Sunbasket Vegan Meal Delivery Review: Is It Worth It?
Sunbasket is just one of those companies that makes us pause, and smile. Everything– from the warm hues of their website to the mouth watering images of plant-based meals– makes us want to hop aboard the Sunbasket train. Choo choo! Our Sunbasket Vegan Meal Delivery Review 2021 breaks down what makes Sunbasket unique.
Sunbasket Vegan Meal Delivery is practical, too. It is one of the least expensive services to start, flexible when it comes to pausing your membership, deliveries are easy to schedule/change, and all of the meals are farm-fresh. That means organic, nourishing, and totally plant-based (when you choose the vegan meal plan option).
Sunbasket has been around for a long time and has mostly great customer reviews. Based on these reasons and our own personal review, we ranked Sunbasket the Best Overall Vegan Meal Delivery Service of 2021!
Important Note: This meal delivery service is not suitable for those with severe food allergies. As the company writes on their website:
Sunbasket recipes are packed in a facility that handles gluten as well as all major food allergens: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, and soybeans. Our Gluten-Free recipes are prepared in the same facility as our other meals, and may not be suitable for those diagnosed with celiac disease.
OUR PICK: BEST OVERALL VEGAN MEAL DELIVERY SERVICE 2021
- Vegan-Friendly
- Starting at: $55.96
- Price per Serving: $13.99
- Frequency: Weekly
- Both Premade or DIY Kits Available
- Backed by a 100% Money Back Guarantee
- Promotions: Free Shipping after you spend $90. See website for details!
Price
| Excellent
Sunbasket is one of the least expensive meal delivery services to start, second only to Freshly. At $13.99 per serving, it is a little higher per meal than most competitors in the space. That said, we think the taste, quality of ingredients, and customer service more than justify the price.
Variety
| Good
Perhaps the biggest drawback to Sunbasket is its smaller menu compared to other companies. Don’t let the menu fool you, however. Everything we tried had a variety of flavors that created a delicious experience. Sometimes, less is more. You might find that to be the case with Sunbasket.
Ease of Use
| Excellent
After registration, we found it super easy to select the meals we liked. It’s also easy to understand which meals come pre-made, and which ones require cooking. Sunbasket calls the latter “Meal Kits”, and they come with clear instructions that make cooking fun and stress free.
Sunbasket Company Vision
Sunbasket believes all healthy meals should taste good first and do good always. The company’s mission is to empower people to live their healthiest lives, starting with what’s on their forks.
Sunbasket is all about positive energy, sustainable business practices, and giving back to the community.
Their vision includes building a better food system by sourcing high quality ingredients from local farmers, including fruits and veggies that are typically hard to find in areas where Sunbasket delivers. Sunbasket believes education on plant-based eating is key to making big changes, so they offer free recipe cards for each meal delivered.
But the thing we dig most– and the thing that cements Sunbasket as the Best Overall Vegan Meal Delivery service of 2021– is the companies commitment to giving back to the community.
“Life is a two-way street,” they write on their website. “We believe that every relationship, be it with our bodies, other people, or the natural world, requires reciprocity. Giving back is integral to who we are as humans—and who we are as a company.”
Sunbasket makes these words a reality by donating an average of 1,000 pounds of food every week to local California food banks. As if that weren’t enough, Sunbasket also launched the Feed It Forward program to send healthy meals to frontline workers, cancer patients, and those facing food insecurity. Of all the vegan meal delivery companies we reviewed, Sunbasket’s vision is among the best.
If social change starts with “voting with your dollar,” Sunbasket has our vote!
Social Proof: See What Customers Are Cookin’ on Instagram
Sunbasket Pricing Review
Sunbasket is one of the best priced services we reviewed. The most affordable membership starts at $55.96 per week. That delivers 2 meals of 2 servings each, for a total of 4 servings every week. That comes out to just $13.99 per serving.
At this level, you would still have to pay for shipping. However, Sunbasket sometimes runs promotions for Free Shipping on orders over $90. Be sure to check their website for details.
Here is an overview of how Sunbasket pricing compares to other vegan meal delivery programs:
- Starting at: $55.96 (median price for other services is $75.35)
- Price per Serving: $13.99 (median price for other services is $11.99)
- Frequency: Weekly (this is most common)
Although the Sunbasket price per serving is a bit higher than other meal delivery services we reviewed, we are happy to pay the added cost to support a company with such awesome social impact. Plus, all of the foods are organic, fresh, and savory. With Sunbasket, we believe you actually get a lot more than you pay for.
How It Works
Before we get into the set-up, it’s cool to note that Sunbasket allows you to browse their menu before signing up for your membership. Lots of other meal delivery companies that we reviewed also do this. But not everyone does, which is inconvenient.
We love Sunbasket’s transparency, especially as vegans. It’s always reassuring to be able to preview the menu beforehand.
1. Select Your Meal Delivery Type
Now, on to account setup. First, visit the Sunbasket website to set up your account. You will notice that you have two choices when it comes to meal delivery:
- Fresh & Ready: These meals are pre-cooked. Sunbasket says they are ready to heat and serve in minutes, and we confirmed that with the meals we reviewed.
- Meal Kits: This option delivers a package of pre-measured ingredients and instructions to cook them into a meal. Sunbasket goes the extra mile to label “Kids Can” on the kid-friendly steps, so families can cook together safely. We love this added touch!
Make your selection, then specify how many people you are buying for. The sign-up form is pre-set to show “1 Person” and explains that if you are ordering for more than one person, you should just “double up” when you select your meals. We found this a bit clunky from a user experience perspective, but overall the sign-up process was simple.
2. Select How Many Meals Per Week You Want
Next, you select how many meals you would like to receive per week. Sunbasket minimum delivery is 4 meals per week. You may pay extra to receive up to 10 meals per week.
3. Finish Registration
To finish your account registration, you must enter your email address or use your Facebook or Apple account. As Millennial “creative types” it’s cool to see the “Continue with Apple” button. It feels like Sunbasket is thoughtfully catering toward their demo with that option.
4. Select Meals
Once your account is set up, it’s time to select your meals. As mentioned earlier in this review, your meals can be Meal Kits (that you cook) or Fresh & Ready meals (you simply heat and serve). We selected the Meal Kit option because we figured it would provide more things for us to review, like the portioning and cooking instructions.
When searching for meals, you also have the ability to sort by categories like Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. This is a nice option to have, even if you’re a breakfast-for-dinner kind of person. Being able to sort things by meal type makes the website/app feel even more organized.
5. Schedule Delivery
Lastly, you select your delivery. Typically, deliveries can be made between Sundays and Thursdays. Actual delivery options may vary depending on your zip code. According to Sunbasket, these restrictions are put in place to ensure food freshness.
Important Note: Sunbasket does not currently deliver to AK, HI, MT, ND, and parts of NM.
6. Enjoy!
Our Meal Kits were delivered on schedule. Comb the web for more Sunbasket reviews, and you’ll find most customers are very happy with the shipping and fulfillment process.
In fact, Sunbasket is one of the few vegan meal delivery companies we reviewed that offers a 100% Money Back Guarantee. If you aren’t satisfied, contact Sunbasket within 7 days of receiving your order. We didn’t have to test this because we loved our experience, but it’s nice to know you can get a refund if the service doesn’t live up to the hype.
Menu and Meal Kit Review
Now we’re getting to the heart of our Sunbasket vegan meal delivery review: Meals. Because if it doesn’t taste good, what’s the point? Fortunately, everything we tried was fresh, delicious, and worthy of a reorder.
Once you sign-up using the mobile-friendly website, you select a custom meal plan based on your dietary preferences. They have a Vegan program (which is what we review here) as well as:
- Paleo
- Carb-Conscious
- Chef’s Choice
- Vegetarian
- Gluten-Free
- Pescatarian
- Lean & Clean
- Mediterranean
- Diabetes-Friendly
It’s important to note that you aren’t locked into any of these selections. Rather, they just help you filter through the available recipes. That gives Sunbasket extra points for flexibility in our book (see Flexibility Review below).
Most of the vegan recipes we reviewed seem inspired by global recipes. For example, we reviewed the Chinese Tiger Salad and Vegetarian Chow Mein, which both have a distinct Asian flare. We also reviewed the Zesty Black Bean-Quinoa Bow, which had a delicious Cali-style Mexican flavor.
Bottom line: We saw a good bit of variety on the Sunbasket menu. However, we think competitor Purple Carrot has more variety when it comes to exclusively vegan meals, though perhaps not as much zest and flavor.
Sunbasket Delivery Review
We scheduled our delivery for a Wednesday so we could try our first dinner mid-week. The Meal Kits arrived on time, and I have to admit the sight of the Sunbasket packaging made me feel excited to try our very first meals.
Everything was as-advertised. The packaging was insulated and everything seemed fresh upon opening. Each Meal Kit contained pre-portioned ingredients and very clear instructions on how to prepare the meal.
Overall Meal Experience
It’s always exciting and refreshing to try something new, without any hiccups. And that’s exactly what reviewing Sunbasket felt like. It was easy to set up, select vegan Meal Kits, schedule delivery, and cook everything.
We don’t think you should shy away from the Meal Kits option, even if you are new to cooking. Everything is really well organized and comes with very clear cooking instructions. It couldn’t be simpler.
One major thing stood out: The “Kids Can” notes on the instructions are a great idea. For anyone who has kids, lives with kids, or simply functions as a Fun Uncle or Favorite Aunt— this is HUGE. At a glance, you immediately know how to delegate some simple and fun tasks to little cooks-in-training. And that’s a big deal, because kids who learn to prep and cook fresh food are more likely to live healthier lives as an adult.
And if you aren’t a fan of cooking, you can still opt for pre-made vegan Fresh & Ready meals.
Flexibility Review
As mentioned, several things make the Sunbasket vegan meal delivery service worthy of our Best Overall award of 2021.
- Option to choose pre-made Fresh & Ready meals (no cooking required), or Meal Kits (you do the cooking)
- User-friendly website/app that makes it easy to sort by dietary preferences, meal type, and allergens
- Choose anywhere from 4 to 10 meals per week, with the option of adding additional servings for extra people
- Standard variety of vegan/ plant-based pre-made meals and meal kits
- Ability to pause your delivery within the website/app, without having to contact customer service
- You may cancel at any time, but make sure it’s before Wednesday at 3pm EST
- Sunbasket offers customers a 100% Money Back Guarantee (must be requested within 7 days of delivery)
Sunbasket Review: The Bottom Line
We awarded Sunbasket the Best Overall vegan meal delivery service for 2021!
Price, menu variety, and customer-first flexibility are three big reasons why we love Sunbasket so much. A user-friendly website and feel-good sustainable packaging are added perks. And with a 100% Money Back Guarantee, we can’t think of a single reason not to try Sunbasket in 2021.
Review More Vegan Meal Delivery Options
Return to the best vegan meal delivery services of 2021.
See Also:
- WINNER, BEST FOR BEGINNERS: Purple Carrot Vegan Meal Delivery Review 2021