Restaurant meal boxes - have you tried them?

So glad to hear all the glowing reviews for Cote. We love our local one and miss eating there. Might go ahead and order a meal from there.

Meant to report back about the Cote Brasserie meal we ordered recently. It was superb. Large portions. There were 8 eco-friendly ice packs around the lobster. The meals came in containers which could go straight into the oven. Magically the chips did not stick at all to the surface so have kept those. The creme caramels came in lovely earthenware pots which we will use again. Always have their creme caramel. Possibly best in Britain as some Londoners have stated. Highly recommend. Only strange thing is they did not ask for feedback which is a shame because they’d have got 5* from us.

We had a box for 2 last night from our lovely local pub. Breads, houmous and olives, 6 “small plate” dishes including halloumi fries, meatballs, sea bass, pulled pork, chicken breast, all with sides, and a selection of three small puds. All homemade and delicious, and we’ve enough left for another meal today. £35.

Not quite the same as popping round there to eat, but needs must!

We had a meal delivered from a local restaurant, it was awful.
I was so disappointed I’m not going to risk it again.
My lovely husband wanted to treat us as he feels I’ve done so much cooking.
I love cooking and have little else to do right now.

tidyskatemum We had the Rick Stein lobster meal last night and it was delicious. Thank you for recommending it.

A number of local restaurants here in Dordogne are doing take aways - we go to a local one we use for a treat when things are normal. The menu is reduced but everything is proper Restaurant food and we have three courses for ——-€12.50 each. We normally only eat two courses so keep the starter (salad of some sort) for lunch the next day.
Today we have duck breast ordered with a blue cheese salad as starter and a wonderful cherry tiramisu type dessert. The salad we will eat at tea time.
A place we give a miss does burgers type things - far more expensive - and we have a cordon Bleu chef who will do anything you wish. As we will be here on our own over Christmas we are thinking of having him do a beef Wellington for us.
If we were in UK I would order from Côte!

We’re thinking of ordering a Rick Stein meal for our daughter & her partner on her birthday, so thank you for this, [tidyskatemum]. Might try it for ourselves too! .

Much as I like and prefer my own cooking these sound delicious. I too would see it as a treat and set my table accordingly----just for myself, even though I'd do my best to plough through two meals as just ordering for one sounds a bit naff

Think of the Vicar of Dibley and her Christmas dinners hahaha.

Nightsky2

We had Beef Bourguignon from Cote last week with mash and minted peas with apple tart for dessert. Absolutely delicious and much cheaper than eating out.

That’s exactly what we had - nice sized portions too and the apple tartes came with cream

We had Beef Bourguignon from Cote last week with mash and minted peas with apple tart for dessert. Absolutely delicious and much cheaper than eating out.

Not a restaurant meal, but an Eat Fresh box, which DD orders each week. She orders four meals for her and her DH, and everything comes with it, including storage and recipe instructions. They are very pleased with them and are enjoying new recipes and trying new things.

I've been to a Rick Stein Restaurant and your description of Takeaway sounds much better than the meal I had in the restaurant but the views were better than I have at home.

We had three course Cote to celebrate a birthday this week. We are big eaters and found the portions generous. It was first rate and a treat to eat a restaurant meal without having todo anything more complicated than work out the timings.

Alexis Gauthier does a vegan box, his restaurant is now in Soho but I ate at his Pimlico restaurant years ago and the food was out of this world. DD had the vegetarian tasting menu which she said was superb.
We regularly order from Cote at home, I don't care for the desserts, too sweet for my taste but everything else is first rate.

I ordered a three course meal for three from our local very highly rated French restaurant, in the summer. It was DD birthday and she had been very ill (not COVID). I laid the dining table with a table cloth, best chin, glass and cutlery and it was almost as good as eating in the restaurant.

She mentioned yesterday how much it boosted her spirits at a difficult time, to be eating top quality restaurant food with a table to go with it.

my sister did Rick Stein and said it was brilliant

We have had Cote meals too and enjoyed them.

I might try Rick Stein after your recommendation tidyskatemum

Much as anyone might enjoy cooking surely one prepared by someone else now and again is a lovely treat isn’t it?

After over 40 years of cooking I welcome any chance of a break!

Thanks, suziewoozie, I’ll have a look.

Something else we’ve had is the Dishoom bacon naan kit, which DD bought for us. The best bacon butty ever!

Gosh! That’s way outwith my price range.
Thankfully OH is an excellent chef (I’m a competent cook) and we cook a huge range of styles from scratch (OK I’ll admit we buy our paratha frozen).
During lockdown we fought over who was to cook dinner as it is such a lovely pastime.

Maggiemaybe

Can anyone recommend a veggie one? DS and DDIL have an anniversary coming up.

Just looked - Cote have 4 vegetarian mains and then you csn choose starters, sides, puddings, wines etc

I’ve had two Cote ones - absolutely fine.

Can anyone recommend a veggie one? DS and DDIL have an anniversary coming up.

I’ve just ordered Cote Brasserie lobster & frites etc for 2 and creme caramel for my husbands birthday meal next week. It’s the first time I’ve ordered a meal like this online - I hope it arrives ok!