Plated: A food subscription service

Just finished watching this on Shark Tank (west coast people make sure you watch at around 9:30 for it). I was on their site right before it went offline for "maintenance" and it looks interesting. Any one try it yet?

I signed up for plated with one of those deals on MSA (first box and 3 month membership free) and have tried 4 weeks.  I consider myself an okay cook but I was in a cooking slump after a long business trip/vacation so I thought it would help get me back into the cooking routine which it did.  But the main problem is the expense.  12$ a serving is more than take away or freezer food and waaaaaay more than scratch.  The cost seemed especially high to me because I'm vegetarian and my food costs tend to be cheaper since I don't buy meat.

It did teach me some new techniques and introduced me to ingredients I would have been uncomfortable trying on my own.  In particular I liked the baked sesame tofu, seared halloumi, the sauce in the mushroom buns, and the zucchini boats with rice.  However only one of those is a whole recipe because even though I would like parts of a recipe the final dishes as a whole usually were either just okay or had something off about it (but those zucchini boats were seriously great).  

I don't regret trying it out but I'm not going to continue with it.

I tried it with an MSA code too and wasn't a fan of the service. It didn't really save any time for me. I can make better tasting food with simpler recipes.

It might be a better option for a single professional but it just didn't make sense for my family.

I purchased it using a code also. I have to say that I loved the service.

I chose the glazed drumsticks with rice noodles and glazed carrots with hanger steak. Both were very delicious. I hate, hate, hate carrots but decided to try it from plated because I thought that it would be the ultimate test if they made me love carrots. They did, and I even tried to replicate the recipe the next day. I also thought that they made everything really easy, and both recipes took maybe 30 min to make.

I do agree that the service is a bit too expensive to subscribe to. I could afford it, but it's more of a luxury item as opposed to a convenience item to me  that I don't really need in my life. If the price went down, I'd definitely go back.