Wedding dinner !! Quail?

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Has anyone had quail as a main course for a wedding ?
I tried it at our tasting and it was delicious but I have never had it at wedding and I am afraid people will think its too fancy or not enough meat.
I am between that or lamb, which might be more typical for guests..

Depends which country you're in!

Picking the veggie option isn't usually offered as a choice . You aren't told it's quail so you don't know to opt for an also unknown veggie dish(and the veggie could be an option you hate more)

Half uk half French. Hell yes.

I’d love either quail or lamb, and I’m sure nearly all my British family would too.

Tbh i get irritated with people being picky about bones in meat - unless you have a real motor skills problem or something like that. It’s like people don’t want to acknowledge that meat comes from animals. If you’re squeamish about that, be vegetarian. Also I am constantly astonished at people who don’t like lamb - for 40 years of my life I’d never even considered it to be controversial in any way. It’s the tastiest by far!
I wouldn’t say any of that out loud to people I was eating with, but I am totally internally judging.

You really don’t have to go bland or middle of the road. I had the best menu options I have come across at a wedding (if I say so myself) and almost 10 years later I still have people commenting on the food when weddings come up.

Here was my menu:

Confit of salmon, pickled cucumber, chargrilled artichokes to be replaced with something else, orange, soy gel, & wild rocket

Roasted butternut squash & sage risotto, rocket & parmesan (V)

Mains

Pan-fried sirloin of beef & mini steak & ale pie, honey roast parsnips, roast carrots, fondant potato, Rothschild red wine jus

Cannelloni of roasted red pepper, spinach, char grilled courgette, balsamic glazed, aubergine, basil pesto (V)

Dessert

Sticky toffee pudding, butterscotch sauce, tonka bean ice cream

I’ve just been to a wedding where the main course was venison, which made a nice change from the standard chicken/beef offering. As far as I could see, all the (non-vegetarian) guests ate it and enjoyed it. This was in Norway and most of the guests were Norwegian- I think it’s probably eaten more widely there. I would err on the side of caution for a British wedding but as half your guests are French, I expect the quail would go down well.

I dislike quail
land any bones in meat
i love lots and lots of foods 😊

Quail is very gamey, fiddly on the bone and small.

Be prepared for some still hungry guests ordering deliveroo.

I would love it personally but it is definitely messy to eat a whole quail (unless you leave half of it which would be sad and lead to hungry guests!). Not ideal for a wedding sadly.

Duck breast?

That could work? Special, delicious, easy to eat. Or a quail salad starter? Even at very posh / foodie weddings you want something easy to eat, as old / young/ all guests in best clothes & concentrating on conversation etc

I've been served quail at a wedding that was deboned with a duxelles stuffing. I love quail anyway, but this was absolutely delicious, and all of us who were non-vegetarian at our table talked about how much better and more interesting it was than most wedding food.

I'd love quail, but I don't think its a crowd pleaser.

Go for it. Ive never had it at a wedding but had it many times. Its delicious and a bit special

Really tricky as feel like you can’t win the weddings - everyone moans the food is bland but then most people on here are saying they wouldn’t eat it! I think both options sound lovely and seeing as you can’t please everyone you should just go for what you and your fiancé prefer.

I really don’t understand adults who are so picky about what they eat at weddings - everyone I know would eat what they are given even if it wasn’t their first choice but on here everyone seems so fussy!!

Because that is what a good host like @Philandbill does @Galiana

Not any old red wine jus then 😉

@FrenchandSaunders i got married on a Rothschild property, they had their name everywhere and on everything 😂

Oh to be fair I bet that was incredible!!

I love quail and I have eaten a Lot of them in France ( lived there for fifteen years). . Although you buy them with the claws and head attached, I have never ever had it served like this.

OP, quali are quite often served boned and stuffed in France, they make rather upmarket roulade type things ( and you get more meat, they really are starter sized otherwise.) I suppose this would be quite pricey, though.

Could you ask for breast of quail? Then it's all filleted?

Yes, ballotine. That's exactly what we had stuffed with duxelles at a wedding. I honestly can't imagine anyone who eats chicken objecting to that.

Go for it, it sounds nice and a bit more special than lamb. You're never going to please everyone anyway - some people hate lamb

Imagine how many birds you'd need to just have breast of quail!?!

I've never had quail but I'd definitely eat it -- I had guinea fowl once somewhere and that was lovely, a bit fancier than chicken but broadly similar.

Only you know whether your guests are likely to be from an "oh nobody in our family would ever eat a food we've never eaten before/internalised the conviction that we don't like" family or not. These people are incredibly frustrating -- I know because my mother is like that and will say things like "I never had broccoli before I married your dad" as if the only way a British person can ever try a new vegetable is to be married into a family that eats it.