25 of the Best DIY Restaurant Kits Available Nationwide
Lockdown might be over, but fine dining at home doesn't have to be
One of the modest upsides of the first lockdown was that lots of great restaurants worked out ways to supply customers with professional-quality food at home and lo, the DIY kit was born. By now, even more are getting in on the action, given the attractive-to-all-parties premise: the restaurant kitchens prep and/or pre-cook dishes, pack them up, and deliver them to your door with idiot-proof instructions, and trust us, we would know.
Now that we're slowly being released into the wild again, the DIY kit might be slipping your mind. But if, like us, you've failed to score a reservation at any of the now solidly booked for 4 months restaurants, or you want something delicious to soothe your hangover from your first night 'out out', look no further.
Mr Wilde
If you ever tried one of Walty and Monty's absolutely delicious charred meat wraps when they popped up in East London a few years ago then you'll need little convincing about the culinary quality behind this new home delivery service which they've expanded into. Mr Wilde brings restaurant quality meals to your doorstep, like a perfect butter and rosemary chicken which comes with excellent sides like their 'ridiculous' roast potatoes and a garlic and feta dipping sauce.
Pidgin
Pidgin took the stuffiness out of the set menu when they launched in Hackney in 2015, allowing customers to experience a four course meal at a great price, with a menu that has never repeated a dish in all those years. Their at-home offering is just as innovative and delicious, with dishes like olive oil-poached cod with almond milk and wasabi, or a brown butter financier served with a pineapple tamarind ja.
Padella
The queue for Padella is almost as famous as the fresh pasta outfit's delicious fare, with people snaking around Borough market to get a taste of their signature beef shin ragu which is cooked for 8 hours until is becomes melt in the mouth and velvety soft. One small but significant upshot of the pandemic is that you can get that very dish without the queue but with all the same flavour.
Som Saa
The wave of modern Thai restaurants in London which includes Smoking Goat and Kiln, owe a lot to Som Saa for making truly authentic Thai food a prime feature of the city's culinary scene. Their at-home kit is truly a feast, with highlights that include a northern Thai sausage with an aubergine relish, and a beef red curry which will make you consider licking the pan clean.
Ambassador General Store
The names Gymkhana, Trishna and Brigadiers are enough to cause an almost worryingly Pavlovian reaction among London’s most discerning diners — this is some of the very best modern Indian cooking to be found not only in the capital, but anywhere in the world — so the news that those restaurants’ owners, the Sethi siblings of JKS Restaurants, have launched the online Ambassador General Store, delivering restaurant-prepared Indian meal boxes, ready-to-eat dishes and drinks nationwide, is a cause for major (socially distant) celebration. Each meal box reflects a restaurant’s signature style — such as Trishna's seafood box, pictured — while also offering a range of wine, beer and cocktails, through the platform’s Indian off-license Daru Shop.
Dinings at Home
Chef Masaki Sugisaki’s Dinings SW3, in Knightsbridge, is one of London’s leading Izayakas, where traditional Japanese cooking meets modern European, with seasonal sushi and sashimi made from the best Cornish-caught seafood. For the at-home service, which will go nationwide in early December, we recommend minutes (hopefully not hours) of fun with the make-your-own temaki handroll box (£135, pictured) containing nori sheets, sushi rice and fish and seafood including bluefin tuna akami, spring onion & spicy sesame aioli, and hand-dived scallop & taramo.
Home by Nico
Chef Nico Simeone’s six-strong restaurant chain, Six by Nico, has a unique concept: a different six-course dinner every six weeks. Little did he know quite how pertinent that idea would prove in 2020, when our desire for something – anything! – to break the monotony would be all-consuming, but here comes Home by Nico: two-person four-course meal kits with a new menu every four weeks. The current offering is all about Bangkok street food and includes (delicious) tom yum soup, panang chicken curry and pork pad thai salad, with coconut rice pudding with salted caramel for dessert and all for a very reasonable £60 (with a bottle of wine and bonus not-strictly-Thai cheese course).
Cash & Kari by Hoppers
New to the DIY-restaurant kit scene is this side operation from Sri Lanka and South Indian-inspired restaurant Hoppers in London (watch your spelling as there’s also a Hopper’s Cash and Carry in Nottingham, although they’d also probably be happy to hear from you). Try the Kalupol chicken kit (£45, serves 3-4) which includes a whole marinated chicken and sides, ready-to-fry lamb mutton rolls and pol roti dough, and a “Chocolate-Coco Biskut Pudding” to share/fight over.
Hawksmoor At Home
Hawksmoor changed up its at-home range in time for lockdown 2, with the introduction of The Rib-Eye Box, claiming it has all the makings of a perfect steak night (which the celebrated steakhouse group should know a thing or two about). The £125 box for two includes two 35-day dry-aged steaks, bone marrow gravy, “Matt Brown’s Ultimate oven chips” and sticky toffee pudding, washed down with Fuller Fat Old Fashioneds and a bottle of Quinta da Boa Esperanca ‘Guilly’s Blend’. Yes please.
Lyle's Provisions
James Lowe and John Ogier’s Michelin-starred Lyle’s in Shoreditch is new to the meal kit arena, but means serious business. Dishes that come as part of the regular Meal Box (£140 for two people) include crab and barley porridge and T-bone steak with beets and rendered beef fat, while the Game Box (also £140 for two) boasts a game liver parfait and a venison loin. Come the festive season try the world-famous-for-a-reason mince pie kits (£53), made from retired Jersey dairy cows. Yes, that kind of mince. No messing.
Pizza Pilgrims' Frying Pan Pizza Kits
Available nationwide from the early days of lockdown was #PizzaInThePost by Pizza Pilgrims: looks like a takeaway pizza box in the successful London brand’s signature green and white stripes, opens up to reveal individual pots containing pre-proved pizza dough, marinara sauce, Fior di Latte, basil, Parmesan and extra virgin olive oil (£15 for two people). You cook your Neapolitan-style pizza in a dry frying pan and finish it under the grill, giving you that satisfyingly charred base. Stormzy, apparently, is a fan.
Hame by AH
Chef Adam Handling, whose restaurants include Frog in Covent Garden, sold 4,000 cook-at-home meals during the first lockdown, but this time round he’s upping the offering with even more sophisticated dishes – not a lot of your neighbours will be whipping up “Lobster Wagyu” for dinner tonight, we can tell you. The two-person kits come at high-end restaurant prices – ranging from £110 to £305 – but consider this a much-deserved gift to yourself (luv ya, babe).
DIY Shoryu Kit
Maybe you can cook a noodle or two, but have you got a spare 12 hours to whip up a tonkotsu soup stock? OK maybe you do, but that’s not to say that it isn’t a hell of a lot easier to order a kit from superior ramen chain Shoryu, which start at £20 for two servings. You also get toppings like char siu BBQ pork belly, beni shoga red ginger, and kikurage mushrooms, though if you want an egg on top you’ll have to set aside a whole six minutes to boil your own.
Smokestak At Home
Barbecue glory to your door comes from Shoreditch-based Smokestak, whose chef David Carter delivers six build-em-yourself buns to be filled with pulled pork (£27.50) or beef brisket (£30) that has been smoked over kiln-dried English oak for up to 15 hours. You can also buy feasting boxes of the meat on its own (well, with sauces and garnishes), and come December, Smokestak’s Christmas specials will include whole smoked turkey, treacle-cured smoked gammon and whole smoked Goosnargh duck. Ho, ho, and indeed, ho!
The Dishoom Bacon Naan Roll Kit
If you need it, there’s a YouTube tutorial of Dishoom co-founder Kavi Thakrar making the Bombay street food chain’s famous bacon naan for those who purchase the breakfast kit, for £16. Designed for two people, these packs contain three batches of naan dough (one extra in case of mishaps), chilli jam, Ramsay of Carluke streaky bacon, cream cheese and coriander, plus pots of spices and ginger for a cup of Masala chai.
Bao Made-By-You Kits
You can enjoy London restaurant chain Bao’s pillowy Taiwanese buns in the comfort of your own home with these £20 kits that include either six classic pork bao (12-hour braised pork, coriander, fermented mustard greens and peanut powder) or six vegetarian daikon bao (panko daikon, coriander, hot man sauce). You can also add sweet red bean bao for pudding, or plain gua bao if you want to invent your own (Dairylea bao anyone? Surely worth a shot...)
Sabor En Casa
Sabor en Casa, from the Michelin-starred Spanish restaurant co-founded by Nieves Barragán Mohacho and José Etura, offers a £58 “Counter” box, or an "Asador" box for £70, containing dishes such as creamy prawn croquetas, and Calasparra rice to be simmered with a squid ink bisque until deep, dark and al dente. A tiny bit more technique is required than some kits, but the effort is well worth it.
The Reuben Sandwich Pack by Monty's Deli
We wouldn’t ordinarily suggest a sandwich as a glitzy treat, but if you’ve had a Reuben from Monty’s Deli you know why it’s on this list. Starting at £28, the kits provide a light rye loaf from The Snapery Bakery, sauerkraut, mustard, Russian dressing, cheese and enough pastrami or salt beef for two to three people, which can either be made into several modest sandwiches or two mega-stacks (which, clearly, is the way to go).
Bocca di Lupo At Home
Tour the regions of Italy from the comfort of your kitchen with the ingenious feasts devised by Jacob Kenedy’s Soho stalwart Bocca di Lupo, which offers finish-at-home dishes from different regions of Italy each month. November takes you to Puglia, offering three-course feasts for two with dishes including salt-baked bream and honey and rosemary lamb shoulder, while in December they’re going truffle-tastic (a description which, strangely, they haven’t adopted themselves) with a trove of delicacies from Piemonte. Prices start at £48.
Round the Cluck Buttermilk Chicken Burger DIY Kit
Chef James Cochran of 12:51 restaurant in Islington is a man of many culinary skills, but his elevated take on jerk chicken is the dish that deservedly made his name. Now it’s available in burger form – buttermilk chicken burger to be exact: crispy-coated jerk chicken thighs with blue cheese mousse, bacon crumb and Scotch bonnet jam. A £32 kit feeds four. You will not be disappointed.
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