M&S food - what was good and what wasn’t?

[Oppositioblue]

Beef Wellington overall was good. The duxelle was a bit strong but the beef was delicious. Wouldn’t buy again though. Very expensive. It was £70 and only fed 3 of us with just pastry leftover.

We also had the prawn and lobster cocktail to start. The fish was delicious but the cocktail sauce M& used wasn’t nice. We had a bottle of cocktail sauce in the cupboard thankfully so we scrapped off the sauce and added our own which was much better. The tomato balls in the starter weren’t nice. This is a definite no as a repurchase next year.

We also bought a Christmas colin to have over the coming days. He’s good!

I’ve not done pre prepped anything for years now. How do they justify £50-£70 for something that feeds 4? The only thing we bought in recent years was a tray of stuffing, it was dry and heavy. Much better to buy a box of decent stuffing mix and do it yourself. My pigs in blankets were from the butcher, turned out really well. Last year we had more visitors and I bought some Coop pigs as extra. They were piglets - ie not a whole chippolata - but actually really good

The turkey crown with pork and cranberry was good. Easy to cut and disappeared instantly.

Bit meh about the £15 baked Alaska cheesecake, But I prefer chewy homemade meringue. I should have got the trifle or made one but was pushed for time this year.

Did not get everything at M&S. Pigs in blankets and extra stuffing was good. I have the fresh cream truffle log but not tried it yet.

Turkey crown very nice but after an hour in the oven still only slightly lukewarm- oven had packed up! Had to juggle turkey, roast potatoes and parsnips, pibs, a tray of stuffing and a large dish of cauli cheese in a much smaller non- fan top oven! I'm all turned out great thankfully and the turkey crown didn't suffer. I did slather it in butter and cover it with streaky bacon however.

Red cabbage was lovely
Turkey gravy was lovely
Bread sauce was good but could've done with a smaller pot as only 2 of us like it so lots of wastage
Choc pine cones were delicious, had them last year and will get again next year
White choc and passionfruit yule log - meh. Sponge was lovely and light but overall not worth the money.

Turkey crown was good but needed longer than the cooking time stated.

The goose fat roasties were superior to the beef dripping ones, so I'll only get those next year.

The fresh chocolate Yule log was a delight as always.

Will get a pre-stuffed turkey crown next year, as I was struggling for oven space and it's one less thing to do.

You've all just reminded me that the M&S red cabbage is still in the microwave, from lunch yesterday, uneaten as I forgot to serve it

I bought most of the lunch from there this year, don't normally but so pleased I did as we had the sickness bug in the lead up so no time to prepare. Loved the dauphinoise but the goose fat roast potatoes were disappointing. The turkey crown was good as always but it has stunk the house out.

Red cabbage and cauliflower cheese were predictably fabulous. Everything else I got from Sainsbury’s and was very happy with all of it. I did do M&S meal deal 2 x2 for Christmas Eve tea as I promised something special. We had the beautiful chicken Kyiv and dauphinois potatoes and that went down well - with a little plop of the next day’s red cabbage. 😉 it’s all about the red cabbage! I bought another large tub to split and freeze 😉

The free range turkey breast was delicious but took much longer to cook than the label said. The pigs in blankets and stuffing balls were quite bland as was the cauliflower cheese. The roast potatoes were a nightmare to cook, none of them crisped up and some were still hard. We also had the profiteroles set on chocolate mousse but that wasn’t great.

Veggie household here so had lots of plant kitchen items:
turkey style roast - delicious
pigs in blankets - delicious
free from Christmas pudding was so disappointing, I’m the only one who likes pudding and the rest will go in the bin it’s so bad!

I couldn’t get the mushroom parfait but found one at Tesco which I think was nicer!

I used their all butter puff pastry for my sausage rolls and it was awful- soft and flabby. No flakiness at all.

My DH got some for Christmas from a group he volunteers with

This made me laugh. I agree M&S (or anyone's) Christmas prices are terrifying, but I don't think buying pre-prepped food from the butcher makes it less pre-prepped.

I bought a large box of chocolates... don't know the name... around the £10 mark - they were in a tall white box and round shaped chocolates the size of a ferrero rocher, mixed milk, white, dark, and individually wrapped.

Anyway I didn't eat any but the table wolfed them down and said they were amazing. So that was a well spent tenner.

Turkey crown was good. The remainder will go in a curry I expect. Brie and onion pie - for the vegetarians- went down ok but the pastry sort of collapsed. A smaller size might have worked better. Sausage roll wreath- went down very well but again perhaps a little large, ( unless people were saving space for later). Xmas pudding was delicious. Can't say which type as hubby does all the shopping at crimbo . Everyone really enjoyed that.

Amazing:

Seafood platter
Cauliflower cheese
Honey mustard parsnips
Beef wellington
Potato dauphinois

Meh:

Turkey crown on the bone - dry
Goose potatoes - bland

This is an M&S review/advertisement thread. Why doesn't it say so at the top? Isn't there a special board for things like this?

And, my M&S bugbear, why is everything full of pork/pork fat/pork gelatine/pig on the carriers they expect you to buy?

Turkey crown was lovely and the cranberry sauce. The smoked salmon was great and the stollen has been very nice.

Nothing was a miss in this house.

I forgot- the brandy cream also went down well, especially with grannie, kids not too bothered.
Pigs in blankets, didn't touch the sides. Not sure if Sainsburys/Tesco's would have been far behind but anyway, just answering on M&S food.

M&S cranberry sauce in a jar was noticeably different from others and very fruity and tasty.

yeah that was good

We had the slow cooked turkey breast and it was delicious. Best turkey I've ever had.

A couple of years ago I bought the whole caboodle for Christmas Day from M&S. A terrible family crisis occurred which meant an emergency run on Christmas Day, leaving all the food to be eaten on Boxing Day. Most of it was soggy and inedible by then. Since then I've never bought for Christmas from M&S again - it couldn't even last one extra day!

We got the Sherry Trifle & that was good, bloody love trifle

The seafood shells with chorizo were a hit in my house. As were the chocolate pinecones (served with brandy cream and fresh raspberries).

Oakham plain turkey crown was good BUT usually GF and this one was not not labelled wheat free on the package. Was left unsure as said had been basted with stock so had to defrost a chicken breast for coeliac Mum. Sort labelling next year M&S!

Best trifle - delicious
Colin cake with festive bigger choc bits - always a hit
Smoked salmon - delicious (no flabby fatty bits)
Cauliflower cheese - more sauce than cauliflower
Pigs in blankets - bought the little ones and will revert to proper size
Lemon and mint presse - refreshing & appreciated by the drivers

Colin advent calendar had fab choc faces for xmas day - DS very happy

Agree on the jarred cranberry sauce, it was good.

Am also a fan of their Merry Berry Cherry jam and their balsamic onions that are only available at Christmas (decent gluten free pickled onions are like hens teeth!).

In the interests of this thread I've just tried my GF iced fruit cake bar which came in a GF hamper and, whilst lacking in booze, was a lovely moist fruity cake with decent marzipan.