Travelled to friend's house for dinner, just strawberries for desert - AIBU to think it's low effort?

I would have loved that for lunch, yum yum!
I hate having a massive stodgy lunch as it makes me feel tired all afternoon. I can happily stuff myself at dinner though ...
I'm amused you thought you needed a more substantial lunch after the "journey" which I'm guessing you spent with your arse sat in a car, not really burning many calories!
My commute to work is longer than that. Maybe I should tell my employer that I expect a three course lunch to sustain my poor weakened not remotely underweight body.

I'd love strawberries and cream as a desert

Surely you’re there to see you friends because you live far away and food is a bonus?

Blimey. When I go to a friend's for dinner, it's about seeing the friend. Not a masterchef competition or checking that they've spent as long in the kitchen preparing as I spent travelling.
Strawberries and cream is tasty. Don't see the problem.

Did you at least bring an exciting bottle of wine? What was your gift to the hostess?

Seeing as you are intent on slagging her efforts off.

Why did both yu and your partner go? Is he a close friend of hers as well? Perhaps her efforts went into making a third helping.

I think it sounds lovely and you sound ungrateful. Maybe you should've taken desert if your that bothered

Absolutely this.

I can't actually believe you've come online with this, OP. You could end up with a friendship ruined.

You aren’t a nice person, try and do better.

When I go to someone’s house for dinner, we’re usually too pissed for dessert!

I'm so bemused as to what some of you eat day to day, if this is considered a children's meal!?

Perhaps if she'd have served some Naice Ham with the homemade salads and called it cold cuts, that would have passed muster?? But I think some nice pork sausages with a potato salad that has wholegrain mustard in and a salad with a vinegarey dressing, maybe fresh fennel and apple slaw, would be absolutely lovely and something a lot of kids would turn their nose up at. It simply wouldn't occur to me to be sniffy about how little effort they had put into the meal - if anything I would be grateful that they hadn't spent hours cooking in a hot kitchen on a hot day. I'm there to see my friends, not judge a round of master chef! But I also like my friends who are happy to make a brew in each other's houses, and who get stuck in peeling spuds or feeding the cat or taking the kids to the park for half an hour to get them out from underneath feet while the host tidies up and gets dinner in the oven or whatever is needed, because we are friends at one another's houses relaxing in each other's company, and some of you sound like you only have friends so that you can show off and judge how good a formal host you are.

It's completely fine for dinner in the summer! I'd have loved it.

OP is rude.

Curious on what OP would have liked then.

Someone making me anything when it was quite warm in many parts of the UK over the weekend would have been appreciated instead of having to cook myself in a warm kitchen.

Perhaps, OP should always bring the desserts so they aren’t disappointed.

An hour on the train, where you just sit and relax while someone does the driving and you can talk your partner without them having to also pay attention to the road, the horror.

OP would hate me... We last had friends a week ago, we just did sausages, hot dog roll, onions and cheese and for after we all had a Magnum 😂

So bring your own then.
There is not point justifying your attitude by saying "I did/would have done XYZ for them". That's your decision. For all we know, when your friend was visiting she was put out by having to spend all the time travelling just to have you spend hours in the kitchen fussing over 3 course meal and not have much time to talk to her.

In season strawberries are my go to at this time of year. I might crumble some meringue over if I looking to push the boat out 🫢

Sausages and 3 salads made me laugh. It sounds so random.
They either couldn’t be arsed and went to supermarket last minute to get things you don’t have to prepare yourself. Were the salads out of a tub? Or, they thought sausages and salad was a nice summer meal.
Regardless, did you have fun? Were they pleasant company? If so, I’d write it off and just have a (private) laugh about it,

🤣 honestly you sound utterly ridiculous. It’s the summer - strawberries are a lovely dessert, without causing too much stress for the host. But it seems you expect her to be sweating over a hot stove for the commensurate number of hours that you travelled. Get over yourself - and don’t bother going again.

I have only read the first page but this is exactly why we have shit food and shit health in this country

People finding fresh food 'unexciting'

Its the same on threads where people are talking about their dinner, if its jacket potato or things on toast people dont seem to think thats a dinner or good enough or exciting enough.

We all think we're top chefs and have to go around creating (more likely buying) prepared expensive foods with lots of different bits to it and in the doing so have created a really unhealthy and unreasonable approach to good healthy food.

I wouldnt go again OP, she deserves better.

You win Mumsnet for the most entitled post about food.

Strawberries and cream is such a lovely end to a meal.

I can't imagine being the type of person that visits a friend then goes rushing on Mumsnet as soon as they're home to complain how crap it was. Glad I don't have any 'friends' like that and I really hope the host doesn't come across this thread because its really shitty.

I really want strawberries and cream now

You are rude and unkind.
Some of us don’t like rich, heavy, sweet desserts.
I would be overjoyed with strawberries and cream.
Now, you must post the menu showing us what you’ve served your friend so that we can similarly judge you.

I rarely do dessert so you probably wouldn’t have had one if you’d come to mine!

Strawberries & cream is perfect summer dessert 😋
I often meet a friend either at her house or ours & we meet to catch up & chat, enjoy each others company not judge cooking skills. Its often a simple easy meal due to work & time constraints so I'm hoping I'm not judged as harshly as you judge your 'friend'.

I worked for an organisation and every year we'd do a civic dinner for the city's VIPs. It was a very fancy affair. Guess what we often had for dessert? Strawberries and cream!