Let’s Dish!

convenient, to say the least, and the employees I dealt with were friendly. there’s room for improvement. for example, why not mark the stations with a picture of what the dish looks like, or perhaps even have illustrated assembly instructions? why not send a survey by email to ask for feedback? or more social media engagement? as a bargain shopper, it didn’t seem like that great of a deal, but for folks who have a premium on time rather than cash, this is a nice option. I anticipate we’ll go once a quarter or so. they have sales, so sign up for their email list to stay informed.

I forgot to mention the best part which is the food being low calorie!

Pass on this place and head to Dinner done! my daughter and I went there for the first time and we were treated hostily several times by a lady named Theresa. We were scolded for thinking that a used cup which had previously had liquid eggs was a dirty dish and then for using an aluminum foil tray which are there for the patrons to use.
It is more expansive than Dinner Done and nasty people work there.

I found Let’s Dish through a fabulous Groupon deal. What i didn’t expect was all the meals that came with it. The entrees featured would feed about 4 – 6 people and the meal can be split in half, but still it’s a LOT for a single person. The concept is SO great for the laziest person — you sign up online with the location/​time and pick out what meals you want. Then you prep everything at the store and then you just finish cooking/​baking it at home. Simple enough.
Since I was running out of time with the Groupon, I signed up early Friday evening. What I failed to read was that, that particular Friday was Date Night! Hmm… Putting together meals stag made it for an interesting night, but everyone did get complimentary date night chocolate molten cakes. This meant more cake for moi! So I was totally cool with that.
I picked out all entrees that I knew I couldn’t make on my own, so that included a whole lotta pork dishes, one chicken dish and a chowder. With the Groupon deal we were also given a dessert, a side and three scones. All of THIS can feed me for weeks on end!
Everything was easily accessible at each station and the staff was very friendly and attentive. My only gripe is that not all ingredients are labeled. I spend a good 5 minutes looking for culinary cream which looked exactly like sour cream.
Again, if you are not inspired to create your own meals, Let’s Dish is an easy fix. And if you’re lazy and don’t want to put it together, they even have a ready to go meals for pickup!
Note: The Lee Hwy location is located in the back lower level of the shopping plaza. Also, Bring a couple grocery bags/​coolers. I saw many frequent Let’s Dishers do this and you’ll need it for all the food you have to haul away. But if you do forget, they have some plastic ones available too.

I’ve been to a couple meal assembly places, including this one which is a big franchise. Unfortunately, a lot of the ones closer to me have closed. I don’t understand that because they are such a great idea. Save a little money, save A LOT of time (big for us) and get a better (healthier, more variety) selection of food than I ever cook on a regular basis. I went with a friend and we had a nice time together. The process was relatively smooth. The store is pretty big compared to some others. Some of the customers are a little overzealous and some outright rude if you don’t keep up their break neck meal making speed. If you like to take your time and actually enjoying making the meals, it is best to just step out of the way of these crazy meal makers. But that can make you the last person in the store. It has a very institutional feel and the employees seem like they get paid by the hour. And if you don’t have a cooler with wheels good luck hauling all that food out to your car cause you are on your own. Other stores I have been too do a better job on the service side, but we’re not talking about fine dining, so not that big of an issue. The cooked food was good, not great, mostly good. There were a couple not so great meals, but my husband will eat anything so it didn’t really matter. Their food would get a little tired after a while even with all the variety. But, then so does the menu at some of the other places. For $ 3.50-$ 4 a serving it sure beats the price of eating out more nights of the week than we eat in.

Fun, fun, fun. Some girlfriends and I went for our first visit a couple of months ago. Having never done this before, I was pleasantly surprised — everything is pre-​chopped and you are the assembler. The menu selection changes monthly. You choose which dishes you would like to prepare ahead of time, show up and everything’s ready to go. You don an apron, get instructions from the staff and you’re off to follow and modify the recipes you’ve selected at your leisure. We did book that last available slot and felt a bit rushed at the end as the staff was cleaning up as we were creating.

I went here for the first time yesterday. Normally, I would shy away from these places, especially because of the SUPER HAPPY bad name and they make you wear a bandana. But, I was curious. I chose 8 meals and split them with a friend. We made Chicken Fajitas, Citrus Tilipia with Almonds, Garlic Herb Salmon, Sage Chicken with Rice, Shrimp Scampi with Linguine, and Slow-​Cooked Lemon Chicken. I tried to pick the meat dishes b/​c you get more for your money. Everything is easy to prepare and fast to assemble. They have hand-​washing stations so that you can wash up before each preparation. Cindy is right, the scones are good — taste like shortbread cookies. The clerks were helpful, but completely non-​plussed by their jobs, our orientation lady walked us around with a monotone speech about washing your hands constantly and labeling your prepared food so other’s don’t take it by accident (yes, we know you’ve done this before, but could you just try to act excited?!).
Not sure if we saved alot of money by doing it this way, $ 180 for 8 meals (so $ 90 each). I would say we have enough for 10 days of dinners for a couple (maybe more). Also, you use about a trillion plastic bags to put the meat in, the sauces, the tortillas, the pasta, the overall storage bag… every recipe calls for at least 2 of the damn freezer bags and I felt kind of guilty about that. Maybe they could change this eventually and put the food in glass pyrex dishes for people who are looking out for the environment.
I think I would go back, thinking back on it. Because you do get nutritious meals that are easy to prepare.
Fellow Unilocaler Miriam… No, you don’t get to sample the food before you try. Although, I never asked.
One more thing, they aren’t open on Sundays!!!

I’d heard about these meal prep kitchens where the ingredients come pre-​chopped and you just show up to assemble the meal. I have to prepare a banquet dinner and decided to give Let’s Dish a try. I chose 4 dishes: Orange Beef Stir-​Fry, Slow-​cooked Lemon Chicken, Steak Fajitas and Chicken Fajitas. When you walk into the store you see several food stations set up, each one has the ingredients laid out and a recipe page to follow along. The friendly store people also walk you through the process if you’re new. It was so easy I got all of it done in an hour! And we’re talking about prepping meals for 36 people! Wow, what a time saver. I didn’t have to go to the grocery store to buy ingredients, I didn’t have to chop the veggies and best of all I don’t have a messy kitchen to clean up! Looking forward to cooking up my dishes and serving them for dinner tomorrow night…
PS. They have goodies to munch on while you’re dishing. Fresh-​baked scones, this multi-​layer brownie as well as hot coffee and tea.