- Tasty fresh salads, stir-fries and snacks delivered by hand
- Cheaper than other similar fresh meal services
- All meals are gluten-free and can be made vegan
- Many ingredients sourced from local farms
- Delivery was easy and on time
Thistle meal plans
You’ll also choose how many meals you want per day. You can order any combination of breakfast, lunch, dinner meals and snacks for up to five days per week. Typically Thistle sends a delivery of curated meals for the week but you can view the order and make changes ahead of delivery. Thistle also has cold-press juices and wellness shots to add to your weekly haul.
Thistle’s weekly menus are laid out for you on the website.
One thing that separates the song from the rest of the pack is that they deliver only fresh food, nothing is frozen or premade and vacuum-sealed. Everything can be eaten as is, or there is the option to heat certain meals in a skillet and mix in the sauce if you prefer a hot lunch or dinner.
Thistles meals are healthy, full of whole ingredients and gluten-free, even the pasta. The food has minimally processed foods and contains lots of superfoods, such as sweet potatoes, ancient grains, nuts, fruit, veggies and lean meats.
What I ate and how I liked it
I tried two full days’ worth of thistle meals which included two salads, two stir-fry meals, two breakfast meals and three snacks.
I thought everything was good and some were better than good, but nothing blew my socks off. The produce was fresh, but by day three, some of the greens weren’t as crisp and the veggies lost a little of their snap. The stir-fry meals, which I heated in a frying pan along with the sauce, never lost their oomph.
I’m a sucker for a good Caesar and Thistle’s healthy version delivered.
Crispy chickpea, Greek salad with pulled chicken: The salad also had quinoa and toasted garbanzo beans. I thought the Greek dressing was sharp and delicious and the salad overall was good but the chicken was dry.
The panang curry was on the small side, but very tasty and fresh.
Panang peanut curry with togarashi seeds: This penang curry was more tangy and less sweet but all the flavors worked for me. My favorite meal of the lot.
The steel-cut oat bowl was good but the sauce was pretty sweet.
The steel-cut oat bowl with granola and dulce de leche was fine but the sauce was a little sweet for me. The granola meant to be put on top of the smoothie was very good. There was also included a vegan crudites platter with gherkin pickles, carrot sticks, tomatoes and vegan cheese dip.
Thistle’s peanut butter and chocolate energy bar was dynamite.
How much does Thistle cost?
If you choose 16 meals per week the cost breakdown is about $11 for breakfast and $12 for lunch and dinner the fewer meals you choose the more expensive they become. There’s a minimum order of three meals per week which would cost you more like $14 for breakfast and $16 for lunch and dinner.
Snacks are additional and optional and cost $6.50 per snack no matter which plan you choose.
Thistle cost per week:
- 3 meals per week: $45.31 ($15.11 per meal)
- 6 meals per week: $87.62 ($14.60 per meal)
- 12 meals per week: $162.9 ($13.52 per meal)
- 16 meals per week: $199.33 ($12.46 per meal)
Thistle’s meal containers are plastic but are fully recyclable as are the dressing containers. The only part of this whole delivery that isn’t recyclable or the ice packs but you can return those with the bags or reuse them yourself.
Sakara Life is roughly twice the cost of a Thistle meal subscription. The food is a bit better and more interesting but not worth that price jump.
Thistle and Sakara Life operate with very similar business models delivering fresh food for your week while Sakara’s meals are of a higher quality. The price for Sakara — more than $20 per meal — is astronomical and Thistle offers a more approachable version of fresh food delivery with meals as low as 12 or $13 if you choose one of the larger plans.
If money is no object, go for Sakara, since the food is better and more interesting. If you like the concept of Sakara life but don’t want to spend hundreds every week, Thistle is the better pick.
