Loss Arts

Loss Arts DBA Chefs by Request acquired my e-​mail address from Vision Quest (not out of business) and started spamming me with ads for their services.

They provide meal plans based on either a zone or a paleo diet plan. You can control portion size and have certain restrictions based on allergies or taste preferences. If you live in Seattle depending on location, you should be able to get most of the food delivered fresh.
I’ve tried the program several times – it is expensive. I have made extensive tweaks to the service but I think this is just not for me – at least not at the current price.
I freely admit I am a picky eater, so perhaps their attempts to vary the menu is bound to fail with me. But there are problems. Delivery is very convenient as well as not having to cook… but…
Even if you set up your program with allergies or restrictions, their quality control is poor. I listed pineapple as an allergy and I still got food with it. They generally will credit you with another meal, but that doesn’t really make up for the inconvenience if you can’t eat what was provided. If you know you have a busy day coming up and have to make alternative plans to get lunch when your paid for food is not going to work it-​it can be very frustrating. I can’t have any seafood including shrimp and shellfish due to allergies and they delivered me a shrimp salad tonight as a snack for tomorrow (note for those reading, that is just shrimp on a bed of lettuce!)
Rarely I’ve enjoyed a lunch or a dinner – they sometimes have chicken wrap or turkey lasagna. But lunch of late tends to be salad and dinner is a wild card.
The snacks include snack bars made to a 40÷30÷30 calorie model if you pick the zone plan. But they variety ingredients in the bars – some are good, but some are pretty bad. So quality control is lacking – if they deliver a bar that is falling apart in the bag and still deliver it, do they really care?
given the expense, I would say – try it for only a few days. See what you think. But if you do need to make tweak-​due to allergies, food intolerances or just things you don’t like-​I would say sooner or later you will be disappointed. Given it is expensive, I can’t say I honestly got what I paid for. And worse –have not lost the weight I was hoping for.

Loss Arts has gone completely downhill. I was customer back in 2012 and would have gladly have given them 5 stars then. The food was delivered fresh (in Los Angeles) and it was tasty. It is 2014 and I was looking forward to using their services again to lose my baby weight from my 2^nd child and the quality has gone downhill. They no longer offer fresh service in Los Angeles so they send frozen meals all at once but no thought was put into the frozen service because they literally just freeze fresh salads which become soggy and disgusting when thawed. After a 5 day trial period, I had to call and ask for a refund which they did not have a problem doing. That was SEPTEMBER 4. It is now OCTOBER 21 and they STILL have not refunded me $ 766.64. I keep getting the «the check is in the mail» and «you still haven’t received your money yet!!!» messages on the phone. I’m not stupid. It doesn’t take almost 2 months to send a check from Seattle to Los Angeles. Heck, you can do Chase QuickPay in 2 minutes. At this point they need to change their name to Loss Quality or Loss Money because they’ve lost this customer forever. GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK! My next step is to contact the Better Business Bureau and the authorities for theft.

I was very surprised at the quality and service of the service. I am hooked. Thank you! So glad I took the number down on that van one afternoon.

My review will be very similar to the other most recent reviews. I started to use them while they were Chef by Request and loved them. I came back to them this year after a surgery. The menus as LossArts have suffered. Delivery was bad. (They left my bags outside my gate on the street!) It was only when I called them to fix the delivery issues that I found out they were going from fresh to frozen. At that point, I decided to opt out. I was assured that I would get a refund for the unused portion. Mind you, they wouldn’t refund the money back to my credit card but said I would have to wait for a check. It is now many emails and about 7 weeks later and I still do not have a check. Shoddy behavior. If you don’t have good tasting, varied food, good delivery, or good customer service, what do you have? Oh, Loss Arts!

I’ve been with Chef by Request since 2008 during my running marathon seasons. The meals were tasty, liked the convenience of fresh food delivered to our door. It’s a time savor. It is expensive. You can request to eliminate certain foods that you’re allergic to. The benefits outweighed the cost because I lost a ton of weight on this program when they started offering the Paleo meal program in 2010. During this time, I would give Chef by Request 4 stars. There were times the foods we requested to eliminate showed up in our meals. They immediately replaced our meals.
Fast forward 2013, the name changed to Loss Arts. The meals were good. I was still on the Paleo meal program during my training season. The delivery service started to dwindle. At times our meals were not delivered. I had to start calling them and they would add an extra day of meals missed. After awhile calling in for missed deliveries was getting tiresome. Now it’s 2014, Loss Arts decided to eliminate their daily delivery service and go from fresh to frozen meals. Every Saturday we get a box delivered of frozen meals. The kicker is we have to return the box via prepaid to nearest fedex ground service. The frozen meals have become soggy after they thaw. Today we’re no longer participating in this program. Overall, Loss Convenience, Loss Meals, and Loss Customer.

My husband and I have been getting the lunches and dinners (zone diet) for quite awhile now, with the main incentive being healthy convenience. The weight loss potential is a side benefit.
I love the salads the best. I love how fresh all the vegetables are. I like the many herb and fruits they use which keep one from getting tired of turkey or chicken or pork. The prawns and salmon are quite good; never over cooked. I liked the beef, but opted out to reduce red meat in my diet.
I was inspired to write this because the entrée today was turkey and fresh green beans and although it looked familiar, the flavors were so unique from anything I had had lately that I was impressed once again with how they keep making the food taste different and how it is always fresh.
We had liked the breakfast and snacks too, but cut back to make it more affordable.

Ok, I want to be clear that my 1 star rating has nothing to do with the flavor of the food. The flavor is good, and portions are fine. However, a few things bug the h*ll out of me:
1) I have a number of dietary restrictions, which their website (and the service rep I spoke with) claimed to be able to easily accommodate. So far, they have given me a food with an allergen the first 2 deliveries, rendering the meal inedible for me. I emailed their customer service, but have not heard back. I will update again based on the customer service response, but really that would only get them to 2 stars at best.
2) No discounts for multiple orders going to the same house. You are charged the same as if you had the meal delivered clear across town. This is ridiculous, as they are saving time and money by delivering both to the same location.
3) The ice packs in the containers seem to rupture easily. Almost all of my meal containers had blue slime all over the bottoms. Given the chemical nature, this seems dangerous if it had touched the top or accidentally gotten inside.
If you don’t have any restrictions, and are only ordering for yourself then by all means check them out.
UPDATE 6÷7÷13: My feelings are still quite mixed, and my rating is remaining the same. Their customer service contacted me, and promised to get the diet restriction issues fixed. True to their word, the rest of my meals have been free of my listed allergens (at least to my knowledge). They also called me again to check in and make sure the kitchen had been doing a good job in honoring my restrictions. They comped me an extra day of food on both of my plans. Nice touch.
BUT!!! I am on a Paleo plan, and I am finding a lot of «violations». Yesterday there was so much sugar in the various items they gave me, that I crashed and felt ravenous by the early evening (even if it was honey or agave or stevia, my back teeth shouldn’t be aching from sweetness). Also, received a salad today with processed turkey bacon. The whole point of Paleo is to get away from foods that are highly altered and/​or contain preservatives, and turkey bacon is one of the worst offenders! Various meat parts and tons of chemicals and colorings to make it taste/​look like bacon. Also, 90% of them say «may contain wheat or soy». I also had some sort of bar dipped in what appeared to be white chocolate (not Paleo). Even if it was white chocolate substitute, I don’t know what could be made to have that flavor and texture without lots of chemicals, sugar, and soy/​wheat. I seriously hope they didn’t send this salad or bar to anyone who’s on their Celiac plan… And if they didn’t, why would they send it to someone on their Paleo plan?
Overall, the concept is great, but I think the execution just falls way short for the price paid.
UPDATE 6÷18÷2013: I wish I could revise to 0 stars. This is becoming a joke. Scheduled my comped day of food and it never arrived. Another phone call, another «Oops you seem to have stumbled across another problem with our system, so sorry about that.» Then got food delivered… and it had foods I am allergic to in it. Again. For those of you keeping track, I had 6 days of food coming to me… and 3 out of 6 contained allergens. I plan on calling the Brandon G fellow who responded to my post, but short of a full refund I really don’t see how they can make it up to me. I spent a day, sick, because I didn’t see the tomatoes buried under the other meat. If you are allergic to anything DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!! They clearly do not pay attention and anyone with severe allergies or intolerances will end up paying the price.

So, on the whole I think things went fairly well. It was more food than I could eat most of the time. A few of the choices were completely unpalatable (sauerkraut and thousand island on turkey — but why?) and I think the salads and fruit salads rely too heavily on mayo and bland mayo-​like dressing. The salads in general have little flavor — some fresh herbs and more fat would go a long way to cure that. The soups were the best lunches — absolutely delicious and fulfilling. I would’ve like to see soup more frequently (and never the sloppy joe on cabbage). Fish was usually the best dinner, and I was impressed by how perfectly cooked the salmon was. Puddings and snack bars were the best snacks. Tuna salad? not a fan. I would’ve liked to see any paleo bread or pasta at some point, instead of the sad spaghetti squash that came with the bolonaise. Overall, I’d give it a shrug. Was the food gourmet? not really. But it was edible most of the time. In the end, the sheer monotony of it is enough that I don’t wish to renew the service at this time. However, if I’m in another time crunch like I was, I may be back.
It would be a great service if we could opt out of specific menu items without putting whole food categories on hold. There’s no reason something like that can’t be included in the web-​site, especially since the meals do repeat. There’s also no reason that renewals can’t be done through the web. That’s just silly that it isn’t.
Meh, not great, not terrible, but very functional and timely.

I love this place for the convenience. The idea of having three healthy «Paleo» meals without having to shop, prepare, cook and serve is worth it’s weight in gold. Which is a good thing because sometimes it feels like that’s what they are charging. It’s definitely not cheap — but I feel it’s worth the money. You cannot put a fair monetary value on time and this saves me lots of that.
I spoke with Kimmi via phone and email a few times and she’s been wonderful. Helped me tailor my plan and I’ve had no issues with the delivery. I like most of the meals — and what I don’t like, it’s mostly because it’s something I haven’t tried before. Since I stick to the three meals provided, I choke it down anyway. Healthy food isn’t always tasty. :) Besides, I only have these meals M-​F to keep me going.
So far I’ve lost 38 lbs. and couldn’t be happier with the results. And definitely could not have done it without this service.

WAY BETTER THAN EXPECTED. Like some reviewers below, I also consider myself a lover of fine foods so my standards are higher than most. Which is why I really love CBR — the food is fresh, delicious, and healthy to boot. I’m on the Paleo at the recommendation of my doctor, and have been consistently surprised by the flavors, textures and variety of foods on the plan. Having lunch and dinner delivered to my door daily is pretty friggin nice too. We’re spending about $ 200 more a month on food now than we were before, but the time and calories saved is definitely worth the extra expense. No more arguments about what’s for dinner, no more desperate decisions to order pizza because it’s easy. And I’m satisfied!
I’ll also add that I’ve found their customer service to be TOP-​NOTCH. Logan and Kimmy have been extraordinarily helpful. I can’t understand some of the comments below, because the last three weeks CBR has been super accomodating. I travel for business frequently, and they’ve let me move meals and whole days to fit my schedule. They’re also great about subbing foods, though I haven’t had to do that since I’ve enjoyed every meal so far.
I just renewed my order for another 5 weeks. Extremely pleased.

New to the area and wanting to minimize time doing food prep the first few months while catching up on administrivia and settling in at work My Chefs by Request was the option I took seeing as it had some PR in the Paleosphere online. I’ve been eating Paleo (it’s not a diet, it’s a mindset) for several years, not intended to lose weight. It was absolutely refreshing to find a service that controls ingredients for you, saving the random ingestions of gluten/​wheat, soy, etc. that I’d really rather avoid for reasons scientific and health. They even let you avoid a handful (up to 4) ingredients for allergy reasons which makes this possible for me, otherwise I couldn’t do it.
I’ve been getting deliveries the night prior for about a month, coming in mini lunch coolers with massive ice packs delivered around 8pm up until the morning. Most of mine come in the evening. They’ve only missed one delivery due to a driver issue and had great customer service handling it, not counting that day for my total. I do it 4 days a week for lunch, dinner and snack.
The meals rotate through the different meats chicken, turkey, pork, beef, sometimes seafood and generally they are fairly tender considering the lean cut (see later criticism). The steak even has a little pink which for a service like this is refreshing. The real value is a variety of sauces and vegetables (made with ingredients I can trust) that helps mix things up more than I would. It’s usually more salad like for lunch and more meat and veggie style for dinner.
The snacks were more substantial than I’d guessed, more like fruit salads, coconut custards, etc. I was expecting just a handful of almonds.
Overall, I’ve been very happy for the time, effort and stress this has saved me and for that I highly recommend them. Where it could be better is that it could be more Paleo in that I’ve been served green beans three times and they are in no one’s estimation remotely paleo. I’ve also received sprouts a lot, with similar doubts. Most disappointing, is the lean cut of the meats is unneccessary (fat doesn’t make you fat: read more Paleo books) and makes them far less enjoyable. I often add bacon to help. Luckily I eat enough pork belly, fat on prime rib, foie gras and more to help make up the deficit.
It’s a tough challenge to cook for numerous people with countless restrictions and preferences and have it work out but I think they pull it off for the most part and I don’t think I’ll do it every month but for when things get busy and a company cafeteria won’t cut it for you then this could be a great answer.

I have placed orders with My Chef By Request a few times and have been very pleased each time. I have a busy work schedule and their paleo menu helps me with the nutritional goals I have without a whole lot of prep work on my part.
I haven’t experienced /​can’t speak to the negative reviews about cancellations or missing deliveries. I can speak to the quality of the food, the variety of the menus and their adherence to my dietary restrictions. I’ve been really pleased with them.

Chef by Request is an interesting concept. I first learned about them at a half marathon I was competing in and I thought having meals delivered to you everyday was an amazing idea. I have used Chef by Request for two weeks now. One week I was on the Paleo diet and the other week I was on their standard Zone Diet. The Paleo diet was hard for me, there was meat in nearly every meal and snack so if you don’t like to eat meat that much don’t go for that meal plan. The second week, I went for their zone diet and was much much happier. Meals included coffee cake with cottage cheese & fruit, daily salad, snack bar, afternoon snack (could be veggies and some kind of dip or fruit with a dip) and for dinner pork, chicken or fish with veggies. The food has all been pretty good quality. Occasionally, the meat will be a bit fatty or a little tough but for the most part it’s pretty good. Veggies, dips and fruit are always good. The breakfasts are always pretty generous. The zone diet was definitely more filling to me than the paleo. I would recommend the zone over the paleo. I am on my last day of the diet tomorrow because I miss going out to eat with friends for social events. I think dieting is definitely doable without being on this kind of diet but Chef by Request definitely makes things easier.

I did the service for a while and liked it. But as soon as I needed to cancel things got ugly. I was told I could not get a refund for food I wasn’t delivered, but I could have «credit» for future meals. Once I explained I was not going to be using the service going forward, they said their policy was that they could not do a refund. So now, I got no food AND they’re trying to keep my money. I was going to leave out the fact that they’ve messed up my delivery a few times in the past, but now I’m really frustrated by this whole process.
If you have a chance to work with a different service then do it. Customer service sucks. I should have listened to some of the people who had negative things to say.

Updated
They continue to send me emails trying to get back, but have never addressed any of the issues. I’ve found a much better alternative at Outside the Box. The food is better, you can choose what you want, so you will eat it and the team is much more friendly. Give them a try before you go to chef by request. You’ll thank me.
the food is to inconstant and the fact that you cant see the menu before makes it difficult to opt out of that day. In the end we found out that we were throwing more of the food away than consuming it. I would go back if they had the weeks menu and we could pick which ones we wanted and didn’t want. The pork and fish was always gross. Good concept, just need to give the user more choice.

Chef by Request is fabulous. It is hands down the easiest way to lose weight. In fact, it is so easy, it makes other methods of losing weight difficult. Chef by Request delivers your meals in a black bag at night or early in the morning. When you wake up, you pick up the little black bag from the front door. In the bag is everything you will eat for the day. What makes weight loss so incredibly easy is because there is no thinking involved on my part of what to eat. It is strictly disciplined eating. You eat breakfast around 6:30 am. You eat half of one of the incredibly delicious bars at 10 am. You eat lunch at noon. You eat the other half of the bar at 2 pm. You then eat a rather healthy sized snack at 4 pm and dinner at 6 pm. If you eliminate dairy (i.e. drink your coffee black) and drink lots of water, the program will work. Also if you can try and exercise 4 times a week, it is a bonus. If you are a food addict, this is for you. The beauty of the régime is that the 4 pm snack and 6 pm meal are generous, so you feel satisfied at the end of the day. After one week, the toxins are gone from your system and you feel incredible. You realize how addicting food is and when you engage in disciplined eating, your body, mind and spirit feels stronger. I have used Chef by Request for a couple of years now and I absolutely love them. The only thing I would say is that the vegetarian menu could be a little stronger and more creative. But, it is fine for me and the end result is about a 7 pound weight loss the first week and about 2 – 3 each week thereafter. Note: I am not a 20 or 30 something, so my metabolism is rather slow. This makes Chef by Request even more wonderful.

I’ve been trying a variety of nationwide fresh diet delivery services, and have to say that Chef by Request has been one of my favorites. They were the first place I tried, and it made it hard for most of the ones that followed as I was spoiled with my first experience.
The food variety is excellent, while the calories were kept low. I loved having such fresh ingredients, with many foods I probably wouldn’t have eaten on my own. The evening snack bars are a total treat, and they have enough variety you won’t be eating the same ones all the time. I’ll be getting extras in my next order to share with my kids.
During my 7-​day trial, I only had one meal that was a misstep — wilted cabbage that seemed to have gone bad even before being made into a slaw. In spite of that, the rest of the meal was excellent.
Once I’m done trying out the other services on my list, I’m 95% sure I’ll be going back to Chef by Request. Even the overnight deliveries were pretty great as they provide plenty of ice packs to keep things well refrigerated.