Sun Basket is a meal delivery service based in San Francisco that ships meal kits to customers throughout the United States. They offer a huge selection of food for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and beyond. Select from hundreds of items and have them delivered directly to your door. Sun Basket goes well beyond the typical meal delivery service with a wide variety of veggie snacks, sweet treats, jerky, and even items for your pantry.
Company Info
Sun Basket was launched in 2014 by chef Justine Kelly and co-founder Adam Zbar. The meal delivery service is based in San Francisco. By 2015 Sun Basket was already delivering meal kits to eight states. In 2017 they added more capacity with distribution centers covering the entire country. They have since expanded into larger facilities to support the growth of the company. Sun Basket is dedicated to supporting customers with dietary restrictions. They are also working on zero waste packaging to protect the environment.
Sun Basket Menu and Pricing
You have two menu options when signing up. These include classic and family plans. The classic menu let’s you choose from 18 recipes each week, while the family menu allows you to select from 6 family-friendly choices each week. Both will let you choose between 2 and 4 meals a week. The classic menu supports either 2 or 4 people, while the family menu feeds 4 adults with leftovers for younger children.
The cost of the meal kits is based on the number of meals and people you have eating. The prices range from $10.99 to $12.99 a meal for the classic menu, while the family menu is always priced at $10.99 a meal. Keep in mind that the price is “per serving” so you would multiply the cost by the number of people being served.
Many want to know how much it is going to cost to feed their family with a meal kit service like Sun Basket. Let’s take a couple quick examples. The first will include 3 meals a week for 2 people. As you can see above the total cost for 3 meals (6 total servings) would be $71.94. The family plan with 2 meals to feed 4 adults with leftovers would cost $87.92. This includes all the ingredients and recipes. No need to run to the grocery store.
Sun Basket Promo
Keep an eye out for promotional offers from Sun Basket. When we signed up they were offering a discount of up to $70 off the first 3 orders. This will save you quite a bit as you get started. Keep in mind that you will also receive free shipping.
The Sun Basket coupon saved us $30 off our first order which brought the price down to just $46.44 including tax for 3 recipes for 2 people. That works out to just $7.74 a serving. We’ll share the meals later on in our review but we were quite pleased with the taste of the food and value of the service.
Customer Service
You have several ways to reach out to Sun Basket for support. Perhaps the easiest way to chat with their staff is to call. The Sun Basket customer service phone number is 855-204-7597. You can also send a text to 408-669-4101, use their live online chat feature or submit a support ticket on their website. Each meal kit delivery comes with a 7-day money back guarantee. If you are unhappy with the meal for any reason simply contact Sun Basket support within 7 days.
Hands-On Review of Sun Basket
We signed up for Sun Basket on Sunday, August 18th and received our first meal kit on Tuesday, August 27th. Take note of the gap as you may have a similar delay depending on which day of the week you place your first order. You need to select the menu for any given week by Wednesday at 12:00 p.m. PST. Since we ordered on Sunday it meant that our menu locked in the following Wednesday to be shipped out the following week.
The first step in the sign up process is to choose a subscription. In our case we selected the classic menu for 2 people, with 3 recipes a week. This brought the cost down to $11.99 a serving with free shipping.
You will also notice a dropdown box to set your meal preferences. We went with Chef’s Choice which includes their favorite seasonal recipes. Here is a quick look at each menu preference. Note that you can choose any recipe. This just helps Sun Basket recommend the best matches for you each week.
Menu preferences:
- Chef’s Choice – favorite seasonal dinner recipes
- Gluten-Free – no gluten
- Vegetarian – balanced dinners with seasonal veggies
- Carb-Conscious – lower carbs and high quality proteins
- Diabetes Friendly – healthy meals for diabetics
- Mediterranean – seasonal produce, lean meats, and healthy grains
- Paleo – More meat and veggies, less carbs
- Lean & Clean – eat clean and stay lean
- Vegan – organic produce and plant-based protein
- Pescatarian – plant-forward with seafood
- Quick & Easy – fast, easy dinner recipes
Next we made our recipe selections for the first week.
We had nearly 20 dinner selections to choose from along with a wide range of lunch and breakfast options. For each item you can view the preparation time along with calories per serving and more nutritional information. Here is the nutrition per serving for our Spicy chipotle-rubbed steak dinner as an example:
Calories: 520, Protein: 36g (72% DV), Fiber: 5g (20% DV), Total Fat: 34g (52% DV), Monounsaturated Fat: 16g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g, Saturated Fat: 7g (35% DV), Cholesterol: 105mg (35% DV), Sodium: 260mg (11% DV), Carbohydrates: 21g (7% DV), Total Sugars: 7g, Added Sugars: 2g (4% DV).
Here’s a sample of a few menu items along with ways to sort the options.
As you can see the Sun Basket menu screen includes options down the left hand side for dinners, lunch, breakfast, snacks, proteins, and pantry. Each category includes more choices. For example, dinners include meat & poultry, seafood, and vegetarian dishes. You can also sort by number of calories (<600 calories), time to prepare (20 minute meals), and customer favorites. There is also a dropdown box to sort by diet preferences including paleo, gluten-free, vegan, mediterranean, diabetic friendly, soy-free, and dairy-free.
We received our first Sun Basket meal kit around noon on the delivery date via Fedex.
When you open the box you will immediately see a welcome guide along with the recipes for that week. They include not only your selections, but all the meals offered. Remove the packing on top. Each meal is individually bagged and labeled. Removing them will expose a piece of cardboard. Lift it up to find the meat laying on an eco-friendly ice pack. Remove and refrigerate everything. Since the ingredients are fresh and organic you will want to prepare them within 4-5 days. Here’s a look at all items in the box.
As you can tell the meat and seafood is packaged separately to keep those items cold during shipping. Otherwise, the remaining items for each recipe are in their own bag. The label on the bag clearly shows you what meat will be used for each meal. It also let’s you know that all produce is organic unless otherwise noted and to keep refrigerated. The label includes a code you can refer to if you ever need to contact customer service.
Meal Kit #1 – Chicken Breast with Peach Caprese Salad and Red Pepper Vinaigrette
The meal kit for the Caprese Salad was generous with the ingredients. We had more than enough of everything for two servings. There were a few tomatoes that were a little over ripe but we still had plenty left over after the salads. We used about half the cucumber and a small portion of the onion. The recipe also called for kosher salt, fresh black pepper, and olive oil. They are counting on you having these items in your pantry.
The directions were very easy to follow. You will have plenty of time for the prep work while the chicken is cooking. I actually cooked the chicken a little longer than the recipe called for to make sure it was done. Simply cut the vegetables, peaches, and cheese to add to the salad. Finally put all the ingredients in a bowl and toss them for the best results. Finish by drizzling on the dressing.
Meal Kit #2 – Spicy Chipotle-Rubbed Steaks with Vegetable Skewers and Creamy Slaw
Once again Sun Basket was generous with their ingredients. We had far more than enough to complete two servings. Placing the mushrooms on the skewers was a challenge but we got better at it with experience. We would have appreciated a little more dressing for the slaw. Otherwise we had everything we needed and then some. Be careful how much chipotle you put on the steaks if you’re not a fan of spicy food.
You will have plenty of time to cut the vegetables and put them on skewers while the steak is cooking. After the steak is done you will place it on a cutting board and let it sit a few minutes while the skewers have a chance to cook. The slaw is very easy to prepare. Just slice the cabbage, add the rainbow carrots and dressing into a medium size bowl, and toss.
Meal Kit #3 – Tomato Coconut Shrimp over Cauliflower Rice
The ingredients for the tomato coconut shrimp dish were plentiful. The cauliflower rice was a nice touch. The shrimp is double bagged to keep it from leaking or smelling up your refrigerator. This dish took us about 20 minutes to prepare and was delicious. The combination of flavors made it one of our favorites.
You will want to have oil on hand to prepare all of these dishes. Along with salt and pepper. You also had an option to add white wine to this one. We cooked the cauliflower a little bit longer than directed and were happy with the results. The shrimp was prepared exactly as instructed. The dish was very easy to cook and ready in well under 30 minutes.
Conclusion
Sun Basket is a high quality meal delivery service. You might pay $1 or $2 more per serving than some other companies but you can expect better produce and a huge selection. Sun Basket focuses on providing recipes for 2 or 4 servings per meal and you can order from 2 to 4 meals per week. Their selection is second to none. You will find a full assortment of breakfast, lunch, and dinner recipes, but it doesn’t stop there. Sun Basket also offers snacks including veggies, nuts, crackers, crisps, jerky, and more. You can also buy extra meat and seafood for the holidays and even pick up items for your pantry. The meals were delicious making Sun Basket one of our favorites. Remember to use the Sun Basket promotion to save $70 off your first 3 orders.
