The Walk-in Cookbook

I was pretty skeptical at first– sounds pretty lazy and a bit expensive considering you’re cooking it yourself.
But we’ve found ourselves with less and less time and ordering in more and more. We get home from work late and don’t mind cooking– we just seem to be out of ideas for what to cook and rarely have everything we need in the fridge…
we signed up for a subscription and have really enjoyed it. We get everything we need delivered and end up with two home cooked meals for about $ 10 a person. Recipes are easy to follow, food is generally very good quality (good meat and vegs, though we did get two limes that were pretty dried out).
In general, I’m very happy with our subscription and I will renew it for the foreseeable future.
The only drawback is that they deliver pretty much everything you need save for kitchen staples. Sort of a pain when you have a full butternut squash you end up with another one for the recipe you’ve selected…

This place is great! Walk by it all the time and finally decided to stop in this week. Their customer service was fantastic — the two guys at the front chatted with me for a good ten minutes about the whole concept and the different meals they had available. I went with one of their recommendations (a pork cutlet wrapped in prosciutto and sage) and it was awesome. Having everything portioned out made it really easy to cook, and I spent a lot less than I usually would on takeout. I don’t often see people in the store and I can’t understand why — great value, excellent variety of options, and standout customer service. I’ll be back soon.

Walk in Cookbook is great! It has single-​handedly helped us avoid the post-​work, take-​out routine. The meals are delicious, easy to prepare, healthy and cheaper than take out (particularly if you do the subscription service like we do). Because everything is pre-​portioned, cooking is quick, but not messy and clean up is a breeze. Cooking a few times a week has gone from feeling like a chore to actually being really fun. We live right down the street, but they deliver which is awesome and the subscription service is an awesome deal. Can’t say enough good things.

I had a blast cooking the salmon miso stir fry with my boyfriend recently after a visit to Walk-​In Cookbook. Plus it was some of the best salmon I think I’ve ever made at home. It came out perfectly, thanks in part to the marinade and miso which I had never cooked with before. Highly recommend as a fun date option with your significant other and because it’s simply time-​saving and easy.

I love this store’s concept. I am a mom of two that wants to be inspired to make healthy meals for my family and be a little experimental with what I prepare. This place does the homework and shopping for me and all that I have to do is prepare it. It’s quite a confidence booster to prepare an awesome meal yourself. I purchased several meals when they first opened and a few more this past week. Unfortunately both times the person helping me forgot to include some of the ingredients. I think that they really need to double check to make sure that they include everything that is supposed to be included for your meal prep. I also wish that they continued to use the nice cards for meal directions like they did when they first opened. This past week I was given just a cheap photocopy. I felt that really cheaped the image of the store. I get it from a cost perspective of course but the cost to the consumer did not go down any. I also wish that they offered some dessert items. The only thing that I saw offered was an apple dish that would have been easy for me to throw together on my own. And more side dishes would also be great, too. I went to the store on a Saturday and I saw both employees sitting down by the register. They really need someone in there cooking and giving samples or something of the sort. People will definitely buy more that way. I hope that the store makes it but when I don’t see anyone in there at 1 PM on a Saturday then it makes me wonder.

Love this place. Makes it so easy for people who are building a recipe repertoire. I’m trying to cook more but often am deterred from getting all the ingredients. They gave me everything I needed to make great dishes and even delivered for free!

Great place with awesome customer service!

I like it. I’ve thought of this concept before. A place that provides customers all the necessary ingredients (pre-​purchased and portioned out perfectly) to make tasty dishes. So we got the moroccan lamb ($ 25 for a portion of 2). The lamb was from Pat La Freida which is pretty awesome as it’s one of the better suppliers. For the most part, all the ingredients were on point, though the carrot was a bit too much. The instructions provided was probably the biggest problem as it was not very clear. You need salt, pepper, and vegetable on hand. Sure but they weren’t any part of the instructions on when to add it. We also believe one of the pictures was switched with one of the steps also.
Nevertheless twas a very satisfying meal and makes me think about trying to make the dish again.

Everyone has been talking about the recipes they offer. I get it it’s the key part of the store and what makes them different from any other I have seen around Brooklyn (and maybe unique in NYC?). Still, I come often to this store to buy a few items like Early Bird Granola (so yummy!), Steve Ice cream, and Stonewall salsa as they are far more affordable than in other stores around the neighborhood. I have tried a couple of their meals (salmon and lamb tagine) and indeed they are like eating out in a restaurants, but the real value for money comes in the specialty items they offer.

Walk-​in Cookbook needs to open a store in Manhattan!
I recently came across Walk-​in Cookbook as a date option under howaboutwe. My fiancé and I tried an online store with exact concept just a month ago so we were excited to see how it compares to this place.
Since Cookbook is a bit of a trek for me — I decided to call in the morning to confirm my date. The person I spoke to, Phillip?, was more than helpful. He took his time to explain the concept and assured me that my order would be ready when I arrive.
I ended up arriving a bit earlier than my reserved time. Since my fiancé couldn’t make it down to pick up his date order due to last minute work, I asked about picking up his too. Phillip quickly agreed and was more than accommodating in packaging both our orders to go. We were given 4 dinner entrees to choose from — we went with green curry chicken and Moroccan lamb tagine. Aside from the dinner entrees, we were also given appetizer dip and artisan ice cream to take home. I went with salsa and guac for the dip and blackberry honey and salted caramel ice cream from Steve’s (they were a pint each!). Phillip and his co-​worker thoughtfully/​carefully packaged the entrees into 2 separate bags so I don’t mix the ingredients when I get home. I was literally in and out of there within 5 minutes.
The recipes I made tonight were easy to follow and tasted pretty darn good — (lamb + guac). Never did I know couscous was so easy to make (Time to throw out the rice cooker). They did forget my lime for my guac but no big deal! The entrees were well portioned — actually I even had enough leftover to save for lunch tomorrow! I kept the recipe sheets so I can make these dishes again and again especially when my parents visit so I can wow them. I can’t wait to try the green curry chicken and the salsa.
Definitely worth the trek and my tummy can’t be any happier!

Dinner. The bane of my existence. Seriously, what to make to make every. Single. Night. Better than take-​out, there’s The Walk-​In Cookbook. Now I can take the thinking part out of cooking, walk in, pick something out, and away I go get started on dinner.
Decided to stop by on my way home from work for the first time yesterday, and picked out a gorgonzola and pear salad. It was delicious, except for the unfortunately overripe avocado that I wasn’t able to use. I took some pictures, stopped by again tonight, and do you know what happened? Did they tell me tough noogies and show me the door? No. Did they give me a replacement avocado and show me the door? No.
They gave me an entire new meal to make up for the avocado debacle, which was really amazing. Great customer service, which is a rare thing these days. Thank you! :)

I HAD to come home right away and write about this place.
This place is adorable! See, this is why I love New York and Brooklyn in particular! This great modernized home town feeling in such a grand city. this is what makes Brooklyn the greatest city in the world. This is the place that people like my self who really would like to cool but just never get around to it can come and actually be inspired to cook! This makes it so much easier!
They have like 7 or 8 different olive oil options people! I can get real fancy about my oil!
It’s just so great! You have go visit.

Very smart concept.
The idea is you go in, pick a meal from the big signs on the wall, and the ingredients including spices you need to prepare the meal are sitting close at hand, pre-​measured and pre-​packaged to serve two. Finding the ingredients isn’t hard, but if you have no idea what you’re doing, one of the friendly guys there picks it out for you.
We got all the stuff for a filling pasta salad and a strawberry spinach salad for about 22 bucks — since we’re vegetarian we didn’t need the pancetta or whatever is was, so that came off of the price.
Both recipes were not complicated but still DELICIOUS and filling, and ample enough for leftovers for today’s lunch.
Plus, you get to try making new stuff, which is great if you’re not a whiz in the kitchen, and want to get better or branch out.
Service: very helpful and friendly
Ingredients: super fresh and great
Price: pretty good considering amt of food it made.
Food: turned out awesome.
The only con is there aren’t a lot of vegetarian options, but that’s like many restaurants. I’ll take it as is, but if there were more would have been a solid 5 stars.
Oh, and the website is ‘under construction’ which I find a little irritating. If I could check a site see what meals are on the board beforehand, it would be helpful.

Adorable. Yummy. Coming back soon.
Stopped by here Sunday afternoon to pick up some goodies for a dinner I was having that evening. The concept of preconceived menu options made with individually portioned, high quality ingredients piqued my interest, so I figured, why not?
The store itself is super cute — I could (and did) spend forever checking out all of the fancy and fun little products nestled in the shelves about the place. The two Euro dudes working were super nice and very helpful.
After surveying the scene, I headed to the recipe boards to start making some difficult decisions… Sunday dinner is not something to mess around with. The various recipes to choose from are lined up high against the wall and the accompanying ingredients for the meal can be found directly below them, with little labels indicating how much to take of each. There’s also a mega fridge or two in the back with all of the meats and dairies chilled and organized by meal.
Following much internal deliberation, I opted for the beef tenderloin and potato risotto… as well as some other miscellaneous products I decided I couldn’t live without (cilantro pineapple salsa = must). Aside from the ingredients for the meal, my favorite acquisition of the trip was a bottle of garlic infused olive oil from the olive oil pouring station. For $ 12, you get a very large WIC glass bottle (they had smaller versions too) and a pour of one of their olive oils. I went with garlic — but they also had a lemon option, as well as sun dried tomato and some others. As a California olive oil snob, though I’d subtract points for the OO not being from the Golden State, I have to admit this stuff is tastey. Plus– I can bring the bottle back for a refill for $ 10 — not bad for NYC.
Armed with my ingredients I went home to cook and just short of an hour later I had an obscenely delicious dinner and praise as a culinary genius. The yukon gold potato risotto with Parmesan and chives is the stuff of carb lovers’ dreams and the steak was just… God it was amazing. No idea where they get this quality of beef but it is certainly not the same place as my usual grocer. Though I went slightly off track from the recipe cards provided at WIC (I seared all sides first then finished in the oven), it turned out super well. Plus the portions are definitely generous. YUM!
Final review comments — definitely coming back. Though the prices initially seemed a bit steep, after doing some comparison shopping in my head and considering how high quality the ingredients are — there’s no question the meals here are a good deal. SO easy and yummy and I didn’t have to feel like a terrible person for throwing out wasted ingredients after cooking — woo!!! :)