Before I get to the Dahmakan review, I have a confession to make. I love the idea of cooking but often, the act doesn’t live up to the hype. Though I imagine myself a Nigella goddess, whipping up a gourmet meal while exciting my husband as I seductively lick a bit of cream off of my manicured hand, the reality is more splattered egg, broken nails, and my husband finding me face deep into a mixing bowl, a race against the clock licking the chocolate before my kids come downstairs.
As a homeschooling mum who freelances on the side, I am exhausted by the time I’ve gotten my kids down. And when I was working and parenting, I certainly didn’t feel like packing junior’s leftover mac and cheese for my lunch — plus I’d already eaten it as my apéro anyway.
Cue meal delivery service Dahmakan. They’ve just celebrated their second anniversary and based on my trial (courtesy of Dahmakan), they are here to stay!
Here’s the concept:
Dahmakan offers a lunch and dinner delivery service providing freshly prepared meals straight to your doorstep. And listen up, it’s pretty darn delish!
An easy app allows you to order your meals in advance. Basically, from your phone (or computer) you can log in and see what’s on the menu for the week. There are three options per day. If my powers of observation are still above par, you choose between one meat, one fish and one vegetarian each day. You can order several days in advance. You simply select whether you want it as lunch or dinner, where you want it delivered, and at what time. There are some add-ons like dessert and drinks. You can then either pay à la carte or get the meal plans which are economical and start at a reasonable 5 meal pack for MYR99.00
My husband and I tested Dahmakan for a week. He ordered lunches, I ordered dinners and shared one meal with Happy Go KL’s editor to ensure a number of palates tested the meals. Since I am unbelievably grateful when anyone makes me food, I suspected I might be too keen on this service purely based on not having to cook or thinking about cooking for myself.
As someone who loved dining “al desco” when I worked in an office — to maximise my snooze/reading time and avoid crowded food courts — I would have loved an option like this. My husband works in the centre of town, near Pavilion. He has great food options around him so I figured he would make an ideal guinea pig. He was skeptical but came back to me having enjoyed all his meals. He was surprised by the portions. He thought they wouldn’t be big enough but was always satisfied after each meal.
My Dahmakan Review
PROS:
Three choices: Okay, if you are a vegetarian you only have one choice per day. But as an omnivore, I felt that three was the perfect amount. Not so many choices that I can’t actually decide but not so few that I couldn’t find something I wanted to eat each time.
Nice app: I like nicely designed apps and it is relatively easy to find your way around.
Own fleet of drivers: Dahmakan has their own fleet. This means that if you have a problem with a driver, you can feed back directly to the company and they can take action. My house is easy to find and all the drivers were polite and wished me bon appetit. They may not have used those exact words, but the sentiment was there and it was nice to hear! My husband’s office is a bit more challenging. He did have one problem with a driver finding him but the company was super responsive. Out of 10 deliveries, we only had a problem with one, striking us as a good success rate.
Portion size: I’ll be honest, when I first looked at the box I was quite certain that I would still be hungry afterwards. But I wasn’t! It was just the right amount. As someone who is also prone to overeating things I like, this was a real bonus as it helped me control my portions. And one dish had so many big pieces of chicken, I didn’t even finish it! (Please note, my husband did finish all of his meals). Only the salad left me hankering for a little something extra. But I had seen the picture and knew I was ordering a very light salad, so I don’t hold this against Dahmakan.
Affordable: This point is subjective. It isn’t as affordable as a McD’s meal or a MYR7 chicken rice but when you start comparing like for like, the quality of the meal, the freshness of the food, the variety of the ingredients, and the fact it is delivered to your doorstep. This offers great convenience at a competitive price point.
CONS:
Malaysia’s climate: During most of the year, you probably don’t have to think about this too much but I tested this just as the heavy rains were hitting. Dahmakan is completely upfront about the fact that they do their utmost to stick to time slots selected but meals are delivered by motorcycle delivery guys. When the rain pours, you can face significant delays. Out of our 10 meals, three were delayed. Two by about half an hour. One was more than an hour late. Good thing I believe in having a small pack of nuts on hand to tide me over.
Food Temperature: The meals were lukewarm. This could be a factor of the packaging or the delay due to the rains. It wasn’t really an issue since I was eating these at home and could easily give a quick blast in my microwave once I transferred to a bowl. I think most offices these days have basic amenities like a microwave and some cutlery. You can technically eat the meal from the box as it comes with a fork and spoon and a napkin but in most cases, I found transferring to a bowl or plate was preferable.
A final note I want to make: I am half French and super picky about sauces and dressings. It’s a fairly accurate statement to say I hate all salad dressings except my grandmother’s vinaigrette. That is until I tried Dahmakan’s. Every little sauce or dressing they had in a pot was surprisingly delicious. All in all, the three testers all gave Dahmakan a big thumbs up.
So if your new year’s resolution is to eat healthier meals or you just feel like you can’t face another Mee Goreng Monday, I highly recommend trying out Dahmakan. Visit them here.
*We received the meals from Dahmakan for free. Opinions, as always are our own.
3 Responses
I love delivery services!
just had my lunch cancelled at 2pm 🙁
im hungry
Glad that they don’t use third-party for delivering of their foods coz it sometimes causes delays. Foods looks delicious 🙂