Plated Subscription Box Review + Coupon – September 2016

This week’s Plated featured two flavor power h0uses!  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 has recently switched up their insulation.  They are currently using a recycled thread material.  All the food comes bagged up and separated (mostly) into the recipes — meat and some large or delicate items are bagged separately.  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.  This week’s box included a card announcing three-serving meals!  This is a great option for guaranteeing leftovers for a tasty and easy lunch!

If you’re on iOs 10 you can also install the Plated on the meals from your friends and fam.

On-card information is now streamlined and includes only prep-time, number of servings, and calorie count.  Most of Plated’s meals serve two people.  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.

Patty Melts With Baked Sweet Potato Fries. 30-40 minutes, easy, 830 calories per serving.

These were very tasty, but a little intense.  The burgers had lots of thyme and chives, and the mustard was very bold.  Adding a sharp cheddar to this rendered a powerfully flavored burger.  I loved it, but it could’ve been dialed back just a bit.  The sweet potato fries were a nice, simple side, with a bit of cayenne for kick!  I loved that these were pan-fried, as it made for easy prep.  Between the buttered toast, juicy burger, and the gooey cheddar, this was definitely a finger-lickin’ dish!

Chicken Marsala With Roasted Fingerling Potatoes. 35-45 minutes, easy, 710 calories per serving.

The chicken cooked well with the thin flour coating, developing a tender crust that helped the sauce cling.  We loved the rosemary potatoes, and they were so simple to prepare!  The Marsala sauce had tons of bright flavor — the wine added a beautiful tone, but I think the overall balance of the dish would be improved by cutting back slightly on the lemon juice.  Recipes that incorporate fruit or vegetables tend to call for the entire item, even if split between different dishes on the plate.  This was one instance where restraint would have been preferred.  The sauce was good, but very lemony!   Even with the three components to the dish, it was fairly easy to put together (I do make it a little harder I myself by preparing mushrooms separately from sauces and adding at the end to accommodate mushroom-phobes)!
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.  Traditionally, they would employ a French sauce with most dishes.  They’ve since incorporated more international flavor and included many simplified and more mainstream offerings.  They seem to have dialed back the pretentiousness and trendiness, 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).