Plated Subscription Box Review + Coupon – October 2016

Plated delivers a weekly box of pre-portioned fresh and seasonal ingredients, everything you need to cook their chef-designed recipes at home in your own kitchen. Each week, they offer a different menu, and you can select which dishes you’d like to make, how many plates of each dish you’d like to serve, and when you’d like to receive your delivery. You can skip a week at any time.

At least three of the dishes offered on every menu are vegetarian. Plated also regularly rotates in vegan and dairy-free options. They’re committed to using sustainably sourced seafood, seasonal produce, and meat that’s free from antibiotics and added hormones. (Check out Plated Menus to see what's coming in future weeks!)

Plated also makes it easy to pick recipes that suit your lifestyle. Each recipe clearly lists calorie content and prep time.

Check out all of our reviews of Meal Delivery Services to see every meal kit subscription box option!

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The Subscription Box: Plated

The Cost: Recipes begin at $12 per plate.

• 2 recipes (4 plates)= $48 per week (+ $6 shipping).
• 3 recipes (6 plates)= $72 per week (with free shipping).
• 4 recipes (8 total plates)= $96 per week (with free shipping).

COUPON: Free dinner for two with purchase of 3-dinners plan ($24 value), 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 US. (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.)

Check out all of our Plated Reviews and discover more meal boxes in the Meal Subscription Box Directory!

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Each week, Plated offers a different menu with at least 7 dishes to choose from.

When my box shipped, I received an email letting me know that I would need to have the following “pantry items” on hand: olive oil, black pepper, and kosher salt.

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from Plated announcing they’re introducing “encore recipes.” From now on, weekly menus will include a selection of previous fan favorite recipes. I think this is a great change, and I definitely noticed a couple of my personal past favorites included.

Plated packs every box with meats on the bottom, surrounded by cold packs, and everything else on top, bundled by recipe.

Unfortunately, as I started to unpack this box, I noticed a few problems. The salmon for the poke dish was sealed in plastic and then wrapped in brown paper, and when I pulled it out of the box I noticed that the paper was very wet. At first, I thought the wetness was just condensation from the cold packs, but I removed the paper and discovered a sizable hole in the plastic seal. The spring mix for the pizza was wilted and soggy, and the rice for the poke broke free from its packaging and was all over. I reached out to Plated about these issues, and they responded to me within the hour with a $30 credit.

Meal #1-  Korean Beef Tacos with Bell Peppers, Gochujang, and Kimchi

Calories Per Serving: 750

Cook Time: 35-45 minutes

I love that Plated has decided to add encore recipes to their weekly menus. I think it’s a great idea to increase menu variety with proven customer favorites! For this box, I decided to pick three of the encore recipes, to see how they shape up.

My first pick was Korean tacos. I first discovered gochujang (a fermented and spicy Korean red chile paste) thanks to subscription boxes, and it’s since become one of my favorite condiments. I’m always looking for new ways to incorporate it into my cooking, and these tacos sounded delicious.

I began by slicing onion and bell peppers, washing lettuce, and slicing scallions. I warmed up the tortillas in the oven and marinated the onion and peppers in a mix of soy sauce, sugar, and gochujang.

Next, I browned the ground beef and added in the marinated veggies.

When the veggies were soft, I plated the tacos by layering lettuce, veggies, beef, kimchi, scallions, and some additional gochujang on top of each tortilla.

These tacos were delicious! All of the ingredients worked together really well, and I really enjoyed how the gochujang added a bit of heat and the tangy kimchi cut through the richness of the meat. My one complaint is that the meat was just a little on the oily side, but other than that this dish was perfect.

Meal #2- Truffle Pizza with Burrata, Honey, and Pistachios

Calories per Serving: 750

Cook Time: 25-35 minutes

When I was browsing the encore recipes for this week, I was so excited to see that this pizza was one of the available options. I tried this recipe a few months ago when it was offered as part of Plated’s regular menu, and it still stands out in my mind as one of the best meals I’ve ever had in a subscription box.

As I mentioned previously, the spring mix didn’t arrive in great shape. Luckily, the salad was only a small portion of the meal, and I was able to make the pizza and just omit the side salad.

I stretched out the provided pizza dough and topped it with fontina cheese and truffle oil.

I transferred the pizza to a hot oven and I let it cook until the edges started to brown and the cheese turned golden and bubbly, for about 13 minutes.

I topped the pizza with burrata, pistachios, and honey and returned it to the oven to let the burrata melt slightly.

The smell of this pizza cooking was incredible. Truly, I wish it were somehow possible to bottle up the rich, cheesy, truffle smell and include it in my review. Wow. The taste was great, too, and maybe even better than I remember. It’s a shame that the spring mix arrived wilted and I wasn’t able to make the side salad for this meal (I don’t want to overlook that problem), but, honestly, I didn’t miss it.

Meal #3- Salmon Poke Bowls with Avocado and Brown Rice

Calories: 790

Cook Time: 30-40 minutes

Given that the salmon I received was damaged and the rice was all over the place, I wasn’t able to make this dish. I did, however, save the avocado I received for future use, and I ate the small container of seaweed salad.

Verdict: I have some seriously mixed feelings about this box from Plated. On one hand, the two meals I was able to make were both incredible, and I think it’s exciting that Plated is now offering a weekly selection of encore recipes. On the other hand, from the improperly sealed salmon to the wilted spring mix and spilled rice, I had quite a few issues with ingredients in this box. The top of the box was a little dented when it arrived, so perhaps the box was dropped in transit? That might explain the rice, but certainly not the spoiled greens… Spring mix is pretty delicate, so maybe it was just packed too close to the cold packs? I really can’t say. Still, I’m pleased with the quick response I received from Plated’s customer service, and I think the credit I was issued is a fair resolution to the problem.  

Do you subscribe to Plated? Are you excited to try (or revisit) some of the new encore recipes?