Dish’d Food Store Review and a Giveaway

I always find this time of year a little frustrating. We are celebrating making it through another year, the world slows down for a month and we want to relax a bit. A night off cooking here and there is needed. Yet, this is also the time of year when a lot of smaller restaurants take time off too (and good on them). I often find myself getting excited about a takeaway only to find that all my local favourites have closed down for a few weeks. This year I have a solution.

Dish’d Food Store is a relatively new concept delivering restaurant quality food to your doorstep, ready to cook (simply) when the urge takes you. I will be honest, I did wonder why you would bother to have frozen food delivered when you could just buy the same thing from the supermarket. As it turns out, this is not the same thing.

There is a passionate team of recipe developers behind the Dish’d Food Store range which really shows in the quality of the food. In 2014 Jacques Reymond (previously of Jacques Reymond – Cuisine du Temps in Prahran) joined the team. It speaks volumes that such a highly regarded chef is prepared to put his name behind a range of frozen food. 

I purchased a range of products using a voucher provided by Dish’d. Delivery was remarkably smooth and simple; at the time of ordering you specify a day and nominate a safe shaded place to leave your order (you don’t have to stay home and wait!). When my delivery was made I received a text message. The esky was packed well with dry ice to keep the food frozen until as late as 10pm (just make sure you follow the clear instructions on how to handle the dry ice).

I prepared all the food according to the instructions and have presented them simply because I wanted to show you what they actually look like.

Snow Berry Smoothie ($1.95)

I was impressed to see this didn’t have added sugar- just fruit coated in yoghurt and frozen. You add 200mL of milk (I used a nut milk) and blend to make a fresh, healthy smoothie. 

Pearl Cous Cous Salad ($6.75)

This is a 600g bag of salad which fed me well for four lunches. Each morning I would just pop some of the frozen salad into a container and by lunchtime it had defrosted, ready to be tossed with some salad leaves for a complete meal. The sherry vinegar and dijon mustard dressing is already added so there is no fiddly dressing transportation It is delicious and rich with fresh bursts of edamame, capsicum, olives and nutty chickpeas.

Potato Spun Vegetable Balls (6 for $4.45) and Chorizo and Bacon Croquettes (10 for $9.50)

We munched this with a nice bottle of Sangiovese as a Boxing Day supper while we watched a film. The Potato Spun Vegetable balls are amazing (and such good value)- the filling has Asian flavours with recognisable fine chunks of vegetables. The Croquettes were also very good. It it hard to achieve a crispy coating with an oven-baked croquette but this wasn’t too bad. The filling was tasty with a good cheesy flavour and chunks of the smoked meats. I did find that the croquettes needed an extra 5 minutes in the oven than what was stated on the pack.

Porcini Mushroom and Black Truffle Pappardelle ($7.20)

Gosh this was good. Long strips of ricotta filled pasta flavoured with earthy mushrooms. I topped it with a simple burnt butter. You could easily serve this up at a dinner party. This is cooked in a cup of simmering water in a large frypan- the directions were very easy to follow. My frypan is not huge so i did it in two batches and the results were just perfect.

Mozzarella and Pesto Pizza ($6.95)

How good can frozen pizza really be? Actually very good. From the supermarket I sometimes get Dr Oetker’s because, as frozen pizza goes, it isn’t too bad. This was so much better – a nice thin crust that actually tasted like hand rolled dough. The edges were puffy and crunchy with filling right to the edge and the toppings were fresh and flavoursome.

Strawberry Swirl Gelato (1 L for $7.45)

Really good gelato with a fresh strawberry swirl. If you follow me on Instagram you will know how important ice cream is to me 🙂

Chocolate Ganache and Salted Caramel Tart ($14.80)

Flaky pastry that held up remarkably well in the defrosting process, a good layer of salted caramel and a super-rich layer of chocolate ganache. If you have a serious chocoholic in your family, this is for them. Again, a good sized tart and very good value.

Black Pearls (2 for $10.45)

These were a game-changer. I have had desserts from cafes for twice the price that weren’t as good. They look exactly like the photos on the Dish’d website, they defrosted perfectly and were just the right size not to put me into a sugar-coma. What you are seeing there is chocolate mousse with a rich liquid caramel chocolate centre atop a chocolate cake disc with crunchy almond pieces. Yes!

I make no apologies for a fairly glowing review. My friends, this stuff is the bomb. That you can get food this good, for these prices, out of your freezer is worth a happy-dance. 

Win a $50 gift voucher from Dish’d Food Store

I’m going to give you multiple ways to enter because I know you have your favourite social media accounts. You are welcome to increase your chances of winning by entering multiple times too 🙂 This is only open to residents of Sydney and Melbourne because Dish’d can only deliver to these locations currently.

You can do just one of these or all of them:

First go to dishd.com.au and make sure they deliver to your postcode.

1. On Facebook: Share this post and/or

2. On Instagram and Twitter: Tag your photos #mynightoff (also make sure you tag me @nicole_rouge so I can see them) and/or

3. Leave a comment below.

This competition has now closed. The winner was Michelle V.

Public Service Announcement: If you can’t wait to win the voucher, Dish’d currently has an introductory offer of $30 free food plus free delivery on orders over $50 (so you only pay $20 for $50 worth of products!)- offer ends 12th January at 12pm AEST (offer applies to first order only).

Disclosure: I received a voucher from Dish’d to sample their range.