Plated Review: How Does This Meal Kit Delivery Service Stack Up?

In this transparent Plated review, we’ll look at…

• Ways Plated is different from other meal kits
• How the cooking experience was with our Plated recipes
• Who we think Plated is well-suited for

This is going to be a good one.

How Is Plated Different?

Plated’s story is one of its charms. The company’s creators actually didn’t get an investment on Shark Tank, even though they made a deal with Mark Cuban during the episode (it fell through afterward). A couple years later, Kevin O’Leary (the bald, rude one) saw how the owners were pushing through the challenges anyway, was impressed, and became an investor.

Aside from the story, Plated does have a few things that make it unique.

One big thing is that Plated also offers dessert kits for an additional $4 per serving. There are two to choose from and they always look amazing. At the time of writing, the options are:

• Hazelnut Marshmallow Squares
• Dark Chocolate Truffles

Yes, please!

Plated typically has 20 recipe options—the largest selection of any meal kit company. There’s something for everyone, with dishes intended to satisfy all types of palates and diets (including gluten-free, vegetarian, low-carb, and low-calorie).

And we have to say, Plated meals look the best of any meal kit company we’ve seen (probably just because they have the most mouth-watering photography on the website).

Of course, Plated’s ingredients are usually organic, GMO-free, and raised without hormones or antibiotics (for the meat).

Plated vs Blue Apron, Sun Basket, and Hello Fresh

We Tried Two Plated Meals... Here's How It Went

Like all the other meal kits we’ve tried, Plated arrived in a box filled with ingredients, insulation, and an ice pack. We did notice that the Plated box was smaller than those of Blue Apron or Sun Basket.

The ingredients were all labeled according to their recipe, but there wasn’t much of an organizational system in place. We just grabbed ingredients and placed them on the shelves of our fridge.

Like with Blue Apron, there were a couple things bundled into plastic bags, but we would have preferred Sun Basket’s approach, where the recipes are separated into their own brown bags for easy storage.

The raw proteins came double-wrapped in an extra layer of plastic. This was nice because we knew we weren’t touching meat juices on the outside of the packaging, but it was more plastic to recycle in the end.

The two recipe cards looked amazing (they’re really killing it on the food photography side of things). There wasn’t detailed nutrition information printed like what Blue Apron offers, but all that was available online for if we needed it.

Thankfully, 95% of the packaging was recyclable. The only part that wasn’t was the gel from the ice pack, which we just squeezed into the trash.

Meal #1: Spinach-Artichoke Skillet Pizza

The first meal we made was this vegetarian cast iron skillet pizza. We’re big fans of classic pepperoni pizzas, but the pictures of this one just looked so good—and for good reason.

The included pizza dough was incredible. It wasn’t that cheap crust you get from the grocery store—it was a real dough that required being kneaded onto the pan. And you could really tell the difference!

The rest of the cooking experience was easy. We chopped up the artichokes and spinach, sauteed the garlic and onion, mixed all the other ingredients together (sour cream, parmesan, mozzarella, salt and pepper), and piled it on top of the crust.

After about 20 minutes in the oven, we pulled out a golden-crisp pizza that smelled like heaven.

We loved every bite. Our only regret was that we didn’t order two pizzas.

Pro Tip: At first, it seemed like there was no way we could fit all the ingredients on top of the pizza without some falling off, but we made it happen somehow. As it all cooked, the toppings shrunk down to a normal size. Trust the recipe—the pro chefs at Plated know what they’re doing.

Meal #2: Pumpkin, Beef, and Black Bean Chili

It’s been pretty cold this winter, and this chili recipe looked like just the thing for a cozy night in. We weren’t sure about the pumpkin—we’d never thought of using it in chili—but pumpkin’s a warming and calming ingredient, so we went with it.

The cooking process was pretty standard for chili. Brown the beef, simmer the ingredients, and add fresh toppings like red onion, cilantro, and cheese.

There were really only two things about the experience that stood out:

• Adding pumpkin puree to the chili
• Frying our own tortilla strips

The homemade tortilla strips were crisp and tangy (because we added salt and lime), and the pumpkin made the chili more rich and dynamic than normal—it’s definitely something we’ll be repeating in the future on our own!

We loved this meal.

The Positives Of Plated

It’s clear to us why Plated has grown into one of the largest meal kit delivery services. Here are some of the things that really stood out to us:

The Negatives Of Plated

There are a few minor negatives to be aware of before you try Plated for yourself, however:

These negatives weren’t too big for us, but if you’re on a strict diet or need to be careful about the budget, you’ll want to keep these things in mind.