St. Louis' Top Prepared Meal Delivery Service

If you’re out there searching the world wide web for St. Louis’ top prepared meal service, more than likely you will get a good amount of listings non-local  prepared meal delivery services pop up alongside the local choices.

Because the search results don’t always give you the most clear idea on what is local and what is national, in this article: we’ll try to make it a little easier and we’ll take a look at what is available for prepared meal delivery in and around the greater St. Louis area (and, to be clear, we’ll define the greater St. Louis area as the actual city of St. Louis, as well Bond, Calhoun, Clinton, Jersey, Macoupin, Madison, Monroe, and St. Clair counties (in Illinois) and Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, St. Charles, St. Louis County, and Warren (in Missouri).

Defining Prepared Meal Delivery...
First of all, what is a prepared meal delivery service? We can’t truly cover the best ones in St. Louis unless we give you a quick definition first! To us, a prepared meal delivery service is a prepared meal that is delivered straight to your door. By prepared we mean: no prep needs to be done once it reaches your house other than, of course, heating it and eating it. No dicing, no slicing, no sauteing --aka none of the legwork. All of that preparation should be done by the service you choose. Why? The concept of prepared meal delivery is that it’s supposed to help make life easier (not more complicated with various recipes to follow and so on) -- whether it’s meals for you, meals for a sister, a friend, a relative, or an elderly neighbor.

Now that we’ve gone over what ‘prepared’ meals should be, let’s take a look at delivery.

By delivery, we mean meals are well-packaged and delivered straight to your door (or office, etc) at a time that works best for you. You don’t want to end up driving all over St. Louis to pick up your meals (hey, isn’t that what take-out is for) -- and you don’t want to end up paying an exorbitant delivery charge if the meal prep service doesn’t usually deliver. You want to find a service that knows the in’s and out’s of meal delivery well (...and don’t end up a guinea pig for a business that’s not well-established).

St. Louis' Top Prepared Meal Delivery Service Defining a ‘Top’ Prepared Meal Delivery Service…
What makes a St. Louis prepared meal delivery topnotch? I guess, in this situation, the answer depends on the eye of the beholder. Here at Pure Plates, our customers use our prepared meal delivery services because of our speciality: health! We are 100% devoted to delivering up some serious health alongside delicious flavors.

Regardless of what type of prepared meals you’d like delivered, you may want to make a list of your must-haves -- for example, kid-friendly meals? Diabetic meals? Vegan?

After you know specifically what type of meal service you are looking for, look for quality. As we’ve written about here on this blog over and over (because it is just that important) -- you do not want a meal prep service that cuts corners where it counts. Why is this a problem? Restaurants and prepared meal delivery service and any business needs to turn a profit: businesses look, as you know, for places where they can shave a few bucks off the bottomline. While that is a fact, when it comes to your food, you don’t want prepared meals delivered with sub-par ingredients (hey, that’s what fast food is for, afterall).

A few rules of thumb we’ve advised readers of this blog to look for in the past?

Quality of oils (for example -- avoid cheap oils that have been extracted with solvents because...yuck), salt (himalayan is what we prefer), and produce (local and organic should always be preferred). If a prepared meal delivery service doesn’t offer ingredient information, don’t be shy: ask. If you get a generic answer like “oil” ask them to clarify which type of oil they use for preparing the meals...you get the point. A little time invested now will pay off in spades -- and in taste -- later!

So..what are our top choices for St. Louis prepared meal delivery services? Let’s take a look (note: we’ll break it down by types of cuisines).

1. Healthy Prepared Meal Delivery in St. Louis
Sorry: we have to toot our own horn here. We happen to think Pure Plates, which has multiple locations throughout St. Louis, is the best of St. Louis when it comes to truly healthy meal delivery -- with options per types of healthy cuisines: vegan, Paleo, Gluten Free, Diabetic, Keto, Vegetarian, and more.

We offer amazing spins on old favorites: for example, our pan seared salmon pesto, grass fed beef and hash, and our delicious cherry cacao bar. Why Pure Plates for healthy prepared meal delivery in St. Louis? We talk the talk and we walk the walk: we are passionate about health, about ingredients, about quality cooking methods that retain nutrients -- and about watching our customers transform their lives through the amazing meals we prepare (and deliver).

2. Heartier Meal Delivery in St. Louis

While we can’t speak to how healthy their food is, we can say that Caruso’s Deli is a local favorite -- and they offer delivery. If you have a craving for a good old-fashioned sandwich, Caruso’s does not disappoint.

It’s a good choice for office lunches if sandwiches are your thing!

3. Carb-Loving Prepared Meal Delivery in St. Louis
Katie’s Pizza and Pasta has a big reputation among us locals -- luckily, their flavor holds up. They offer delivery on their full menu -- as well as pickup. They must know a thing or two about delivery, too - they recently branched out into offering DIY meal kits (different from offering prepared meals, of course) for all you carb-loving St. Louis foodies -- more information on their service over here.

4. Indian Food (Plant-Based) Prepared Meal Delivery in St. Louis
Love the spices and flavors of India -- and on a plant-based diet? Bombay Tiffin Club, right in St. Louis,  offers weekly ‘tiffin’ plans aka prepared meal delivery.

Bottomline? Obviously, the advent of services such as Uber Eats has been game-changing when it comes to restaurant food delivered straight to your house. The above choices range from super-healthy, to healthier, to healthy-ish. If you, like so many folks in St. Louis, find yourself pressed for time night after night, hold on and keep reading.

Before you end up turning to Uber Eats every night, or worse -- the drive-thru line at your favorite fast food joint -- consider a more long-term solution for your prepared meal delivery such as the plans we offer at Pure Plates. With locations throughout St. Louis, delivery is offered straight to your door -- and meals are 100% ready to eat-and-heat.