scratchDC

They need to sell buckets of their cookie dough but if they did I would probably not use their service as much (just kidding… maybe). All meals come with two balls of chocolate chip cookie dough and it’s the perfect cookie consistency — crisp on the outside, chewy in the middle, with the perfect amount of chocolate chips. Their meals are all really good but I always look forward most to the cookie dough dessert.
That said, they have a lot of great variety of meals, all the prep is taken care of and the meals come out to about $ 15/​person. I love using ScratchDC to teach myself how to cook new kinds of food without committing to buying all the spices and prepping. The instructions are clear and my food usually come out looking just like the picture (amazing)! They have have a frequent buyer program where you can earn account credit.
Seriously though, can I just buy the cookie dough?

I’ve used ScratchDC for a couple years now, and I love this service. It’s the only way I can manage to cook during the work week. Most meals are ready in under 30 minutes, and I just follow the directions.
Unlike Blue Apron (which I tried for a while and cancelled), you don’t have to commit to a number of meals, and the ScratchDC recipes are simpler to prepare. The ingredients are chopped and measured. I pick and choose which meals I want each week depending on the menu. It usually costs a little more than buying groceries, but less than eating out, and the meals are fairly healthy.
They deliver right to my office and call me to pick up the box from the delivery person. I highly recommend them!

Good food, but beware of the «FREE DELIVERY». They do charge a $ 3.50 delivery fee.

Reasons I love scratchDC:
1. Fantastic recipes and delicious food!
2. Cooking made easy for those of us who are… challenged. Their pre-​prep saves tons of time. :)
3. Quality ingredients from sustainable farms.
4. Only what you want, when you want it. No surprises, no subscriptions requiring you to cancel for future weeks.
5. Even though bundles are touted as being two servings, it’s usually enough for three!
6. Reliable and helpful employees.
I’ve been using it for several months, and it’s always great. Tonight’s salmon, asparagus, and spinach parmesan orzo was another delicious dish!

Have not tried the food yet, but the customer service is great! I purchased a gift certificate for a colleague and Kathleen created a customized gift certificate and redemption code. It was perfect. Thanks!

I love Scratch DC — the food is delicious, it fits into my diet/​nutrition plan, and it’s perfect for a 2-​person meal. No leftovers or extra random ingredients. This makes it soooo easy to make delicious homemade food. THANK YOU! This gets me out of my chicken and vegetables rut without blowing my nutrition!

Scratch DC is fun, easy and delicious. I have tried Blue Apron before, and Scratch DC was so much better and easier to use. When using Blue Apron, it also felt like a rush to cook all the meals before the food goes bad because you get a delivery with multiple meals. With ScratchDC you just choose the one meal you want for that particular night. Blue Apron also does not come prepped at all so I often found myself chopping herbs and produce for a full 30 minutes before even starting the actual cooking. ScratchDC saves so much time by already prepping most of the ingredients for you. The recipes are easy to follow, and I love the complimentary cookie dough balls.

Delicious!
Another amazing meal from ScratchDC —
Hazelnut Panko crusted tilapia with spinach Parmesan risotto. Yummy! Used nearly all of our pots & pans, but the meal was well worth it, plus we had the joy of cooking together!
Keep the kudos coming ScratchDC!

ScratchDC is simple, convenient and delicious. I received a gift card from friends after I had a baby and it was the perfect balance of cooking, but not being overwhelmed with complicated instructions and/​or prep.
The delivery is especially convenient. Not only can you order one meal or multiple at a time, they even text you when your meal is about to arrive within minutes. This was great (with a newborn) so you knew when to expect the delivery. The cooler option is great if you are not sure you will be home or are at work.
The food is amazing, portions are large for 2 people and customer service is impeccable.

Wow!
ScratchDC hits the trifecta (if we gave those kind of awards) for a DC based business. Great food, great customer service, and then solving a problem that was just lying around waiting for someone to come along and own it!
ScratchDC isn’t the usual food delivery. They bring pre-​prepared (but not yet cooked) meals to you front door. We get home, open the box, and then cook dinner. So they solve two problems — figuring out what is for dinner tonight (and getting stuck in the rut of «we always make the same thing») and also the shopping for all the ingredients. Dual win! Save time and provide variety.
And the dinners are different, interesting, and have gone from the «that was good» to «wow, I can’t stop eating this!!» The food is pre-​prepped (which means we don’t have to spend the time prepping dinner). And it’s all fresh — from the uncut herbs to the vegetables to the steak, chicken, shrimp, or other proteins that are ready to go.
And then ScratchDC works it’s magic. It takes a complex recipe and turns it into a simple series of steps, clearly written. So in about 30 – 45 minutes we are sitting down to a good dinner.
But it’s the customer service that really drives this to a perfect 5 stars. Have a recipe question? Call them. Get a person, who wants to help. Problem with your delivery? Need to ask a question? Problem? Call them. They leap all over themselves to fix any problem, and I couldn’t ask for better service.
If I had one complaint — and it’s really minor — is that we usually add a salad to each nights meal, to add in more vegetables to the «main dish» they provide. Scratch will deliver a salad with a meal, but it’s the same salad all week (and it gets boring after the second night).
Yeah, yeah, I know. It sounds like the owner wrote this… but he didn’t. He just created the business that makes me want to shout about it. Now, can we just get most of the rest of DC restaurants to just figure this out?!? Come on restauranteurs, if our usual restaurant experience was 80% this good, we would be back every week.
So we are hooked — «what’s our Scratch tonight?» is now part of our evening lexicon. Keep up the great work, ScratchDC. Great job.

I first tried Scratch DC when it was just starting out and over the past 2 years it has only gotten better!
I really love that they now deliver both to your home or to your office should you choose that option.
I use Scratch mainly when I want to prepare a dish that’s not in my usual repertoire. My two favorite bundles thus far have been the butternut squash risotto and spinach salad, and the pork tenderloin. Plus, I love that the portions are very generous. One bundle often gets me 3 meals (plus cookies!)

ScratchDC is a great service for a number of reasons. It resolves my «cook’s block» — you know, when you really can’t figure out what to cook next. Recipes are creative, flavorful and extremely varied. The food is really fresh and gets delivered on time.
Why not 5 stars? Two relatively minor minuses: (i) sometimes the portions are on the small side (ii) the recipe often underestimates the preparation time.

This is my very favorite DC find! We used the new retail feature because a location is right near my sister, but I have already ordered a few meals for the weeks ahead. The packaging is adorable! The presentation is so simple and makes for a very fun evening. We had nectarine and blackberry chicken with goat cheese polenta, and it was DELICIOUS! Cooking together was fun and easy, and it was a great reason to share a meal.
I will definitely be doing ScratchDC over and over again!

HANDS DOWN the greatest service to ever exist. I’ve done scratch a bunch of times and every time is better than the last. Not only has scratch introduced me to some amazingly fresh, inventive and delicious recipes but their customer service is the best ever.
I’ve ordered scratch for every occasion from date night, to girls night in to 10 person dinner parties and its a great way to get your friends together and do something fun and eat AWESOME food, without the hassle of grocery shopping, prepping or buying expensive and weird ingredients.
I would highly recommend the bacon gruyère and butternut squash risotto and the sweet potato cakes with callalou sauce.
Keep it up scratch!!!

I’m only on my second dinner using scratch and it’s f-​ing amazing. I love it. Hooked. Just moved to DC from Orlando, FL and I just think it’s the most brilliant concept ever.
I love cooking and will often buy tons of groceries just to try out a new recipe or experiment. I like cooking at home and knowing where all my ingredients are coming from. I’m usually a paleo/​primal eater but most important is just to make sure it’s clean. Scratch covers that! Also, I’m single and so once I make a dish, I have no desire to eat it the next 5 days. So I often times waste it or put leftovers in my freezer (only to forget about them forever). But with scratch, the portions are almost prefect for a good sized dinner and lunch the next day!
I mean how much easier can you get? They come up with the menu for dinner, do all the food shopping, food prep, deliver to your door at a time you choose, give you all the step by step directions, tell you where all the food comes from and they give you cookies as a thank you… And it’s all delicious! Worth every penny.
I would say that if you’re just a starting out cook, some of the recipes might be overwhelming. But if you’re pretty comfortable in the kitchen, try it out! You won’t regret it.

ScratchDC is a great concept for busy, urban, health conscious young professionals with disposable income. Basically, I’m talking about myself and pretty much a lot of my other Unilocal friends! Hi!!!
Monday through Thursday they will offer a meal bundle that takes out all of the prep work and hassle of creating a home cooked meal. You can place your order online, let them know when and where to deliver it and voila, dinner!
As you may know, brown paper packages tied up with string is one of my favorite things so I was pleased as pudding when my box was delivered to my front door man. Inside was bundles of pre-​portioned, pre-​marinated local and seasonal ingredients and a recipe card with step by step directions on how to make my meal.
Let me tell you, the boy is not an expert cook (He once asked me how to boil water on a stove. NO JOKE) but ScratchDC made it so easy that our meal was prepared in less than 30 minutes. On the menu that night was Turkish lamb kebabs, pita bread, rice, charred tomatoes and jalapenos. The hardest part of the whole meal was figuring out if the storage unit underneath our oven was indeed a broiler or not.
Our meal was full of flavor and it tasted even better because we made it ourselves. The boy even had enough leftovers to pack for lunch the next day (and he didn’t forget it, which means it must have been extra good)!
Clean up was easy since I didn’t have to bust out separate cutting boards and mixing bowls like I usually do. All of the boxes and packaging materials are bio-​degradable so I didn’t feel too bad about my carbon footprint either.
The only reason why I didn’t give them a full five stars is because it was tad on the expensive side compared to other similar services (plus I had to pay an extra $ 2 to have them deliver to Arlington). But they gave me some bonus cookies so an extra high five for that!

We may have found our weekly dining-​in splurge.
It all starts through their great online interface which makes it easy to find a meal that works for you, and a day that works for you as well. A couple clicks, and you’re done.
Then, one day, this cute little asian woman shows up at your door with a big smile, and a recycled brown box wrapped in twine. But, she’s not there to just drop off the box and run. She asks you questions to make sure you know how everything works, and if you have everything you need. Unfortunately, my dog doesn’t take too kindly to anyone walking up to our front door, so we had to cut our conversation a little short. But, the personal touch was really nice.
It turns out that I had a lot of stuff going on that evening, and I didn’t get around to start cooking until 9pm. But, that was totally OK. The step by step instructions outlined everything in a way where I could cook multiple things simultaneously (in this case, rice, chicken and brussel sprouts) without having to put much mental energy into anything. Kind of important if you’ve had a day where you’re only getting around to making dinner at 9pm. By 9:30pm it was all done and ready to go. My husband and I sat down and enjoyed our healthy, fresh, and delicious meal.
I was so impressed by the step by step directions that I told my husband he’s making the dinner next time. This is a guy who gets overwhelmed by the instructions to make mac & cheese from a box. I’m confident he’ll do just fine.
Sorry to be harping about the instructions, but really I think that’s what made this a standout experience. Instead of just saying «oil the pan». They say something along the lies of «drop a tablespoon of olive oil (container c) on the pan and spread liberally with your fingers». That’s the difference that a person who knows how to cook, and one who doesn’t needs to know.
Oh, and they had cookie dough balls at the end. :-)

scratchDC is an amazing concept and I love everything about it.
Yesterday was my first experience with scratchDC and I wasn’t disappointed. We tried the Bay Scallops, Chorizo and Snow Peas over their Homemade Guacamole. To be honest, that is such an unique combination of food that I would never think of and that is why I liked it. scratchDC meals are portioned out and delivered to your home in environmentally conscious containers, making them a guilt-​free pleasure. The meal’s instructions were fun, easy-​to-​follow and had everything I needed to make a perfect dinner (minus the wine!).
Overall, the meal was inventive, easy to make, and plentiful. I was very satisfied and see myself being a repeat customer. Thanks scratchDC!

Right now one of my most favorite things of 2013 is finding Scratch DC. I seriously like everything about it.
Others have explained how it works and with 26 outstanding reviews I’m not really sure they need another but if you are thinking about trying it – please do! I love the idea of supporting smart people with great ideas and these folks seem to be just that.
Things in particular that I like –
The food is good, like really good and there is a lot of it. Easily can feed 3 people normal-​sized meals. I always have yummy leftovers.
The ingredients are mostly organic. I always say I’ll buy more organic but then have a tough time pulling the trigger at the store… I mean who wants to buy an entire bunch of organic ($$) green onions to use two. Scratch does that for me.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE not having to chop things. It’s almost like you are hosting your own cooking show with all the little containers. It also makes it super quick to make dinner.
Lastly, I appreciate that they have a sense of humor. The instructions are fun to read and pretty witty. I like how they tell me to «do whatever the F you want» with adding the final toppings to my meal or tease you if you don’t want to add in spice to your meal. They seem like super fun people you’d like to hang out with.
After a long day, it’s fun to pour yourself a drink, dig into your Scratch box and make a simple, delicious meal. You should try it!

When I begin preaching about how people should eat more whole foods, I am often hit with opposition as people explain to me that they just don’t have the time to make healthy meals. Enter scratchDC into the picture. This new company, founded by Ryan Hansan, an entrepreneur, is providing fresh, locally sourced organic ingredients already prepped and ready to cook along with the recipes that make it all come together. It is a novel concept that is emerging at a great time in DC as employment rates are up and people are truly busy.
The genesis of the idea came out of Ryan’s own frustration in the kitchen. He was a busy college student with a refrigerator full of beer and tomato sauce. If he wanted to make a good meal, he’d trek to the grocery store, find a whole bunch of fresh ingredients, and spend all night in the kitchen only to have a lot of ingredients, e.g., parsley, left over that eventually went bad. He thought there had to be a better way and the result is scratchDC.
Here’s how it works: a different meal is offered Monday — Thursday that you can order either a week in advance or for those last-​minute procrastinators, each day anytime up until 9:30 p.m. Yes, they deliver the same day. Sometimes they offer a vegan meal, but, unfortunately, it won’t be every day or even every week, but when they do, you should snag it. I had the opportunity to try the Vegan Habanero Sweet Potato Patties in a Spinach Coconut Callaloo Sauce and I’m so glad I did.
Ryan Hansan delivered the order to my home at the time I requested. (For delivery areas in DC, click here.) It was a cute brown box tied with twine — I felt like I had just gotten a present. I took it upstairs and tore it open. I must admit that it was a bit intimidating as I pulled out container after container. I mean, I cook some complicated meals, but I don’t do so on a weeknight. This was test to see if this is something you can reasonably make on a weeknight and I was up for the challenge.
Inside, was a sheet called, «What’s in my bundle,» which described each ingredient and where each one was from. For example, the organic sweet potatoes were from Sunrise Ridge Organics in Kirkwood, PA while the organic spices were from Vanns in Baltimore, MD.
On the other side of the sheet was the recipe in 14 steps. At the top, it included the types of pots or pans you would need. It also specified that you’d need mouths and appetites. Cute. But, this isn’t where the cuteness stopped… The first instruction was «Hi there, we’re scratchDC and we’re so glad to be cookin with you tonight! Put on your tastebelts because it’s time to head to deliciousville.» Well, okay then.
I started off by making the sauce that consisted of coconut milk, spinach, habanero peppers, red peppers, paprika, thyme, salt, pepper, tomatoes, and onions. This simmered for 25 minutes.
Then, I spread the sweet potatoes that were already marinated in olive oil, allspice, cumin, thyme, chili flakes, salt, and pepper onto a sheet pan along with the garlic cloves and roasted them for 20 minutes. They even provided the aluminum foil.
About 10 minutes later, I cooked the habanero pepper and spring onion mix in a different pan. There was a lot going on here at once!
When the potatoes and garlic were done, I put them in a bowl along with the onions and habaneros and mashed it together along with the lime zest and coriander mix to form patties that I then fried.
To plate, I put a couple patties on a plate and drowned them in the callaloo sauce. It made 6 patties so there was enough for 2 – 3 people. The final step number 14 stated, «Welcome to vegan heaven. Rave about us to your friends, family, co-​workers, pets, etc. and order again soon.» Ha! We dug in and absolutely loved the dish.
I was so impressed that they actually used habaneros as most companies assume that people don’t like things that spicy. Zach and I can take the heat and we really enjoyed this dish. It was bursting with flavor. From the perfectly spiced patties to the robust coconut milk-​based sauce, there was more flavor in this dish than you would ever expect.
In the end, it took about 35 minutes to prepare so only 5 minutes longer than the directions specified — perfect for a weeknight meal. Overall, I was really impressed with the timely home delivery, the detailed instructions, and the meal itself. For $ 21, I think it is priced well as I’m not even sure one could buy all of these organic ingredients for that price. And the service is great — there is even a phone number you can call if you get stuck and want to ask questions about the dish! I predict this new business will need to expand soon to be able to accommodate the demand for their fresh, organic meals. And maybe if the demand is there, they’ll start offering vegan meals weekly! So, order yours today. You’ll be glad you did.
(Disclaimer: I was not paid by this company — I am just very enthusiastic about it!)