Plated July 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.

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.

Pork Tonkatsu With Yuzu Cherry Salsa And Arugula. 30 – 40 minutes, medium, 560 calories per serving.

I actually got distracted making this dish, and I breaded and started frying my pork before I realized I hadn’t pounded it flat.  It was still very tender and fried well.  The cherries were tasty, and they paired well with the pork.  the arugula was very plentiful — we only dressed about half of the container, saving the rest for later.  This dish was moderately simple, with the pounding of the chop being the only chore.

Feta-Stuffed Beeftekia With Green Bean, Tomato, And Kalamata Olive Salad. 30 – 40 minutes, medium, 580 calories per serving.

Beeftekia proves that the “juicy Lucy” is merely relabelling another country’s traditional food as an American innovation.  These seasoned, cheese-stuffed beef burgers were dripping with juice and packed with flavor.  The bean salad was likewise superb, pairing a lively texture with briny olive and sweet roasted tomato.  Very easy to put together for a “stuffed” dish.  The beeftekia were so juicy, that I did crave something to sop up all that flavor, and I think a pita or other bread would have been a great addition.

Oregano Chicken Kebabs With Creamy Basil Corn. 40-50 minutes, medium, 410 calories per serving.

The kebabs were very tasty, but the lemon was very intense and was a bit of a buzzkill when accidentally bitten into.  The heavy dose of fresh oregano was a fantastic touch, truly elevating the flavor of the kabob.  Sadly, no matter how long I soak my wooden skewers, I always manage to burn them to a crisp (and I’m too lazy to wrap the ends in foil).  The creamed corn was a revelation — sweet and succulent.  It was an easy preparation that is certainly worth the extra few minutes it took.  We raved about it and were wishing we had more of it, despite having polished off three ears worth of kernels!
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).