MealPal, a monthly lunch subscription service, just expanded to London — its first city outside the US.
MealPal lets users select and pick up a daily lunch from a variety of participating restaurants. The monthly price of $119 (without tax), covers lunch Monday through Friday — which means each meal costs less than $6.
Founded in Miami in January 2016, the service has expanded to Boston, New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. In London, where over 150 restaurants have signed on, each meal costs either £4.80 ($6) or £4.39 ($5.50), depending on the plan you choose.
The service was started by the cofounder of ClassPass, a startup that gives customers access to a selection of fitness classes in a particular city for a flat fee (MealPal was called MealPass until it rebranded in September 2016.).
On February 15, the company announced that it raised $15 million (£12 million) in VC funding.
Now that MealPal has added so many restaurants for users to choose from — over 600 New York City restaurants participate — the options can get overwhelming. So the team launched what it calls a "Tinder for food" function in September 2016. Users can now swipe right or left on 100 ingredients they like or dislike, and the app's bot will recommend meals based on those preferences.
I tried the service for a week when it launched last year (before the new update). Here's what happened.
I was instructed to log on between 7 p.m. and 9:30 a.m. before each lunchtime to select my lunch and set a pick-up time. (The update now lets users choose lunch starting at 5 p.m.)
To find my first meal, I filtered by location, which narrowed my options to 10 restaurants within a three-block radius of the Business Insider office (MealPal has since added dozens more). I chose pulled pork sliders from The Hog Pit.
On Monday, I ventured outside to pick up my food, which felt strange since I often bring my lunch.
The Hog Pit turned out to be a dimly lit BBQ bar. Except for a few men at the bar, it was completely empty. Partnering with MealPal, which is guaranteed to bring lunch customers, is probably beneficial for restaurants that don't get big daytime crowds.
My three sliders came with a side of cole slaw and extra BBQ sauce. The bread was a tad soggy from sitting before I arrived, but otherwise, thumbs up.
On my second day, I decided to go with a healthier option: an Asian sesame grain salad from Just Salad. The best thing about MealPal (besides the cheap food) is that I got to skip the lunch lines. All I had to do was tell the cashier my name.
My salad came with a chunk of bread and a tub of Asian sesame dressing. It was decent, but nothing stood out about it.
On the third day, I chose pork shoulder tacos from Tres Carnes. Again, when I picked them up, I skipped the long line, grabbed my bag, and was out the door in under a minute. Unfortunately, the portions looked pretty wimpy.
But on the fourth day, my margherita pizza from Waldy's Woodfire was huge. The delicious 10-inch pie was giant compared to my previous meals. I was stuffed.
On two evenings during my trial week, I forgot to reserve my lunch and scrambled to choose a meal at the last minute. It sometimes felt weird to be planning the next day's lunch so far ahead, but the most popular ones sell out if you wait too long to reserve. On my last day, I ordered a chicken and roots bowl from Inday.
But the next day around 10 a.m., MealPal notified me that Inday was 'unable to serve lunch.' No reason was given.
I decided to go with Stinky Bklyn, an artisan cheese shop, instead. I bought a turkey and dry jack cheese sandwich on focaccia and a bag of BBQ chips. This was my favorite lunch of the week.
Overall, my food was great and the service was convenient. MealPal is a sweet deal for those who often buy lunch, especially since a midday meal can cost upwards of $10 in cities like New York. But there is a limited menu, and if you're on a food budget like me, the price still doesn't beat grocery shopping and bringing your own food.
We tried MealPal, the subscription service that offers daily lunches for under $6
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Oleh
Admin
