What's the draw?

This meal kit comes from Lyle's, the Shoreditch-based warehouse restaurant run by James Lowe and John Ogier that serves artful, creative food with a sustainable ethos at the heart of its operations – so much so that it won at our Foodism 100 awards in 2019. Lowe is frequently named-dropped in London sustainability circles thanks to his common-sense approach to cooking with minimal waste and properly sourced ingredients. But he's also frequently name-dropped because he does seriously good food, both at Lyle's and his second opening Flor, down in Borough Market.  

How it works

The mid-week meal kit does what it says on the tin. During previous lockdowns, Lyle's launched Lyle's Provisions, its home delivery website peddling its game and meat boxes – time-consuming but seriously delicious recipe kits packed with seasonal produce, particularly the game that the restaurant itself is so well-known for. But now Lowe, Ogier and team have come up with a serious mid-week treat. Delivering on Wednesdays, these kits come ready to just pop in the oven and on a plate. 

What's the verdict? 

Good. Very good. In fact, we'd go so far as to say it's been one our favourite ones so far. We love cooking and all, but many of the meal kits we've ordered still require a good amount of faff – not to mention a wide array of plates. Of course, it depends on what you're after but you simply put this food in the oven and you've got a restaurant-quality meal in 25 minutes.

Make sure you get the sourdough with cultured butter to kick things off; a malty, moist and springy loaf that beat any of our lockdown sourdough hands down. Lovage dressing with sharp preserved gooseberries was the perfect foil to whole-grilled mackerel (not to mention a refreshing deviation from the more common pairing of rhubarb). Oxtail pithivier was mouth-coatingly rich, the flaky pastry laden with fat (in a very good way); a neat swede cake and sharp radicchio salad made sure things weren't too heavy. Blood orange olive oil and polenta cakes and two little brown butter cakes were gob-smackingly gorgeous; while two tiny squares of chocolate studded with a single pumpkin seed was the most delightful, delicate way to finish. 

£70 for two; lylesprovisions.com