Plated May 2016 Subscription Box Review + Coupon

Plated is a weekly dinner kit subscription box with high quality ingredients and chef-created recipes. Each week you’ll choose from a variety of quick gourmet meals that range from meats, chicken, seafood, and purely vegetarian options.

There’s enough selection to please all palates, and the recipes are seasonally focused.  Plated seems to have made a concerted effort to offer some familiar comfort food type options each week.  You can swap out your recipes and skip any week you don’t want.  The last couple of weeks we haven’t needed many Plated meals, so this review actually covers two two-meal boxes.

Plated uses recyclable/compostable jute for its insulation.  It is made from reclaimed coffee and cocoa bean bags.  I couldn’t stand throwing it out, so I’ve used some as a mulch substitute around the trees and plantings in my yard.

Boxes are always packed with the meat on the bottom, underneath a few big ice packs — the rest of the food is set on top with more ice.

Plated sends a weekly email — it doesn’t tell you much about your meals, other than what you need from home. There’s now no reminder of the ease of preparation and all the other subscriptions provide some version of that.

On-card information is now streamlined and includes only prep-time, number of servings, and calorie count. Traditionally, all of Plated’s meals serve two people, but recently we’ve seen a few with 3 person serving sizes.  Unless stated otherwise, the pics of finished dishes show a single serving.

Plated’s recipes rely on mise en place and then cook – we often mix up the steps from how the recipe is written, but we’re both experienced cooks and know what can be accomplished while something else cooks. So, read your cards if you need the step by steps.

One of our two boxes!

All the food comes bagged up and separated (mostly) into the recipes — meat and some large or delicate items are bagged separately, with the meat nestled at the bottom of the box among the ice packs.

Blackened Fish Sandwiches With Avocado Mash and Creamy Aioli. 30- 40 minutes, easy, 800 calories per serving. 

These sandwiches were quite delicious, and the flavors and textures paired wonderfully.  The fingerlings made perfect steak fries simply halved and baked.  Everything was easy to prepare and came together quickly.  The blackening seasoning added a nice flavor, but I didn’t get a crust or true blackening, as the fish was cooked in a non-stick pan instead of blasted on cast iron.  The dogfish was a good choice of fish for the sandwich, as it was slightly oily, but firm fleshed.  The avocado was an inspired pairing for the dish.

Chicken Bowls With Rice, Tortillas, and Crema. 35-45 minutes, medium, 670 calories per serving. 

This dish had a very tangy and lively flavor profile due to the tomatillo and lime crema.  The roasted poblano added both texture and depth of flavor.  I think this dish could’ve benefited from a heartier grain or some firm kernels of roasted corn, as the juicy roasted veggies and crema swallowed up the soft grains of rice.  This dish was also quite a bit of work, as I had to prepare the rice, chicken, roasted veggies, sauce, and corn strips separately before mixing — this prep would seem reasonable for an ordinary dish, but this bowl really seemed like a salad where every ingredient needed an elaborate preparation.  The giant bowl above has both servings in it.

Hawaiian-Style Chicken Fajitas With Caramelized Pineapple. 40-50 minutes, medium, 700 calories per serving. 

Sweet and juicy, these tacos were a breeze to put together.  The light prep was great to see — all the fillings are cooked together and plopped into the tortilla, so there is not even an issue of having to stage bowls of toppings or anything of the sort.  The cucumber mint salad was a nice palate cleanser from the sweet main dish.  I would’ve loved a little bit of heat in these, but enjoyed them a whole lot as is.  The tortillas were really neat, too — they were irregularly shaped (a positive) and weren’t dried out — obviously cottage made.

Chicken Rigatoni With Creamy Marinara Sauce. 20-30 minutes, easy, 720 calories per serving. 

 This dish was both simple and delicious.  I loved the sauce, as it reminded me of a vodka sauce, but without the vodka.  The Sfoglini pasta is always great, and these big tubes really soaked up the sauce.  Rich, meaty, and creamy, this dish was superb.  The full two servings is shown above.   

We enjoy Plated and order it frequently.  Of the three meal kits we regularly order, Plated shoots for the most upscale image, echoing popular trends in food culture and usually employing a French sauce with every dish.  This batch of selections actually breaks the mold, as the dishes were very hearty and closer to comfort food.  I think they are dialing back the pretentiousness and trendiness (they even resisted calling their blackened fish sandwich a Po’ Boy!) and started to appeal to a broader audience while still offering top notch fare.

What do you think of Plated?

Visit Plated to find or more or to subscribe. Currently you can get 2 free plates when you buy 4 when you sign up with this link (no coupon code required).