters as she says) also passed themselves off as 70 years old to get the senior discount we offer. It is red flags like this,and the request to get their entire order (14 meals) for free just because there was a little excess water in the tray of two of their meals that make us hold our ground.
Great meals, ready in a second, I’ve been ordering for months now and I couldn’t be more satisfied.
Finally, a meal service that cares about the old folks. Lovely meals, great service, God bless them all.
Not every dish is a masterpiece, but overall, the prices are great, the food is good, nothing to complain about.