It’s all about the meal-kit right now; Lucinda O’Sullivan has some suggestions

Food boxes are the new norm, with restaurants adapting to a contactless takeout world, says Lucinda O’Sullivan, who celebrated her birthday with fabulous meal kits from John Farrell’s hip restaurants 777 and Dillinger’s

Ihad a birthday earlier this month. Obviously we couldn’t go to a restaurant, and the birthday girl wasn’t going to be pot-walloping for love nor money! So the answer was for the restaurant to come to us, by way of two contactless boxes — or meal kits, as they now say. Believe me, even when all of this is over, this is the way to go.

We were going to be six — my two sons and their girlfriends, socially distancing of course, at three tables in the back garden. If the rains came, they could grab some food each, and run home. I ordered an At Home Kit (pictured, above right) at

€50 from 777, the hip Mexican restaurant on George’s Street, D2, and a

Brunchtastic Box at €35 from Dillinger’s in Ranelagh, which, between the two, combined hot-and-spicy elements with the finger-licking, softer American brunch tastes of chicken and waffles (pictured below), pancakes, and huevos rancheros.

Both of these restaurants are owned by John Farrell who is renowned for his creativity, and it showed in the boxes. I was just astounded by the fine detail of every little touch and the clear instructions — easy to follow, even for dummies — that made up these two meals.

Opening the 777 At Home box was like exploring a chest of Mexican culinary treasures. The unboxing aspect was helped by Margaritas, from their pre-mixed

750ml bottle at €40 (five Margaritas), which came complete with a sachet of

Maldon salt, a chilli and lime, to half-rim our glasses. That certainly got us into the summer-time birthday mood. Of the jewels inside, there were tiny tubs of salsa, seeds, chipotle pesto, sour cream, black bean puree, habanero sauce and Manchego cheese, and bigger pots of side complements including guacamole, slaw, cilantro and onion, and pico de gallo (salsa) — 16 tubs in all.

A generous bag of tortilla crisps kept me going as I laid out the specific ingredients for each of the three types of Mexican tapas. The principal components of the dishes were minced chorizo, Portobello mushrooms, and shredded spicy guajillo chicken — these all came in sealed bags to be heated in boiling water for eight to 10 minutes on the hob before serving. The very last element of preparation was to heat the little taco breads, or taquitos, for 20 seconds each side on a dry frying pan.

Served with style

Next came my favourite part — the dishing up! This required an army of spoons, one for every ramekin of flavour to complete and garnish each mini masterpiece. Sticking to the menu, I made chorizo taquitos, tinga tostadas (chicken) and setas taquitos (mushroom). The 777 kit instructions suggests serving the tapas in three different courses, but I was too impatient for that, and prepared all the tapas at once, to mix and match from the selection — a spicy smorgasbord for sharing with Brendan!

The chicken tostada, on a crispy thin toast, was hearty and earthy, grounded by the black bean puree, while the Portobello mushroom taquito, served on a mini taco, had the kick of chipotle pesto which lingered on the tongue. The best for me though — it was toe-curlingly good — was the chorizo taquito with its finely ground sausage, fresh, crunchy onions, and killer habanero chilli sauce. Each delicious morsel was washed down by another sip of cool Margarita.

Dillinger’s Brunchtastic Box was equally good, offering the components for huevos rancheros with crispy tostadas for four, a tub of black bean chilli, guacamole, sour cream and feta cheese. Chicken and waffles were excellent, too. The fried chicken pieces were moist and delicious, and we piled everything on top — crispy bacon, jalapeno slices and Bourbon maple syrup. The fluffy American-style pancakes were scrumptious, and came with maple syrup, streaky bacon, creme fraiche, and berry compote.

We finished off with the 777 dessert — two tubs of chocolate cremeux and a crunchy honeycomb cake covered in a deep layer of rich chocolate mousse. A decadent treat to cap off a great birthday.

The 777 At Home kit serves two to three people. Pre-order Monday to Saturday from 12pm, with collection Thursday to Sunday from 5pm to 9.30pm.

The Dillinger’s Brunchtastic Box must be pre-ordered, for collection on Saturday or Sunday from 11am to 2.30pm.

“I was just astounded by the fine detail of every little touch and the clear instructions — even for dummies — that made up these two meals”