Restaurant Meal Kits I Have Known And Loved

[Mountain Goat]

Via Dishpatch, I don't think there's anything on at the moment from them but they'll probably do an April one soon. For March they had only had a meat one for Nopi though (they had the celeriac schwarma for Rovi, but you've already had that).

[Ella77]

Ah, ok- thanks! I tried the website and it just links to that shitty, unusable Slerp interface that needs your entire life history before you can even see a menu.

[Mountain Goat]

Those are so annoying. Estate Dairy needs to know how much its butter means to me that I will tolerate that.

[Pippedydeadeye]

I quite fancy a Stein’s breakfast box. The shipping though!

[Mountain Goat]

How much is it?? I'm still recovering from my Hoppers £15 delivery charge.

Ella, new Ottolenghi meal kits up on Dishpatch now, the veggie one is aubergine siniyah if that appeals.

[Ella77]

Thank you! Off to look.

[purple_dress]

I am now browsing some of your suggestions and want this Tokyo Dive Bar Feast.
https://dishpatch.co.uk/feasts/tokyo-dive-bar-feast

That looks amazing!

[Pippedydeadeye]

How much is it?? I'm still recovering from my Hoppers £15 delivery charge.

Ella, new Ottolenghi meal kits up on Dishpatch now, the veggie one is aubergine siniyah if that appeals.

£10.95 for a Saturday, £7.95 for a Friday.

[Mountain Goat]

Oof, not a Saturday then!

[Suzi.Q]

I am looking forward to dinner tomorrow night!

[Mountain Goat]

That looks brilliant.

[Rebel Pebble]

Wow, that looks excellent, Suzi.

There seems to be a lot more on Dishpatch than last time I looked.

[H1ppychick]

Just out of idle interest, to what extent were restaurant meal kits a 'thing', pre-pandemic? I had never heard of them even as a concept this time last year. I can imagine some restaurants have expanded their turnover (and possibly even profits also) considerably as a result - there is no need for front of house, they can order in exactly the ingredients needed to fulfil the orders received, the limitation is on the kitchen and given that they don't need to service a dining space, that could be cheaply sited on an industrial estate somewhere, expanding on the off-site cooking operations I believe were already in place for a lot of restaurants. Just wondering as it seems like it's a fairly robust business model and one which would continue to be attractive post-pandemic.

[Derek Nimmo]

I think the issue is that restaurants always made their real money on booze rather than food, and also that they're still having to pay for their fixed costs like rent unless they want to give up their premises for good.

I like the idea of kits very much (I don't believe they existed much, if at all, pre-pandemic), and hope that a number of places continue them as a profitable side-line in the future, but I think once we're all released it will be like the roaring 20s and everyone will want to be OUT.

[Mountain Goat]

I don't think they existed pre-pandemic, and yes, a lot of restaurants have said they plan to continue. I think the weak point in the business plan is the delivery but it's a pretty good business model otherwise. Personally I expect to continue to use them, but as an alternative to delivery food rather than as an alternative to dining out.

[Pippedydeadeye]

I will definitely use more, as a way of trying places I might not get to go to otherwise. Our takeaway delivery options are quite restricted.

I’m going to work on C about the Stein’s breakfast box.

[Ella77]

Maybe for your birthday, Pip?

[Pippedydeadeye]

That’s what I was thinking, though I now reckon he must have Yorkshire roots because he looked and said “£35 and you only get 6 rashers of bacon!” so he has been tasked with creating the same thing, or better, for less.

[bramblerose]

A lot of the restaurants that we work with are looking to keep on with delivery/boxes. They had to adapt bloody quickly, especially up in the North where we've had restrictions for longer (and Leicester). I think we'll continue to use boxes or better quality take away but hopefully we'll still eat out.

I don't think I'll be rushing to eat out (Indoors) though. We'll probably stick to outdoors out where we can.

[mojojojo]

I hadn’t tried them at all until I got a dinner for my birthday from Kolamba the other week. It was lovely and still felt special.

We’ve gone for Aktar at Home for our anniversary this evening - I hope it’s as good as it looks. We went for 4 people so M could have some too, but there’s absolutely tons of it