bistroMDReviews of bistromd.com

I decided to give this service a try because of the great introductory offer, BEFORE reading the reviews here. After the fact I did some investigation into this service. Turns out it was acquired by Marley Spoon/Martha Stewart (MMS Brands) in 2024, which also has their own food delivery kit service. That service includes offerings of pre-made frozen meals called "Balance". The "Balance" meals offered on Marley Spoon are indeed these exact BistroMD meals. I had tried a few of them from Marley Spoon in the past and was disappointed at how horrible they were and surprised that MMS Brands would put their good name to such garbage. Literally 9 meals went into the trash. Once I figured it out I immediately canceled my BistroMD order. My customer service experience was quite different from what has been reported here. Someone answered very quickly, canceled my first order, and then canceled my subscription without question. I checked my credit card site and indeed, the credit was already pending. Taking further advice from previous reviews here, I did then cancel my credit card and requested a new one so no further charges would go through on that card, just in case. Kind of annoying but worth it to avoid the hassle some have experienced. So the 3 stars is for customer service only. The food, quality and taste, gets less than one star, as experienced on my Marley Spoon orders.

The breakfast items are not good especially the frittatas. The lunch/dinner items are o.k.

Of course it is convenient to have meals prepared and ready to heat & eat. I had no problems with delivery, and even when I substituted a couple of meals I got what I'd asked for. The quality of ingredients is pretty high, for example the meat is the real thing, not glorified lunch meat. Freezing, thawing, heating takes away from the appearance and flavor of the food quite a bit. I can also say that there ended up being more meals that I didn't like than meals that I did like. I think a lot of the seasoning of certain dishes was not to my taste. Portion size would have been adequate if the food was more satisfying. I would not bother to add the extra snacks either, as most were just not that good.

Food is delicious, plan is easy to follow. Warning: meals a very protein heavy, so be sure to check with your own physician before starting. Customer service is very lacking, emails go unanswered. Website is problematic, for example I was unable to complete my cancellation online after completing an online form. Had to call in a few times and was on hold for 8-9 minutes each time.

The meals were ok but no real flavor just bland. Customer service however was horrible! While on hold they tell you (over and over) how their friendly helpful customer service staff will resolve any issues you're having but the condescending girl who took my call was neither. She was curt and rude and said things like "maybe you should read the terms again" and "if you ever use another meal company pay attention to the terms". I use multiple meal delivery services and have never had anyone be rude when I've called.

More and more of the meals are coming broken plastic containers. Several have had the contents of the broken compartment, (usually the veggies), spilled out inside the delivery box. Not sure if you guys changed your supplier of the black plastic trays, or if the manufacturer made changes to the product, but they seem to be inferior to what you were using in the past. Aside from that, the food itself, (that hasn't spilled-out), has been very good.

Their website is just so - well, clunky. It is not customer friendly or intuitive at all. They designed it the way they think it should work, regardless of whether it is easily understandable or has adequate explanations or not. For example, if you decide to eliminate snacks, and then make that week's meal choices - SURPRISE! You will NOT get your meal choices! You get theirs. Why? Because, mysteriously, you have to LOGOUT and LOG BACK IN before you can customize your meals! Big secret. You get an email 4 hours later but it is not written this clearly. And there was a problem with my email, so I never got it at all. The food overall is rather good with some exceptions from both my standpoint and my husbands. The snacks are 85% terrible. Doubt we will stay with it long enough to lose any real weight. Still forgot to ask for mysterious 15% discount for meals going to same address. In spite of my hour long conversation tonight, it was not offered.

The food is tasty and there is enough variety. However, the meals do not always arrive sealed or intact. The plastic containers don't seem to tolerate the freezing process as well as they should. So far it seems about 30% of the meals have come in damaged. Customer service is 5 stars, but at the end of the day I am left without food for 30% of my meals, leaving me to eat less nutritious food and ruining any progress made...of which is substantial when all the meals are available. With the quality of the packaging improved, this could easily be a 5 star program all around.