ShefReviews of shef.com

Dish was just ok.

I like the price but the quality of the meals is not good - the portion size and flavor tastes like airplane food.

I’m having a very difficult time with my orders no content Twobmeals for two days. But you have sent me double orders. 4 single meals for 4 days. Plus the 2 meals. With 2 servings which I don’t want. Help. Barbara

The service lacks variety and options. It seems like they are constantly picking the same dishes you can find in the frozen food section or at restaurants all over the city(Chicago). I think Shef needs to make an effort with who they select for vetting the food selection process, to avoid unconscious bias in selecting the same things over and over. The platform has a saturation of Mexican+Italian Foods, which, are already in high availability at fast food, grocery stores, and restaurants. Food is subjective, and it's about what customers want! Customers go to Shef for something they can't/won't find at a restaurant, not for the same things. Especially in the city where there's a wide range of restaurant choices. Home-cooked foods are very different because of the time it takes in preparation and the flavor profile produced as a result. Vs with trying to mimic restaurant foods(Looks good, but tastes mediocre/bland due to efficiency practices), and they seem to be forgetting this. Aesthetics is being prioritized at the expense of options/flavor.

Downgrading our experience. The MEALS are VERY GOOD - this poor rating is NOT about the Chef's food. I think Shef's Company need new Management. The Admin is horrific and the system shortchanges customers each time a meal (or serving) is missed during delivery. One MUST save every itemized order receipt via screenshots to know exactly what is paid for each meal, each upcharge, and each extra side dish. Our original good review was on the food only - which IS very, very good. I feel bad for the chef's that work for Shefs but distribution has missed two items in four total weeks of ordering. We could live with that if the system wasn't cheating and applying a lower refund than paid for the missing meal. Their CS people have to manually override and fix the wrong credit. And chat drags on a LONG time while they "research". They know the customer is correct but Admin are cheating customers with a refund process that is inaccurate - expecting the customer not to know what they paid. I no longer believe reduced refunds than actual costs to the customer are an accident since it has now happened twice. We just quit the service. Not worth the time or effort.

I appreciate the concept, but if I want food from my freezer, I'll just go get some out of my freezer. And if it's advertised as a16-oz portion, but an 8-oz container shows up... it ruins the mood. Also, I signed up as a Shef, but after reading the reviews, I think I'll pass. I spent decades in the business, cooking in fine dining kitchens, and I expect a lot from the people who are making money off of my hard work. I don't think this would be a fit.

I kept seeing ads on Facebook and other places online. They offered a $10 discount on one’s first order. So I decided to try it. I placed an order and when I checked out, a pop-up said that if I ordered from another shef for delivery on the same day, I’d get a $10 discount (as they refer to it “double the food at a fraction of the price”). Well, their prices are pretty damned high. So, $10 doesn’t reduce anything to a fraction. But it is a discount and I did make use of it. One order was Indian food and one was South East Asian. Both orders were average. Not terrible, not wonderful. I didn’t write reviews on their web site. Of course now that I had created an account, I was getting e-mails several times a week. About 3 weeks after my first order, I placed my 2nd order. Things changed significantly from the 2 unremarkable orders. I also ordered from 2 people this time. One was really good and I still order from her regularly and it is now 3 months later. The other is where things really started to go wrong. I ordered Thai food - my favorite cuisine. One item was Tom Kha Kai. It’s a delicious creamy soup made with coconut milk what I got was a bucket of yellow slop. I don’t know if the shef sent me the wrong thing (I don’t think she offered other types of soup, though) or this was her interpretation of Tom Kha. Let me tell you, I have had Tom Kha from Brooklyn to Bangkok and this isn’t it! And who serves soup chicken that has the skin on??? It was slimy and disgusting. I dumped most of it out and requested a refund. The other item was Massamon Curry. It was ok. But was $20 when my local Thai restaurant (that pays for a store front here in New York City) charges $14. And if you get it at lunch time, comes with an appetizer. The Tom Kha, likewise was $17 for a quart. Would have been $14 at a restaurant. Oh! And then there’s a service charge. And if you order under $25 from any one person, there’d be a delivery charge as well. Nothing like ordering a dish for $24.99 and having to pick something else so’s to not get hit with another fee. I’m winding down my relationship with this service (using up credits). But even that’s not easy. It’s hard not to find anything on there where the prices aren’t insane. Why would I want to pay more than what food costs in a restaurant? And they get away (or try to) with murder. Something will state that the portion size is a 24 oz container. I get it and 2/3 is taken up with tubs of condiments. Almost no food! I took a pic and demanded a refund. Another item I got was a Mexican dish that was sort casserole. About 50% was corn bread. That part is fine. But it was so over done that it creaked when I chewed it. I couldn’t capture that in a photo. So, I took a pic of 80% of the dish in my trash can. This too had to be refunded. If food any of this were done in a restaurant, I think someone would get a plate broken of their head! One of the ideas the company puts forth as a selling point is “in a restaurant, you have no idea who’s making your food. At Shef.com, you know exactly who’s preparing your food”. Ridiculous! What could be further from the truth?? In a restaurant, you see the kitchen (and people in it) all the time. Whether you’re headed to the rest room or just look up when a server is going in or coming out of the kitchen. In addition to poor quality control and high prices, shef food is never ready to eat. If you get delivery from a restaurant, it arrives fresh, hot and ready to eat. Shef meals arrive cold and often have components in separate containers which have to be combined and then heated. To keep the food from spoiling, they put in frozen water bottles (adds to the price). And they pack things into a thermal bag which also adds to the price. When I first signed up, I saw a note that said when you had 5 or more bags, contact them. They will pick up the bags, recycle and pay $5 for 5 bags. Now, I’ve been waiting nearly a month to get an appt for pickup (I have about a dozen bags) and they no longer pay anything. So, each time you order, you pay for the cost of the thermal bag even if you return it to them. Additionally, when you place an order, the offer to get $10 if you place another one has been cut to $5 (still says “double your food at a FRACTION of the price”). Before closing, I need to address price a bit more. It is surreal when I look at portion size and see 16oz container at consistently higher prices than the 32oz container from a restaurant. But it gets worse. Many are now selling in 12oz containers. 12 Ounces! That is the size of a soda can! So, high prices, small portions, poor quality control... Oh! Not done with the inconvenience! Not only do things not arrive ready to eat, but you have a 2 hour window and have to wait 2-4 days for delivery from the time you order. their slogan is “we’re not as good as a restaurant. But we do charge more.”