Plated is a weekly meal kit delivery subscription that delivers you pre-portioned ingredients and recipes to help you make chef-designed recipes at home. They offer different weekly menus and randomly pick recipes for you based on preferences you submit when you sign up. If you'd rather pick your own recipes from the weekly menu, it's easy to hop in and change your order on their website or their handy-dandy app.
Plated is committed to using sustainably sourced seafood, seasonal produce, and meat that’s free from antibiotics and added hormones. Like most meal kits, Plated won't include standard pantry items (think salt, pepper, olive oil). They will, however, email you to let you know what pantry items you should have on hand for that week's box. Prep time and dietary details are listed with each recipe. And if you love a recipe, you can rate it and download a digital recipe card via your online account. (Highly rated recipes sometimes come back as "Encore" recipes for you to order again, so don't forget to leave your star rating each week!)
My Subscription Addiction pays for this subscription. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
This review is for the 2 recipes (4 plates) plan, which cost $48.00 per week (+ $6.00 shipping). I chose to have chicken, beef, shellfish, and fish as options to include in my recipes.
The Subscription Box: Plated
The Cost: Recipes begin at $12.00 per plate:
- 2 recipes (4 plates)= $48.00 per week (+ $6.00 shipping)
- 3 recipes (6 plates)= $72.00 per week (with free shipping)
- 4 recipes (8 total plates)= $96.00 per week (with free shipping)
- Dessert costs $4.00 per serving (available after your first order)
ACTIVE DEAL: Get 25% off your first four weeks (up to $159 in savings). No coupon needed - just use this link.
The Products: All of the pre-portioned fresh and seasonal ingredients you need to make chef-designed recipes at home in your own kitchen.
Ships to: 95% of the U.S. (Currently, Plated does not ship to Hawaii and Alaska, and there are also a few cities in Texas, including San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Laredo, and Midland, where they don’t yet ship.)
Good to know: Plated was recently purchased by Albertsons.
Check out all of our Plated Reviews and discover more meal boxes in the Meal Subscription Box Directory!
Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!
If you're wondering why my Plated review is so late this month, listen as I tell you of my delivery woes...
With Plated, you can choose your delivery day, and I have mine set to Monday. I also recently switched the delivery from my house to the MSA office, which seems to have affected things. They guarantee delivery by 8 pm and only guarantee freshness by midnight on the delivery day. I never saw my meal kit arrive on Monday, so I received an email saying, "We heard you didn't get your meals on time, so we've credited your account and told the driver to discard the box." Then, the next morning, our mail carrier pointed out the Plated box sitting outside around 10 am. I had to check the tracking to determine that it was delivered around 9:30 aM that morning, but the doorbell never rang, so no one in the office knew it was here. Since I didn't know where the box was overnight, I decided not to risk making the meals, since they contained meat. I salvaged what I could and disposed of the rest.
Since it was too late to re-order for the next week, I had to order my next delivery for two weeks later. Ugh. The second attempt went down differently, but just as badly. All day, it didn't show up, until 10 minutes after I left the office (around 6:30 pm) it was delivered quietly, without any doorbell ringing. Anna discovered the box the next morning and determined that everything was still cold and the ice packs were still solid, so she put it away in the refrigerator. When I consulted the Plated site, they do say to use your best judgment by doing exactly what Anna did.
Long story long, I want to mention that getting this delivered to an office that closes before 8 pm is not a great idea in my eyes. At least if it's delivered to my house, I'd see it before the next morning. Sigh.
Plated sends each meal mostly packaged together in a plastic bag, except for meat and any larger produce that may not fit. Each individually wrapped item is marked with the meal it belongs to so you can organize them in your refrigerator upon unpacking.
Beef Rendang with Lemongrass, Thai Lime, and Yellow Rice
Calories per Serving: 680
Total Prep and Cook Time (listed): 35-45 minutes
Actual Time: 45 minutes
Plated recipe cards come with a short description on the front and include the estimated prep and cook time and the calories per serving. On the other side, you'll see a list of ingredients, what you'll need from your kitchen (ingredients as well as tools), recipe tips, and step-by-step directions with photos.
Per usual, the first thing I did was wash and prep all of the vegetables. This recipe also contains rice, so I put that on the stove to start cooking before I got into anything else.
After the prep was done, I salted and peppered the steaks, then put them in a pan to sear with olive oil (even though the recipe called for canola oil, which I did not have). I cooked them for four minutes on each side because I like my red meat rare.
In a separate, larger pan, I sauteed the shallots in olive oil until they were fragrant.
I then added the curry paste and stirred it around, which was kinda clumpy and not super nice-looking.
But then I added the can of coconut milk and all was well! I love the smell of coconut milk cooking!
A lot of Asian recipes call for uncommon (by US standards) ingredients that add wonderful flavor. This meal calls for Thai lime leaves, lemongrass, and a knob of ginger, which will all be removed before eating. They made my kitchen smell so wonderful! I love lemongrass, especially.
By this time, my spiced rice had finished cooking and standing, so I fluffed it with a fork, as directed.
After the coconut milk cooked down a bit, I removed those special ingredients and added the green beans to the large pan to soften. Then I added the juice of half a lime to finish the meal.
Here we have everything plated, looking fiiiine. I put the rice down first, followed by the green beans, sliced steak, and then spooned the sauce all over everythang. I then garnished the dish with chives and lime wedges.
I am becoming really confident in my meat-cooking abilities with these meal kits! The steak came out just to my liking! My roomie thought it was a bit tough, but not due to cooking. I didn't really notice. I love green beans and seasoned rice, so I gobbled this all up with no problem. Meals involving Eastern flavors are really becoming my favorite.
I don't recall ever cooking with leeks, so this is going to be a new thing for me.
Fontina-Stuffed Chicken with Roasted Potatoes, Brussels Sprouts, and Peas
Calories per Serving: 720
Total Prep and Cook Time (listed): 40-50 minutes
Actual Time: 50 minutes
I've also never made any stuffed meat, which is why I chose this recipe. It looks delicious, and I love fontina cheese.
When I took a look at the ingredients on my counter and all of the directions, I started to get a little overwhelmed. But then I realized I am a seasoned meal kit veteran, and it's ok even if I do make mistakes.
Another fun cooking preparation is making a marinade, which I have also somehow never really done! Well, not something this involved. Fresh herbs are so wonderful, and this marinade has rosemary and fresh oregano in it! I whisked the herbs together with crushed garlic cloves, red pepper flakes, lemon juice, oil, and salt and pepper. So easy.
The prep for the chicken included butterflying the breasts, and if you recall my Home Chef review this month, I failed in an epic way. THIS WAS MY TIME FOR ATONEMENT. I did it! Then I dipped those bad boys into the marinade to chill.
While the chickies were marinatin' I quartered the brussels sprouts and cut the potatoes into one-inch pieces, then tossed them with olive oil, salt, and pepper on a baking sheet. They then went into a 425 degree oven for 12 minutes.
As I mentioned, I don't normally mess with leeks, so preparing them was new to me. I cut the stalks in half, then little half moons, then added them to a cool bath of water to wash off all of the dirt in between their layers.
Now is the time that the chicken breasts came out of the marinade to be stuffed. Not only was there fontina, but also gruyere, which is a semi-hard aged swiss cheese.
Basically, I made cheese tacos wherein the tortillas are raw chicken. Mmmm.
It was time for the veggies to come out, to add the clean leeks to the baking sheet, and to be put back into the oven for another ten minutes.
CHICKEN COOKIN' TIME. The cheese is going to ooze, ok? That's just what happens.
After six minutes on one side, I flipped them and dumped the rest of the marinade on top. This smelled rather lovely.
I pulled the potatoes, brussels sprouts, and leeks out of the oven and added the peas to warm through.
And here we have everything together. The roasted vegetables went on the plate first, with the chicken on top, then the garnish of lemon wedges.
I was afraid I overcooked the veggies, but they were perfect. The chicken was a bit more charred on the outside than I would have liked, but the cheese was super melty and brought it all together. It was still very moist.
Verdict: Plated and I are kind of in a fight over the delivery snafus, but I still very much love their food. I learned a lot with these meals and feel even more prepared to cook confidently on my own when I don't have a kit on hand. Even though their meals are $11.99 per plate, since I don't hit the minimum for free shipping, I am charged $6.00 per delivery which makes them $13.50 a plate.
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? No. The Plated menus change weekly and you need to lock in orders before shipments go out.
ACTIVE DEAL: Get 25% off your first four weeks (up to $159 in savings). No coupon needed - just use this link.
Value Breakdown: This box cost $54.00, meaning I paid about $13.50 per meal.
What did you get this week from Plated?
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