Prior to the global pandemic, one of the perks of living or working in the City of Toronto was its endless supply of culturally diverse restaurant offerings. Torontonians could find any kind of cuisine, from traditional steakhouses and recognizable food chains to small independent specialty or fusion, family-operated businesses. Now, with limited indoor seating due to current restrictions, and limited menu options to accommodate the decline in business, the people of the city have had to find another way to discover new meals.
Meal Kits on the rise
The meal kit delivery industry is growing at a rapid pace. With a wide variety of companies hopping on this new way to cook, city consumers have a plethora of options when it comes to ordering a pre-portioned, ready-to-make meal kit. There are a number of prominent brands that have existed in this space for a while and offer a robust selection of recipes, including HelloFresh, GoodFood, and Chef’s Plate. These larger, more established brands continue to service the City of Toronto, but now the city is seeing some smaller organizations emerge targeting niche audiences. Some examples of smaller, more targeted meal kit delivery options that can be found in Toronto include; Power Kitchen, whose focus is on consumers that need help building a meal plan to accompany a new or ongoing health and fitness journey, Mama Earth Organics, a company that promotes sustainability and offers an option of local-only products for a few of their pre-composed baskets, and Porta who sells authentic Italian meals and desserts. The competition continues to grow with new meal kit delivery brands emerging, and restaurants starting to join the meal kit game as well.
Independent restaurants have begun to expand their offerings
The restaurant industry is undoubtedly one of the main industries that have had to rework how they do business amidst the global pandemic. Although takeout is still a viable option, a number of businesses have seen the merit in adding meal kits to their menus and have adapted some of their popular in-house menu items into this new form of food delivery. For instance, the popular casual dining chain, Earls, offers a variety of meal kits for two that can be ordered from their locations directly, or through a food delivery service like UberEats or SkipTheDishes. These kits come with all the portioned ingredients you need to replicate a restaurant favourite at home, and even have instructional walk-through videos that you can reference while you cook. Rustle & Still Cafe is another example of a business that hopped onto the meal kit train. This small, independent cafe bar is known for their Asian-inspired drinks and Vietnamese bites, and are now offering Banh Mi kits for 2-4 people. These kits includes the Vietnamese buns and all the beloved toppings of a traditional Bahn Mi dish, and can be ordered through UberEats. For those looking for a way to enjoy treasured Toronto restaurant dishes, but are not sure where to look, Chefdrop is a unique organization that delivers premium meal kits prepared by popular restaurants and chefs in Toronto. Similar to the experience of ordering from a subscription-based service like HelloFresh or Chef’s Plate, consumers can order meal kits using the Chefdrop website. Accompanied by beautifully captured photos of each dish, consumers are able to see which restaurant or chef each dish comes from, the total number of servings, and the list of ingredients.
There is something for everyone
Options for meal kit delivery continue to be on the rise in the City of Toronto, even as we slowly move closer to normalcy and restaurants begin to open back up for indoor and patio dining. With the wide variety of options, Torontonians have the opportunity to find the brand that best fits their lifestyle and cuisine interests. Alternatively, consumers in the city can also now pivot to a few local restaurants for meal kits replicating some of their favourite in-house menu items, and have these brought to their door through a food delivery service. There truly is something for everyone, regardless of your cooking skill level, dietary restrictions, or preferred cuisine, be sure to go to mealkitscanada.ca to learn more about meal kits available in Toronto.
