Ever-changing lockdown restrictions have forced chefs and restaurants to be creative and create different ways for you to enjoy their food outside outside of a dine-in service, meaning we’ve now got tons of takeaway options and an ever-expanding selection of DIY meal kits. Here are some of our fave new ones to get on order pronto.
Oklava’s Turkish-Cypriot Supper
Get a taste of Oklava at home with this brand new meal kit from Selin Kiazim. Her Turkish-Cypriot Supper box features her take on adana kofte with spicy tomato, yoghurt and brown butter, plus sides of roasted Cyprus potatoes with confit garlic & herb mayo, dolma, and a grilled onion & pickled cabbage salad with pomegranate dressing. And if you really want to make it a weekend feast, you can add on a medjool date butter & smoked bacon toastie to have the next morning.
Après Food Co
For the times when you just don’t have the energy to cook but you don’t want to order a massive takeaway, having a stash of healthy meals in the freezer is a lifesaver. And that’s exactly what Après Food Co does. They produce organic, nutritionally balanced, restaurant standard meals like slow-cooked Sri Lankan lamb curry, Thai vegetable curry with cauliflower pilau, roast Mediterranean vegetable lasagne, and sticky toffee pudding – yes dessert is most defo allowed as part of a varied diet – making it easy for you eat good food without having to go to any effort. And all the packaging is home compostable too.
Dishoom Home Feast
They nailed their DIY bacon roll kit and now Dishoom are boxing up their daytime dishes with their new Home Feast kit. It contains some of the restaurant’s most-loved dishes, including the House Black Daal, Mattar Paneer, Lamb Sheekh Kababs, Murgh Malai, Bhel, Kachumber and Tawa Rotis, plus the Gulkand Mess for pudding, Mango Lassi to sip on and a Dishoom tea towel to mop up any spills during the prep. And for every kit ordered, Dishoom donates a meal to a child through their partnership with the Akshaya Patra Foundation in India.
Adam Handling’s Lobster Rolls
Adam Handling has teamed up with Restaurant Kits to bring you his take on the classic lobster roll. Being an Adam Hanlding box though, it’s not just your average lobster roll – it’s got lobster tail cooked in wagyu beef fat and fermented lobster brain mayo in a brioche roll, with a tomato & red pepper pesto salad and a potato salad with celeriac, grapefruit & lovage to go with it. And if you want to make it even fancier, you can add on a bottle of sparkling wine.
Oma Kitchen
Oma Kitchen is a recipe box company with a difference – instead of sending out all the bits you need to make a set of dishes along with a step-by-step recipe, they send out a selection of ingredients and provide info on where they come from and how to use them. The idea is to encourage you to discover different produce and build up your cooking skills.The boxes change monthly, with the ingredients selected by a different chef around a specific theme (the likes of Ivan Tisdall-Downes, Tom Cenci and Jay Morjaria have all done boxes with themes like sustainability in food, North American road trip and food for the Seoul), plus a booklet containing tips and tricks on what to do with them but ultimately what you make is up to you. A great one to try if you need some inspo but don’t want to be hemmed in by pages and pages of recipes.
FARE
FARE is a new food box biz that’s all about championing British producers and the supply chain, which has been suffering the effects of Brexit as well as being hit hard by the pandemic. There are six boxes on offer, including the Deli FARE (with Norfolk pork pies, British salami and Suffolk butter), the Breakfast FARE (with Cornish bacon, Stornoway black pudding and eggs from the Cotswolds) and Fisherman’s FARE (with Lancashire potted shrimp, Cornish crab and Scottish smoked salmon). Not only are the boxes a great way to discover new products, £1 from every box sold also goes into the FARE Fund, which invests in new food businesses and donates to UK farming charities.
Heritage
A slew of new Indian spots are popping up in London and Heritage is one of them. Delivering to South London postcodes, they put a contemporary spin on traditional recipes and champion unusual foods from lesser-known Indian regions and communities. The dedicated at home menu offers a varied choice of set dining sharing boxes that cater to all tastes including vegan and vegetarian options. The classic Heritage Rajputana menu for two features signature dishes including Mysore Bonda, Murge Makhani, Kasmiri Lamb, Masala Aloo and Dal Makhani. If you fancy delving into Indian food that you might not have tried before, get on to this pronto.
Wahala Burger
This new entry comes from Executive Chef of The Ned, Mussa Fati, and photographer and filmmaker, Julian George, so you can bet it’s a good’un. These guys are hoping to celebrate West African flavours whilst also change the way we view African dining by teaming up with head chef of Akoko to launch a very spesh burger. It features beef patties, Suya smoked brisket, Suya mayo, caramelised yassa onions and Kaanee sauce. And there’s even a vegan option too, so everyone can get a taste of the action.
Supa Ya Ramen x Restaurant Kits
Cult ramen supper-club (which found permanent residency last year in Hackney) Supa Ya Ramen, has joined forces with Restaurant Kits to bring their new-wave bowls straight to our doors. This meal kit features their signature SUPA-YA seasoning paste, roast tomato broth, nests of Tokyo style noodles, fudgy egg, hispi cabbage, fried garlic, spring onions and parmesan – yep, the full works. It’s the most traditionally inauthentic ramen you will ever have the pleasure of slurping.
Bancone
One of London’s best handmade pasta restaurants, Bancone, has pimped their at-home menu. Expect some of our old-favourites like their bucatini cacio e pepe and spicy pork & n’duja mafalde, as well as some delicious new additions including a white veal ragù & black truffle rigatoni, kale pesto & gorgonzola casarecce AND a white chocolate mousse with amaretti and raspberries for desert. Londoners can get their pasta fix with delivery on Wednesdays and Fridays through Plateaway.
Burro e Salvia x Wildfarmed Grain
Shoreditch pasta joint Burro e Salvia has teamed up with grain growers Wildfarmed Grain for a limited edition meal kit, featuring fresh handmade pasta rolled in-house by the team at Burro e Salvia using the regenerative farm’s wholemeal flour. There’s a range of dishes to choose from including tagliatelle with braised leeks & parmigiano, strozzapreti with sausage & saffron ragu, and artichoke & pecorino tortelli with butter & sage. Each kit also comes with its own sauce, as well as step-by-step cooking instructions meaning you really can’t go wrong. Londoners can take advantage of local pick-up from Thursday to Sunday, otherwise nationwide delivery is available through the Big Night app.
Rainbo
You just can’t beat a good gyoza and now thanks to street food trader Rainbo, you can fill your freezer with them as they’ve just launched their Gyoza-At-Home delivery. Five varieties of gyoza – chicken, pork & Chinese chive, prawn, hoisin duck and shiitake mushroom – are available in freezer packs, alongside Rainbo’s own dipping sauce, chilli oil and excellent Japanese pickles. You cook the gyozas straight from frozen so it only takes a few minutes to have a plate of freshly steamed, crispy bottomed dumplings ready to eat. Londoners can get these on next-day delivery otherwise there’s a weekly nationwide delivery option, so order up a stash to make sure you’re ready for when the gyoza cravings strike.
Pataka
Pataka is a new Indian concept serving up seriously flavourful dishes, working from a ‘bright’ kitchen in Victoria (with new sites planned Bermondsey, Bayswater, Richmond, and Highgate). This isn’t your standard takeaway food though, back in India Arjun Baljee and his fam run numerous restaurants, all of which hold prestigious awards. While familiar faves can be found on the menu, there are some interesting seasonal dishes like wild mushroom rice with morels, tandoor spiced baby chicken with Pataka’s authentic tandoori masala, and truffle pecorino kulcha with black truffle oil, shiitake, pecorino and cheddar. YES, truffle and pecorino you read that right.
