Chiyo Reviews 21

The food was so easy and good. Perfect delivery for arrival home from the hospital postpartum, took all the pressure off organizing a meal train or sleep deprived assembly. Would recommend as a gift to someone you care about, especially yourself.

I ordered Chiyo for the first time and LOVED it. All the food was super fresh and delicious. It’s also packaged so conveniently and easy to heat up, which is great for when I’m busy working throughout the day. I just made my second order and would highly recommend!!

After I gave birth to my second kid, I was so grateful to have Chiyo's postpartum meal delivery package for 6 weeks. It was also exciting to open the package every week to see what meals and snacks were ahead. All the snacks were amazing and even my toddler enjoyed them! The meals were so easy to warm up as well. It also helped that I knew that I was eating something nutritious that was great for my body during that time rather than ordering takeout. I have highly recommended this meal delivery service to my friends.

I love their postpartum broth and tonic bundle! Someone bought it for me postpartum and now it’s my go-to gift for new moms. And the customer service is fantastic, personal, and responsive.

Highly recommend!!
Sarah my concierge was wonderful. Food was delicious. Had some initial
Issues with delivery, but Chiyo was quick to fix.
Really helps mamas in postpartum- worth every dollar for as long as you can do it! The snacks are also incredible and you receive plenty of food!!!

I had the six week postpartum plan and it was an absolutely phenomenal experience. My allergies were taken into consideration and I never had an issue with substitutions or worrying about any interactions. When I reached out with questions or an ask, the team was super responsive, kind, and helpful. Having such delicious and nutritious food designed specifically to support me in this unique phase of life was such a gift and I could not be happier. The food was also so delicious and generously portioned - I basically was able to freeze an extra week or two's worth of meals because of it!

Disappointing experience – not worth the money

I don’t usually write negative reviews for small, women-owned businesses, but I feel I have to share my experience with Chiyo’s postpartum meal service because postpartum is such a delicate time in a woman’s life.

Chiyo claims their meals are based on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), but I was disappointed to find that very few meals actually incorporated traditional herbs or ingredients and the principles of TCM. Instead, the meals were very Americanized, heavy on chicken, turkey, fish, or tofu, and included very little beef. Turkey, tofu, and white fish are cooling proteins based on TCM. Beef is considered crucial in postpartum recovery and so are warming proteins, especially for rebuilding blood after hemorrhage (which I experienced). I was genuinely surprised that this wasn’t reflected in their meal plans.

Flavor-wise, I didn’t find the meals enjoyable, and neither did my mom or husband, who would often eat the leftovers since the portions were quite large. They consistently described the food as bland and tasteless.

The delivery process was another major issue. Unlike other postpartum services that hand-deliver fresh meals, Chiyo uses UPS. Almost every delivery arrived with problems—spilled containers, boxes with the tape coming off, and meals showing up late in the evening. In one shipment, the food didn’t arrive until after 8pm with all the ice packs fully melted, and some containers open. After eating one of those meals, I ended up with severe diarrhea.

On top of that, over Labor Day weekend Chiyo notified me *the Friday before* that no meals would be sent that week. This left my family scrambling to buy groceries and plan meals at the last minute. Instead of offering a refund, they issued a gift card, which felt dismissive and unhelpful given the circumstances.

Ultimately, I canceled my 6-week prepaid subscription and requested a proper refund back to my credit card (not gift cards). For the combination of poor service, lackluster food, and unreliable deliveries, I cannot recommend Chiyo. My mom’s home-cooked meals ended up being far more nourishing, flavorful, and reliable.

Bottom line: Do not waste your money on this service.

Food: couldn’t try any meals as they all contained coconut (a sensitivity for me). Ingredients were not listed on the website.

Customer service: at first I received responsive customer service. I ordered an Intro pack $230. It was delivered on the wrong date and with meals that contained my allergens. Customer service quickly responded and they said they would send me new meals without my allergens on a specific date. I replied to say I would not be home and requested another date. I did not get a response and my meals were delivered on their original date when I was not home. Of the new meals, one of the meals contained an allergen that was explicitly communicated. I contacted customer service again and never heard back. Very frustrating.

I am obsessed with Chiyo! I have tried every meal service out there - Thistle, Sakara, Factor, Methodologie and more - but I have never come across a company that not only holds such a high standard for quality but also the evidence based approach for what meals and nutrients are most supportive for women at different seasons of life and their cycle. There are few meal plans worth the splurge and Chiyo is at the top of my list.

One of my weekly deliveries was during holiday (Christmas). I received a shipment of all seven days meal instead of the usual two separate shipments on two different dates. On the fifth day, I noticed the food had sour ( going bad ) smell so I checked the expired date and realized it’s past the best by date. So the good thing is that the food had little preservative. But the bad part is all three days worth of food are all gone bad and I was out of food. I reached out to the customer service to inquire about why everything was sent in one shipment instead of two shipments on two different dates. The first answer was unempathetic indicating that I should have known to freeze the food (including salad like). So I probed more about the change in the shipment without any notice and the second answer revealed that they have sent out the notice via email. However, everyday I only receive là promo and marketing emails. There was no such email about the special change due to holidays. They ensured me that I should receive email going forward. The following week was also a holiday (new year) and I still did not receive such email. When I asked about refund for the three days worth of food they completely ignored me (not even mention that they would not). So overall, customer service is very poor. The food has more cold items than I expect given Chinese medicine principal of warm food only during postpartum. Taste wise half of the food is good, the other half I don’t really care for especially the noodles (soba, Dan Dan were very soggy)
Review updated to 2 star post my 3rd week shipment received on 12/31/2024 because one of the snacks had best by date 12/04/2024 while everything else has best by date of 1/4/2025. This is to show the quality assurance is poor as the packing failed to meet standard check.

Updated on 1/3/2025 post response below from Chiyo customer team: lack of attention to detail shows in the response. After my initial contact regarding change in the shipment frequency, a representative assured me that I should receive the notification going forward but again as I wrote earlier, I still did not receive such notification in the following week. That is not addressed in the response. Additionally, service team still ignores issue about sending me an expired item (12/4/2024) on shipment meal on (12/30/2024). Each time of interaction with the service team I couldn’t help but taking off more star.

Chiyo was absolutely essential in our postpartum recovery journey especially since we didn’t have family in the area to help. Even with our doula, it still saved so much time and headache to have such tasty, premade meals ready to go! Unlike HelloFresh or other meal services, Chiyo’s food is carefully curated, precooked, and the best tasting out there!

We can’t recommend them enough to all families! Next time we will get the full subscription package instead of going week to week. Thank you Chiyo team!!

- Emma & Eric

The food was not great and for post partum I thought there was going be more warming stews/soups/currys, etc. But it was mostly cold salads. It would’ve been better if you had the option to freeze it all, but because it’s salads, you can’t really.

Great service for a very difficult time

Everything I have tried from Chiyo has been excellent. The food is delicious, nutritious, and thoughtfully prepared. I also appreciate the company's mission and values. The team has been incredibly helpful and friendly, making the whole experience even better. Highly recommended!

I purchased both the prenatal Nourish meal plan and the full 40-day Restore Program and could not possibly have been more delighted by my experience with Chiyo.

I have been a consistent Sakara subscriber for the last 5.5 years, and this is the first time I have skipped more than a week or two of Sakara meal deliveries in about as long!!
I am so delighted by what Chiyo has brought to the meal prep space - the focus on prenatal/postpartum nutrition is so vital and appreciated.

I welcomed twins at the end of June (my second and third children), and as a result more targeted postpartum nutrition was especially important to me for this go-round. With the support of this program, I have been exclusively breastfeeding my twins, got my period back a month post-delivery (which in TCM is a sign of strong Qi and Blood!), and restored my platelet count within a month postpartum after gestational thrombocytopenia that occured in the last weeks of my pregnancy. I have felt so nourished and satiated, and believe that nourishing myself this way has absolutely contributed to an extremely smooth recovery. I couldn't recommend this service more highly - every postpartum mom deserves to have access to this type of care. Thank you, Chiyo!

I wish I thought about adding this to my baby registry and had people gift this to me! It takes the stress out of worrying about if you're nourishing your body enough postpartum and doing prep work on your own ahead of baby arrival which was too stressful for me. Highly recommend!

The quality and volume of food was perfect for me. The delivery service took away the need to figure out what I was going to eat during those first 6 weeks after I had my baby. Amazing!

I used a Chinese postpartum meal plan for my first baby but switched to Chiyo for my second. I love the food and the flexibility (able to go week to week versus a full 40 day plan). Everyone in my house would love this food - from my Chinese mom to my (not Chinese) husband! We were also in cardiac ICU for the first two weeks with our baby and the portability of the food was helpful for that.

I tried the soups and tonics bundle and was so impressed by the quality and care that's taken with each product. The tonics come in tea bag form and the soups are concentrated and frozen so they take up very little space in the freezer (really important when my freezer was full of meals in preparation for postpartum confinement period!). The preparation instructions were clear and easy to follow. I've already recommended to many birthing friends!

OMG. The food is SO good. I was really hesitant to try a meal program like this again (previous companies I've tried either had super small portions that never justified the price OR they were super sugary - which is just not my thing), but I was shocked with how much food you get! Not in a wasteful "I'm never going to eat this" kind of way, but you aren't hungry at all or looking for more food, which was a pleasant surprise. They have different options for ordering, and you aren't tied into a membership which I like a lot. I purchased a week's worth of food and will definitely be ordering again, especially this summer, when schedules are so busy, the ease of having food ready when I get home from a long day is so worth it! Thank youuuuu Chiyo!