Ian Waller is so impressed with the range of excellent ready meals available from Cook in Bath
Ready meal Mondays have become something of a tradition in our house, spurred on by a busy run around of drop-offs and pick-ups from clubs and activities at the beginning of each week, meaning that there’s just not enough time for a home-cooked dinner as well.
Now the really good news is that we’ve just discovered Cook, situated on Bear Flat and serving without a doubt the best ready meals that we’ve ever tasted. Offering home-cooked food using fresh ingredients, Cook offers a fantastic range of meals for one, two, four and more, plus kids meals, side dishes and gorgeous desserts, as well as catering for parties.
As a family of five, it’s always a challenge to find something that everyone will like – with the possible exception of pizzas which the children would happily eat every day of the week. For our first visit to Cook, we simply said to them all, pick what you want and we’ll see where we go. The choice is genuinely impressive, with freezer cabinets lining up to offer a grand variety including different meat dishes, fish, Thai curries, vegan and vegetarian, plus healthy eating and family options.
We ended up picking a choice that included prawn linguine, beef bourguignon, chilli con carne and sweet potato and aubergine Sri Lankan curry, along with side dishes of plain basmati rice, creamy mash, a trio of greens and dauphinoise potatoes. With all of the mains coming is at around £5 each and the side around £2, the cost is on a par with the better ready meals available from the likes of Marks & Spencer.
What was very different, however, was the quality of food. The meals from Cook were superb, easily the best ready meals we’ve had and pretty much as good as a fair few restaurants we’ve visited too. The linguine was full of flavour and tasted fresh as well, while both the bourguignon and chilli was hearty and so tasty, with the sides of vegetables and potatoes making very healthy portions indeed.
OK, I admit, we also gave in to the allure of the Eton Mess parfait at £18, big enough to serve 10-12 and enjoyed over a few nights by my lot (plus a sneaky extra portion for me when the children were in bed!).
While the curry, linguine, chilli, veggies and mash were ready in minutes from the microwave, the bourguignon, and dauphinoise potatoes took around half an hour in the oven – just about the right amount of time for the kids to disappear before we could ask them to clear the dining room table of homework and stuff. It’s almost as if they knew if was coming.
The best bit of the whole experience was hearing the children say how much they enjoyed the meals – normally it has to have a crusty base and cheese topping or come from a drive-through to earn such positive comments. The chilli in particular came in for some real praise, while I would happily have had the linguine again the following day too!
It’s also worth noting that a number of the meals are Great Taste award winner, while others can boast about their Eating Well credentials, meaning they include low levels of salt, sugar and fat. What’s more, when it comes to the kids meals (which is turns out are also very popular with older customers looking for smaller portions), Cook do a ‘one feeds two’ deal where for every kids meal sold, one is given free to a child in need in Malawi.
Talking about the kids meals, if you’re expecting, adopting or have a new arrival, you get 10% off the entire Cook range for 12 months. Just pop into Cook Bath and ask for a card.
We were really impressed with the meals we enjoyed from Cook- just about as close as you can get to home cooking without having to clear up your own pots and pans. Since that first visit, we’ve already paid a return visit, this time coming home with a fish pie for four (£18.90) (pictured at the top) and a couple of chicken Dijons (£4.75 each) for the freezer. The raspberry pavlova was also incredibly tempting, but we were strong and held off – this time at least…
Cook in Bath has been a real discovery for our family. The food is excellent, the choice impressive and the service friendly. Now for another quick look at those puddings…