24 of the UK’s Best Food Delivery Services and Subscription Boxes

24 of the UK’s Best Food Delivery Services and Subscription Boxes

We’re spotlighting the independents offering farm-to-fork fare, restaurant-quality experiences and feel-good pantry provisions. Stay home, eat well: fresh produce, recipe bundles and indulgent treats straight to your door



Your
weekly food haul probably looks a little different of late
(no) thanks to panic-buying, stockpiling and gold-dust supermarket
delivery slots. As big brands such as Morrisons and M&S jump on
the delivery-box bandwagon, we’re spotlighting the independents
offering farm-to-fork
fare, restaurant-quality experiences and feel-good pantry
provisions.

Stay home, eat well: fresh produce, recipe bundles and
indulgent treats straight to your door


Occasions by Hakkasan

Hakkasan devotees who’ve been hankering after Michelin-starred
Cantonese will rejoice in this luxurious finish-at-home meal kit.
An elevated experience from the off, lift the lid on a glossy black
box to reveal a selection of much missed signature favourites:
kaleidoscopic dim sum; flaky grilled Chilean sea bass in honey;
sticky smoked-beef ribs with jasmine tea; hakka noodles and
stir-fried baby broccoli. A perfectly oozing chocolate soufflé is a
suitably indulgent finish while accompanying Hakkasan incense and a
heady playlist mean you very nearly could be at the restaurant IRL.
Top marks.

What’s in the box? Hakkasan favourites,
chopsticks, dim-sum basket, incense burner.

Cost: £175 for two people

Delivery: Thursday to Sunday, London within
M25


COYA Valentine’s at Home

Valentine’s Day is a celebration of partnerships, and we can
think of few sweeter ones than our favourite Peruvian, COYA, getting
into bed with fragrance purveyors Byredo to create the ultimate
couple’s feast. That being said, it’s enough to feed four – we
unashamedly ended up eating lobster for breakfast. An all-stops-out
menu has been designed to take you and bae on a “multisensory
journey” that begins with a rose-infused Cupid’s Arrow cocktail and
ends with a rose-shaped dessert. Naww. The finish-at-home menu
features corn tostadas, albacore tuna, “vuelve a la vida” (seabass,
octopus, prawns, mussels and avocado) and Chilean wagyu rib-eye.
You’ll be clinking glasses of Veuve Clicquot Rosé champagne, while
Byredo handwash in rose (RRP £38) is yours to keep. It’s not a
cheap date, but a lot of bang for your buck. If this along with
COYA’s “ambient tunes” don’t clinch it, nothing will.

What’s in the box? Valentine’s Day menu, Byredo
handwash, bottle of Veuve Clicquot rosé champagne.

Cost: £260 for two people

Delivery: London, within the M25


Simon Rogan at Home

A taste of the Lakes, at home. Think of these Simon Rogan
meal kits as Hello Fresh on steroids. A weekly-changing,
three-course menu – created by chefs either at the Cartmel kitchens
or at Aulis London – arrives at your door packed with local,
plucked-from-the-farm produce. Plus, videos provide the ideal
cook-along companion for those who have a habit of mixing up their
chaud-froid with their sous vide. Dishes on previous menus include
potato terrine, confit duck leg and chamomile sponge; dill-cured
salmon, short rib beef and sticky date pudding; and mushroom soup,
chicken terrine and trifle for pud.

What’s in the box? A three-course meal with
produce plucked from Simon’s farm and cook-along instruction
videos.

Cost: From £45

Delivery: Nationwide


Dinings at Home

If you’re a globetrotting gourmand who’s missing the finer
things in life, pop on over to Dinings‘ website to get your luxe
fix. Chef Masaki Sugisaki’s offering is widely regarded as the best
Japanese in London (you’ll want to reserve for when it opens now),
so we were thrilled to learn that standards are still sky-high when
the food has travelled probably further than you have this year –
in our case, from Chelsea to Hackney. Perfect sushi rolls meet
melty wagyu strips and springy bento buns stuffed with prawn and
crab. The crowning glory? An entire lobster. Wash down with a
bottle of sake. Now that’s what we’re talking about.

What’s in the box? Choose from a range of
options online.

Cost: From £75

Delivery: Web orders delivered within 10 miles
of Dinings SW3. Call for delivery beyond.


Nanny Bill’s

Forget Five Guys, these guys are behind the best burgers in
London. Graduating from a home kitchen to street food stalls up and
down the capital – you might have seen them pop-up in Boxpark, The
Lock Tavern and at Vinegar Yard – the burger bar has brought out a
filthy kit to satisfy those Friday-night, Netflix-marathon
cravings. Each kit comes with a huge quantity of Nanny Bill’s
mince, its secret seasoning, 12 slices of American cheese (we
triple-layered in each burger) smoked bacon, seeded buns and plenty
of Nanny Bill’s BBQ Sauce for double-dipping. Smashed these? Look
out for its mac ‘n’ cheese croquette kits rumoured to be coming
soon.

What’s in the box? Nanny Bill’s secret spice
mix and enough meat to build four double-stacked, banging
burgers.

Cost: £30

Delivery: Fridays, nationwide


Carousel

The doyennes of culinary creativity at Marylebone’s Carousel are
bringing their rotating roster of global chefs to your doorstep
this summer via a snazzy delivery service. Running the gamut from
Mexico to Asia via the Med and with a pit-stop in the US,
its parcels of colourful ingredients and nearly-constructed dishes
will arrive at your door, ready for you to add the finishing
touches then pass it off as your own. We were pretty blown away by
the standard here and can’t think of a better way to spend date
night. Easiest brownie points we’ve ever earned, thanks
Carousel.

What’s in the box? Everything you need to make
a multi-course restaurant-standard meal for two

Cost: £30

Delivery: Marylebone, Fitzrovia, Mayfair,
Bayswater, Paddington, Notting Hill, Soho and Covent Garden


Lyle’s Provisions

For those who feel they’ve outgrown their Gousto box, the
Michelin-starred team behind London’s hit Lyle’s is egging
us on to get creative in the kitchen. It’s a little (ok, a lot)
pricier than some of the other DIY kits, so we’re bookmarking this
one for a bougie Valentine’s (or galentine’s) dinner, or saving it
for a special occasion worthy of a stellar slap-up meal. In a bid
to support the farmers who were left without places to sell their
geese after restaurants shut down across the country, Lyle’s have
committed to buy them. Show solidarity with its new Goose Menu Box.
Alternatively, opt for its more traditional Lyle’s Menu Box (with
14-week hung Dexter rib) or the Game Box (stacked with venison loin
and game-liver parfait). Don’t be put off by the mounds of
ingredients that come in the box; this was, surprisingly, one of
the easier at-home meals we’ve knocked up.

What’s in the box? Lots of Lyle’s classics. The
barley porridge loaf and Lyle’s butter makes an appearance, as does
its brown-butter cake.

Cost: £140

Delivery: Fridays, nationwide. Order by 10pm on
the previous Saturday


Berenjak

This cook-at-home “kabab” kit is the second-best thing to
digging into a multicoloured mezze platter and pinching the last
piece of lavash bread with our pals on a Friday evening out.
Berenjak
is famed for fusing the rustic dishes served in hole-in-the-wall
eateries in Tehran with best-of-British produce. All the meat –
chicken and lamb – comes pre-marinated with tomatoes (for
grilling), mast-o-musir (a Persian yoghurt dip) and a healthy
helping of clay-baked lavash bread. Best of all? The kit includes
five shipped-from-Tehran skewers that are yours to keep and can be
whipped out whenever the weather dictates it’s time for a barbecue.
Add on a Mazeh Box to nibble at while it’s cooking – the black
truffle olivieh salad is particularly moreish.

What’s in the box? Everything you need for
charcoal-grilled, cook-at-home Persian “kabab”

Cost: From £25, plus £10 delivery

Delivery: England and Wales


Napoli Gang

When you hear your flatmate exclaim “these balls are unreal!”
you know you’re onto a good thing. Purveyors of said balls are
Napoli Gang, the delivery
service from the Big Mamma Group, of restaurants Gloria and Circolo
Poplare fame (if you haven’t been, you’ve definitely seen them on
Instagram). It’s the sexiest Italian we’ve sampled in London. You
no longer have to DIY – tuck into the likes of arancini al tartufo
(“balls”), sizzling pizzas, oozing burrata and that bittersweet
lemon-meringue tower, all at reasonable prices and made with
responsibly sourced ingredients.

What’s in the box? Whatever you put in it

Cost: Pizza from £12, balls £7.50

Delivery: Most of London, bar Kensington and
Brixton


Mobile Newt

Bring a taste of the hotel home with The
Newt’s debut mobile delivery service
. Reaping the bounty of its
sprawling grounds, it encourages shoppers to fill their virtual
baskets with produce from the gardens, bakery, butchery, creamery
and, most importantly, its on-site cyder press. We’ve filled ours
to the brim with loaves of sourdough – to show off on social –
foraged wild garlic pesto, a punnet of strawberries and the
meatiest sirloin steaks we’ve ever seen. Plus a crate of its new
Fine Rosé Cyder, obviously.

What’s in the box? Everything from picnic
rations to pantry supplies – forget queuing up for your local
supermarket, The Newt will deliver everything you need.

Cost: Minimum order £35

Delivery: BA, DT9, DT10, SP7, SP8 and TA11. All
London boroughs and the City.


Chelsea Farm

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it took two friends (and
founders of B Bagel) living on Fulham Road just one week to get
Chelsea
Farm
up and running. This delivery box service is designed to
feed its West London customers with quality, seasonal, organic
produce that makes them feel as good as the food tastes – farmers
are paid fairly, minimal packaging is used and five per cent of the
profits from each purchase goes towards supporting the Chelsea and
Westminster Hospital charity, CW+.

What’s in the box? Fresh fruit and veg, B Bagel
baked goods, eggs and store-cupboard essentials

Cost: From £28

Delivery: London, within 5km of Fulham Road


Pasta Evangelists

Dried penne is as rare as hen’s teeth on supermarket shelves.
Wholewheat spaghetti? Forget it. No worries, however. Thanks to
Pasta Evangelists, you
can prepare the kind of dishes that would get an Italian nonna’s
seal of approval in as little as five minutes. Choose from a weekly
menu – think: beef and truffle tortellini or pumpkin lasagne with
sage bechamel – and it will arrive through your letterbox. No human
contact required. Gluten-free options are available and £5 is
donated to Age UK for every box sold.

What’s in the box: Pasta, sauces and
garnishes

Cost: From £7.20

Delivery: UK


Feed Britain

Restaurant chain Leon has temporarily closed all but 12 of its
restaurants, 11 of which have been converted into mini
supermarkets. Another five of its kitchens are dedicated to serving
NHS workers. As part of the Feed
Britain
initiative, it’s started an online delivery service of
essential food boxes and ready meals – 100 per cent of the profits
are donated to FeedNHS which provides hot, healthy meals for
critical care workers.

What’s in the box: Basic pantry items, fresh
produce and ready meals

Cost: From £22.50

Delivery: Within the M25, with plans to
expand


Pale Green Dot

Pale Green Dot
usually supplies sustainably grown, seasonal produce to the South
East’s finest restaurants, so you know this is the good stuff. With
many closed for the foreseeable, it’s supporting suppliers by
bringing their bounty of fruit and veg to our doorsteps instead.
The Essential Fresh Produce Box is a potluck of root veg, greens,
nightshades and local fruit, but there’s an option to throw in a
few staples – milk, eggs, bread – too.

What’s in the box: Fresh fruit and veg

Cost: From £12.50

Delivery: London and East Sussex


Abel & Cole

The UK is the garden of Eden when it comes to great veg boxes,
having borne food-waste fighters Oddbox and Riverford, purveyors of organic
veggies. Due to high demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, many such
businesses are having to limit new customers. Abel & Cole is among our
favourites thanks to its affordable field-to-fork produce,
award-winning eggs, pantry provisions, household products and
recipe bundles in low-waste packaging.

What’s in the box: Produce, pantry staples and
recipe bundles

Cost: From £12

Delivery: UK mainland


Paxton & Whitfield

We’re not sure if man can live on cheese alone, but we’re
willing to give it a shot. With 200 years in the cheesemonger
business and two royal warrants, there’s not much that Paxton & Whitfield
doesn’t know about its curds. Order the British Essentials Box for
“artisan cheese staples” or join its Cheese Club to receive four
bougie blocks every month.

What’s in the box: Artisan cheese

Cost: British Essentials Box, £35

Delivery: UK mainland


Clos19

When it’s hard to distinguish what day of the week it is, we
say: every day is wine Friday. Stockpiling may be a no-no, but with
a healthy cellar (read: drinks cupboard) you can indulge in a
little home hedonism. Clos19 is the arbiter of good
tipples, sourcing rare spirits, vintage champagnes and sniffing out
the wines that will keep oenophiles happy until lockdown ends.

What’s in the box: Champagne, wine and
spirits

Cost: Terrazas de Los Andes Malbec 2015, case
of six, £85

Delivery: UK mainland, the Isle of Man and
Northern Ireland


The Ginger Pig Chop Shop

The Ginger
Pig
started life as a guy in Nottinghamshire with three
Tamworth pigs (named Milly, Molly and Mandy) and a market stall in
London. Today, this ethical butcher has the whole hog: a Yorkshire
farm, eight shops in the capital and a home-delivery service. Order
rare-breed, grass-fed sirloin for date night, neck-end lamb chops
or those sausage rolls (if you know, you know) as well as cuts you
wouldn’t find in the supermarket.

What’s in the box: Prime butcher’s cuts

Cost: £19.65 for two 250g sirloin steaks; £8.75
for 500g back bacon

Delivery: UK mainland


Allplants

As you may have guessed from its name, this food-delivery
service deals with nothing but plants. Its hand-prepared rainbow of
microwave- and oven-ready meals have been frozen to lock in
nutrition while all packaging used is recyclable, compostable or
reusable. Make your sustainability halo shine even brighter by
returning your cardboard packaging to Allplants through Collect+. We love
the barbeque jackfruit burrito bowl and mushroom carbonara.

What’s in the box: Ready-made, vegan meals

Cost: From £40.50 for six meals

Delivery: UK mainland


Hobbs House Bakery

Do you know what’s the best thing since sliced bread? Bread
through your letterbox. Kind of. This b-corp bakery ships
freshly baked loaves, sourdough-making essentials, hot-cross buns,
vegan brioche rolls and the like. Bread keeps well in the freezer,
so none should go to waste and there are monthly subscriptions for
sweet treats. Let them eat cake!

What’s in the box: Bread and bread-making
supplies

Cost: Organic Bread Box, £17.05; Sourdough
starter, £15

Delivery: UK mainland


Petersham Nurseries

While Richmond’s epicurean mecca is closed for dining, it’s
treating locked-down West Londoners a one-stop,
don’t-leave-the-house alternative to supermarkets. The order form
is the online equivalent of stumbling into a gourmand’s pantry,
featuring organic fare from Haye Farm, Italian plonk from the

Petersham
cellar and the pasta you can’t find elsewhere. Not in
the catchment area? A (socially distanced) collection service is
also available.

What’s in the box: Meat, seasonal produce and
store-cupboard essentials (including wine)

Cost: From £30

Delivery: West London


Strazzanti & Friends

Marrying her experience in Michelin-starred restaurants and her
grandfather’s provincial Italian kitchen, Sicilian chef Emilia Strazzanti knows
how to throw a feast – and you can too thanks to Il Piccolo
Pacchetto (the little parcel). Imbibe flavours of the sun-drenched
isle with prepared antipasti, ingredients to cook a traditional
pasta dish and
Strazzanti
‘s signature cakes. Optional add-ons include Hackney
Coffee Co. ground beans and a floral bouquet.

What’s in the box: Sicilian menus and recipe
parcels

Cost: From £38

Delivery: London


Orwells Community Shop

While they’re shut, many restaurants are getting creative in a
bid to stay afloat and support their local communities. One doing a
stellar job is Orwells
Restaurant
turned Orwells Community
Shop
, which is shipping three-course Sunday roasts ready to eat
as well as a roll-call of delicious essentials that range from
house-made wild garlic focaccia to Rude Health coconut milk,
Kit-Kats to rosé.

What’s in the box: Restaurant-quality ready
meals and kitchen basics

Cost: Three-course Sunday roast, £25

Delivery: Henley-on-Thames


SpiceBox

This vegan curry house comes with the seal of approval from the
Young British Foodies and the London Curry Awards, and its tarka
dhal has been crowned Britain’s best. A strong order from here
includes loaded bhaji, chana chaat, jackfruit jalfrezi and shroom
keema – oh, and a pickle tray on the side too. When lockdown is
lifted, join its tiffin
club
, which cuts down on packaging by letting you have your
reusable box refilled with the set menu.

What’s in the box: Ready-to-eat vegan
curries

Cost: Tarka Dhal Special, £7.25

Delivery: Walthamstow

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