MealPal offers month of loop restaurant lunch meals for $119

A lunch membership service is launching in Chicago that will give downtown workers the chance to sample from 75 spots every weekday.

MealPass, which started up earlier this year in New York, San Francisco, Boston and Miami, has rebranded as MealPal and launches in Chicago and Washington, D.C., today.

Here's how it works: For $119 a month, users will be able to choose a single meal from one of 63 participating restaurants (some have multiple locations) Monday through Friday. There are two additional less-costly plan tiers, too: $79 for 12 meals per month or $42 for 6.

Once a user registers, they'll go to the MealPal website by 9:30 a.m. every weekday and select their food and a 15-minute window in which they'll pick it up. Most of the restaurants are in the Loop and River North, and a majority are quick-service chains like Protein Bar, Just Salad and Freshii. But there are also a handful of Chicago favorites like The Fat Shallot, Peach & Green and Goddess and the Baker. The restaurants reveal their dishes at 5 p.m. the day before they're served. Participating restaurants will offer only one lunch dish a day to the service.

Having to decide on lunch by 9:30 a.m. means no last-minute changes and setting a delivery window could be problematic if, say, you get held up at work.

stoutisgoodfood wrote:It is interesting....there are about 6 or so places that are on our office rotation (so it's not just the barrel bottom scrapers). But the fact that I need to go on each night before and find out what single dish they've decided to sell me cheap is ridiculous. Lunch has gotten pricey - especially the last couple years - but I don't see this taking hold under the current rules.