Years Later, Hungryroot Still Holds Up. Why We Love This Grocery and Meal Kit Delivery Service

9 / 10

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Hungryroot

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Score Breakdown

Freshness 9/10Taste/results 10/10Value 9/10Recipe variety 9/10Healthiness 8/10

Pros

• Similar to meal kits but without restricting you to specific recipes
• Food arrived fresh and orderly
• More convenient than going to the grocery store
• Good for discovering new foods
• Items can be easily used in other recipes
• Tons of options for vegans and vegetarians

Cons

• Slightly more expensive than buying all the groceries yourself
• Canceling must be done after your most recent box is shipped

It doesn't matter if you're a seasoned chef or a kitchen newbie; putting together a weekly meal plan of nutritious dishes can still feel like an uphill battle. If you're tight on time during the week or want to skip the grocery store madness on a weekend, a meal or grocery delivery service may be a great solution.

Better yet, Hungryroot combines both while still giving you ultimate control over your weekly menu. The Hungryroot subscription service is simple to set up and fun to use. For those who appreciate Trader Joe's but dislike the queues, Hungryroot is worth considering.

In 2026, we tested Hungryroot again to see if it stood the test of time and spoiler alert: It did. Here's everything to know about the meal kit and grocery delivery service. (If you decide to try it, Hungryroot will knock 30% off your first order, too.)

Best Meal Delivery Services for 2026 See at CNET

How does Hungryroot grocery delivery work?

Unlike traditional meal kits, Hungryroot tailors grocery deliveries with simple recipes that can be made from the items. While services like Marley Spoon and HelloFresh lock you into recipes with specific ingredients portioned for each meal, Hungryroot sends packaged goods often in the way you'd find them at a supermarket. 

To start, Hungryroot gathers information about your eating habits and preferences to deliver the best food to your door. The quiz asks about the foods you like and don't like, along with any dietary restrictions (Hungryroot has a robust selection for plant-based eaters). It'll also find out which meals you're interested in receiving ingredients for -- breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks or all four. 

After you log your food preferences via the questionnaire, choose a delivery address and date and supply a credit card, Hungryroot will curate a list of suggested groceries and recipes. Some are standalone food items, while others are intended to make easy meals such as simple egg and cheese sandwiches for breakfast, or chicken fajita tacos for lunch or dinner.

The online market stocks Hungryroot-branded products alongside name-brand grocery staples and goods from small, independent food, drink and snack producers. Shortcuts are the name of the game, with items such as precooked and shredded chicken for a fast chicken salad wrap, or healthy sous-vide egg bites to air fry in the morning before work.

Most of Hungryroot's suggested recipes are intended to feed you and the crew for multiple meals per week. Almost everything can also be used outside the recipe if you decide you're not feeling that particular meal, so you won't be stuck with various packets of seasoning, sauces or bunches of herbs you might not know how to use otherwise.

Swapping items is easy (and fun)

Before you submit your week's order, you can easily swap items that don't appeal to you. Each food is assigned a credit value, and once you delete an item from the cart, you'll be given those credits to spend on anything else, including produce, snacks, meat, fish, dairy products and tons more. 

If you want something that exceeds your credit value, you can cancel other items to give yourself enough credits, or go over that value and Hungryroot will charge your card on file for the amount. Hungryroot also makes suggestions for replacement items. If you cancel your whole-wheat bread, as an example, a few other bread options will pop up, but you're not beholden to them in any way.

You can also cancel or swap out entire recipes if you want, and you'll receive credits to pick a new one or select grocery items a la carte. It's like someone walking with you through the store, saying, "Hey, I think you might like this based on what you've told me," and then letting you decide whether to try it.

When I placed my order, I was given three recipe suggestions: egg and cheese sandwiches with seven-grain bread, curry chicken and broccolini wraps (lunch) and a Thai coconut chicken and green bean stir-fry. The rest of my order consisted of snacks, cheeses, breakfast items, proteins and meal starters.

In 2026, I got a weekly menu with my meal delivery, which helped keep me on track and ensured I wasted no groceries.

Pricing

Plans start at $65. Hungryroot gives you the option to add more servings in increments of two to four with a flat increase of $10, and the cost per serving decreases the more you order. Shipping is free for any plan costing $70 or more per week.

Hungryroot's pricing varies based on what plan you choose. Each plan comes with "credits" that correlate to the number of servings you've chosen. The price of your box will remain the same each week if you use the same amount of credits each time. Some ingredients, like meats, use up more credits than others, so you'll either have to pay more for meat-heavy boxes or settle for fewer servings.

In our most recent test, we received six breakfast servings, three lunch servings, eight dinner servings and five snack servings. The total price was $176.76.

How much Hungryroot costs vs. buying everything yourself

To calculate the value of a Hungryroot subscription, I priced out each item I received in my 2022 shipment using the lowest price I could find from a local grocery delivery service like FreshDirect or Instacart. Some items are Hungryroot-branded; in those cases, I found another similar item of a similar portion size and used that price.

2022 grocery price breakdown:

• Andrew & Everett shredded mozzarella: $5.69
• Andrew & Everett shredded cheddar: $5.69
• Vital Farms ready-pour eggs: $4.49
• Angelic seven-grain bread: $7
• Angelic sweet potato wraps: $4.59
• Pizza Gourmet wood-grilled flatbread: $5
• Tucson Tamale sausage and cheese breakfast tamale: $3.29
• Three Little Pigs prosciutto (2 ounces): $8
• Three Little Pigs egg bite (1): $2.59
• Trimmed green beans: ($3) 
• Keven's Paleo Thai coconut chicken: $11
• Rastelli's albacore tuna steaks (2): $14
• Mighty Spark bruschetta chicken burgers (2): $7
• Seasoned grilled chicken breast: $7
• Lesser Evil Himalayan salt popcorn: $4.29
• Hass avocado: $3
• Red onion: $1
• Hungryroot coconut curry sauce (8 ounces): $6
• Sweet baby broccoli (8 ounces): $4.59

Hungryroot total: $120
Groceries if purchased separately: $107
Difference: +$13

For my grocery order, Hungryroot proved to be $13 more expensive than if I were to buy the groceries individually.

2026 grocery price breakdown:

• Brekki Banana + Maple Brown Sugar Overnight Oats 2-Pack: $4.30
• Hungryroot Bell Pepper Onion Saute: $3.99
• Suckerpunch Bread and Butter Pickle Slices: $1.94
• Hungryroot Cherry Almond Granola: $10.93
• 2 Roli Roti Chile Limon Chicken (Small Size): $9.99
• 2 Hungryroot Cooked + Seasoned Turkey Meatballs: $9.99
• 2 Hungryroot Creamy Vodka: $3.24
• Cuties Cuties Snack Pack: $3
• SkinnyDipped Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Almonds: $5.99
• Pure Flavor English Cucumber: $1.49
• Hungryroot x Spicewalla Garlic and Herb Seasoning: $2.44
• Like Air Gluten Free White Cheddar Puffcorn: $3
• Ithaca Hummus Lemon Garlic Hummus: $5.69
• Better Sour Low Sugar Sour Gummies: $3.29
• 2 Bako Sweet Microwave-Ready Sweet Potato: $3.58
• Sam's Salsa Mild Fresh Salsa: $4.99
• Siggi's Non-Fat Vanilla Yogurt 4-Pack: $6.49
• Silver Hills Bakery Organic Everything Bagels: $6.79
• Eureka Tortilla Organic Plain Tortilla: $4.19
• 2 Bionaturae Organic Rigatoni Pasta: $8.94
• Hungryroot Organic Spinach Garlic Chicken Sausage: $8.59
• Califia Farms Original Oat Milk: $5.39
• Pretzilla Pretzel Burger Buns: $4.99
• Hungryroot Red Onion: $1.16
• Hungryroot Shaved Brussels: $3
• 3 Les Trois Petits Cochons Sous-Vide Spinach Feta Egg Bite: $9.87
• MUSH Vanilla Bean Overnight Oats: $1.99
• Thomas Foods Wagyu Beef Patties: $10.99

Hungryroot total: $176.76
Groceries if purchased separately: $150.24
Difference: +$26.52

In 2026, Hungryroot was about $26 more expensive than buying each grocery item separately. It's worth mentioning, though, that we were unable to always find an exact match for the grocery items, and they vary in price depending on where you live and what sales may be happening that week. We also didn't include the tax or delivery fee for a typical grocery service like Instacart or Fresh Direct. Nor did we account for the cost of gas driving to and from the market.

With Hungryroot, you're paying a little extra for the convenience of curated recipe suggestions and also food being delivered straight to your doorstep. 

Food you'll use, not lose

One thing Hungryroot does well is stock food items that can either serve as small meals themselves, such as the excellent breakfast tamales and sous-vide egg bites, or be easily integrated into more complex meals and recipes. Even the food intended for recipes is often more than you'll need, so then it's up to you to decide how to use it.

The loaf of seven-grain bread, for instance, did double duty. I used it for its intended egg-and-cheese sandwiches, but I also made a toasted grilled cheese for lunch one day with the mozzarella and prosciutto included in my box. Since I only really needed half of the trimmed green beans for my Thai curry stir-fry, I paired the rest with the tuna steaks for dinner on another night. I also used the sweet potato wraps, shredded cheddar and some salsa I had on hand for a quick quesadilla one afternoon.

As much as I enjoy meal kits, once you select your recipes for the following week, you're pretty much locked in. It's the flexibility Hungryroot offers that sets it apart from most other meal kit and meal delivery services. For someone who enjoys cooking creatively and whose desires change on a whim, this format works especially well.

The only ingredient I thought I might not use all of was the 8-ounce jar of Thai curry sauce. I used about half the jar for the intended recipe, and the meal was still more than enough for my dining partner and me. There was no other natural fit in my grocery order to use the rest of it, so I bought some eggplant and chickpeas and made a vegan curry a few nights later. 

Hungryroot learns what you like and don't like

After each delivery, Hungryroot surveys you on what you liked and didn't. It asks you to rate each recipe and decide whether you'd want certain food items again, and how frequently: never, sometimes or often.

How easy is Hungryroot to pause or cancel?

If you sign up for a Hungryroot subscription, you'll keep getting curated boxes of groceries. You can customize your order every week, but unless you cancel, it'll keep sending boxes and charging your card.

One small annoyance is that you can't cancel your subscription until your order is fulfilled and shipped (generally same-day shipping), so you'll have to set a reminder to cancel, typically a few days after you've confirmed your latest order. 

Who is Hungryroot good for?

If you've tried meal kits and like the concept but find that you're not always in the mood to make the recipes that arrive, I'd suggest trying Hungryroot. You can select full recipes, but they're never so complex that you can't use the ingredients in other, often simpler ways if you want. Speaking of the recipes, Hungryroot's are mostly easy, sometimes with as few as three ingredients. I made a paleo Thai chicken stir-fry, for instance, with pre-cooked chicken, a packet of tasty Thai curry sauce and green beans (uncooked), which turned out great and took almost no time or effort.

Hungryroot also works like an easy grocery delivery service, suggesting new and interesting foods and snacks each week based on your preferences, making it a good pick for anyone who wants to cut down on trips to the market. 

It's a bit like Trader Joe's, with some fun, proprietary products you probably won't find elsewhere, so I'd suggest Hungryroot for anyone looking to expand their ingredient arsenal. There are also numerous vegetarian and vegan options, so it's a great choice for a plant-based eater, too.

Who is Hungryroot not good for?

If your goal is to improve your cooking skills and learn to make recipes fit for a dinner party, this probably isn't the right service. Hungryroot is more about shortcuts and quick meals than serious cooking. For that, I'd suggest a full meal kit service such as Sunbasket or Blue Apron.

Verdict: Is Hungyroot worth it?

Hungryroot makes meal prep for mealtime and snacking super easy and even fun. It's also a great medium for discovering interesting new foods, snacks and recipes without the pressure to make or eat something you're not in the mood for. The service curated a tailored grocery bundle that kept me satisfied for most meals throughout the week, all for just a few bucks more than if I had gone out and bought the groceries myself. 

I found the ordering and customization process easy and liked the recipe and grocery suggestions, as well as the ability to easily swap out items and peruse the extensive market for other things I wanted. Upon arrival, I found all the food to be fresh, and a lot of it was interesting. 

The meals I made were simple but tasty, and I was turned on to a few brands and products I wasn't aware of. The bruschetta chicken burgers, for instance, were an easy meal and a big hit when I sizzled them on the grill one evening. A nice change of pace from the burger and chicken routine. The breakfast tamale was a revelation and a welcome shake-up of my famously mundane breakfast regimen (I definitely plan to order more of those).

If you're looking for easy answers to that perpetual question, "What's for dinner?" but find traditional meal kits a bit too restrictive, Hungryroot is a perfect alternative for all the freestyle home cooks out there.

What are Hungryroot's recipes?

Hungryroot recipes this week

• Grass-fed burger with rosemary potatoes
• Creamy bruschetta chicken protein pasta
• Grilled chicken and sweet kale salad
• Korean BBQ chicken and jasmine rice
• Teriyaki chicken and broccoli bowl
• Steak and potatoes with mushroom pan sauce
• Honey mustard chicken pretzel sandwich
• Seared filet mignon and asparagus
• Bite-sized pancakes with fresh blueberries

See the full slate of Hungryroot recipes here.