Independent French restaurant group Bistrot Pierre, has announced its successful ‘finish at home’ meal boxes are here to stay, as its 19 UK-wide restaurants begin to open their doors again.
In the week indoor dining was made legal again in the UK, and I filled my boots like a greedy little piggy Monday through Friday, the lovely people at Bistro Pierre topped it off by sending us one of their DIY dining kits, from their Bistrot at Home range.
Having not partaken in the at-home meal kits craze throughout the pandemic, surviving only on a diet yellow-stickered Aldi products and takeaways, I cannot tell you how excited I was to finally try something fancy in my own home for a change.
Bistro at home review:
After much anguish looking through their entire menu with greedy little peepers, I decided to opt for the 3-course vegetarian Bistrot box – a kit consisting of Toast et Champignons (or, mushrooms on toast if you can’t rock the pronunciation), Roasted Root Vegetable Tagine and TWO different desserts.
Just to give you a flavour for how the whole operation works, you place your order and it’s shipped out on Thursday to turn up on your doorstep Friday. An absolute belter of a start to your weekend when a delivery man turns up with a massive box of goodies – even better still when you get to unwrap it all like a kid at Christmas.
Every element to each dish comes clearly labelled, so the OCD among you like me can put their starters, mains and desserts in neat little organised piles. Instructions are clear as day, brief and to-the-point with the expected cooking times. In all honesty, there’s very little cooking to do at all – all of the hard work has been done for you, it’s just up to you to get it plated up nicely. A skill which I sadly lack and thus will never make it as a food influencer.
Starter
First up, the Toast et- champ… mushrooms on toast. A gorgeous bit of sourdough toast topped with mushroom fricassee and some chopped parsley for good measure. Lovely and creamy, exactly the kind of starter you spot on a menu and order nine times out of ten. Firm favourite and well worth the price of entry.
Main
For the main, we had an absolute smorgasbord of ingredients for the Roasted Root Vegetable Tagine – roasted butternut squash and swede atop a Moroccan tagine sauce, with harissa, yoghurt and caper dressing, served with cous cous tabbouleh and some wholemeal pitta breads for good measure.
Another absolute winner, real earthy flavour while the harissa and yoghurt mixture give off some lovely hot and cool pockets to the dish.
Dessert
Finally, the piece de resistance, our TWO desserts – tart au citron with crème Chantilly and raspberry coulis OR sticky toffee pudding with crème Chantilly. The decision for who gets what dish nearly ended up in a full-on fist fight, so we decided to split each one down the middle so no one feels left out. Both were great, but I think the lemon tart just edges it.
Special mention goes to their instructions who advised I “drizzle the raspberry coulis artistically on a small plate”, so naturally, I made the whole thing look like the scene of a grizzly murder.
Got to say, this was a fantastic meal that needed extraordinarily little actual input from myself – beyond an ability to read and put things on plates. The latter I still managed to cock-up somewhat, but you can’t win ‘em all. Would recommend anyone to have a go of Bistrot at Home’s DIY meal kits if you haven’t already. Perfect for those who don’t feel comfortable leaving the house yet – or for those who just simply can’t be assed to.
Tom is the Mens lifestyle editor here at The Daily Struggle. Interested in Mens health and fashion, theater and eats copious amounts of cheese toasties when he thinks no one is looking.
