Restaurant 22 at Home
The “at home” dining revolution seems to have really taken off during the third national lockdown. With no clear reopening date in sight for the hospitality industry, alongside the experience gathered during the last twelve months, there are more restaurants offering “at home” dining kits than ever before. They’re a fantastic opportunity to continue to support the restaurants we love, as well as something new to treat ourselves to during the monotony of lockdown.
We’ve tried a number of fine dining restaurant kits over the last 12 months, as well as gifting others to friends. This gave us an opportunity to try local Cambridge restaurants such as Vanderlyle for the first time, which normally has a three month waiting list, although we couldn’t compare the at home offering to the in-restaurant experience. Nationally, Six by Nico is one of the larger fine dining restaurants offering delivery across the UK and we were excited to recreate the experience of their Liverpool restaurant at home. Unfortunately, the kit was disappointing. We weren’t blown away by some of the Thai dishes, for example a poor quality chicken thigh in a coconut curry sauce, similar to our own dinners. The dishes felt like they had been simplified too much for an at home experience and they were missing the clever, playful takes on classics that Six by Nico is renowned for. However, it was a well-rounded box which included a bottle of wine, as well as a cheese course, which helped the experience feel like a true treat. They have since reviewed their offering and they are now focusing more on “cook-along” experiences to recreate their in-restaurant menus.
Then, Restaurant 22 announced that they were launching “Restaurant 22 at Home.” For us, lockdown has been a great opportunity to discover home cooking and develop our own kitchen skills, and Restaurant 22’s new “At Home” box offered the perfect opportunity to combine one of our favourite restaurants with the chance to cook something new. We were lucky enough to be able to dine in person at Restaurant 22 in October for my birthday, and I was blown away by the stunning local produce, rich flavour combinations and attention to detail – so expectations were high for an at home version!
Luckily, Restaurant 22 At Home met and exceeded our expectations. Everything was slick, from the simple ordering process to the packaging and presentation. The collection process was simple and safe; we parked outside the restaurant, phoned with a description of our car and the box was delivered to our open boot with no need for any contact. Our box was packed full of individually packaged elements for 7 dishes, reflecting the traditional menu, as well as printed instructions on how to prepare and serve each course.
The box was the perfect combination of pre-prepared elements and some components to cook ourselves. Assembly of courses varied from filling our choux pastry starter with a delicious Lancashire cheese sauce before popping them in the oven, to seasoning and cooking raw scallops. Cooking scallops was a first for us, but Restaurant 22 held our hand throughout, offering written instructions and a QR code to a video of their chef demonstrating the process. We did slightly overcook ours, mainly due to our caution to avoid food poisoning, but it was so helpful to have a video to refer to using the exact ingredients we had been provided. We were most excited for the main course, featuring retired dairy cow ribeye, and again, the demonstration video proved invaluable when cooking, basting and resting the steak. We are now using the same technique to cook steak at home, which has definitely taken our cooking to the next level.
There were only a few potential tweaks we thought of. There were some small discrepancies between the chef’s videos and the written instructions, and it would have been helpful to explicitly say which elements of the dishes did not need to be heated and could be plated immediately. The only other added bonus would have been tips or examples on how to plate up, as this is something which we struggle with and creates a clear difference to at home cooking versus a restaurant meal. However, all of these were miniscule details, some of which have undoubtedly been resolved in subsequent boxes, and we were truly impressed by such a well-rounded new product.
The whole menu took us a few hours from start to finish, forming the perfect date night. From the very first snack to the final decadent truffles, each mouthful was a treat and set a new standard for at-home restaurant kits. Restaurant 22 At Home costs £45 per person. Bookings are released at 7pm on Thursdays for the following weekend and sell out fast. We’re hoping to nab a box for Valentine’s weekend and I can’t wait to see the inevitably stunning menu. At Home will only be available until the end of February, when Restaurant 22 will turn their attention to planning their reopening, so you don’t have long to take advantage of this incredible experience. I’ll see you at the checkout!
