M&S Christmas food - hit and miss

[lulujuju]

I always order at least £100 worth of Christmas food from M&S but this is the first year I've found things to be hit and miss.
The hits were:
Cauliflower cheese
Chocolate pine cones
Brie en croute
Vegan nut roast
Black Forest gateaux

The misses were:
Pigs in blankets - full of gristle
Brandy cream, salted caramel cream and chocolate cream (all bought in store) - all just tasted of nothing!
Sausage wreath - really greasy

I was also really disappointed by all of their party food.

The Brie en Croute was absolutely incredible! We had it on Xmas eve and it was supposed to be shared with friends who were coming over before the change of the rules. Me and the DH scoffed the lot.
.

Our turkey crown - bog standard all I could get - was also delicious. Everything else was meh

Bread Sauce - total disappointment, far to much nutmeg, couldn't taste the bread. Went in the bin after the first serving.

Braised cabbage - so sweet I could have served it for pudding. Very disappointing. Again, in the bin after one serving.

Chocolate and orange melt in the middle Christmas Pudding - divine.

Assorted sweet biscuits - nice as expected

Assorted cheese biscuits - good

Cherry liqueur chocolates - not as good as Aldi last year

Mini mince pies - delicious

Colin the Christmas Tree caterpillar - don't get me started. I would have had to order him from the internet as he wasn't available in the shop. Which meant a minimum spend of £40. Nope. So I purchased a Connie the Caterpillar and some random Christmas decorations. Which I was going to decorate the caterpillar cake with.
Then, I pop into M&S. What do I see ? Dozens of the bastarding things on a table. I purchased one. It was good.

I'm glad it's not just me then! We got some of the party food selection for New Year's Eve. We thought it some of it was really tasteless. DH got a selection from Aldi before Xmas and we thought that was far superior (if still a little beige!)

Red cabbage amazing

Turkey gravy was crap. No flavour at all.

The chorizo in blankets were so salty. I drank 2 pints of wAter during the night after having them.

Party food selection was poor. We had the mini beef in Yorkshire pudding but couldn't taste the beef as the mushroom filler was so over powering.

It was all a bit average when you go to M&S for something special

Plus I tend to buy fruit from M&S as it lasts a bit longer but it was all had a price increase over Christmas by 40p. Blueberries & raspberries normally £2 a pack were £2.40 so I thought it was increased to cover the veg at 40p a pack

Hits were:
Beef shin
Beef and bone marrow pie

Colin caterpillar was OK but the decorations were too chunky and sickly.

Turkey breast, ham and beef shin were all really good.
Teriyaki chicken lollipops are always a favourite

Christmas Colin was sickly and dry all at same time
Chicken donut things were universally hated DD even gagged at them

Rodney Reindeer cheesecake looked fun but was very bland.

Hit:
Turkey joint with pork, bacon and chestnut stuffing was delicious & made amazing gravy.
Cauliflower cheese, red cabbage & potato dauphinoise we’re all gorgeous.

Miss:
All party food - beige bland & tasted the same no matter what it was! 😂

Were not we’re

Th mini burgers were dire.

I bought the basic pigs in blankets and they were lovely!
I wasn’t sure whether or not to go for the more expensive ones & glad I didn’t.

Been buying the bread sauce for years and usually delicious but it was awful, really thin and watery
Very disappointed in the party food, barely anything vegetarian

We only ordered the turkey and pigs in blankets with stuffing, but bought other bits when I went to collect it.

Been buying Christmas food here for a few years now, but doubt I’ll get excited when October rolls around.

The stuffing balls and pigs in blankets were really salty. I also didn’t love the turkey. It was the one with bacon across the top and stuffing. It was just a bit meh and most years I love it.

I wasn’t able to buy the vegan mince pies (I’m largely dairy free due to an intolerance) until Christmas week. Only for them to be in a pack of four, whereas it was six last year and they tasted crap.

Really underwhelmed with M&S and think I’ll just go to the normal supermarket next year. Might even buy lamb or chicken, rather than turkey!

Hits

• Brie en Croute
• Golden Balls dessert
• Profiteroles
• Lasagne and Pepperoni Hot Dips
• Chocolate Pine Cones
• Cauliflower Cheese

Miss

• Rodney Reindeer Cheesecake
• Christmas Pudding (not a fan)

The Mayfair of Beef was very, very good. The sausage roll wreath, Brie en croute and the prawn and lobster cocktails went down very well too.

The beef and bone marrow pie was a disappointment. I was expecting chucks of meat but it was near mince. The Yule log looked amazing but was far too sweet

Nobody else have the three fish roast? Not cheap, but very good indeed.

@DorisDay88

Been buying the bread sauce for years and usually delicious but it was awful, really thin and watery Very disappointed in the party food, barely anything vegetarian

I bought two tubs. One thin and watery, one the right consistency - markedly different. Both bland and flavourless - like weaning rice and runny weaning rice. V disappointed. Wont buy it next year. Didn't like the Christmas cake either. Cake bland, icing MUCH too sweet, hardly any marzipan.

I’m annoyed that their all year entertaining range has moved to Ocado and can’t be collected in store. I think they are keeping cakes/Christmas as in store collection but everything else has gone.
Very Limited range for entertaining on Ocado too at the moment.

Christmas Colin was too much for my kids to cope with and that's saying something.

Dauphinois was terrible.

Beef fillet was great

Beef shin was excellent, and so much of it.
Colin Caterpillar was really dry and the chocolate trimmings tasted foul.

I went in 5 or 6 times (each time a half hour drive) before I finally managed to get my hands on the highly anticipated Hot Pizza Dip..

And it was meh!

Thankfully I was driving round a napping baby who was resisting sleep at home in his bed each time so all was not lost.

For the first time ever I ordered most of my Christmas food (except veggies) from M&S so that I could just collect and go. The hits were the Beef en croute, the beef was so tender, the sugar gammon, the smoked salmon selection platter - bloody delicious and the raspberry jelly and pannacotta was nice, but too big.

The misses were the sausage garland - greasy pastry and tasteless sausage meat, pigs in blankets - too fatty, golden ball profiteroles - so sickly sweet.

Next year (Covid permitting) I will order my meat from a local butcher and just pick up the smoked salmon platter from M&S. This year was a one-off, I would never do it again, just not worth the money.

We liked the sausage wreath, chocolate pine cones, woodland Yule cake (this was the highlight) and dauphinois.

Bone marrow pie was a bit meh.

@LikeSilentRaindrops

It was my first time catering Christmas from M and S - would usually cook, but was anticipating being heavily pregnant. In the end I had a 3 day old newborn, so v glad of M and S assistance!!

In common with others, hits were roast potatoes, turkey crown, red cabbage, carrot and swede crush and cauliflower cheese.

Misses were the pigs and stuffing parcels - the former v fatty and the latter very meaty with not much other flavour. The parsnips and sprouts (posh ones with chestnut), whilst well flavoured, would NOT cook, so were slightly crunchy, even at bubble and squeak stage. Most disappointing was the chocolate orange pudding - I was hoping it would be more chocolatey and orangey, but was in fact a bog standard Xmas pud with very large and not very pleasant caramelised orange slices stuck to the outside

It was fine, in that the main dinner components were tasty, and overall convenient, but not so good overall I’d be rushing to do it again next year. I miss the reliability of knowing that everything will be high quality!

I have one of those puds, sorry to hear it's not very nice!