Product Review: Dish’d Food Store

Gourmet is usually the last word you would associate with frozen home delivered meals, but new kid on the block Dish’d is looking to change that, with a wide selection of tasty and yes, gourmet meals delivered straight to your door the next business day after you order online at www.dishd.com.au. All you need to do is heat up the meals (or defrost them if they’re a dessert) and in about 5-10 minutes, you’ve got yourself a pretty decent dinner when you get home from work!

I decided to put their offerings to the test by catering an entire 3 course lunch for 4 people at my place with Dish’d items only which I had picked out from their website. Most of the Dish’d items come in a cardboard box with the cooking instructions (usually they’re microwaveable or can be heated in an oven or a pan).

I started “cooking” about 15 minutes before the first guest arrived, by throwing 3 types of entrees into the oven – the Prawn Baguettes, Petit Gratins de Crab and Thai Money Bags.

Prawn Baguettes (6) – $7.45
Thai Prawn Moneybags (12) -$8.80
Petit Gratins de Crab (8) – $11.95

Presentation wise, the adorable Petit Gratins de Crab with their creamy crab filling in mini crab shells were the crowdpleasers for the entrees, but rich breadcrumb gratin got a bit too much for us after a few bites. We much preferred the delicious Prawn Baguettes which had a wonderfully crispy base and an addictive prawn, coconut and garlic topping that reminded me of prawn toast at yum cha! The Thai Prawn Moneybags weren’t bad too, with their crunchy exteriors and vermicelli, prawn and shiitake mushroom fillings but the Prawn Baguettes were the undisputed highlight of the appetisers for us.

Moving onto the mains – we were impressed by the Mussels a la Mariniere, as the mussels were great quality and looked pretty nice when plated up, almost good enough to fool everyone into believing that they weren’t straight from a microwaveable box! The mussels were cooked in a French style white wine and shallot broth and it was quite a generous serving for the price.

Mussels a la Mariniere – $9.95

We then got our fill of carbs with 3 types of pasta – starting with the Casatella and Mascarpone Ravioli, which featured those 2 types of soft cheese being wrapped up in a creamy little parcel and coated in simple tomato and basil sauce.  It was surprisingly to see that the pasta was actually made in Italy according to the pack! This pasta was meant to serve 1, but we ended up sharing it between the group with the other dishes.

Casatella and Mascarpone Ravioli – $6.55

Next was another pasta authentically made in Italy – the Porcini Mushroom Taglierini which featured ribbons of pasta tossed with 5 different types of mushrooms. Apart from the porcini mushrooms, there were also button, oyster, shiitake and nameko mushrooms thrown in there for extra flavour and used in the light sauce too.

Porcini Mushroom Taglierini – $6.55 

The other pasta we had was the Penne Pepperonata which was a larger serving meant to feed 4. It was another meat-less pasta, but had an appetising sauce consisting of roasted red capsicum, crème fraîche,  onion and pepper. All 3 pastas were easy to heat up in the microwave for 3-4 minutes.

Penne Pepperonata – $5.45

Then onto the 2 decadent desserts – the gorgeous Black Pearls definitely do not look like they’re a packet dessert. They’re beautiful to look at with their pearl shaped exterior, flecked with gold dust. The pearls consist of a soft, dark chocolate mousse which encases a rich caramel chocolate within its center. The softness of the pearl is contrasted with the crunchy chocolate almond base, which complements it well.

Black Pearls (2) – $10.45

Our other dessert was the Chocolate Ganache and Salted Caramel Tart which was intensely flavoured with a rich chocolate ganache, divine salted caramel layer and a nice crumbly base. Just a note with the desserts – these need to be de-frosted for a couple of hours in the fridge before serving.

Chocolate Ganache and Salted Caramel Tart – $14.80

Our verdict is that Dish’d is a godsend for busy professionals who don’t have time to prep and cook gourmet meals when they get home from work. They’re also great for hosting dinner parties – the high calibre of their entrees and desserts will impress your guests and makes your life a bit easier, at a relatively affordable price too!

Check out their website for more of their offerings: www.dishd.com.au

Special thanks to Dish’d for sending us the meals to trial. 

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