Founder and CEO Nicole Centeno launched Splendid Spoon to inspire eating habits centered around plant-based meals to foster better relationships with food and optimize well-being. With expertise in nutrition, cooking, and biology, her inspiration peaked during her first pregnancy as she grappled with how to properly nourish two bodies.
If you want the convenience of wholesome, prepared meals delivered to your door, the Splendid Spoon meal delivery service offers smoothies, grain bowls, soups, noodles, and immune-optimizing shots to make eating healthy simple. The diet trends stop here, and Splendid Spoon takes the role of preparing your breakfast, lunch, dinner, and reset day. We sampled the service to see how Splendid Spoon works and whether it delivers on its mission.
Pricing: It Varies
Splendid Spoon’s prices vary greatly depending on which of the five meal plans you select, and the price of each meal differs depending on which plan you choose. For instance, Breakfast, Lunch + Reset comes out to $9 per meal, while the Lunch and Breakfast plans are $13 per item. All deliveries include free shipping.
How It Works: Choose a Plan That Suits You
Splendid Spoon has many subscription options to choose from. Get started with selecting one of the five available plans to be delivered on a weekly basis:
- Breakfast + Lunch + Reset
- Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, + Reset
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Breakfast + Lunch
The plans offer individual meals or a combination of meals, such as smoothies, grain/soup bowls, noodle bowls, and light soups. More specifically, the Breakfast plan provides five smoothies and the Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner + Reset includes five smoothies, five bowls, five noodle bowls, and one full-day reset. Each 16-ounce bowl or smoothie bottle is equivalent to one meal or two snack portions, depending on your hunger level. There is also an option for a pre-selected on-demand box, a one-time purchase that loads up on one or more combinations of selections.
Splendid Spoon helps select your meals based on your preferred plans and insists that its meals are an easy way to form healthy eating habits. The satisfying meals are designed to be simple and ready to eat in 5 minutes. All meals are plant-based and free of dairy, gluten, and GMOs. The company disclosed that it has a dietitian on staff to provide a science-based background for all dietary information, chefs, and outside experts involved in menu development.
After choosing your plan, enter your zip code and email to determine if delivery is available in your area. Next, your shipping information is required along with the option to select any allergies or avoidances so that your available meals exclude these ingredients. You can customize and edit the number of meals at each mealtime after checkout.
Verywell Fit / Eric Kleinberg
Choosing Meals: Lots of Options
Splendid Spoon has at any time around 65 nutritious meals. In the checkout process, you select the meals on the menu that correspond to your plan. There are no options to increase the portion sizes of the meals, but you can customize your plan by adding more meals to your plan.
At the time we tested Splendid Spoon, there were 19 smoothies (Breakfast), 33 soup and grain bowls (Lunch), eight noodle bowls (Dinner), and six light soups (Reset) available to order. The service also sells desserts and snacks, labeled as extras, along with immune-optimizing shots. During the meal selection process, you can filter the meals based on dietary preferences such as higher fiber, higher protein, lower calorie, lower fat, lower sugar, lower carb, lower sodium, and blood sugar-friendly. Each of those filters has several meals to choose from.
Deliveries only take place on Wednesdays and Fridays. The cutoff for making any changes to Wednesday deliveries is 4 p.m. ET on the Thursday prior. The deadline to edit meals for Friday’s shipment is 4 p.m. ET on the prior Sunday.
What We Made
We tested the Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner + Reset plan to assess how well this meal delivery service caters to its target customers. The plan provided the following meals:
5 Smoothies
- Orange hibiscus smoothie with maqui berries & chia seeds
- Blueberry coconut smoothie with acai & cinnamon
- Banana flax smoothie with almonds and flax seeds
- Dragon fruit berry smoothie with pineapple juice & chia seeds
- Raspberry cacao smoothie with coconut & rose water
5 Grain Bowls
- Butternut squash ratatouille soup with tomatoes & kale
- Beans & greens soup with spinach & bok choy
- Channa potato stew soup with tamarind & cilantro
- Brown rice taco bowl with black beans & tomato salsa
- Sweet potato quinoa grain bowl with garbanzo beans & lemon tahini sauce
5 Light Soups
- Butternut turmeric soup with sweet potatoes & nutmeg
- Cauliflower potato chowder soup with navy beans & rosemary
- Fennel consommé soup with sea salt & dill
- Lentil & kale soup with saigon cinnamon & rosemary
- Garden minestrone soup with zucchini & basil
5 Noodles
- Dan Dan noodles with bok choy & tofu
- Vegan meatballs & marinara noodles with spinach & vegan parmesan
- Tofu & veggie noodles with shiitake mushrooms & edamame
- Green curry noodles with broccoli & lemongrass
- Kale pesto noodles with roasted tomatoes & plant-based parmesan
Packaging: Minimal Packaging
The food arrives in a cardboard box and an insulated recyclable liner to keep the meals refrigerated. The soup, noodles, and grain bowls are neatly stacked together and individually packed in recyclable plastic containers. Smoothies arrive frozen in plastic bottles, which can be refrigerated or frozen for later use. There were 20 meals total in our delivery, plus four pieces of cardboard in between the meals. In total, there were 26 pieces of packaging, including the box. All of it was recyclable.
Verywell Fit / Eric Kleinberg
Customer Support: Friendly Service
Splendid Spoon bypasses the need for recipe cards or long instructions. Each meal you receive comes with its ingredient list, nutritional information, and preparing instructions on the bottle or container. A full list of the menu of options is available that allows you to sift through categories based on nutrition preferences and detailed information including reheating instructions for selected meals. We particularly liked the company’s blog, where you can find articles on health and wellness from a registered dietitian nutritionist.
For customer support, we reached out to Splendid Spoon via the only two methods available: email and Facebook Messenger. Immediately after sending an email, we received an automated response to let us know that the company would get back to us within three hours during normal business hours. Our inquiry was about Splendid Spoon’s use of nutritional experts such as dietitians in menu building. The company’s response was that its product team works closely with a dietitian when creating meals.
Through Facebook Messenger, we asked what could be done if we were unsatisfied with any of the meals. A customer representative responded shortly after stating that if we were truly unsatisfied, we would receive a credit to our Splendid Spoon account.
Nutrition: Plant-Based
Splendid Spoon’s meals are focused on a reduced calorie intake through a combination of plant-based healthy fats, fiber, wholesome fruits and vegetables, and protein. This approach stems from research that indicates that plant-based fats and fiber have led to health and weight loss benefits. The light soups are the basic components of the “reset day” where you go a full day eating only soups and hydrating with water.
The company does not use diet terms such as keto, Paleo, and Whole30, but its meals are designed to meet the needs of individuals with different dietary needs. Dairy-free, egg-free, fish-free, gluten/wheat-free, shellfish-free, low carb (20g or less), low fat (5g or less), vegan, and vegetarian diets can be accommodated. There are Whole30-compatible meals listed on the company website, but the smoothies are not one of them because they contain pea protein. Additionally, you can refer to the flavor profiles of each meal to view a full list of ingredients and nutritional information.
The Cooking Process: Minimal Effort
Simply heat Splendid Spoon’s soups and bowls in a microwave for 2-4, or transfer them to a saucepan to warm up on the stove with a tablespoon of water per the instructions. Both heating methods were accurate. The bowls will keep their flavor if refrigerated for up to two weeks and can be frozen for up to three months. We recommend thawing the smoothies completely and then shaking them well before popping off the cap and consuming them.
Verywell Fit / Eric Kleinberg
Flavor, Freshness, and Quality: Undoubtedly Fresh
All the smoothies were tasty and fresh with no consistency issues. There were no concerns with the quality of the meals, but one of the grain bowls lacked robust flavors while the others were quite tasty on their own. We desired more seasoning in some of the bowls and soups as the flavors were light and simple.
Splendid Spoon provides a decent array of options between Indian cuisines, Mediterranean-style foods, and more diverse options. To determine what’s organic vs. conventionally grown, you can refer to the ingredients listed on the meal container or on the meals page of the website. In addition, organic foods are prioritized when sourcing any foods on the Environmental Working Group’s “Dirty Dozen” list, and all ingredients are GMO-free. However, there is no mention of certifications for any of Splendid Spoon’s ingredients.
Splendid Spoon Is Good For
Splendid Spoon is good for people seeking to eat healthily but who don’t want to spend time on meal prepping. The meals are all plant-based and are ideal for vegetarians and vegans. However, the convenience does come at a price. In addition, this service may not be suitable for people seeking a flexitarian meal plan with meat options to choose from.
Dairy-free, egg-free, fish-free, gluten/wheat-free, shellfish-free, low carb, low fat, vegan, and vegetarian diets can be accommodated.
Final Verdict
Splendid Spoon is a reliable choice if you’re looking to incorporate light, healthy meals into your eating routine. Reheating is simple and quick and while the meals may require more flavor, adding seasoning is an easy way to elevate a dish. However, the price point is a bit steep.
Methodology
We ordered, cooked, and evaluated meals from 27 meal delivery services to get a sense of each one’s offerings, nutrition profiles, prices, and, of course, flavors. We contacted the customer service teams at each of the companies, collected data, and wrote detailed reviews about each one.
Our writers are all registered dietitians and relied on their research and its resulting data to inform their reviews.