Plated Review

Important update: We regret to say that Plated was forced to shut down its subscription service in mid-November 2019. The service is no longer processing orders and its meal kits are now exclusively available in grocery stores. If you still have credits attached to your Plated account, you should expect to have them refunded to your card as soon as possible. For some excellent Plated alternatives, be sure to view our list of the best meal kit delivery services. 

If you’re looking for a meal delivery service that’s the best replacement for Plated, check out Home Chef.

Plated is a New York-based meal kit delivery that has been on the market since 2012. In just a couple of years, it has managed to grow from a mere start-up to one of the industry leaders, setting and raising standards in food quality, menu variety, and flexibility ever since. If you are a home cook seeking a completely personalized meal kit cooking experience, read this Plated review and find out why this company is one of the best meal kit delivery services in America.

It is only noon and our Plated box is already here! Looks good on the outside; we cannot wait to take a peek inside.

What Is Plated

Plated is a subscription-based service that provides everything you need to cook your meals in less time and with less effort. As a Plated patron, you receive pre-portioned ingredients and beginner-friendly recipes of your choice on a weekly basis.

The recipes at your disposal are unusually numerous and change every week, allowing you to diversify your diet and expand your culinary repertoire. Keeping in mind the varying cooking skills of its customers, the service provides easy-to-understand instructions that guide you through the entire prep and cook process, which takes about 30 minutes on average.

Striving to help its patrons eat more healthily, Plated offers natural and organic ingredients that are good for your body and sure to please your palate. Many of the products included in its kits are hard to come by, which is just one of many good reasons to give this service a try.

It is further important to note that Plated subscriptions are easily modifiable and ordering is highly flexible. You get to decide on the number of kits you get per week, the number of servings per kit, and the recipes you want to try out next. At Plated, everything is geared toward your needs and convenience.

Simply put, Plated is a complete solution for stress-free home cooking. It allows you to decide on all the details, it boasts one of the richest menus in the business, its ingredients are always fresh and natural, and its recipes are designed with even the most inexperienced cooks in mind.

How Does Plated Work

Plated offers 3 meal plans that allow you to cook 2, 3 or 4 times a week for 2, 3 or 4 people. You can pick any dinner or dessert recipe from the menu and receive your recipes and ingredients on the day of the week that best fits your busy schedule.

Every week, there are around 30 recipes on the menu, including delicious dinners, brunches, appetizers, sides, as well as delectable desserts. The recipes are designed for a range of different diets, from vegetarian to low-carb.

Well-packaged ingredients of high quality and colorful recipe cards that make our mouths water. Exactly what we hoped to see when we unbox our Plated delivery.

After you pick your meals and place your order, the Plated staff gets busy, handpicking the finest ingredients and carefully measuring them, so each recipe would yield perfectly satisfying portions. Your recipe cards and ingredients are carefully packed, transported in insulated boxes that preserve freshness, and delivered straight to your home.

Just like the meal plans, the subscriptions are incredibly flexible. You can pause, modify or cancel your subscription at your convenience, no questions asked. You just need to make all the desired changes before your order is processed, that is, by noon 6 days before the scheduled delivery day.

Plated is a complete solution for stress-free home cooking. It allows you to decide on all the details, it boasts one of the richest menus in the business, its ingredients are always fresh and natural, and its recipes are designed with even the most inexperienced cooks in mind.

What Makes Plated Different

As we mentioned previously in this Plated review, this unique service has managed to differentiate itself from the rest by offering greater variety and flexibility and higher food quality than most similar solutions on the market. It does not only offer dinner recipes but also comes up with incredible appetizer, brunch, side, and dessert ideas every week. Plated offers a completely personalized ordering and cooking experience, with easily modifiable plans and subscriptions. It chooses nothing but the best ingredients, so your meals are rich in both flavor and nutrients.

It carefully chooses its suppliers and exclusively cooperates with farmers that employ the best sustainability practices. The meat you receive from Plated is raised without any antibiotics or added hormones. The produce is exceptionally fresh, always natural, and organic whenever possible. Plated uses fish from sustainable fisheries and provides special artisan ingredients you cannot find in stores. The result is a huge difference in both quality and taste, which you are sure to notice instantly.

Flamboyant miso-glazed eggplant, on the table in 34 minutes. Prepared by the Plated chefs (above) vs. our cooking and tasting team (below). Expectations exceeded!

Plated Meals and Recipes

Like we already said in this Plated review, the service offers about 30 new recipes each week, carefully designed by professional chefs to fit any level of cooking skill.

Dinner recipes are the most numerous, with around 20 options available every week. They can be divided into two basic categories – weekly recipes and encore recipes. Weekly recipes are the ones freshly crafted by the Plated team and featured for the first time on the Plated menu. Encore recipes are the ones that were featured on the menu in the past weeks and received the highest ratings from the company’s customers. Thus, whether you want to try something new or play it safe and choose the meals that everyone loved, the Plated menu has plenty of options to satisfy your desires.

In addition to dinners, Plated offers 4+ brunch recipes (each serving 2 people) and a couple of appetizers (each serving 4), sides (each serving 2), and desserts (each serving 4 to 8). Therefore, you do not have to stop at just weeknight dinners but instead you can create a full feast complete with appetizers and something sweet at the end of the meal.

Plated has gone the extra mile to ensure that its recipe cards are so gorgeous you want to keep them in your cookbook forever.

Although the service does not offer separate meal plans for individuals with special dietary needs, it does provide plenty of options for all the most common diets. Every week, the Plated menu features recipes suitable for omnivores, vegetarians, individuals allergic to gluten, and people who prefer low-carb and low-calorie meals.

In order to help you choose your meals more easily, Plated has sorted its meals by categories. Depending on your dietary preferences, you can filter the meals by main protein source and view dishes featuring meat, seafood or veggies only. Alternatively, you can apply additional filters and view gluten-free, low-carb, quick-prep, stovetop-only or meals under 600 calories.

It is important to emphasize that Plated does not only aim to satisfy your dietary needs but also expand your culinary horizons. Its recipes are incredibly innovative and inspired by numerous world cuisines, like French, Italian, Indian, Mexican, Chinese, and traditional American.

Another major success in our test kitchen. Whether our Mongolian steak stir-fry (on the right) looks better than the one cooked by the Plated team (on the left), you be the judge. All that we can say is that it tastes amazing and it was ready in just 23 minutes.

As far as meal preparation is concerned, it is minimized, as all the ingredients come in just the right quantities. The recipes are simple, with several easy steps and clear instructions that guarantee perfect results. The meals are usually ready in no more than 45 minutes and some may take as little as 20 minutes to make. Hands-on time normally ranges between 10 and 30 minutes.

Plated offers a completely personalized ordering and cooking experience, with easily modifiable plans and subscriptions. It chooses nothing but the best ingredients, so your meals are rich in both flavor and nutrients.

How Much Does Plated Cost

At Plated, meal kits cost between $8.95 and $11.95 per plate. The prices vary in accordance with the number of kits per order and the number of servings per kit (the more food you order, the less you pay per plate). Shipping is free on $60+ orders.

If you choose to cook for 2 people, you pay $10.95 to $11.95 per serving. With the 3-serving option, you pay $8.95 to $9.95 per serving. In case you are cooking for 4 people, the price per serving is the same as with the 3-serving option – $8.95 to $9.95.

Take a look at the pricing overview below to find out how much you would pay per week with each of the available meal plans.

Where Does Plated Deliver

Plated meal kit delivery is currently available in about 95% of the United States. It does not ship its meal kits to Hawaii and Alaska, as well as several major cities in the state of Texas, including San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Laredo, and Midland.

Plated meal kits are packed neatly and shipped with care, so you never have to worry about undesired spills and dents. Plus, they stay cool for hours after delivery.

If you’re not sure whether Plated delivers to your area, you can simply enter your zip code during signup to get a confirmation. This way, you don’t have to worry about subscribing and then finding out you’re not in the delivery range.

On the plus side, you get to choose the delivery date that works best for you. As stated before in this Plated review, you do not have to pay for shipping if your order is worth $60+. Furthermore, you do not have to be at home to receive your delivery. No signature is required and the boxes are insulated, so they can usually keep your food fresh at least until midnight of the same day.

Plated Pros And Cons

To make sure Plated meets all your standards and expectations, it is important to know its biggest advantages and disadvantages. With a short overview of its pros and cons, you can easily decide if Plated is the right meal kit service for you.

Sample Dishes

If you subscribe to Plated, you can easily prepare culinary masterpieces using only the ingredients and recipes found in your meal kit box. You may not be a pro chef just yet, but with Plated, you can easily make restaurant-grade meals. You don’t have to take our word for it – check out the images below to get a better idea of the types of dishes you can enjoy with Plated.