Yes, the premium meal-kit has become the modern dinner host’s secret weapon. Equal parts restaurant and home-cooked hero, it offers precision-portioned luxury, chef-crafted sauces and ingredients that need minimal fuss before hitting the plate. Below, we round up six of the most delicious and distinctive options available right now – all a far cry from your average supermarket lasagne.
Main image: Dishpatch/ St John
Clay’s Kitchen at Home
This much-lauded Reading restaurant – famed for its refined Hyderabadi cooking – launched its nationwide delivery service to the delight of fans who crave those hard-to-nail-at-home dishes with real, layered complexity. Its At Home range is a showcase of Southern Indian craft: think Bhuna Venison exquisitely cooked with mint, coriander, cinnamon, cumin, cardamom, cloves, ginger, garlic, salt, chilli and turmeric; Dawat ki chicken, a dish so thrillingly tasty it’s easy to see why it’s usually reserved for weddings and celebrations; and Bhooni Kaleji (pan-fried chicken livers with Cumin, coriander, mint, dried mango powder, chilli powder, salt and turmeric), each slow-cooked, vacuum-packed and ready for a quick reheat. Portions are generous, and dishes can be mixed and matched for a true feast. What’s remarkable here is the authenticity of flavour – restaurant-level depth achieved with little more than a microwave or saucepan (at your end, anyway). No wonder Jay Rayner praises its ‘punchy cooking, cult success’, while William Sitwell calls it ‘blisteringly beautiful.’ Best of all, no one will ever know this isn’t the result of hours of hard labour in the kitchen.
Stein’s at Home
Rick Stein’s beloved coastal empire has long celebrated the best of British seafood; now you can bring a slice of Cornwall to your kitchen with Stein’s at Home. Each three-course box arrives chilled, perfectly packed and ready to finish and plate in minutes. There are three taste bud-tickling options: grilled scallops, lobster thermidor, and chocolate pavé with Cornish clotted cream; grilled scallops, pumpkin seeds, jalapeño butter and sourdough followed by Cornish hake with soy butter sauce and spring onion mash, and caramelised bread and butter pudding with cream; and finally, Thai fishcakes followed by an Indonesian seafood curry – a fragrant, spice-laden finale. The joy lies in the effort-to-impact ratio: a few minutes of oven time, a swirl of sauce, and you’re plating up something that looks and tastes like Mr Stein himself had rustled it up. Ingredients are faultlessly sourced and instructions clear enough for even the most culinary-shy of cooks.
Sabrina Ghayour
This may not strictly be a restaurant meal kit, given that the uber talented British-Iranian Sabrina Ghayour is not, in fact, a restaurateur. What she is, however, is an ultra-well-seasoned supper club host and author of a small collection of our very favourite cookbooks (Persiana still takes some beating). We adore the idea of this sharing feast. Centred around a spiced root vegetable, chickpea, feta and barberry bastilla, there are Persian-inspired nibbles aplenty too, including spiced tomato, aubergine and pomegranate dip za’atar and olive oil pitta chips. A dream of a sharing menu for four lucky guests.
St John
St John, with its understated canteen-style dining room and nose-to-tail ethos, is one of those foodie destinations that the cognoscenti rave about. Populated by achingly stylish designer types, its cooking is an inventive yet old-school celebration of the best of British produce. And to recreate it at home, all you need do is serve up its Glorious Game Supper, (serves two to three), which features gently spiced rabbit, pork rillettes and braised Normandy-style guinea fowl, served with mash so buttery, it’s a thing of silken beauty. And to finish? Ginger loaf, butterscotch sauce, pouring cream. We don’t mind if we do.
Michel Roux Jr
Ahhh to be able to cook the way the French do. And more specifically, to be able to cook the way the legendary Michel Roux Jr cooks French food. Now all that is possible (or, at the very least, you may convince your guests that it is) thanks to Monsieur Roux’s French Feast, which feeds two, and showcases the best of autumnal Gallic cooking, from goat’s cheese with honey to slow-braised pork cheeks, pommes mousseline, and sticky toffee apple pudding. Whatever could be nicer?
The Cookaway
Bringing together cuisines from Japan to Lebanon, The Cookaway delivers ingredient boxes designed by expert chefs (including MasterChef finalists). Everything comes fresh and pre-measured, but you still do the cooking – so it scratches the creative itch without the waste. Recipes are often healthier and lighter than many restaurant kits, too. We’re here for the Japanese Izakaya Experience, a four-person sharing menu of beef tataki, chicken karaage, crispy panko king prawns and noodles – all made with free-range Wiltshire meat.
