I Tried MealPass For A Week, And Here's What Happened
MealPass, the ClassPass-like concept for food founded by ClassPass founder Mary Biggins, sounds great on paper. Users pay $99 per month to eat lunch on weekdays from a selection of hundreds of restaurants, which comes to about $5 per meal, a great deal for those who like to eat out for lunch. But is it as great as it sounds?
The service is definitely convenient. An email comes to your inbox at 7 p.m. each night and choosing your meal for the following day and pickup time is straightforward. On a few occasions, certain lunches were 'sold out,' however it was never more than three or four of the multitude of options.
Lunch options encompass a substantial range, from ramen to juices, sushi, pizza, and more. Pickup was mostly straightforward. You select a 15-minute window to pick up your lunch, which is noted in a confirmation email that is sent after making a selection. Restaurants will have you show the confirmation email or give your name and pickup time in order to pick up your meal. There is no waiting on line to pick up your lunch.
Though MealPass has participating restaurants list the ingredients for their dishes, some of the descriptions are not as comprehensive as they should be, which could be an issue for those with allergies, other dietary restrictions, or a sensitivity to spiciness, like me. Several of the dishes I ordered were spicy, some even too spicy for me to eat, and there was no indication of this in the ingredient list or in the item description.
The images of some of the lunches I ordered did not correspond to the dishes themselves. A Chicken Milanese dish that I ordered from Mangia ended up being a sandwich instead of the chicken with a side salad pictured on the MealPass website.
In another instance, I ordered a Tofu Broccoli dish from Thai Rice and Noodle, which looked nothing like the picture, and I noticed the exact image was used again for a Tofu Broccoli dish at another restaurant, Thainy.
Overall, though, the service is convenient and a great way to try new restaurants in your area for a relatively affordable price, but for picky eaters, and those with allergies or sensitive to spice, this is not the service for you — at least not yet.