Offended by friend’s comments about party food

She’s weird. I can be a bit of a food snob but Iceland frozen party food is perfectly good especially if that’s the type of food she was expecting.
My kids would have seen it as a massive treat!

I would have appreciated some veg and dips, maybe a bit of salad personally. But what you promised, party food, is exactly what you delivered and nothing wrong with any of it. Even if I would have loved a cucumber stick, I would have happily eaten it and expected my children too as well, and we all would have said thank you for putting on a lovely spread for us. They sound rude and fussy. She’s setting a terrible example for her children.

She can expect gold leaf edged caviar and organic sourdough rosemary scones, it’s still breathtakingly rude to criticise food that someone’s cooked for you. I wouldn’t speak to her again.

Pizza sausage chips. Chicken nuggets. Most kids love those

not so much Indian and prawns

she is weird

Exactly.

Sounds like they only started to complain when they spotted the Iceland packaging. That's just snobbery.

If OP had removed all packaging and said it was M&S, I bet they would've tucked in.

Just for a different perspective slightly - I have done similar and it was nothing to do with snobbery. Our friends had put a really lovely picky dinner together (not a scrap of processed beige in a 100m radius), but I could see by the look on my daughter’s face that for reasons known only to her, she didn’t like it. I hissed quietly at her more than once that ‘I know’ but it wasn’t ’I know this food is awful’ it was more along the lines ‘I know you want to whine and moan but for the love of god just eat something and smile appreciatively before I lock you outside for all of eternity, or until you learn some manners’. Nobody would have heard (big house, and I chose my moments when nobody was in the same room as us) but if they did, it could well have been misinterpreted.

There would have been no forcing her to eat without it being even more obvious and I was genuinely mortified - the food was lovely! If I had been her here, the McDonald’s would have been because my little darling is a really lovely child at all times unless she’s hungry, and if she didn’t (for reasons only known to her) like the food, she would have been hungry. To keep her from spoiling the plans in a fiery pit of hangry despair, I would have absolutely promised a McDonald’s on the way home if she could just put it aside and be sociable in the meantime….

It's footie in front of the telly with kids not a soiree 😁

I worked in Co-Op "for the duration".

For reference, price points in the UK...

Waitrose
Co-Op
M&S
Sainsburys
Tesco
Morrison
Asda
Aldi/Lidl (pennies either way if that).

Problem with Co Op is that they have high prices but most of their shops are corner shops so they are exploiting the poor with no transport or the elderly who trust the brand.

For that reason I absolutely detest their "for our members" bullshit. They are worse than the likes of Waitrose and M&S who atleast own their status as high cost, because they are selling the luxury brand. Co Op claim to be benevolent and sharing, but actually they are far far worse than the others. I no longer shop there on principle and my friends/ex colleagues hate it too as their HR and staff morale are appalling.

Exactly my point , unless OP personally announced or paraded the packaging in front of this woman, how on earth would she know the picky bits were from Iceland? And honestly, how would half the people in the comments know either, unless they’ve developed some kind of sixth sense for frozen party food?

At this rate, someone needs to set up a full-on blind taste test and post it on TikTok, because clearly we’re all surrounded by elite sausage roll sommeliers now who can identify a shop just by sniffing a mini quiche 🤣🤣🤣

You kindly provided food they didn’t want / like. Literally no difference between chicken goujons and chips and a bloody happy meal.
they were rude. I’d not bother so much next time.

She put on a better spread in the comfort of her own home.... next time the other person can host if they are that fussy.

Everyone's too keen to pipe up with how superior their Michelin star-worthy offerings would have been, that's why!

A vital part of the post has been missed entirely in the scramble to prove they're not working class!

But they weren’t at a real football match. They were in the ops home. What’s the point here!

When I used to work in a Midlands factory at uni if the item’s packaging was damaged they would be put in the section labelled, ‘for the North.’

Absolutely graceless to accept an invitation and then talk to a host as the OP’s ‘friend’ did. But I see there is a lot of it about.

So what? Regardless of what she ‘expected’ she and her child were still bloody rude to moan about it and I find it hard to believe there wasn’t anything they could eat. The food included mini pizzas, chips, sausage rolls and breaded chicken. I find it hard to believe that someone who eats McDonald’s with her kids couldn’t find anything for her and her son to eat from that selection, even if they were too scared to eat a tempura prawn or something.

Has anyone complaining about the food actually been to a real football match..... and seen the options.

100 percent but people don't want to hear that... 😂

She is very rude. And is letting her children down by teaching than that this type of behavior is acceptable.

in the food - it wouldn’t be my cup of tea either. It’s not snobbery - I would nibble at the Iceland food - but would prefer something fresher in there too. Cridutes and some humus, some French bread slices, a bit of salad etc.

But I have the manners to be grateful and gracious.

Many of these own brand snack foods ( not all ) are made in the same factories by the same staff, some with slight recipe & ingredient variations ( many use identical ingredients it's only weight ratios & additives that change) and obviously different packaging for each supermarket.

co-op is a weird one because it's insanely expensive but not 'posh'
also lidl and aldi have some food that is as nice/nicer than m&s/waitrose but are cheap

imo iceland's party food can be hit and miss but definitely on a par with mcdonalds! How different can a chip/inedible can a chip be, ffs?

Your buffet sounds right up my street and I would have been made up! They wouldn't be getting invited again and I would leave it at that. I would also have been made up with the left overs.....more for me! Some people are such hard work. It must be difficult being someone with that mindset, they need to take a day off

I was expecting this to end with the mum making that the food provided wasn’t healthy enough / was a bit beige …. But then they went to McDonald’s.

some people are just rude and/or mad op. I’ve learned to let it be water off a ducks back.

And, on the other side, the posters suggesting a child would be stuck on the toilet forevermore if they eat a bowl of fruit a day 🙄

This woman undoubtedly has no manners, but the reverse snobbery on these types of threads is always hilarious.

Iceland party food is fine. McDonald's from Just Eat next time @LinsMum22 I would suggest.