MealPal- Best Meals Around You

Update: lowered review another star down because they offer dinner pickups but require you to sign up separately for a dinner plan. Foolishness. Why would you not allow the “lunch credits” I have in my account, money I paid up front, to be usable to pick up dinners? Even if the lunch and dinner credits are not 1:1 equivalent, just convert my lunch credits to dinner credits upon my using them for such, rather than requiring me to add money into my account on a separate “dinner credits” plan. The app concept is good if you live in a busy office neighborhood where the restaurants do use mealpal. My biggest complaint is the inflexibility in how I can use my credits. Mealpal allows you to order lunches for some time between 11:30am - 2:30pm. Despite this huge range of time, mealpal does NOT allow you to order more than 1 lunch. Some lunches are very small and some establishments offer a literal smoothie as lunch. If I want to order 2 small lunches in one day to make a decent meal, I should be able to. Heck, even if I just am very hungry and want to eat 2 lunches at once, or to save one for later. I should be able to order 2 lunches at once, at different establishments. Me ordering more would not harm me, would not harm mealpal, and would not harm the establishment. So why isn’t this an option? Other complaint is the lack of explanation, information, instructions when downloading the app and ordering food. It seems as if they expect you to know how their system works and how to use the app upon download.

Do you like being able to choose what you get at the restaurants you go to? Do you like being able to go to any restaurant? Do you like being able to buy food after 1:30? Do you like being able to order lunch on the weekends? Do you like being able to order more than one meal a day? Do you like being able to change your mind on where you order from? Do you like getting normal portion sizes? Do you like actually getting food after prepaying money for it? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re better off just buying your lunch normally. There’s a ton of restrictions on where you can order from and what you can order, and half of the locations around my office give a paltry serving of food for MealPal orders— maybe half of what you’d normally get. In addition, I’ve outright just paid for entire meals and gotten nothing, either because the food truck left early (after I prepaid) or because my credits didn’t roll over to the following month, completely negating any savings I’ve had. If saving money is that important to you, just bring a lunch from home.

Even when you cancel they will keep charging the account and there is no way to reach out to the customer care and the email that send is of no use.

Good luck canceling your subscription.

Doesn’t let me see even a sample of the options near me before I pay for anything

You may save a maximum of two or three dollars per meal. Yesterday I paid 11 credits (worth $16.97 on my plan including tax) for a meal that was $14 on the restaurant’s menu. Also, I signed up via a referral link when they were running a promotion offering $25 Amazon gift cards for referrals to sign up. After emailing back and forth with customer service, they decided I was ‘not eligible’ for the promotion. Not worth it.

You're back at the office and they're making you come in 4 days a week. Just get the MealPal. On your way home, order for the next day. One less thing to do!

When I first used the app in 2019 in was useful but a work I progress. Fast forward to 2024, no progress has been made and they’ve lost about 90% of the restaurants that made them good in the first place. Got a promotion in my email that offered $70 off. I bought in and when I noticed I didn’t get it they said “it’s in the fine print” that I wouldn’t receive that much, even though I signed up for the highest option. When I decided to give them another shot because of a promotion I made two accounts, because my SO wanted food and there’s absolutely zero reason for us both to have to walk and spend 30 minutes when I can bring it back. I’ve been accused of having 3 accounts, another email address which they probably won’t even follow up on. I said that’s fine I’ll do it for a single meal, and then they said they wouldn't honor the discount THEY SENT IN MY EMAIL. TLDR; Used to use it when it was good, got a come back promotion, absolutely grilled by a customer service over an account that isn’t mine, fine print in emails is misleading on promotions

The app is buggy. There are no ways to view the billing history. Your points get eaten up easily due to their hideous rules. Can’t even remove credit card information on your own.

I used MealPal for good couple 7 months before quitting due to losing >$70 in credit, read on so you don’t get scammed by them too. I think the program is good for what it is, it does in fact provide decent selection of food in midtown-downtown NYC and at a decent cost savings vs paying full price at each restaurant. The problem I have with this system and how I felt cheated and quit was because during December of 2023 I took a 3 week vacation and wasn’t going to be using any credits or meals during that time. I didn’t want to quit because I was enjoying the program, BUT I just wanted to pause my account so it wouldn’t renew again and create a big surplus of credits in my account. I came back from vacation and ready to resume and what do I find? My account balance was ZERO’ed out when I put the account on pause!! It literally makes no difference canceling your account vs “pausing” it. I was charged a new month to “unpause” my account because it was zero’ed out due to me asking to pause for the 3 weeks I was away. The tricky fine print that many don’t pay attention to is that if you pay for a 70 credit plan and each month you are ONLY allowed to roll over up to 70 credits, since that’s the plan you pay for. So if for any reason you end up with a surplus of credits (e.g 85) you will LOSE all the extra credits. In other words 15 of the 85 will be wiped out when your plan renews since you’re on a 70 credit plan. My advice to those who want to try MealPal, make SURE you will be eating every single day and using you credits fully, and NEVER EVER pause your account to take vacation because MealPal will steal all your $$$ without any warning or notification. It’s up to YOU to religiously track your points every month so you don’t lose any due to their scheme setup. What’s worse is that they keep texting me offers to come back. I eventually agreed to return for a 50% off promotion… and quickly learned my lesson what shady thieves they are. So a day after I rejoined for 50% off the initial month, I get an email from support saying they’re going to charge me the full amount of the plan because I’m already a member??? Why the heck would you send me a promotional offer to RETURN and then bait and switch me because I’m a returning member??! So dumb and scam written all over it. Again, if you NEVER plan to take vacation and will be eating every single day and using up your credits, this is a good deal. Otherwise, buyer beware and watch your credits like a hawk or