Loblaw teams up with local restaurants for meal kit delivery

Loblaw Cos. has expanded its PC Chef meal kit direct-to-home delivery service to include recipes from local restaurants in the greater Toronto area (GTA).

The Canadian food and drug retailer said the kits, launched this week, are prepared by the restaurants and come with fresh, pre-portioned ingredients and step-by-step instructions. Unlike traditional meal kit services, no subscription is required, the company noted.

Participating restaurants providing a curated selection of popular dishes for the PC Chef meal kits include Burger’s Priest, La Carnita, Fresh Restaurants, Fat Lamb Kouzina, General Assembly Pizza, Kinton Ramen and Sala Modern Thai. Toronto-area residents can order the restaurant meal kits for next-day, contactless home delivery from www.pcchef.ca, where the full line of PC Chef kits also is available for order.

“We are in a unique position to support local restaurants, especially during a time when many have been challenged with in-restaurant dining. We had the infrastructure and know-how; all we needed were some fantastic local restaurant partners,” according to Nick Kuriya, vice president of Loblaw brands meal solutions. “We couldn’t be happier with our new selection of meals and look forward to delivering a new, in-home restaurant experience to our customers.”

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New PC Chef meal kits from Toronto restaurants available for delivery include vegan options from Fresh Restaurants and Mexican dishes from La Carnita.

Loblaw customers can choose from 15 restaurant meal kits, including Burger’s Priest cheeseburgers, La Carnita carne asada tacos, Kinton Ramen pork miso ramen and Fresh Restaurants golden satay curry. Recipes vary in size from one to six servings.

“While we’ve been able to open our restaurant doors once again, supporting local is still more important than ever,” Randall Papineau, vice president of growth and operations at Fresh Restaurants in Toronto, said in a statement. “Our undeniably craveable, plant-based food has been a staple for downtown Toronto residents for almost 20 years, and we’re thrilled to partner with PC Chef to bring our plant-based meal kits and recipes into your kitchen.”

Brampton, Ontario-based Loblaw said the PC Chef restaurant meal kits are available for delivery to residents in the core areas of the GTA, including Toronto, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough, Mississauga, Brampton, Georgetown, Milton, Caledon, Burlington, Oakville, Vaughan, Richmond Hill and Markham.

“When we had to shut our doors in March, meal kits provided us the opportunity to deliver our street-style recipes to our loyal taco enthusiasts,” stated La Carnita (LXCO), whose restaurants are locally designed with some of Toronto’s best street-style artists. “Through our partnership with PC Chef Meal Kits, we’re able to expand on what we had already started and ensure more people throughout the GTA are able to enjoy the art of Carne Asada and Mexican Street Corn at home.”

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Loblaw added that the PC Chef meal kit lineup now includes more than 30 new recipes and an array of cooking formats, such as 15-minute one-pan meals, Instant Pot slow-cooker meals and heat-and-serve meals.