LDNGuide
The Best Meal Kits Delivering Nationwide
Ask us what our favourite meal kit was a couple of years ago and we’d probably pause a little wistfully, before reminiscing about Dairylea Lunchables - truly ahead of its time. Well now, restaurants have caught up. You can get hand pulled udon, London’s most famous bone marrow, all delivered straight to your door. Or, to the door of someone you love. Because these meal kits deliver all over the UK.
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The Meal Kits
Vegetarian options available
Tagliolini with black winter truffle, lasagne alla bolognese, and pumpkin agnolotti are just some of the pastas you can order from this Italian spot in Hackney. There are plenty of sauces if you’re looking for something to pair with their handmade pastas. Or, you could just get a whole tiramisu instead. All their pasta is freshly made and there are plenty of other things to tempt on their online shop, like a big ball of burrata Pugliese.
Vegetarian & vegan options available
Corbin and King - the people behind iconic London restaurants The Wolseley, Fischer’s, and Brasserie Zédel - are bringing people joy in the shape of cardboard up and down the country with their heat-at-home kits. There are classics like Fischer’s beef goulash, Zédel’s mousse au chocolat, The Wolseley’s wiener schnitzel, and lots more.
Vegetarian & vegan options available
Ottolenghi recipes are a favourite and a nemesis of kitchens the world over, but now they’ve made things much easier for everyone. They’ve launched an app that does the sourcing and foraging of any ingredients and/or spices you might have thought were a typo. Joking. They’ve made things much easier with their ready meal range. There’s a box for two where you can choose from things like roasted aubergine with medjool date salsa and cumin yoghurt, or squash with tahini and za’atar. Alternatively, you can order pouches individually, or just get a celeriac shawarma kit for two.
Vegetarian options available
Thoughtful gifts come in all shapes and sizes including rectangular ones with a golden pastry lid. Empire is Gunpowder’s new delivery service, sending out homemade lamb or shahi mushroom dum biryanis, alongside other bits like beef boti kebab, aubergine salan, and more. You can find their two-person feasts over on Dishpatch.
Vegetarian & vegan options available
A big carb-filled care package is never not welcome, especially when it’s got the loving generosity of an Italian mamma involved. Pacco di mamma (mamma’s package) is how La Mia Mamma in Chelsea is describing their enormous care package. It’s full of DIY and ready-to-eat bits, from pizza dough to arancini, to homemade sauces, and a kilo of pasta dough in case you’re feeling confident. The mega-package is made for two, but you can also order it for one if you prefer.
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Vegetarian options available
Names can be deceiving, but Quality Chop House’s is not. Everything about this restaurant, wine bar, butchers, and deli screams, in the words of a Sky Sports commentator, absolute top, top quality. You can enjoy it all in your own kitchen as well. Their legendary, almost mythological, confit potatoes are available vac-packed and ready to arrive on your doorstep. While their QCH @ Home kits feature courses on courses, like slow-cooked glazed beef cheeks with a black truffle sauce, or mushroom cavatelli with 36-month aged parmesan.
This spot is Permanently Closed.
Vegetarian options available
There was a point during the pandemic where getting your hands on one of Bao’s DIY kits was as hard as securing a four-pack of toilet roll. Such is the power of this Taiwanese spot’s fluffy buns. Luckily, that time has passed and it’s now much easier to order some of their signature 12-hour pork and peanut powder bao directly to your door. As well as their iconic bao, you’ll also find cocktails, sake, cute custard buns, and limited edition collaborations with other excellent London restaurants on the online shop.
Vegetarian & vegan options available
Our favourite meal kits are the ones that involve meals that you’re less likely to cook at home. And how can you have cooked a naco if you’ve never heard of one, right? We’re unsure of the etymology of the naco (it’s a naan taco, FYI) but we do know that we think Cue Point are certified geniuses. Their DIY naco kits - which come with smoked meat, either brisket or lamb, mini naan, toppings like Afghan green chutney, crispy onions, and sour cream - are delivering across the UK.
Vegan option available
Back in the Great Before Times, Koya was renowned for excellent udon and not-so-excellent lunchtime queues. Luckily, with Koya Mail - hello, exquisite branding - you can eat their udon and dashi with zero queueing required. They offer next-day delivery throughout the working week, simply choose your delivery date at checkout and get hyped to enjoy London’s best noodles.
St. John, adored by Anthony Bourdain, featured on the Paris Fashion Week runway, and the sort of place some people [waves] want to get married at, is the darling of the London restaurant scene. Only now, you can get a taste of nose-to-tail at home - as long as you act fast. The legendary restaurant is shipping a three-course meal, including that roast bone marrow with parsley salad, braised duck leg with aioli, and Eccles cake with Lancashire cheese.
Vegetarian option available
There’s a big difference between having the time to slow-cook lamb for nine hours and wanting to slow-cook some lamb for nine hours. Enter Tacos Padre, a great little taqueria in Borough Market that has a little online shop full of Big Taco Energy. We’re talking fresh corn tortillas, extra spicy habanero guacachile salsa, picante, beef short-rib suadero, and of course, slow-cooked lamb barbacoa. Their DIY kits start at £27, but we’d highly recommend getting involved in a pouch of their homemade margarita too.
Vegetarian & vegan options available
Picture this: a whole chicken marinated in Kalupol spices and butter, a pot of warming kari sauce beside it, and your growling stomach. It’s a match made in heaven. Or, rather, by Hoppers. The consistently delightful Sri Lankan restaurants now have an online shop, Cash & Kari, which is filled with all kinds of deliciousness. Just to note: these meal kits require a degree of effort, from shallow frying mutton or vegetable rolls, to roasting that chicken - but that only makes it taste even better.
Vegetarian options available
Padella is one of those places that nails the holy trinity of London restaurants: cool, affordable, and delicious. This ever-popular pasta bar in Borough Market is doing a changing selection of meal kits but you can expect dishes like handmade fettuccine with mascarpone and cured ’nduja, pici covered in Tamworth sausage, and their signature 8-hour beef shin ragu pappardelle. You’ll also find antipasti and cocktails available on their website, as well as a handy meal kit tutorial from their chef Tim.
Yes darling, I’m having chargrilled oysters delivered straight to my door by a 24-hour courier service. Err sorry, when did you wake up in a fabulous alternate reality where you’re a 21st century Jay Gatsby? Right now it turns out, thanks to Decatur. This Louisiana inspired pop-up was meant to open their first bricks and mortar restaurant last year, but then 2020 happened and they started sending out seriously excellent seafood meal kits instead. Yes there’s chargrilled oysters, but there’s also a huge shrimp boil situation ft. all the garlic.
Vegetarian & vegan options available
Like your billionth rewatch of Notting Hill, or little chat with your newsagent, you know what you’re getting with Patty & Bun. And you know you’re gonna like it. The burger mini-chain still tastes as good as it did ten years ago, and their DIY burger kits are about as straightforward a guarantee of satisfaction you can get. The Smokey Robinson - a beef patty with cheese, caramelised onion, bacon, and smokey mayo - is our go-to.
You might recognise the huge pieces of meat from Blacklock as the kind of thing cartoon characters throw at a rabid pack of wolves. This Soho steakhouse specialises in Meat. Capital M, giant, juicy slabs of meat including beef rump fillet, 700g Porterhouse steak, and pork chops. You can find all of the above in their online shop, complete with things like beef-dripping chips, white chocolate cheesecake, pre-bottled cocktails, and their in-house ales. Heads up, they also do a big Sunday roast situation involving duck fat roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese, and some very hefty Yorkshire puddings.
