MealPal Reviews 3.318

I recently re-tried MealPal post-pandemic for a few months.

I thought it would be a fit, as I like saving money and I’m not a picky eater. I just cancelled.

By the end, I was paying to eat repetitive, minimally discounted (~15%) meals I didn't really want to eat. But I didn't want to lose the money I'd already paid.

TL;DR: MealPal shouldn’t be a subscription; it doesn’t work. It should be a program where you buy a block of discounted meals, and can use them in any time period. It also needs greater transparency of what you’re signing up for.

1. Unless you sign up for the $89/month plan (or higher), there’s not remotely enough discount to justify the hassle — for me, it was often just $1.50-$2.50 per meal. For that small discount, you have a host of limitations (e.g. having to pre-book meals and the times you’ll be them at, eating the same 5 meals each week at the same small number of restaurants, the risk of losing a meal you paid for if you have to cancel after 10:30 AM, etc.)

Perhaps they just haven’t updated their website sales messaging, it’s currently misleading. At least in Seattle, you aren't getting "Lunch For Less Than $6”. (In general, the meals it’s displaying on the website adjacent to that marketing pitch — from FOB Poke Bar, Sweetgreen, Vinason, etc — cost around $13-15 apiece at the $49/month plan, and perhaps around $9-$12 at the $89/month plan.)

I have no idea how one is supposed to get lunch at the pricing shown on their website. Certainly, their service does not provide it.

2. Sooo many icky manipulation tactics to keep you from cancelling. It actually took me quite a bit of work over 2-3 full months to cancel the service, without losing a significant amount of money I’d already spent.

- Under the design of their point retention rules, you can't reduce your plan without risking losing meals you’ve already paid for. So I spent one month just stuffing my face with MealPal meals, so that I could lower my monthly service level. (since I had travelled the prior month for a conference, and accumulated a number of meals)
- Then I had to spend a month or two on the cheapest ($49/month) plan so that I could actually use up my remaining meals without accumulating so many more that I would never finish them.
- When you’re ready to cancel, they don't tell you whether you can keep your meals until the end of the month. This gives the misleading perception that cancellation would cause you to immediately lose the food you've paid for. (strategic ambiguity!)
- In cancellation, they also threaten you with a $19 reactivation fee to change your mind (I can’t find any proof this is real — it sure sounds like they are, instead, pleading with prior customers to reactivate instead, via incentives.)

I imagine MealPal sees the extra 2-3 months I spent as a “win” for them. But the amount of active work I had to do to cancel this service successfully really flipped my perception of MealPal from a “useful service I’d try again sometime if the restaurants were different” to “kinda icky entity I'm going to avoid doing future business with".

3. Outside of NYC (and maybe SF), the meal options are pretty bad. In Seattle, it’s largely junk food and poke bowls.

Among the remaining restaurants, you have some that are decent, but don’t really “get” the model, e.g. one restaurant took about 10 minutes from when I arrived to take my “order", and then sat me at the bar for another 20-30 minutes while they made my to-go MealPal meal.

There’s a small handful of remaining decent food places that you can buy from, but they’re literally serving the same 5 meals each week.

For me, the main perk of using it in Seattle was a discount at Sweetgreen. However, restaurants generally don’t rotate their menu — with Sweetgreen, it’s literally the same 5 salads. Every week. And, I had to stop what I was doing every Friday night at 8:30 PM to pre-reserve those salads, because they quickly sold out (and plan my week around those meal times).

Again, this is all just for a $2.50 discount per meal. It’s not worth it.

It was such a relief when I was finally able to close out my account and be done with MealPal.

Overall, it feels like there should be a service for getting discounted meals that are produced in quantity.

But the current MealPal probably doesn’t make sense unless you don’t mind eating junk food, or the exact same meals repeatedly, for the majority of your meals each month — and you don’t travel (at which point your credits can easily pile up to an unmanageable level).

This app is straight-up nonsense. The UI is confusing as hell, nothing is intuitive, and placing an order feels like solving a puzzle for no reason. I spent way too much time trying to understand it, only to realize the prices are basically the same as ordering normally. So what’s the point? There’s no real benefit here. Just a poorly designed, frustrating experience. Complete waste of time.

I love the convenience and value of MealPal in my work week. It saves me a ridiculous amount of time avoiding the lines at the most popular spots at lunch hour. It saves me a good deal of money on everything I might buy for lunch during the week. The variety is terrific and I love the consistency of choices that I prefer. Only a few locations from time to time aren’t prepped for the pick up, but I figure it out and find a new spot if it takes too long. Great job MP!

The half credit change introduced this year made a lot of meals less affordable. Notice some vendors increased by half credit then increased again to a whole credit. Your 120 credit plan should not be advertised as 16-20 meals because most average meals now cost 8-10 credits. A 6 credit smoothie is not a lunch meal.

The sandwich was delicious and I was in and out of Dishes in 30 seconds!

Great value and healthy meals. Sometimes wish there were a little more variety but it’s super convenient.

It's making lunch a little more affordable.

I’ve been using the app for about 6 months. It’s great value for the amount per month. Some restaurants are quicker than others and it really pushes me out of my comfort zone to try new restaurants! I don’t like the time constraint of having to order between 11-2p though. My schedule doesn’t always allow it and sometimes I miss the opportunity to order or pick up.

Some restaurants provides same dishes every day. Sweetgreen is ALWAYS not available at my location (Bryant Park NYC).

I've been using Mealpal consistently since 2018. Truly one of my favorite services.

Like the access to some meals like Thai food and Naya particularly cause of short distance and credits are not a lot.

Dislike the app which is really bad. Needs to be able to do a lot of basic functionalities like search for a particular vendor or sort by distance, credits, etc. Distance estimates also tend to be wrong. Can say something is 10 minutes away when in reality it ends up being up to 20 minutes away and you’ve unfortunately already reserved. Automatic renewing below 10 credits is terrible or should at least be optional. I might want to renew at a certain time every month and not when credits are below 10.

Some other things would be a nice have such as being able to easily cancel reservations and get credits back say within first 30 minutes of reservation. Would also be great to be able to reserve more than 1 meal a day.

Careful. They will continue charging you for membership even after cancellation. You won't receive notifications of charges. Check credit statements. Very shady and unlawful

Mealpal is a scam they unauthorized Charged me $96 without knowing my name i am so angry.

Great customer service

Meal credits do NOT roll over. They expire after 30 days, even though they advertise that they do. Bought 70 credits for $97. Had 1 meal and now all credits are gone. The business model is good, but the company just can't get rid of its predatory business practices, which are repulsive. They got a bit better in the past few years, but still, they charge the card w/o a customary confirmation, and credits expire warning even though they advertise that they don't expire. Not cool at all

I love MealPal! It makes eating healthy while eating out easy and convenient. If I am going to eat take out, why not do it at a reduced fee and healthier options?! Highly recommend MealPal who those of us who are not natural meal preppers snd still want some sort of a healthy meal.

Cool, using for a year+, very cool concept for on-site working people. Recommend

Saved lots of money
Tried lots of restaurants I would have never tried
Always easy to deal with when I had a problem.

Love the food options and ease of pick up. Not all restaurants pre make the food, which is a bummer.

It would be great to encourage restaurants to switch up their daily menu choice. Some do and some don't.