Dinner A'Fare

In 2010, I told myself less stress, more time for the things I love. So, grocery shopping and weekday cooking was at the end of a long list that was just never getting done...In steps, Dinner Afare. The idea of having a meal ready in a few minutes after getting home, was too good to be true. So, here is the skinny:First, they have delivery, which shaves off more time off my day, and that is great. Now on to the food. The Food. Its' good. Not great, think weekday pork, chicken and flank steak. The portions are generous, there is a lot of variety and I found myself making meals, I wouldn't typically make - shrimp and grits are great and easy. The cost is really reasonable and I have 12 meals available in the freezer, for me to defrost and make within 30 minutes of getting home. It works well, it is not gourmet, but for great weekday meals, this is perfect.

The food really isn't very good. Of the almost 20 meals we've tried, we would only maybe consider ordering 2-3 again. The rest were bland or salty or just plain old awful.I think this place is extremely pricey for what you get. Honestly, you could do a lot better just buying a prepared item at the grocery store. For example, a small seasoned pork tenderloin works out to about $15 at the Dinner A'Fare: you could easily buy a seasoned pork tenderloin at the grocery store for about $7-8.If you're thinking "well, I'm paying extra because it's made from scratch" - wrong! If you read the ingredients, they go something like this: "pork tenderloin, BBQ sauce, salt." I have no proof, but I'm guessing that "BBQ sauce" simply means that an employee cracked open a bottle of pre-made BBQ sauce; they did not cook the sauce from scratch.Portions are small. And, for most meals, you really only get the protein. So this really isn't much of a timesaver, because you still have to buy and cook all of your sides.On the positive, the place is clean.

I love the Dinner A'Fare because it saves me so much time and energy since they do all the shopping, chopping, and prepping, and all I have to do is cook up the meals at home (usually in 30 mins. or less). Delivery makes it even easier, but I don't mind going there to assemble the meals because I can bring my kids along (ages 8+), and they love to follow the recipes and put everything together. Like other yelpers have said, the food is generally good (but not gourmet) and a little expensive. I really appreciate the variety, though, because I could never come up with so many different kinds of dishes on my own, and it's fun to eat something different every night. I think the best part about The Dinner A'Fare is the service. It's family-owned and operated, and they are SO NICE and HELPFUL. I can't say enough good things about how kind and pleasant they are.