M&S Christmas Food hit and misses

[gbpaln]

I'm always taking notes for next year so interested in thoughts on M&S Christmas food hits and misses. Ours were:

Hits
Chateaubriand beef with peppercorn source
Sticky toffee trifle (was sceptical but delicious)
Christmas sourdough (made the most amazing Boxing Day sandwiches)

Misses
Dancing through the Snow dessert (it was fine and looked amazing when on the table but very.expensive for a couple of spoonfuls of mousse)
Pigs in Blankets Mac 'n' Cheese

Appreciate it is all down to personal taste but always wonder what delights I have missed.

The more expensive Yule log was delicious.

White chocolate pine cones also delicious.

Think the Ultimate Yule log was the biggest hit for people here.

Hits

Slow cooked turkey crown. This was delicious and if available next year I will order 2, freeze one for Easter.
Stuffing and pigs in blanket selection. Very good.
Glazed ham also very good but family prefer my own.
Wagyu Yorkshire puddings.
Best ever Yule log. Literally inhaled but DH and DS.

Misses

Pigs n blankets mac and cheese. It was ok but not a repeat purchase.
The turkey lasagne. Now to be fair the taste was ok, not brilliant but ok - it just looked like someone had been unwell on the plate and we couldn’t eat it once that thought was there. It looked really unappetising.
Their cremant sparkling wine from France. Highly recommended but for me, tasteless.

I am also going to add to my list the Christmas sourdough loaf. The 2024 version was better but the 2025 was nice, just not quite as nice. Someone above also said the Christmas crisps were over powering and yes, I would agree with that. The turkey toasties from the party food range were delicious and a repeat purchase but the chicken kievs were very stodgy.

We had some of the party food last night.

I got the bao buns snowmen, mainly for my DD who I knew would love the look of them. They were nice. DD was thrilled with them. They were quite substantial and the filling was nice.

We also had some fancy prawn ball things and the mini Yorkshire puddings. Both were good. Yes it was beige buffet food but you could actually see and taste the fillings properly. They were all a reasonable size too not tiny little things hidden in lots of packaging. I find the cheaper buffet food is generally beige all the way through and actually finding the alleged fillings can sometimes be difficult.

Without the 4 for 3 price deal I wouldn't have bothered. I was quite happy with it and it made for a nice, easy but pleasant little New Year's Eve buffet last night.

Have already replied to someone else who said the same… there’s no Ocado in Scotland, I wish there was though!

Thought the beef wagyu would be good as an alternative for my son-in-law and me as neither of us is keen on turkey. £40 and I hated it. It tasted as if it had been steeped in garlic, basted with garlic, injected with garlic, rained on by a garlic storm, and for a final flourish, powdered with garlic. No taste of beef at all.

SIL loved it however so it wasn't wasted, but then he adores garlic, and so do most of MN I think ('whenever I see a recipe that calls for two cloves of garlic, I add 8!' 'only EIGHT? we use SIXTEEN!' etc 😉) but to my mind it ruined what would have been a beautiful piece of beef.

@Needaglowup @Chocolatebunny61 @Countmeout

Please can you tell me more about the sticky toffee trifle: Everyone on the thread who bought it is raving about it.

What were the layers and textures? How does a hot pudding translate to trifle? I've tried to get one and it's OOS, but I definitely want one next year

There was also a black forest gateau baileys type liqueur in a gold bottle, which went down well. You could taste the black cherries. DD says it's better than the hotel chocolat one

We had lt ,it was ok but really a gooey sickly mush
Not a patch on a proper triffel with actual cream etc

Miss - brandy butter topped mince pies, they were far too sweet and sickly.

Lots of toffee sauce and cream with chunks of sponge. Just like eating cold sticky toffee pudding straight from the fridge (have definitely been known to do this!!). Obviously not as dense texturise but flavours all the same. We thought it was delicious, was worried it might be too sweet but did not think it was. Def on my list again for next year.

@CinnamonJellyBeans I have no idea of the layers except altogether it was delicious. I don’t like ordinary trifle and I loved this, just lots of cream and toffee sauce and a sort of chocolate mousse I thought. I wasn’t aware of the sponge.

Christmas Colin 🐛all day, unbelievable that what is basically a chocolate swiss roll can be so delicious!

Had high hopes for the vegan turkey joint - but unfortunately it had a soggy texture and the stuffing was overpowering

Just to add, I got one of the Barbers Cheddar pots mentioned upthread on a yellow sticker. It was cheddar cheesy with the strong chutney like a melted topping on top. Not amazing but nice enough.

I definitely wouldn’t bother paying full price but for 75p it was a pleasant addition to the New Year cheeseboard.

I went in to an M&S Food Hall today, hoping there might be yellow stickered Christmas food.
Sadly not, it was all gone.

Hits for us
Ultimate Yuile log
Profiteroles
pigs in blankets/ stuffing
potatoes dauphinois
paella stacks
prawn cocktail festive crisps

Misses
Winter berry spritz
mushroom vol u vents

ordered a butchers pack instead of the usual meats from M&S but would go back to M&S next year for the meats.

the best deals are on 27th. We did really well last Saturday. Tried again today but it was only party food today.

Hits
The twisty garlic bread camembert wreath - we went through 4 of these
Christmas sourdough baguette
Best ever yule log - everyone loved this, we bought another one for New Year
Sparkling clementine cheesecake - got this massively reduced, would definitely buy again
Posh profiteroles
Quince and pear fruit for cheese
Wagyu dripping Yorkshire puddings
Sprout and leek gratin
The mini toasties, mini Yorkshires, cheese and ham scones, paella stacks, brie and cranberry parcels and fish and chip stacks from the party food range
Peanut butter Merry Munch tin

Misses
Rodney Reindeer desserts - bit dry and tasteless
Roast turkey flavour combo mix - didn't like the flavour of this at all

I bought the frozen cherry roulade for £4 yesterday, will have it at the weekend.

I bought the Chocolate Cherry Yule Roulade.
I couldn’t cut through the dark chocolate exterior of it so when plated it looked aa complete mess. Embarrassed serving it to in laws.
Very heavy - dark chocolate and cherries.
I wouldn’t repurchase

I put a review of the prepared M & S Brussels sprouts, that were not prepared, on the Ocado website. My review isn’t there.

So many sites do this. Another one that seems to filter out negative reviews is Which Trusted Traders. I was shocked at their rejection of my factual and very fair review of one of their traders.

It makes every review pointless.

I was looking at a brand of inexpensive shoes. I checked the reviews. For each style of shoe, they had some variation of positive review - the wording was the same. I emailed the company basically asking why the reviews were so obviously the same fake and written up by the company.
They never replied.

We went to M & S for Christmas day food as a treat. We purchased a Beef Joint for £45.00, would not purchased again.It was ok? I overcooked it,due to not roasting the potatoes, earlier, which meant the meat was over done!

Pork joint with seasoning for £10.00, Loved this great value,very tasty.

Desserts A chocolate Christmas log advertised over Christmas, very sickly, dry & tasteless.

A Raspberry & patachco dessert,this was absolutely delicious!

OMG, Daughter purchased CHOC bars as gifts for friends & family from M & S, with salted caramel & pretzels, price £3.50 approx 5 *