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.

Clearly on reflection bought more from M&S than I realised 😅

HIT - Braised red cabbage and apple (I like it sweet and borderline mushy).

We also got party food nibbles as a treat, not wildly impressed overall given the price point but:

Mini Potatos Bravas - these were my husband's favourite, I'd have appreciated more of the garlic dip as that made them sing, but only enough for a topper on half the nibbles in a pack!

Cranberry brie filo pastry bites - Hit

Halloumi fries - Nice but again very overpriced for what they are (as opposed to the other two which at least felt like something more complex/ showstopper-y?)

Maybe we hit a store when stocks were low, but given we were trying to find party nibbles for a vegetarian as well it seems like if you're a veggie you should be happy with cheese in either breadcrumb or pastry form and that's it 🤣

Hit:

Best Ever Mac n Cheese (for Christmas Eve.)
Rodney Reindeer vanilla cheesecake.
Salted caramel teacakes were gorgeous.
Their olives and cheese selection are always good too.

Miss:

Whipping cream… I just couldn’t get it to thicken up!
Serrano ham and cheese rollitos up. I ate one, but found it too sickly.

I’ve bought the whole slow cooked turkey (without the fancy stuffings) for a couple of years now, no regrets, it really is the only turkey I’ve ever had that hasn’t been as dry as a

I decided I was buying as much as I could ready made due to boring reasons. Morrisons sold me roast potatoes, carrots and parsnips, sprouts and bacon with chestnuts, mash, Yorkshires. All were delicious but the roasties needed fifteen minutes longer. Aldi supplied duck wings and Sainsbury's another set of duck wings, also nice. Pago stuffing and bistro gravy.

Don't have an M&S near enough but they aren't worth the trek now for party food.

Hits:
Salmon terrine, although we picked this up for £5 after Xmas. Not sure it was worth £10.
Coquilles St Jacques. Available all year and they are an Xmas staple for us.
Mini scones party food. Wasn't expecting much as don't like scones unless freshly made, but picked them up on a yellow sticker for the rest of the familiy's benefit. They were delicious!
Big Mix chocolates. Large and tasty.
Smoked salmon appetisers. These were fought over.
Crémant - the £10 bottle
Marksologist cocktails
Cranberry topped pork pie
Cranberry & pork stuffing. We also had a different flavour Waitrose #1 stuffing, and the M&S won by a mile.

Misses:
Hash brown topple tower. Nice taste but very expensive for what is mostly potato. DCs were gutted they couldn't be pulled apart like a Jenga tower (the rough surface stopped them sliding out). We'd eat it again if presented with one, but wouldn't purchase again
Bao buns. Not a miss, but very 'meh' and wouldn't buy again.
Crémant - the £12 bottle. Bought as only one of the £10 in stock. It wasn't as nice as it's cheaper shelf neighbour.
We had the chocolate pinecones last year but they were too rich for us.

Still to try:
Mini chocolate & guérande sea salt caramel tarts

Hits:

Hot smoked salmon rosti were nice with a wedge of lemon
Tiger prawn selection also nice with some sweet chilli sauce - but would have preferred both of these to actually come with some dip

My teenage nephew adored the salted caramel chocolate pinecones, and I had to ask him to leave some for everybody else as he was scoffing them (let alone that they were £12 for the box of 16)

Misses:

The Yule log (normal one, not ultimate as couldn’t get that) was horribly dry

Frozen raspberry and mascarpone meringue roulades were only ok, again quite dry with not enough raspberry filling to offset the powdery meringue, needed both coulis and cream to make them enjoyable (but not even that could save the Yule log).

Only three of us but
hit, Oakham large chicken
hit, pork sausagemeat stuffing
hit, puff pastry mince pies
hit, Artic Colin, handy we could serve half and still got some in the freezer.

Hits:
Brussels pate with redcurrant jelly. Absolutely delicious.
Beef gravy pots(far nicer than Waitrose)

Misses: I bought shortbread fingers instead of the usual stag tin. They are hard, not as buttery as usual. We had a tin from Tesco gifted that was nicer.
Whipped soft cheese. Nice texture but tasteless.

I wanted the raspberry or strawberry trifle but couldn’t justify it as they were huge and only DH and I bother with it. Interested to know if anyone bought one and what they thought?

We stopped getting our Christmas turkey and party food from M&S after the fiasco in 2022. Despite putting an order in very early we had to opt for a stuffed boneless turkey joint with bacon over the top as our first choice was sold out! Also the minimum spend increased if I remember correctly and I ordered a sausage roll wreath and a Christmas Colin the Caterpillar cake to get it over the required amount. Went to pick the order up at the allocated time and it was bedlam, got our order then shopped for some party food but then noticed that the originally required boneless turkey breast joint was readily available on the shelves! Wish we’d swapped it over.

Said stuffed turkey breast joint was awful, I do my own pork sausagemeat stuffing anyway so the bit with the meat was discarded. Sausage roll wreath was bland and the caterpillar cake was definitely surplus to requirements. We were also disappointed with all the expensive party food we bought.

2023 we saw the boneless turkey breast joints in the freezer section of M&S quite early on so bought 2 smaller ones, looked identical to the fresh ones we’d ordered previously. Didn’t bother with party food.

2024 we bought a nice joint of beef from local butcher for Christmas dinner.

2025 was at one of my daughter’s for Christmas dinner.

Hit: slow cooked Oakham turkey crown, as a pp said, it didn't really slice easily, but tasted divine, (possibly a bit too much stuffing).
Pine cones, the white ones. Everyone really enjoyed these.
Raspberry sherry trifle
Misses : cauliflower cheese, strangely spicy and a very mean portion.
Sirloin roast, I cooked it exactly to the instructions, but it was really too well done, and could have used much less time. (I should not have relied on the info on the packet)

Not in Scotland sadly 😥

The slow roast shin of beef was amazing, said feeds 8, fed 11 (including 2 unexpected 18 year olds fresh from the gym so starving) with left overs.
Dauphinoise great as always if a bit mean.
Loved the ultimate Yule log
Raspberry panacotta not as good as normal, the raspberry top was a bit grainy.
Chocolate pinecones were fought over as a result of the panacotta not being as good
Brie en croute and sausage roll wreath also hits
Misses - all the party food. We get a selection when decorating the tree and I wish I’d not bothered. The bao buns were dry and lacking in filling, should have gone to Sainsbury’s.
Hit from Sainsbury’s, the cauliflower cheese was cheaper than M and S and just as good. Also the ultimate lamb shank, delicious and the lobster crumpets were great.

Hits: Winter Berry Spritz - delicious! The mulled spices went really well with everything else! Hope they do this again next year.
Mini Turkey Toasties (party food) - really tasty and loved the gravy dip
Collection Mince Pies - always get a box of these! Love the boozy ones
Brandy pouring cream - goes really well with the Christmas cake

Misses: Somerset Brie cheese from the British cheese board - really bland and disappointing

Oh god, no…I thought the shallot tarte tatin was bloody awful as it was so sickly sweet and artificial tasting. I threw out the other one in the packet

Alongside a steak and some greens it was fab

Hits. Slow cooked turkey and pine cones
Misses. Snowman bao buns were rank. Overpowering taste of lime leaf, really unpleasant.
Carrot and swede crush was like soup. Had to cook it for a while to drive off the excess liquid

Hits
Oakham Turkey Crown - cooked beautifully but oh so expensive.
Cranberry topped pork pie - delicious but I'm the only one who likes it so I ended up eating the entire thing over 5 days 😳

Misses
Passionfruit pine cones - a bit meh for the price
Collection Very Berry Pavlova - not nearly enough fruit & cream
Pigs in blankets - a lot fattier than usual this year
Merry Munch - tried it to see what the fuss was about. Wish I hadn't bothered.

Probably my last year doing M&S ordering. I do it for convenience, but don't think I can justify the cost when the food can be bought or made better elsewhere.

Hits -
Oakham turkey crown
The £25 mousse pudding with the Santa feet
Pigs in blankets
All the party food!

Misses - Rodney reindeer. Sadly dry and tasteless.
The ordering system - we turned up at our allocated slot time to collect our turkey and they didn't have it and were very unfriendly about trying to help us. Think we'll use Waitrose next year.

Not Christmas but I wish they'd bring back Colin the Caterpillar mousse and cake in a jar!

Turkey crown was great and made a good curry afterwards too. The sausage roll wreath was amazing and sooo more ISH!!

The vegan turkey thing and vegan pigs in blankets were delicious (even my non vegan family ate them), but the chocolate conifer cones were such a let down, not joy worthy enough for £18.50 and hadn’t realised they were made with dark chocolate (my fault for not checking).

Cranberry topped pork pie
DH's favourite! Need to pre-order.

Bao buns. Not a miss, but very 'meh' and wouldn't buy again.
All these flat bao buns are nothing compared to a real, fluffy cha siu bao (see pix).

Was disappointed not to be able to try the cherry & dark choc panettone (even at £22 😱) - it was never on the shelf & apparently they had very few in my store.

We were happy enough with everything, I think.

Brie garlic butter wreath - amazing. The brie was just the right amount of matureness and the bread was gorgeous. Absolutely stank of garlic for hours afterwards. Feeling sad that it's been eaten.

Oldham turkey breast joint - came out perfect, very tender and had a nice flavour. Served three on Christmas day, two generous boxing day sandwiches and got another four servings of curries out of it.

Chocolate pine cones - we knew what we were getting, they're an annual favourite. Didn't disappoint although I do think they're darn expensive for what they are.

Seafood platter (the smaller one) the dressed crab was outstanding, as was the garlic alioli. But of an over-reliance on different types of prawns. It's one of them where you know it's not great value and would be easy enough to put together yourself, but has become a bit of a Christmas eve tradition and quite frankly I'm paying for the convenience. Still very tasty.

I don't tend to order the prepared veg from there as for the bits I use, other cheaper supermarkets do it just as well, and I'm quite happy to have an hour in the kitchen on Christmas eve prepping for everything else.

We've had party food from there in the past and found it very hit and miss - and no better than other cheaper supermarkets.

This is probably my last year doing my Christmas bits with M and S. There are only two of us and so much is wasted. I really wish they would do equivalent items but smaller portions. Waitrose next year.

Had the beef shin on Xmas day. Was very chewy and stringy but was great on boxing day made into tacos with a chilli sauce I made myself.

Parsnips and the brussels gratin were ok.

Pork belly picky bits were lovely.

Sausage wreath is always a winner.

Had the chocolate log for desert but it really needed some cherries or something to cut through it.

Would buy again

Oakham Stuffed Turkey Crown on the bone
Potatoes Dauphinoise - everyone enjoyed and saved time on Boxing day
Festive Colin the Caterpiller
Vanilla and raspberry pannacotta

Wouldn’t buy again
Handcrafted Turkey bacon and stuffing pork pie - was greasy and don’t know if it was worth £25.
Sticky toffee pudding trifle - even the kids thought it was too sweet

On the fence
Brie en Croute - I was nice but I don’t know if it was worth £17.50.

Havent eaten yet
Without Wheat Butternut Squash and Barber Chedder tarts

Anyone try the raspberry an pistachio roulade?