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M&S Christmas Food hit and misses

251 replies

gbpaln · 29/12/2025 07:27

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.

OP posts:
ZookeeperSE · 29/12/2025 11:14

SparklyGlitterballs · 29/12/2025 07:36

I always order my meat from M&S - never anything else - and we're usually very happy with it.

The two items this year were...

Outdoor Bred Heritage Gold Gammon with a Sugar Baked Glaze
This was delicious and a really good buy.

Slow Cooked Oakham Turkey Joint
Not impressed. We usually buy a turkey crown that has always been excellent but ordered slightly later this year and this was one of the only boneless options left. Cooked it for the required time (fraction less if anything) but it came out dry and crumbly. I couldn't get any nice slices as it just fell apart.

Exactly the same with the Slow Cooked Leg of Lamb - dry crumbly and tasteless. I thought as it is a bit ‘prepared’ it would be an easier option for me as I usually spend all day in the kitchen. I won’t be bothering again, absolutely awful and cost £70!

Also the Wagyu Beef Pie - overwhelmingly tasted of salt. Awful.

Panatone clementine and raisin - dry, utterly tasteless, fruit all at the bottom. Never had Panatone before though so maybe that’s usually what it tastes like?

The Raspberry Pannacotta was ok, although even that was nothing special tbh.

Think I’ll go back to making everything myself next year.

pictoosh · 29/12/2025 11:17

Sherry trifle - very ordinary, quite watery. Not worth the pennies it cost.
Smooth Brussels pate - oddly sweet and synthetic tasting. We love pate here but no one has eaten it.

pictoosh · 29/12/2025 11:19

Oh but hits...pretty much all the cheese. Lovely.

tinyspiny · 29/12/2025 11:26

All hits really we had turkeys , pork and a large ham on the bone and they have all been great . Some sort of veggie mushroom/ encroute thing we had was excellent and I really enjoyed the ‘dashing through the snow ‘ dessert .

Number4224 · 29/12/2025 11:31

Hits

fillet of beef, absolutely delicious, dp said he was dreaming about it after eating it
pork with crackling - really tasty
brie on croute

misses

roast potatoes - took ages to crisp up and I had to turn the temperature up

Violetparis · 29/12/2025 12:02

Choc chip panetonne was delicious.

LoserWinner · 29/12/2025 12:06

Hit - brandy butter.
Miss - bread sauce was way too runny

BeRoseSloth · 29/12/2025 12:16

Their “cook from frozen” pork loin wrapped in prosciutto with sage butter (Pork Saltimbocca” was delicious. I was extremely sceptical about cooking it from frozen but it was perfect. Really tender and sliced well. Served on Boxing Day.

Silvers11 · 29/12/2025 12:16

SparklyGlitterballs · 29/12/2025 07:36

I always order my meat from M&S - never anything else - and we're usually very happy with it.

The two items this year were...

Outdoor Bred Heritage Gold Gammon with a Sugar Baked Glaze
This was delicious and a really good buy.

Slow Cooked Oakham Turkey Joint
Not impressed. We usually buy a turkey crown that has always been excellent but ordered slightly later this year and this was one of the only boneless options left. Cooked it for the required time (fraction less if anything) but it came out dry and crumbly. I couldn't get any nice slices as it just fell apart.

@SparklyGlitterballs That's good to know about the Gammon. We were away for Christmas so ordered that and it's in the freezer for around New Year!

MrsBeltane · 29/12/2025 12:17

The ultimate Yule log was a huge hit in our house.
I also bought a giant pork pie with turkey and ham, no one likes it, too sweet.

AuntieDen · 29/12/2025 12:18

everything we got tasted really good but, aside from the chocolate pine cones and possibly the cranberry topped pork pie, everything was entirely possible to make at home for a fraction of the price (parsnips, dauphinoise, cauli cheese, sausage roll garland).

And all of the vegetables did feel like whoever does portion control at M&S is also the infamous MN Chicken poster.

Obviously though it did reduce the kitchen time and stress which was worth it this year. I'm not sure we will bother again though to be honest as there's not enough that feels really special to justify the cost of a minimum order.

I may have to spend a few weekends playing with chocolate mousse to come up with a suitable pine cone replacement though.... I do already have a mould for a much bigger pinecone so this could work out well 😆

Astrabees · 29/12/2025 12:20

Anxietyspiral · 29/12/2025 07:46

I got some picky bits from M&S and was sorely disappointed! We had the snowmen bao buns, hand wrapped prawns, salmon on a little hash brown and the bacon pancake stacks. All tasted like the same beige shite you get from Iceland or Farmfoods just quadruple the price.

Me too. The snowman boa buns were deeply unpleasant and the dosas were disgusting, no flavour and soggy too.

Shittyyear2025 · 29/12/2025 12:22

We had the lemon meringue cheesecake dessert. Dreadful - hard chewy meringue and very confused filling with a soggy base. Awful.

Silvers11 · 29/12/2025 12:31

Did anyone order the Goose? I'm curious. We ordered it last year. It was supposed to be fresh when we got it - and I was intending to freeze it for New Year. When we picked it up it was frozen solid in a huge lump of ice, which barely fitted into my freezer. So I avoided it this year!

MySilentLions · 29/12/2025 12:42

Our turkey crown was delicious, moist and flavourful. Roast potatoes also excellent. (We got other prepped veggies from Aldi which were great and not as pricey).
Cranberry sauce and turkey gravy were also good.

The carrot/swede mash was a bit grim, too watery and not much flavour. Luckily don’t use it on the day, opened it for leftovers on 27th, it wasn’t finished even by the bottomless pit of a teen.

Teen loved the melting moment choc pudding. I refused to pay the prices for more than one dessert from M&S - we’ve had the pine cones as well in the past but £17.50 was taking the absolute piss.

BunnyLake · 29/12/2025 12:55

EleanorReally · 29/12/2025 07:48

hit
aged Comte bake
thanks to mn for the suggestion of Comte cheese
sainsbury's mushroom wellington, i didnt get a taste but it was a huge hit with dds

miss
too many mince pies, one packet is out of date on 27th december
dd made mince pies with a home made mince meat jar given to me about 10 years ago, it tasted very odd, but nobody else seemed to mind/care
my roast potatoes were too pale

The mince pies will be a best before. I’m sure we were still eating mince pies by Easter last year!

JustMyView13 · 29/12/2025 13:08

I loved the mini Yorkshire puddings - incredible, they were gone before Christmas.
The had these Turkey toasties. Honestly? 10/10 BUT I was acutely aware it was essentially less than one Turkey sandwich, chopped into servicing sizes and charged at about 3x the price. So I would say that’s something you could create using a sandwich at home for much less.

Roseshavethorns · 29/12/2025 13:17

Hit - the ultimate Yule log. It's very rich.

Miss - the Leaping Salmon. It had a date of 26 December. It should be stored flat but had obviously been stood on its side in store. The salmon had slipped out of the bottom pastry. I called M and S.. Apparently the Christmas food is only guaranteed a use by date of 26 December. I had to provide photos of the salmon. They sent me a £15 gift card for a ruined £55 item.
I'm giving M and S a miss next year.

MySilentLions · 29/12/2025 13:22

Chattanoogachoo · 29/12/2025 09:25

Only misses for me I'm afraid.
As always they mix their vegan food with meat and I won't search through meat for vegan products.
I shopped for my parents and 5 days before Christmas they had no mince pies, crazy amount of Christmas cakes which were very good to be fair.
Two days before Christmas there were still no mince pies and they confirmed there wouldn't be any.
Trolleys full of Christmas flowers which as another poster has said could be reduced.
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.My nearest M&S is 15 miles away so it's useful to know if an item will be restocked.

Every M&S food hall I’ve ever been in has a separate “tier” for their most of their vegan stuff.

Why would some wrapped/packaged stuff next to your vegan stuff be an issue? They’ve probably all been made in the same factory and transported in the same deliveries, then stored in the same cages, anyway. So you getting sniffy about them being together seems pretty bloody pointless.

Why on earth would floor staff know what is coming in the next deliveries? They aren’t the buyers! And are told fuck all.

mummabubs · 29/12/2025 13:33

The Wagyu dripping yorkies were yummy - nice as a novelty but overpriced, only bought them as I didn't have the separate oven space to make yorkies from scratch.

The Cherry and Chocolate panetonne... MISS!

Bought it as we watched the ITV programme about M&S Christmas food where they bigged up the fillings. Was shocked at the price (£22) but figured this was mostly for the brightly decorative tin, which I gave to a friend who saw it and loved it. 😊 I really don't treat myself to decadent food that often so this felt like a real indulgence. On paper should have been a complete win in my book as I love chocolate and cherry. The texture of the bread itself was nice, but there was very little chocolate in it so felt very plain in flavour overall. I like my panetonne in doorstop wedge sized pieces and even going by this method only had a few small chunks of choc in each. Wouldn't bother buying one from M&S again.

therewasafishinthepercolator · 29/12/2025 13:47

Was really looking forward to the pancake, maple and bacon stacks but didn't notice in the description that it was maple and chilli sauce.

Tbf my fault but why the constant need to add chilli or spice to things? It didn't occur to me they would interfere with a pancake stack. Leave pancake stacks alone! Or at least put hot or chilli in the name so I know to avoid.

Frozen pain au chocolate were fine.
Fresh pain aux raisin were lovely.
Their coleslaw is always amazing.

We didn't buy much from them this year having been nonplussed by most things in previous years.

boredwfh · 29/12/2025 13:50

I was very disappointed to find hardly any party food in our local M&S yday. The section was tiny so wasn’t like it had all been bought. There just wasn’t much. It used to be that party food was available all through to NYE. Last couple years it kinda disappears straight after Xmas. Does no one want party food for NY nowadays?

Hdpr · 29/12/2025 13:51

Filler of beef was amazing as was pancetta wrapped turkey crown. Loved the chicken tikka naan party food and some other bits. The mini desserts were also good - melt in the middle pudding, cheesecakes and churros

TurquoiseDress · 29/12/2025 13:51

Rodney reindeer pies were pretty dry & tasteless, think they were meant to be a chocolate version mince pie with the pastry

Only bought them as discount with Sparks card, wouldn’t have bother otherwise

Overall speaking with friends who got some M&S Christmas food the general consensus was overpriced & nothing special

Sounds like the Aldi turkeys were a much cheaper alternative and just as tasty!

JMSA · 29/12/2025 13:54

Enjoyed everything I got from M&S this year. I don’t tend to deviate much though, so no nasty surprises!
I did go for free range chicken breasts rather than turkey though. Delicious and waaaaay cheaper. Anything with a Christmas price tag is bonkers!