Plated Review
Plated is one of the many meal subscription boxes that delivers fresh ingredients directly to your door. These companies usually offer great intro deals, so I thought it was time for a Plated review. Over the years we’ve also tried Hello Fresh and Blue Apron. The concept is the same, but the quality of ingredients, price, and variety of meals offered varies.
Plated allows you to choose from 2, 3, or 4 servings per night and 2-4 meals per week. At 2 servings per night, the price is $11.95 / serving, but it drops to $9.95 when you add more servings. Obviously, this is ridiculously pricey, so we took advantage of a intro discount and used the extra $20 off from Ebates. Once you sign up, you can choose your meals from a rather large menu. However, there are definitely repeats from week to week. One advantage of Plated is the quality of ingredients. For example, one week we had both steak and scallops without any sort of upcharge. There’s also an option to add dessert if you’re willing to pay extra.
In our first box, we chose Pesto Chicken Penne, Seared Steak with Bok Choy, and Thai Beef Lettuce Wraps.
Pesto Chicken Penne
Although there was nothing out of the ordinary in this ingredient list, it was my favorite dish of the week! The pesto sauce was flavorful and creamy and the added tomatoes, spinach, and parmesan rounded out the pasta nicely. I also loved that the meal was ready in less than thirty minutes and I could easily handle all of the prep and cooking myself.
Plus, there were enough leftovers for lunch the next day. That’s always a bonus since we’ve had meals from other companies that left us both wanting more.
Seared Steak with Bok Choy and Sweet Potato Mash
It’s rare to find steak (not just ground beef) in these meal kits without any upcharge, so I was looking forward to this dish. I absolutely love sweet potatoes and bok choy too, but rarely buy them myself. I’m not even sure if our local grocery store sells bok choy? Since it was cold outside, we used our cast iron pan to sear the steaks and then the bok choy and miso cooked in the leftover liquid. All together, the meal was delicious!
It certainly felt like we were eating a restaurant meal due to the high quality ingredients. In this instance, it helped having Jay prepare the steaks while I got the sides ready. Together, we prepped and cooked the meal in about thirty minutes.
Thai Beef Lettuce Wraps
Lettuce wraps are extremely easy to prepare, but we never seem to make them at home. So, I was excited to see a Thai version on the Plated menu. As expected, this came together quickly and made enough wraps to satisfy both of us. I wish they had included more spices since the beef was a bit bland. However, the addition of peanuts and pickled shallots helped increase the flavor.
Although we enjoyed the meals and the quality of the ingredients, we chose not to continue using Plated at the full price. The cost is too high for us personally. However, if you don’t mind paying a premium for higher quality ingredients and quick-to-prepare meals, a Plated subscription might be worthwhile for you!
What is your favorite meal subscription box?
