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.

Place marking to see if anyone mentions the beef wellington. Dp liked the look of it, but we couldn't justify the £85 cost.

Only hits here, no misses.
Turkey crown
white chocolate pine cones
Pecorino parsnips
all of the party food - particularly the spinach dosas, tacos, tempura veg bites and mac’n’cheese balls.
Peppermint and dark chocolate ice cream.

Also some excellent bottles of £6.50 Montepulciano.

Every year we have a family Christmas meal about a fortnight before Christmas.

Last year I bought the slow cooked Oakham turkey in a box and it was a disapppintment. It didn't slice and just wasn't like turkey.

This year a fortnight ahead of Christmas, there were no fresh turkeys or dressed stuffed crowns and I bought a frozen crown for £20, bunged some streaky on top and made my own stuffing. It was flavoursome, moist and carved beautifully. Better, in fact, than some of the speciality birds of yore at £70 to £80 five or more years ago.

Any time I ask staff about a product or request help they behave as if they're deeply offended ie: I ask if they're expecting mince pies to come in and they stare at each other obviously not knowing what to say.

I don’t suppose the people stacking the shelves know the exact content of the next delivery. You sound like you wanted to hate the shop before you got in there anyway. Maybe take your custom somewhere else next year.

Did you actually eat any of the food ?

Hits:

Prawn toasts (but would have been better with sweet chilli sauce, rather than soy and ginger dip).

Goats cheese and onion mini tarts.

Cheese and ham croquettes.

Misses:

Mini beef in Yorkshire puddings (dry).

Mini meat pies (reminded me of dog food, which is less than ideal).

All hits except cauliflower cheese which was really mushy despite me cooking in oven???

chestnut stuffing
salmon mousses with smoked salmon around
Christmas cracker Colin
black garlic cheese
turkey crown
cold salads
pigs in blankets ultimate
mac n cheese £9.50 one (!) got through 2 trays easily between only 5 ppl
frozen pastries
Brussels sprouts with bacon

We had the slow cooked porchetta this year and it was delicious. Lovely and tender, and spot on crackling.
As was the pannatone gateau although very expensive for what was essentially a sliced up pannatone with some mascarpone.

@Chattanoogachoo I presume it's all together so people who have to cater for those awkward guests don't have to visit lots of different places in the store!

The three fish roast was delicious. The stuffed turkey breast was nice but expensive.
The gluten free chocolate log was also surprisingly nice and much moister than I expected.
We haven't opened the Christmas pudding yet or the nut roast

Red cabbage was amazing

I was standing by a dessert chiller when I was in the queue for my order and nearly picked up that gateau. It did look good but I talked myself into what you said about it so didn’t bother.

Best ever Yule chocolate log -lovely
Christmas Colin - fab.
Mini Kievs from their party range - really good.
Smoked Salmon - always great from here. I like the thin slices.

Miss.
The Prawn and Lobster cocktail.
For £28 I felt ripped off.
18 large prawns, a small teaspoon of lobster each ( serves 4) that was ‘bitty’- not on chunks. The borrow of the pot held Marie roase sauce - I thought there would be Atlantic prawns in there too - but no.
Yes, it tasted nice but way way way overpriced. Won’t be getting that again.

If you order from the special food to order Christmas catalogue you can order in advance and you are guaranteed to get what you have ordered. You also get a time slot for pick up. If you just go to the store on the off chance you only get what they have in stock at the time

Hits:
Scallops in shell - looked fun but were also tasty
Frozen blackforest gateau

Misses:
Sausage roll wreath

The Ham Hock Terrine in the glass jar was absolutely delicious, with the sherry jelly on the top being a particular highlight. Went in yesterday to see if there was any left and it was all gone! There was loads left of the Potted Porchetta terrine and the Barber's Cheddar terrine so clearly they weren't as popular.

Hits:

Katsu curry bites
Prawn toasts with sweet chilli dip
Rodney Reindeer hot chocolate in the café

Miss:

Pigs in blankets - very stringy bacon that didn’t cook well and wasn’t pleasant to eat - even DH, who minds this sort of stuff far less than I do, found them unpleasantly stringy. You expect the fat to crisp up and these didn’t.

Parsnips in honey and mustard were a huge disappointment, they were hard, didn’t crisp up even though cooked longer than recommended, and the glaze was horrible. I cooked my own last night and they were delicious: should have done that in Christmas Day instead of being lazy.

Hit

Shimmering Clementine cheesecake

Miss

Profiteroles - chocolate was too rich

We had the slow-cooked bone-in gammon with hot honey for Christmas dinner. It wasn't cheap but it was bloody delicious.

The £16 honey roast ham was delicious and we got more cuts of ham than stated so was perfect for xmas eve and boxing day.

The carmelised onion chutney and the cheeses were lovely. Big mix tin was fab and keeping the tin to refill for occasions during the next year. Pork belly bites were amazing as was most things we bought.

The only thing I was not keen on was the maple popcorn but it was still demolished by others so nothing has went to waste.

Ocado delivers m&s.

Bit of a mix here.

Misses
32 piece Garnish Selection - bland
British Baby Parsnips - not enough glaze + stuck to tray badly
Braised Red Cabbage - bland and tasteless.
Passionfruit + white chocolate Pine cones - so awful! Very gritty, had no thick chocolate base and they all collapsed into 'blobs'. We ate 1 and binned the rest.
Heritage orange/yellow Roasting Carrots - Not enough glaze and were in massive chunks that cooked unevenly. Didn't really taste of anything.
Wagyu Beef Pie - Pastry thin/bland, very peppery gravy and not enough meat for £50! I did get a big enamel pie dish though 😊

Hits
Turkey, Bacon + Stuffing Pork Pie - a lot of meat with cranberry jelly inside.
Profiterole Dessert Bowl - lovely!
Dashing Through the Snow - kids loved this! I paired it with Sainsbury's choc/orange chocolate sleigh so it looked great on the table together.

I wish that I'd stuck with normal chocolate pine cones though. DH couldn't even pick up the white ones because they went mushy and just slid into the bin out of the packet!

Fresh cream Yule Log was very good and at £16.50 worth it I think.
The huge pork joint with crackling was a big hit and looked great, the crackling was very popular. We fed 16 people with leftovers. Again decent value at £50.
Red onion tart tatin was great and I’ve bought more for the freezer.
Cauliflower cheese, PiBs, dauphinoise, nut roast were okay but I won’t purchase again as I think I could do better!
Still to eat a huge Porchetta but it has a decent use by date for a pork product.
I’ll continue to order from M&S at Christmas but very selectively. Really useful thread, thanks OP.

Miss-
brownie wreath
chocolate Yule log
white chocolate pine cones

Hits
Big mix chocolate tin
Panna cotta
Profiterole desert bowl