Hi Everyone!

Today, I’m reviewing Chef’s Plate. This post is not sponsored or affiliated with Chef’s Plate. I’ve always wanted to try a meal delivery service. There are a few options in Canada, I went with Chef’s Plate.

*Descriptions in italics are taken from the Chef’s Plate website.

To start, you select the meal type:

• Meat & Vegetables – our widest selection of recipes in one meal plan
• Vegetarian – Delicious vegetarian recipes packed with fresh produce, whole grains and plant-based protein
• Family Friendly – exciting recipes the whole family will enjoy

Then you select the number of people (2 or 4 people) and number of meals for the week (2, 3 or 4 meals). 

I chose Meat & Vegetables, 4 people and 3 meals per week. We tried 6 meals total because I wanted to try at least 1 thing from each: vegetarian, fish, beef, pork and chicken. I decided not to try any pastas or burgers. 

Both boxes were delivered before 10am. There’s no delivery email or anything. So, you just have to be on the lookout on the day of your delivery. Similar to UberEats, it’s delivered by a third party. It’s not delivered in a Chef’s Plate delivery van.

The meals are packed in a box with an insulated liner and non-toxic ice packs. There’s instructions on how to dispose the gel once the ice packs thaw. Inside the box, each recipe comes in a brown bag with the ingredients. The meat is packed separately under the bags to ensure that the meats stay cold during transit.

The first box was a bit soggy – the outside of the box. I don’t know if they package up the items the night before or the morning of delivery. It’s possible the box got soggy while on the delivery route.

I think the brown bag packaging needs some work. I know things get jostled along the way, but packets of things can gets squished under the weight of the veggies. The ingredients come in packets, plastic tubs and containers. There was a small soy sauce explosion for one of the recipes, but otherwise everything was fine. The vegetables were all very fresh and were not bruised from the trip. I feel like there’s a lot of plastic packaging. I don’t know how it could be improved upon though since anything other than plastic would be too expensive.

Some things to note:

• 15 minute meals took longer than 15 minutes
• • Even with 2 people prepping, it takes a while to prep the ingredients and cook them. Some took 30 minutes. So be mindful of that. If you have 2 or 3 people working together, it might be faster.
• The recipes are very simple, but they do use a lot of spices (garlic, chili, black pepper). I have a sensitive stomach so I had to cut back on some of the spices.

Below, I’ve provided a description of each recipe (from the Chef’s Plate website), the category (quick meal, vegetarian, etc.), a rating (out of 5 stars), and a little blurb on what I thought of each one.

Sweet Potato Sushi Bowl with Sriracha Aioli

Vegetarian – 35 minutes

We’re deconstructing sweet potato sushi rolls into a colourful and craveable bowl – complete with an obligatory sriracha mayo drizzle. Edamame, crunchy cabbage, and buttery avocado mimic the flavours of the Japanese favourite.

You could add meat/fish to this if you’re a meat eater. I found it filling enough with the avocado and sweet potatoes. This recipe uses sticky rice and I actually really liked it. I wasn’t sure I’d like it, but it wasn’t overly sticky. It’s not as healthy to use sticky rice though, so I would replace it with regular rice.

Pork Souvlaki Bowl with Greek Feta Sauce and Spinach Orzo

15 minutes

Escape to Athens with our hurried-up version of street-cart pork souvlaki! Orzo gets lots of love with Greek-style fixings, hit with chunky tomato-pepper salsa and a generous dollop of Greek feta sauce.

I was excited for this because I enjoy souvlaki, but I found the pork a bit too… porky. I also thought that the dill sauce was a bit too dill-y lol. I would’ve preferred a tzatziki sauce instead of dill. I did like the greek yogurt texture, I would just replace the feta sauce spice mix for a homemade tzatziki recipe.

Filipino Chicken Adobo with a Maple-Soy Glaze

15 minutes

Filipino adobo is famous for its signature soy-garlic sauce that makes anything it touches taste delicious. This recipe is no different, with glazed chicken tenders served over a warm bowl of rice with broccoli and crispy shallots sprinkled over top.

I was a bit disappointed with this one. This came with an Adobo spice mix that has cornstarch, garlic powder, ginger powder, and cracked black pepper. I get stomach aches from eating too much black pepper, so I sifted the mix to get rid of some of it. It just tasted like a regular stir fry with sauce, but I did like the addition of crispy shallots as a topping.

Grilled Mediterranean Salmon with Asparagus and Freekeh

BBQ, 40 minutes

Let’s dine alfresco tonight, with grilled salmon and summer veggies inspired by fresh and vibrant flavours of the Mediterranean coast. A dill yogurt sauce pairs deliciously with lemony marinated salmon, served on top of a bed of warm freekeh.

Instead of freekeh, they sent couscous. This recipe is very similar to a dill salmon recipe that my mom makes. I think I prefer my mom’s since this uses a cold greek yogurt sauce. I like grilled vegetables and this recipe calls for a spice mix using basil terragon and garlic powder. I think I could’ve used less of it or gone without it.

Italian Sausage & Mozzarella Calzone with a Spinach and Feta Salad

35 minutes

Get in the ‘zone’ wth these fresh-baked handhelds, boasting a spiced Italian sausage and mozzarella cheese interior. For an enlightened side, dive into a zingy spinach salad with tomatoes and feta.

I really liked this calzone recipe and would definitely make it again. The sausage wasn’t too spicy and even the parts where the pizza dough was a bit thicker was still good. I definitely need to practise working with pizza dough though.

Steak and Swiss Cheese Melts with Roasted Garlic Aioli and Baby Greens

15 minutes

Taking cues from the Philly classic, seasoned steak is loaded onto a roll and blanketed with melty swiss cheese. The best part about making it from home? Elevating the sandwich with roasted garlic aioli and a fresh green salad.

This was a good recipe as well, but I think it could be improved by using thinly sliced steak. These strips were a bit thick. With better quality steak, I’m sure this recipe could be even better. 

Ranking the meals from favourite to least favourite:

1. Sweet Potato Sushi Bowl
2. Italian Sausage & Mozzarella Calzone
3. Grilled Mediterranean Salmon
4. Steak and Cheese Melts
5. Filipino Chicken Adobo
6. Pork Souvlaki Bowl

Final thoughts:

It’s a nice service if you don’t have time to go grocery shopping. It can be quite expensive if you don’t use the coupon codes, so make sure to find one online. There’s probably one to get a discount off your first box.

I would definitely make the recipes again, but I would just tweak them a bit. After reading these reviews, it’s apparent that I’m not big on using too many spices. I feel like they give you an excess of spice mix. I think I just wouldn’t use 100% of what’s provided.

When you go to the “On the Menu” page, they have the weekly recipes. If you see a recipe you like, you can click on it and it will show you the ingredients and steps to make the recipes.

As someone who hates talking on the phone, I liked that it was easy to cancel this service without having to call or chat with anyone online. You just click the button to cancel and it’s done! I’ve tried the GoodFood smoothie box and I had to chat with a person online to cancel the service.

Have you tried a meal kit delivery service? Which is your favourite?

Love,