Green Chef vs. Grubby — which organic meal kit wins?

Quick answer: Grubby is cheaper (from ~£5.75/portion vs. Green Chef's ~£6.30) and better rated (4.0 vs. ~3.3 on Trustpilot). Green Chef, on the other hand, is the more diet-driven option (keto, vegan, gluten-free, Mediterranean plans) and is better suited to anyone tracking calories or macros. For most households, Grubby is the stronger all-around pick; Green Chef is the specialist's choice.

Busy on weeknights but tired of takeaways and frozen pizza? A meal kit or prepared-meal service might be the answer. Unlike fully ready-to-eat delivery, both of these are recipe boxes at heart — you get pre-portioned ingredients and a recipe card, and you do the actual cooking, just without the supermarket run or the guesswork. Two names dominate this corner of the market: Green Chef, part of the HelloFresh group, and Grubby, an independently run, 100% plant-based brand. Both promise dinner on the table without much hassle, but they serve two fairly different needs.

We compared the two on what actually matters: price per portion, customer satisfaction on Trustpilot, diet focus, and who owns them. All figures come from our own research and the sources listed at the bottom — see how we test. Want to dig deeper into either service? We also have full write-ups of Green Chef and Grubby. Below, you'll get the full picture — and a clear recommendation for your household.

It's worth understanding upfront that both Green Chef and Grubby are meal kits, not fully ready-to-eat delivery. A classic kit from HelloFresh or Gousto ships raw ingredients plus a recipe card — you cook the meal yourself, typically in 25–40 minutes. Green Chef and Grubby work the same way in principle: pre-portioned ingredients, a recipe, and real cooking on your part. You're not paying to skip the kitchen entirely — you're paying to skip the supermarket, the meal planning, and the food waste. If you're still deciding whether a subscription box is worth it for your household at all, we've crunched the numbers in are meal kits worth it.

There is a real difference in how hands-on each service is. Green Chef leans towards fast, diet-structured cooking: recipes are dietitian-designed around specific plans (keto, vegan, gluten-free, Mediterranean) and are built to come together quickly with minimal fuss. Grubby is broader, classic weeknight cooking — but 100% plant-based, so every recipe on the menu is vegan. Choose based on whether you want a structured diet plan or a flexible, entirely plant-based family dinner. Still unsure which type of box fits you best? Start with our roundup of the best meal kit.

Price is often the deciding factor — and here the gap is clear. Grubby starts around £5.75/portion, with delivery at £4.99 (free on your very first box). Green Chef costs around £6.30/portion, running up to £9.50 depending on the plan, plus a £4.99 delivery fee, which puts it towards the pricier end of the organic recipe-box market. Green Chef's diet-plan structure and organic sourcing help explain the premium, but it's a real cost difference to factor in over a month of deliveries.

Price matters more than most people expect. Recipe-box customers consistently cite cost as one of the top reasons for cancelling a subscription, so even a small difference per portion adds up fast over a month. If you want to push the price down further than either of these services, you'll find cheaper picks in our budget meal kits roundup.

On top of the per-portion price, don't forget delivery. Both charge £4.99 for delivery, though Grubby waives it entirely on your first box. Both give new customers a welcome discount: Grubby offers 25% off your first three boxes, and Green Chef runs 40% off plus a free first box. Neither Green Chef nor Grubby locks you into a contract, so you can pause or cancel without a long notice period — read more about no-commitment meal kits if flexibility matters to you.

Numbers on paper are one thing; satisfied customers are another. Here, Grubby pulls ahead with a 4.0/5 rating on Trustpilot from around 1,900 reviews. Praise centres on the quality of the plant-based recipes and value for money, while criticism tends to focus on limited menu variety and occasional delivery timing.

Green Chef sits at roughly 3.3/5 — a noticeably lower score than Grubby. Positive reviews highlight the diet-plan structure and recipe quality, while common complaints mention pricing, packaging waste, and delivery timing. Both services also draw some complaints about the cancellation process being more involved than expected.

Either way, the picture is fairly clear: Grubby customers currently report somewhat higher satisfaction. Keep in mind that Trustpilot scores are a snapshot that shifts over time, and that reviews naturally skew towards people motivated enough to write one. We break down how to read them critically in meal kit reviews explained — in short: look at the distribution and the most recent reviews, not just the average.

This is where the two services really diverge — and where your choice should probably be made. Green Chef is built around a goal. Recipes are dietitian-designed, and you can filter by keto, vegan, gluten-free, or Mediterranean plans. With a menu geared towards 1–2 people, Green Chef is clearly built as a personal, diet-first solution for anyone training, following a specific eating plan, or tracking macros. If that's you, it's also worth checking out our category for high-protein meal kits and our guide to meal kits for weight loss, where Green Chef comes up as an obvious pick.

Grubby is more classic weeknight cooking, entirely plant-based. The focus here is on hearty, satisfying dinners for the whole household — boxes cover 1–4 people with 2–4 recipes a week, and every single recipe is vegan by default. If you want a flexible family dinner without a specific diet target — or you're cutting down on meat and dairy without going all-in on a structured plan — Grubby is the more natural match. If you want to dial in calories and protein to the gram, Green Chef is hard to beat.

One caveat on nutrition figures: as with any meal kit, calorie and macro counts are typically calculated from the recipe rather than lab-tested, so treat any brand's stated numbers as a helpful estimate rather than the final word — especially if you have strict dietary requirements.

On paper, both services lean healthy. Green Chef is certified organic across its ingredients, and its dietitian-built plans are specifically designed around nutritional targets — keto, low-calorie, and high-protein options included. That certification and structure make it a reasonable pick if organic sourcing and macro control are non-negotiable for you.

Grubby is 100% plant-based, so every recipe is naturally free of meat, fish and dairy, and it sources organic produce where possible across much of its menu, though it isn't a fully organic-certified box the way Green Chef is. That doesn't make Grubby less healthy — it just means the "how organic is this specific meal" question is worth checking recipe by recipe rather than assuming across the board. If organic certification is your top priority, it's also worth looking at Riverford, the UK's dedicated organic recipe box, as another point of comparison. If you're using either service as a practical weeknight solution a few times a week, the nutrition profile is rarely the deciding factor — it usually comes down to time, price, and taste.

Who's behind a brand says something about pricing power, stability, and how the company operates. Green Chef is part of HelloFresh SE, the publicly traded German meal-kit giant headquartered in Berlin with tens of thousands of employees worldwide. That gives Green Chef access to enormous purchasing power, sophisticated CRM systems, and professional performance marketing — but it also means you're dealing with a large, multi-brand conglomerate that, in the UK, also owns the market-leading HelloFresh brand.

Grubby is run independently. It's a smaller, more focused operator that has stayed centred on 100% plant-based recipe boxes rather than expanding into a multi-brand portfolio. For some customers, that independent ownership and narrower focus is a plus in itself; for others, HelloFresh's scale and operational reliability weighs more heavily. It's also worth remembering that the UK recipe-box category, worth roughly £1bn a year, has matured and slowed after its pandemic-era surge, so both companies are competing for a more discerning, price-conscious customer base than a few years ago.

There isn't one universal winner — there's a winner for you. Choose Grubby if you want the more affordable option (from ~£5.75/portion), the better customer satisfaction score (4.0/5), and classic, 100% plant-based weeknight cooking for the whole family. It's also the natural pick if you prefer an independently run company over a large conglomerate. Read the full Grubby review before you order.

Choose Green Chef if diet structure matters most: keto, vegan, gluten-free, or Mediterranean plans with dietitian-designed recipes built for 1–2 people. It's the service for anyone training, following a specific eating plan, or wanting a no-nonsense way to hit macro targets — and you're okay paying more per portion (~£6.30–£9.50) and living with a lower Trustpilot score. The details are in our Green Chef review.

Our overall take: for most households, Grubby is the stronger all-around choice on price and satisfaction, while Green Chef is the sharper specialist pick for a fitness- and diet-focused routine. Both are commitment-free, so testing the one that matches your week costs nothing beyond the welcome discount. Want to look more broadly at the market before deciding? Start with the best meal kit.