Chef’s Plate Review in Canada

Sometimes, dinner can fall by the wayside as we are too busy to worry about planning a menu, picking up the ingredients, and cooking an hour-long recipe. Life gets busy, and taking care of ourselves is always the first thing to go, it seems. If you’re always on the go and never have time for a quality dinner, perhaps it’s time to consider one of the best meal kit delivery services in all of Canada – Chef’s Plate.

We had heard much about Chef’s Plate from recommendations but never got around to reviewing it until now. We decided to take a look at Canada’s most affordable meal kit delivery service to see if they really did live up to the hype they had gathered. Our process involved executing their process – selecting our menu, ordering their items, cooking their recipes, and tasting their foods. Here is our honest review of one of the best meal kit delivery services in all of Canada.

How Chef’s Plate Works

The Chef’s Plate process is pretty similar to that of most other meal kit delivery services, but they offer simple interactions along the way. The website will guide you through every step you need to enact to get your meals from start to finish. It all starts with selecting your menu for the upcoming week. Chef’s Plate offers a new menu of recipes every week – some repeats occur, which is nice as you won’t lose something you enjoyed.

Select the recipes that sound appealing and match your tastes and add them to your personal weekly menu. Once you have your menu selected, the website will guide you to the delivery page, where you can put in your information and get the delivery process started. They’ll ship out your box of ingredients and recipes from any of their distribution centers, and you’ll be ready to cook in no time.

It’s Really That Simple

The Chef’s Plate box is delivered directly to your doorstep so that you don’t have to go anywhere to pick it up. The whole process is quick and simple, eliminating the need to go anywhere or wait in any line. Once your box arrives, you get started on the cooking. Bring out all the ingredients and get started on the quick and painless 15-30 minute menu. The goal of Chef’s Plate is to bring you delicious, high-quality meals in no time at all.

From start to finish, Chef’s Plate seems to have your best interests in their focus. They understand that your time is precious and that the food needs to be fresh, tasty, and easily made. We found that their boxes were packed with some of the freshest ingredients available. Because they’re a smaller company local to Canada, they’re able better to tailor their service to the needs of the individual. Larger kit companies aren’t able to interact and service everyone directly.

Our Review of Their Process

So how does this process hold up when actually going through and ordering their plans? We were quite impressed with their services as far as selecting a weekly menu and getting the ingredients delivered. The selection process really was simple, and it left you excited about dinner again. When you’re busy, you tend to lose that excitement about cooking, but seeing the simple recipes and quality ingredients really brings back that joy.

Once your week was set, all you had to do was check out, and they would let you know the price for the week. Chef’s Plate – as with most meal kit delivery services – bills you based on what you order for that week, allowing you to vary the cost every time you order a weekly menu. The recipes we were able to choose from all matched our predetermined preferences and were all appealing, so we were left having to say no to some high-quality meals.

Receiving The Kit

We received the meal kit in a couple of days, and the ingredients were still fresh and left with little bruising. Most meal kits we ordered come with some bruises thanks to the delivery process, but Chef’s Plate individually wraps everything, limiting the amount of bruising. This individual wrapping isn’t great for the environment and takes time to unpack, which was a negative. However, seeing the fresh ingredients was quite impressive.

Cooking was simple and quick as the recipes sounded out every step for us down to the minute. It only took us 20 minutes to cook most of the meals – though preparation and organization were not included in the allotted time. We recommend adding 10-15 minutes for ingredient prep if you have a lot of vegetables to chop up and prepare. Overall, the process is user-friendly and true to the word of the company. You receive fast and delicious recipes that make dinner fun again.

Meals and Plans

Chef’s Plate seems to follow the industry trend and offers three different types of meal kit boxes. You can select your preference of box when choosing your plan and signing up for the service. Your options are the Meat and Veggies boxes, the Vegetarian boxes, and the Family Boxes. Each choice offers you a different array of recipes to choose from based on your preferences and dietary restrictions.

Meat and Veggies

This box is the most popular option for Chef’s Plate users as it offers the widest variety of choices. If your family isn’t vegetarian and enjoys meat or seafood, then this is a fantastic choice for you. You can select from many different recipes that feature meat and seafood dishes paired with fresh and delicious vegetables. You’re getting your classic meat and potato combos as well as a seaside dinner whenever you want.

The recipes in this plan are simple and can be made in as little as 15-minutes though we found more often than not, you’ll be pushing 30-minutes. That might be our lack of cooking experience, however. Chef’s Plate works with local farms and supply stores to receive their ingredients fresh and for lower costs so that your price stays down as well.

Vegetarian

For anyone that does not or cannot eat meat, Chef’s Plate offers an option for you as well. The vegetarian box is perfect for anyone living a vegetarian lifestyle. It enables users to easily pick and choose from any of the delicious and fresh vegetarian options available. We found that the vegetables that Chef’s Plate offers were some of their leading features – fresh and clean almost every time they came through.

Each of the vegetarian recipes focuses on providing users with a fresh and natural, plant-based meal that continues to provide you with the required nutrients. These include plant-based proteins like beans or meat substitutes. Many customers have said that the meat alternatives are just as good as the real thing – and healthier too!

Family Boxes

One of Chef’s Plate’s biggest customer bases is families with young children. Parents dealing with picky young kids are the most likely to be working all day and not having enough time to plan, shop, and cook for their family. Oftentimes they turn to these meal kit delivery services to take a load off of their shoulders. However, most kids will probably not eat meals like Spicy Thai Peanut Satay Chicken or Harissa Spiced Chickpeas.

Chef’s Plate offers an inclusive and delicious set of kid-friendly menus for families with picky young eaters. You can choose meals that suit both your tastes and your children’s desires. You won’t have to compromise with any family boxes as they are designed to provide a quality meal for everyone involved. The recipes in this section are enticing and seem to be high-quality, though we didn’t order from this menu when testing their services.

A Review of the Company

It was also important, we felt, that we take a look at the company itself. Their services really speak for themselves, and the food options they offer are quite delicious as well. The question is, how do they function as a company? They were founded in 2013 by Jamie Shea and Patrick Meyer and were based in Toronto. They became one of the first meal kit delivery services in Canada and have quickly become one of the most popular.

Reputation

In terms of official ratings, the Better Business Bureau gave Chef’s Plate a B+ rating, indicating a quality service and trustworthy company. Many critics have given Chef’s Plate a 4-5 star rating, with few going any lower. They seem to be well-liked among groups that review meal kit services, and their title as one of the best kit providers in Canada seems well-earned.

Customer reviews are high and seem to praise the company for its variety and delicious recipes. Positive reviews cite the speed at which the food is delivered and how easy the recipes are to follow. Any negative reviews are directly addressed and responded to by the company that has an active online presence. If a customer has any qualms, they seek to fix the issues presented.

As for our thoughts on the company, Chef’s Plate passes all tests that we’ve enacted. We loved their recipes and the easy services they offered as well as the company’s online presence. Having an active online team allows a company to address and respond to any issues that customers’ issues, which opens them up to the community. Customers feel heard, and their issues are quickly fixed when possible.

Eco-Friendly

Chef’s Plate utilizes individual packaging in their kits which uses a lot of plastic and unnecessary wrap. However, Chef’s Plate does a lot to help the environment and lower their carbon footprint. Firstly, they shop locally and try to eliminate the use of external shipping costs. They purchase from local Canadian farmers, fishers, and suppliers. This also helps benefit the local economy and promotes more farm-to-table interaction.

Chef’s Plate also donates 50,000 meals every month to charities like Second Harvest. This way, impoverished areas can enjoy high-quality, fresh meals for free. Chef’s Plate does a lot in terms of local work and charity donations. They seek to give back to the community that helped grow them, which is admirable and inspiring to see in a company.

Access Throughout Canada

Chef’s Plate was one of the first meal kit suppliers in Canada and has quickly grown to serve most provinces. Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, and Saskatchewan are all within the delivery range of Chef’s Plate. Unfortunately, not all provinces are serviced, and places like Quebec still don’t have access to these meal kits. Delivery is quick as many different distribution centers and delivery locations are available in the provinces where Chef’s Plate is active.

Chef’s Plate Plans

Getting started with Chef’s Plate is simple, and the customizable plans make it perfect for you. First, you can select your meal preferences. If you are a vegetarian, you can select the vegetarian box. Families with small children can choose the family box, or you can go with the standard meat and veggies plan. Once you’ve chosen by your preference, you can choose how many people the meals will service.

You can choose from 2-4 person-sized meals that can support your entire family or just you and a significant other. These plans can be changed, suspended, or cancelled at any time. If situations change and a weekly box aren’t feasible right now, Chef’s Plate allows you to suspend your plan with the click of a button. Make your plan right for you every week with these customization options.

Pros

  • Most affordable meal kit in Canada
  • Advanced customization options
  • Vegetarian options available
  • Delicious meals every week
  • Active online presence

Cons

  • It doesn’t service everywhere in Canada
  • Individual wrappings use a lot of plastic

Sign up today at cook.chefsplate.com!

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