Effortlessly Healthy — Restaurant in Town of Chili

ETA: It gets worse, so I downgraded my review from 2 stars to 1. Having apparently used up the gift card balance for the meal I did not receive, I was automatically placed onto a recurring meal plan for 8 MEALS per week (wtf) which started automatically charging my bank account $95 per week. Talking to the owner, it turns out that this is "just how it works" and she was terribly sorry for the inconvenience and overdraft fees they caused me. They refunded one of the charges but she could not tell from her end how many times I was charged or for what. She is attempting to contact the website developer to see if they can prevent any future charges from going through, because I guess she has no idea how to use the website either. I have (obviously) cancelled my account but can not figure out how to delete it so they no longer have access to my bank account information. I will be contacting my bank to block any future transactions before I get more overdraft fees.

I mentioned all this to a co-worker and she told me that she had had a very similar experience with the company in the past. So beware, you will continue to be charged for meals for AS LONG AS POSSIBLE whether you want them or not. I have to say, the one time I was able to connect with them and get the food I ordered It was pretty good. However, “effortlessly“ is not a word I would use to describe this meal service.

I received a gift card from a well meaning relative with a substantial amount of money on it, I have tried my best to use it up, but I think I am going to just forgo the remaining balance because it is too much trouble to deal with them.

The website is a nightmare. The entire ordering and pick up process is a nightmare. You have to order two weeks in advance, so good luck, remembering that you did that when the time comes. They put random meals on your order each week that you have to remember to login and change or you’re stuck with it. And it is extremely difficult to figure out via the website what you have ordered, or what they have ordered for you, and if it is still changeable or not.

When I called them to complain about it, the woman on the phone was extremely helpful and did her best to fix everything. But then when the pick up day finally came, they expected me to drive out to their shop on Scottsville Road instead of picking it up at the location where I had expected. I’m sorry, but Scottsville Road is on no one’s way to anywhere, and a huge hassle for me. By the time I got there they were closed. I’m sorry, but I am done with this place. They can keep the rest of the gift card.

I would not wish this...

I tried their 5 meal per week service. I was trying vegetarian but was very flexible & forgiving in this area (which was needed with the food here). Some food was good. Some wasn't nearly as healthy as it should/could have been. There's some lack of knowledge in this area here. If you really care about being a vegetarian & TRULY eating healthy, in my opinion, you won't be happy with at least some of the food. Vegans have ZERO chance here. Also, unfortunately, this is a very, VERY poorly run company. LOTS of mistakes. Over & over & over again, the same kind of errors kept repeating themselves. They delivered when they knew they werent supposed to and didnt deliver when they knew they were supposed to. From the beginning, delivery was scheduled for Thursdays & I was to pick up on Mondays. The days never changed. Still, they made MANY errors with this basic schedule, which they strongly suggest bc 1 delivery to my area per week is free. I showed up to pick up the food like they knew i was supposed to & it was out for delivery to a cooler w no ice because it wasnt supposed to be delivered that day...and I wasnt scheduled to be home for HOURS. This happened SEVERAL times! The last error was when they delivered a week's worth of food AND DIDNT PLACE IT IN THE COOLER which was ALWAYS there, EXACTLY where they were told & SHOWN it would be. In general, the food wasn't terrible but not enough variety, especially if you're really trying to eat healthy. Jerk flavored food was TERRIBLE. YUCK. Owner & manager is clueless how to run a business & was also rude & insulting to me when I let her know that I wanted to stop service for a couple weeks & that there had been WAY too many mistakes. I'm a very patient person. I tried this service for more than 2 months. There was zero effort to fix their basic business communication & coordination errors. I wanted to support a local & also female run company. I'm a kind, patient, & professional person. I was always polite, despite the many frustrating, nonsensical & REPEATING errors that they made. I would not recommend this...

Edited to add: When you get great reviews, you win. When you get poor reviews, you learn. Because the owner's response to my honest review is egregiously rude, Effortlessly Healthy has permanently lost my business. (Incidentally, a quick scroll through reviews shows that EVERY response to less-than-stellar reviews is insulting, boorish, and churlish, cementing my decision to never patronize this business again.)

Years ago, we stopped at Effortlessly Healthy (both the food truck and the brick-and-mortar store, in its original location) on the regular for one of our absolute favorite meals: the chicken, bacon, and avocado healthy trash plate. We've not enjoyed one since pre-pandemic, so this week we looked up their food truck schedule and went to a food truck rodeo at a local school solely to enjoy Effortlessly Healthy for dinner. Had we not driven 20 minutes home to eat, we would most definitely have asked for a refund. The seasoning on the chicken did not at all complement the rest of the ingredients. I suspect they used leftover chicken from their meal-delivery service rather than cook fresh protein for this event. But what made the meal 💯% inedible was the raw sweet potatoes. These were not "al dente" potatoes -- they were as crunchy as an unripe granny smith apple. How sweet potatoes can be diced as small as sweet peas and not be cooked through is a mystery worthy of Sherlock Holmes. Also, the cloves on the sweet potatoes were not only overpowering, they were quite unpleasant with the mystery-seasoning on the chicken and the heavy-handed lemon juice in the mashed avocado. Our only solace in this $15 meal (and the reason I added a second star to an otherwise one-star meal) is that a portion of the money went to the school's Booster Club. Otherwise, it was money in the trash, which is exactly where this trash...