Ask HN: Flexible meal subscriptions coming to Bay Area soon

I'd suscribe to the service if a few things were right.

The price I'd pay depends on what the service is like.

I think it'd be hard for you to compete (for my business) with burritos from the mission on price. For me to use this based on the price alone, I'd need < $6 per meal.

However, I'd pay $10-15 if the meals were high quality and I'd get detailed nutrition information about them automatically.

I'd also pay $10-15 if the service operated by asking letting me specify as much or as little information about what meals i get when. For example, I'd like to say "I want to eat fish twice a month" and On Dec 16, I'd like this salad for lunch and that soup for dinner. (I realize this is very hard, that's why I'd pay for it).

I'd be interested in trying out your beta and sharing my thoughts over coffee (email's in the profile).

Another thought: I find that preparing my meals is not what bothers me, I like to cook and I like to take breaks. However, I'd pay good money for a good pantry-management system that also delivered the groceries.

I would suggest you to do a trial run asap with a few select folks. Again - ASAP ! The reason why I stress on asap is because I used to know someone who did something similar, albeit within the Indian community only. Ultimately, he decided to end it since logistically, it turned out to be a nightmare - especially with home delivery options.

Also, if you are actually getting the food from chefs/restaurants (who arent employed by you), it will add additional hassles - what happens if the chef falls sick ? what if one of the chef fails to deliver ? or fails to deliver in a timely manner ? My guess would be that margins will be small - unless you are directly employing the cooks / chefs.

Too much work for too little -- thats what my acquaintance said about his experience.

1) Concept rocks; if you're in Chicago I'll sign up right now.

2) No more than $10, and only if it's remarkably good (healthy) food. Chipotle is $7, relatively nutritious, and enough to keep me going for most of the day. The only downside is the walk and lack of variety.

1) I knew it was a bad idea to move away from Chicago!

2) Yup, I went to Chipotle regularly while downtown. I think I ate there for lunch like 3 times a week regularly for months. It's fine in the beginning, but there's gotta be a way to get some variety into our diet.

1) I knew it was a bad idea to move away from Chicago!

No way, man! I just moved from Chicago (and applied to excelerate, too). Where in the bay area are you? Let's have coffee.

Sure thing. I'll shoot you an email ;)

I would most likely subscribe to a service like this. In fact, I was recently working out a deal with my friend where I would pay her to go grocery shopping every other week and cook for me twice a week. So, this is would be perfect. Now, I would still want a few things out of the service:

1. Healthy choices (nutritional info would be phenomenal, though I know it's likely not going to happen with chefs).

2. A way to filter out meals that contain certain ingredients. This is important for people with allergies. Some dishes you can tell, but recipes vary. I hate when I get secretly surprised by a dish was cooked with butter (lactose intolerant).

3. $10 - $12 per meal. When I go out for lunch, I usually try to stick to $10. I could go for $15 for dinner.

4. In Chicago. :P

I don't mind walking, I actually love getting out. I'm mostly concerned about healthy eating.

Some things that might sway me, but aren't deal breakers:

1. Vegetarian options. 2. Variety of size portions. I hate that most American restaurants give me way more food that I want. I feel bad for not eating it and having to pay for it.

Allergies is certainly something we're preparing to deal with. Thanks for confirming it :)

And I agree with your last point, will keep it in mind when I talk to the chefs.

I'm not very familiar with meal subscriptions. Could you explain how they work? Do you pick them up or have them delivered? Are they fresh or frozen?

Overall, the concept sounds very promising. Everyone has to eat three times a day, and I'm sure there are plenty of people like myself who'd pay a premium for a quality variety of meals without the time commitment of cooking or eating out.

You can subscribe to as many chefs as you want. Since it's a weekly subscription, you pay up front each week.

Here's an example:

My subscription to Chef 1: Monday: 1 meal - Wednesday: 1 meal - Friday: 2 meals

My subscription to Chef 2: Tuesday: 1 meal - Thursday: 1 meal

As you see, you can mix and match to get a great deal of variety. Currently our system accommodates both pickups and deliveries, but it'll depend on the chefs if he or she can deliver or not.

How much would you pay for this kind of service? We're working to keep prices down. Tipping is also not expected, should be pretty affordable.

I like the idea. As many others have already said, I think approx. $10-15 per meal would be ideal.

Just a suggestion: I think you should really market this service to businesses and office-crowds for breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. My last office was in an affluent area where the walkable lunch and dinner options were Subway and 20 or so high-end sit-down restaurants. Killing an hour and spending $40 on lunch wasn't a viable option and Subway got old after about three weeks. I often worked from 7am-9pm and would have gladly paid $30-40 per day to have a breakfast, lunch, and dinner prepared and delivered to me to avoid the monotony of Subway, the price of "creative French fusion" cafes, or the time-commitment of a Steakhouse lunch - and I know I wasn't the only person in that situation.

Great concept. I used to do subscribe to a service like this in Minneapolis, and just pick up the pre-made meals on my way home from work.

I just moved to SF, so I wouldn't subscribe to this right away as I'm still mostly experimenting with different restaurants around the city. But if 3+ months from now I needed this service, absolutely I would subscribe.

I'd say $10-20/meal feels right. Unless you can justify/educate me why higher price is better. Also, a discount for 4+ member families (or something along those lines) might be a good marketing hook.

Once you have more to show, I'd be glad to comment and advise in any way you think is helpful. The other comments on here have already stressed most of the important, immediate things for you to address.

In the meantime, contact info is in my bio, feel free to hit me up if you wanna grab a drink and chat.

The price would have to be under $10 unless ordering a "premium" item, farmers market ingredients, or other specialty foods. Portion sizes would have to be clear and consistent. Nutritional information, as many have mentioned, would be amazing.

I really do love the idea, I regularly spend over $7+ per meal and absolutely never feel good about that because it's on unhealthy, processed food. With your business, I could justify spending an additional $3 since a similar meal at a restaurant would cost me my time and about $15-20.

Thought of launching something like this during grad school. There are a ton of legal hurtles to go through which is why I passed. But good luck there definitely is a market.

From the numbers I ran the lowest you can go cooking in-house is $9 per meal, for outsourcing it'll likely be around $15.

I'm guessing it would be too expensive if you were bringing me something every day. I can eat the same dinner for a week, though. I'd sign up for this.

I would subscribe if 1. Not very expensive. Something around $10 2. Has good vegetarian options.

I would pay $10 to $15 a meal.