Plated Subscription Box Review + Coupon – June 2016

This week we grabbed a couple dinners from plated, as well as a great dessert.  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.

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.

Everything in our box! 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.

Roast Beef-Spiced Meatballs With Roasted Tomatoes, Horseradish, And Garlic Toast. 30-40 minutes, easy, 580 calories per serving.

This was a simple dish that had big flavor in each element.  The meatballs were nicely seasoned, and roasting and a dose of garlic added lots of character to the salad and toast, respectively.  This was also a pleasantly simple dish to make, as the oven did all the hard work!

Pesto-Grilled Chicken With Ricotta And Pea Salad. 35-45 minutes, medium, 690 calories per serving.

We were less enthused with this dish.  Though the preparation wasn’t as complex as some “cook and prepare everything then mix it together” salads, it still was a salad with multiple ingredients requiring separate cooking methods.  The biggest issue was the overall lack of harmony — the individual ingredients were quite good, but they didn’t really complement each other or come together as a coherent whole.   Still, the high quality of ingredients made for good munching, even if the dish didn’t wow. Both servings are shown combined in the picture.

Nutella Paninis With Strawberry Compote. 20-30 minutes, easy, 580 calories per serving.

This dessert had a surprising amount of nuance.  Nutella makes a great filling for any dessert, and this was no exception.  The individual Nutella packs are very solid, though (I recall the contents of the jar being more spreadable), so the bread was susceptible to tearing during construction.  Otherwise a very simple and tasty dessert.  The strawberry compote added even more gooey sweetness, but my favorite touch was the sourdough bread — the tanginess paired well with the sweet ingredients and made this treat memorable.   Both servings are shown — a substantial dessert for two (but our kids helped us devour it)!
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.  Up until recently, they would typically employ a French sauce with most dishes.  Lately, however, we have noticed more simplified and mainstream offerings, and they seem to be dialing back the pretentiousness and trendiness to appealing 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).