Restaurant Meal Kits
Say hello to dining out but eating in, enjoying restaurant standard food in your own home. So how about throwing caution to the wind and do dinner differently. Welcome to fine dining at home.
We have researched a number of companies that will deliver your dinner, even if you live in the sticks. Almost anything is possible. All you have to do is:
1. Lay the table. We recommend going the full hog with tablecloth, napkins, candles, best crockery, wine, background music
2. Get out of your grotty lockdown clothes and dress up. You might not have worn anything nice for months now, so go on… dig out something smart.
3. Don’t resort to watching telly after supper. Play a game, cards, read a book. Make an occasion of the whole evening.
4. Support these restaurants now and let's hope this at home dining continues long after lockdown. It's a great way for people to dine at restaurants they might not be on their radar or price bracket.
Dishpatch
The byline for this company is ‘Exclusive meals prepared by Britain's best restaurants.’ And indeed this is what you get, with many of London’s best restaurants on board. Ottolenghi and nose to tail eating with St John are both recent additions, Cafe Murano, Bubala, Andrew Edmunds, 10 Greek Street, Parsons. Your order is delivered on a Friday in readiness for the weekend, with a three course meal ready to go for two. All the cooking and preparation is done by the chefs and your input is to simply reheat where necessary. We tried Angela Hartnett’s Café Murano’s menu and it was superb. It was faultless and the joy of eating something that we hadn’t prepared was the best.
Dispatch is catching on fast and the majority of February's menus are already sold out. If you're interested, we suggest you regularly check in to see when they launch menus for March.
Adam Handling
Adam Handling, a winner of Master Chef when he was just twenty-three, is the owner of the Adam Handling Restaurant Group, which includes Frog by Adam Handling, Eve Bar and Adam Handling Chelsea. Mourning the permanent and temporary closure of his London based restaurants, it’s great to see the company offering a, at hame delivery. You can order a full blown menu for Valentine’s and Mother’s Day which are at the pricey end. Alternatively, the a la carte menu looks particularly appealing, with signature sourdough and a jar of chicken butter, signature mother dish of celeriac, dates and apple, Adam's Signature, Lobster Wagyu, whole truffle-stuffed roast chicken with mash and Caesar salad. You can also order wine and cocktails.
To order from the a la carte menu, visit and put in your delivery address and a date from 19th Feb onwards, you will then be able to order from the a la carte or package menus.
Supper
If you live outside Zone 1, Supper is not for you but if you’re interested in what they offer, stay tuned, as they may well extend their delivery radius. Supper has teamed up with yet more of London’s best restaurants, who offer an abridged version of their in house menus, all delivered by Supper’s very own custom-built bikes that have been designed to carry hot and chilled so that your food will be delivered in tip top condition. The range of restaurants participating is superb and you could literally eat yourself around the world. Cinquecento Pizzeria Notting Hill, Kanishka by Atul Kochhhar, Roka Mayfair, 45 Jermyn Street, where you can order fillet of beef wellington for 2 with dauphinois potatoes, green beans and peppercorn sauce or perhaps something lighter, raw cornish Mackerel and caviar tacos. Daylesford Organic, Notting Hill, where you can order salads, warm bowls served from 12 p.m. and signature favourites.
Ordering is almost on demand: there aren’t the long lead times and you can place your order with same day delivery. You can also collect.
Hawksmoor
If a really good steak is all you’re after, Hawksmoor is the place to go and its easy-to-make meal kits bring you the best of this restaurant chain. The cook-at-home steak boxes are as stress-free as possible, each arriving with full instructions and a How to Cook the Perfect Steak guide, along with a QR code to take you to masterclass videos with Executive Chef, Matt Brown (a former Head Chef of two(!) restaurants with 3 Michelin stars). Regularly changing boxes are available with and without alcohol. Delivered anywhere in mainland Great Britain, Saturday delivery incurs a £5 charge.
Rest assured that the steak has the best possible provenance, sourced from passionate British farmers. It’s dry-aged for thirty-five days in Hawksmoor’s aging room. In fact, exactly the same meat you’d expect to eat in its restaurants. The Sirloin box (£95) includes two steaks, Matt Brown’s ultimate oven chips, purple sprouting broccoli, Gentleman’s Relish and peppercorn sauce, all washed down by an Ultimate Dry Martini for 2 and a bottle of Montel Petit Syrah.
There are Roast Boxes for the ultimate lockdown Sunday lunch, with all the trimmings and apple crumble for pudding.
Bayou
With two restaurants in London, Tooting and West Norwood, this New Orleans style bar has joined the dine at home movement, offering Cajun food. For Valentine's Day it has created a southern BBQ style meal kit, which is a simple assemble at home job. The box includes Shrimp & Andouille Sausage Gumbo with Rice, BBQ Beef Short Rib, Mac & Cheese, Pickled Slaw, Charred Corn with Cajun Butter, Homemade Hash Browns & BBQ Beans and a Mississippi Mud Pie with Hot Chocolate Fudge Sauce for pudding. You can add a cocktail too, a New Orleans classic, Hurricane. Delivery is UK wide.
Pasta Evangelists
If pasta is on you eat-out wishlist and you can’t wait to get to your local trattoria, these are the guys that will deliver on all fronts. The pasta is superb, restaurant quality and the changing weekly menu always enticing. You can have a three course meal with a charcuterie platter with award winning cured meats from Tempus Foods to start. And there's even tiramisu for pudding. Job done. Go one step further, and set up a monthly delivery and you'll never be too far away from your next pasta supper. Favourites include Sicily's Famous Fennel Sausage Sauce with Rigatoni and Trofie with Walnuts. The Lasagne is one of the best we've ever eaten but it's not on the menu often.
Ooni
No fine dining here as you’ve got to stoke your pizza oven and cook pizzas from scratch but you’ll get the full pizzeria experience. This is FUN in capitals. Got a garden, teenage kids and want to get them motivated and involved? Make the dough and sauces from scratch. Light the oven and get it to the required super high temperature and you’re in business…
By Team GWG
February 2021
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My Web with Adam Handling
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