Hopefully, lockdowns are a thing of the past, but the DIY meal kits can stay…
Rather than delivering the finished meal, our favourite restaurants have put together all the ingredients we need to recreate their signature dishes from the comfort of our own home. From pizza to pasta, Thai feasts and juicy burgers, these DIY lockdown specials have been so successful that some have been hotter than a Glastonbury ticket. So, if you’re trying to nab one for a specific day (such as your flatmate’s birthday *hint hint*) you’ll need to move quickly.
We’ll add to this as we see more and please do get in touch if we’ve missed any – hello@crummbs.co.uk
Price: from £35. Nationwide delivery.
From the team behind Six by Nico comes HOME-X – a delivery platform with hundreds of different experiences to choose from. We tucked into a sun-drenched Sicilian feast including pici pasta puttanesca with chilli, anchovy and garlic to start, a meaty main of porchetta with cannellini bean cassoulet with fennel and orange salad on the side, and a generous slab of olive oil and almond cake with a dollop of mascarpone to finish.
But there truly is something for everyone, from a street food-inspired Bangkok menu, to bao buns and bone marrow burgers. Fresh meat, fish, and pantry goods can also be delivered (we got a cheeky ball of burrata on the side) and all menus can be expertly matched to a smashing bottle of wine. Better yet, boxes can be ordered within a 36-hour window nationwide, for those last min celebrations.
Price: from £60 (or £80 with wine). Nationwide delivery.
First, there was the Dishoom bacon naan kit, which was quite rightly so, a massive success. But NOW you can get your hands on an all-out Dishoom Home Feast, containing a very generous selection of the brand’s most-loved dishes – and by god it’s good.
The kit comes complete with all the ingredients and know-how to prepare a bountiful spread of grills, curries, breads, sides, and pudding, along with a few fun extras such as incense sticks, metal kebab sticks and a branded tea towel.
With enough to serve two-three people (four if you add rice!), expect house black daal, mattar paneer, lamb sheekh kababs, murgh malai, bhel, kachumber, and tawa rotis. You’ll also get creamy mango lassi (which we actually saved for breakfast), and a sweet, creamy rose-flavoured eton mess for dessert.
Not only that but for every kit sold, Dishoom will donate a meal to their long-term charity partner, Akshaya Patra, an excellent organisation that provides nutritious free meals to school children in India.
Price: from £75. Nationwide delivery.
Bring the pisco disco to your own living room with this luxe meal kit from Peruvian restaurant Lima. You’ll get everything you need to make a three-course meal (complete with fancy seaweed shards and micro herbs). Ours kicked off with impossibly fresh raw tuna, ready to be marinated for your ceviche starter (what else?). It came with avocado mousse and mango tigers milk – impressive stuff! Moving onto mains we tucked into slow-cooked short rib (which just required a quick heat up), served with corn puree and spicy aubergines on the side. The most delish pistachio cheesecake rounded off the evening, and we loved all the added extras such as crunchy corn in a fabric pouch, fresh bread and of course, the brands legendary bottled pisco sour. For a extra-special night in, we highly recommend!
Price: from £30. Nationwide delivery.
London-based Caribbean kitchen and pop-up, Juici Jerk has launched UK-wide deliveries of its home cooking kits, offering restaurant-quality ingredients, inspired by contemporary West Indian cuisine. Easily feeding enough for three people, we had SO much fun with this kit and thought it was great value for money. Boneless chicken thighs have been pre-marinated, ready for you to stick in the oven (or on the BBQ!), there’s a range of banging sauces (including a very boozy rum and honey flavour!), rice and peas, plantain fries, coleslaw and macaroni cheese. We’d never tried Jamaican festivals before (a type of Caribbean dumpling!) but we loved it all. The ingredients were top quality and the instructions super easy to follow. They’ve even included fruit punch – just add rum!
The Juici Jerk DIY Kits are available to order weekly and must be placed by midnight on Tuesday in order to arrive on Friday.
Price: £25. Delivery within the M25.
Patty & Bun were one of the first to get in on the DIY kit wagon and boy, what a kit it is. The patties are made with HG Walters beef and we were blown away by just how authentic these juicy burgers were. Be warned, your kitchen will STINK of aged full-fat beef afterwards, a small price to pay. Each kit contains everything (except fresh lettuce and tomato!) you need to make 2 x Ari Gold and 2 x Smokey Robinson’s. So that’s four burgers, four brioche buns (don’t burn them as we did!), streaky bacon, American style sliced cheese and pots of pickled & caramelised onions, as well as their special burger mayo. They’ve since released a vegan version for the same price and if they’re anywhere near as good as the original, these are sure to sell out fast.
Price: Pay what you can. Delivery to Greater London postcodes.
Another sell-out burger kit but this time Honest Burger is just asking us to pay what we can, with proceeds going towards a range of charities. As you can imagine, the response was insane (the website even crashed). So, if you want in you’ll have to be hot of the mark to win one of the 50 daily ballot slots. The meat is from Turner & George, another excellent butcher, and again, you’ll receive everything you need to make four burgers (except fresh lettuce!).
Lina Stores Pizza & Pasta Meal Kits
Price: £32. Delivery to London postcodes (you can check your postcode on the website).
You can buy all sorts from this sexy delicatessen – but it was the meal kits that really caught our eye. Choose from fresh pasta, dried pasta (and all the sauces) or the pizza meal set which includes 4 hand-rolled bases, balls of mozzarella and a selection of tasty toppings. A lockdown pizza party sounds like hella lot of fun!
The Good Egg Chocolate Tahini Babka
Price: £24.98. Delivery (check your postcode).
If there’s one local brunch spot we love, it’s The Good Egg. And if there’s one dish from their menu we miss more than any other – it’s their chocolate tahini babka! They’ve taken matters into their own hands to ensure we can still get our fix with this special bake-your-own kit. Containing (almost!) everything you’ll need to make your babka, the kit includes strong flour, sugar, yeast, salt, butter, eggs, choc chips and the all-important chocolate tahini and a recipe card to follow. You’ll just need to add milk and a few kitchen staples. The perfect lockdown treat.
Pizza Pilgrims Pizza in the Post
Price: £15. Delivery nationwide.
Frying pan pizza might just be our new favourite thing. And it looks like we’re not the only ones because it’s sold out every damn day. Make sure you’re online at 9am where each weekday Pizza Pilgrims will release another 50 pizza in the post kits to the lucky few.
Price: £18. Delivery to most of London.
Not only can you stock up on exceptional quality meat, fish, beer, wine and ready meals, Farang have also put together a selection of Thai Recipe Kits to keep you busy at home. Choose from Jungle, Massaman, Green or Red Curry – all of which are vegetarian.
Price: £25. Delivery London or Colchester.
Currently out of stock although we’ve got it on good authority that they’ll be releasing more in time for every weekend! Hurrah! Like the other burger kits, you’ll get everything you need to build four of their bacon butter burgers including brioche buns, their signature 35-day aged minced beef blend, pancetta bacon, cheese, burnt butter mayo and pickled onions. No, YOU’RE salivating.
Passo to Go – Make Your Own Pizza Kit
Price: from £18. Delivery on Deliveroo (from Old Street).
With such a damn catchy name it’s bound to be good right? Sadly this is only available on Deliveroo so you’ll have to see if they’ll deliver to your area. But it’s def worth having a look as they’re offering 40% off the entire menu! Choose from either a veggie or meaty pizza kit, both of which include two pre-made dough balls and all the toppings to create a masterpiece.
Price: from £12 + £4 delivery. Delivery – most of London.
There’s nothing quite like a Le Swine bacon butty to get your weekend off to a good start and whilst we can’t grab one at our local food market, it can come to us. Enough to feed either 2 or 4 people, each kit contains bacon, eggs, bacon butter (that must be why it tastes so damn good!), buns, sage, homemade ketchup and rather adorably, a voucher for a free bacon butty when they’ve reopened. Money well spent we say.
Price: from £20. Delivery nationwide.
Honestly, who needs a birthday cake when you can decorate your own doughnut? There are a few different kits to choose from but essentially you’ll receive a box of four plain doughnuts alongside all the glazes, sprinkles and sweeties to create a masterpiece.
The Cheese Bar Fondue it Yourself Kit
Price: from £45 (without stand) or £65 with. Delivery nationwide.
The British cheese industry has been hurt big time by COVID-19. Thankfully the clever team at The Cheese Bar are delivering a fabulous selection to keep our cheese cravings at bay until they reopen. However, if you wanna go one step further, this DIY fondue kit is just the ticket for a cheesy night in. Each kit contains all you need to make fondue for two and a bottle of wine.
Price: £20. Delivery London.
We were supposed to be heading to Tel Aviv this weekend. *SOB* Instead we’re getting our falafel fix via Arabica’s DIY kit. Each pack contains enough to make 5 filling wraps, including the falafel mix, chopped salad, tahini, chilli, crunchy pickles, flatbreads and the all-important step-by-step instructions to make sure they’re restaurant quality.
Price: £32. Delivery London.
Island Poké has packed an impressive selection of ingredients into their Home Poke kits, so you’ll feel just like you’re ordering lunch (except you’ll be following an Insta tutorial on how to assemble it yourself). There’s enough to make four bowls including both tuna and salmon plus extra sriracha mayo.
