It's a sad truth that not all supermarket dinners are created equal. While most major supermarkets have in-store cafes where customers can tuck into a hearty meal after a big shop, some will give you more bang for your buck. The same is true of the stores running Christmas menus this festive season.
Keen to put Britain's supermarkets to the test, a team of food writers from Manchester Evening News visited all the big shops offering festive meals in their cafes this year and they claim to have found a festive cracker.
The team headed to Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Asda, who all offer a full turkey meal in-store, plus Tesco and M&S, who have their own festive cafe twists. Read on to find out which cafes scored best - and why one's offering was compared to pub-quality food.
Sainsbury's
For its seasonal menu this year, Sainsbury’s Café is offering everything from turkey and vegetarian Christmas dinners (£6.80) to a Pigs Under Blanket bap (£4) and mince pies. There are also festive drinks, like gingerbread lattes, for those wanting to truly push the boat out, writes Adam Maidment.
Adam says: "I opted for the £6.80 turkey dinner because, well, it is Christmas after all. It comes with turkey slices, roast potatoes, pigs in blankets, cauliflower cheese, Brussels sprouts, Yorkshire puddings, cranberry sauce, a stuffing ball and gravy. It’s really a shopping list in itself.
"Straight off the bat, I’ve got to say it’s not bad, actually it's quite nice. The plate is crammed full, there’s FIVE roast potatoes and two Yorkshires, for a start.
"The meat and the turkey slices are just your standard fare, really. They make for a good sandwich but, for me, turkey is always a little too bland for the extravagance of a Christmas dinner. It’s no different here, but there’s loads of other things that make up for that.
"The gravy has a nice herby taste to it, it’s thin and there are no lumps to be found. Plus, there’s absolutely loads.
"The potatoes are good. They’re tasty and verging on crispy. Had they been cooked just a little bit longer, I’d even have gone as far as saying they were just how I like them.
"Sadly, the pigs In blankets are a bit of a disappointment. Just like roasties, pigs in blankets are a key highlight to my Christmas dinner. While Sainsbury’s offerings aren’t bad, they’re just essentially smokey mini cocktail sausages. Plus only one of my three PiB’s has bacon on them, which is a proper letdown."
Adam adds that the sprouts were surprisingly "quite good" and the cranberry sauce was a bit too sweet. He claims that he wasn't given any stuffing as advertised, but as there was so much food it wasn't missed.
While he was defeated in the end by the mammoth meal, he admits that the dinner surpassed his expectations.
"It’s a very good offering and it was a lot tastier than I had expected it to be, to be fair," he says. "And it’s maybe even changed my mind on sprouts. Winner winner, Christmas dinner."
Rating: 3.5/5
Morrisons
Writer Bethan Shufflebotham headed down to Morrisons to try their Christmas dinner offering.
She says: "The Christmas menu has arrived at Morrisons café, and on my first attempt to sample their turkey roast during a visit on Monday, I was gutted to find that a lack of Yorkshire puddings had seen it scratched off the menu for the day. However, I was reliably informed that they’d be back on the next day, following a delivery. The very helpful staff member even gave me a festive menu to take away so that I could ponder my order overnight.
"And it’s almost a serendipity that there were no Yorkie puds on, because upon reading the menu at home, I discovered that between 11.30am and 3.30pm, you can actually get a two-course meal for less than a tenner, or opt for three courses for £11.99 - saving around £2 on the total value.
"The Christmas menu includes starters such as prawn cocktail and Brussels pâté for £3.99 each, but during my (second) visit, I went for the tomato and basil soup worth £3.49. For the main meal, customers can get a Christmas turkey roast with vegan and vegetarian options available - all at £7.49. Meanwhile £2.99 desserts include Christmas pudding, Bramley apple crumble or sticky toffee pudding."
Bethan ordered the turkey roast and apple crumble, which she asked to be brought out together - and less than 15 minutes later her meal arrived at her booth, complete with a jug of extra gravy and a pot of cream for her dessert.
She started with the 'giant' bowl of soup. "It felt hearty and artisanal, which is everything you want from a festive meal out, isn’t it? There’s nothing worse than being served up food that looks, smells and tastes like it’s just finished doing a waltz in the microwave."
When it came to her festive feast, she was equally impressed by the portion size, saying: "There was so much food I couldn’t even see the plate, complete with a generous carving of juicy turkey that didn’t feel as though it’d been sat under a heat lamp, as can often happen with diner dinners, as well as soft carrot batons and five Brussel sprouts."
She adds that the stuffing ball was 'perhaps a little on the overdone side', but the pigs in blankets were cooked to perfection. Both paired well with the 'creamy mash', 'crunchy roasties' and the Yorkshire pudding that was 'a bit on the soft side but nothing detrimental'.
Vegetarians can swap the turkey for a pumpkin and cranberry roast and remove the pigs in blankets, while the vegan option is the same as the vegetarian, but also removes the mashed potato and Yorkshire pudding.
If all of that wasn't enough, she also enjoyed Morrisons Bramley apple crumble as "the perfect finale to what had been - as far as supermarket cafes go - a stellar meal."
Bethan says: "I genuinely don’t think I’d have gotten much better in a pub for £12 - essentially £4 per course - and I left absolutely stuffed."
She adds that there are smaller options available too, including a Mini Christmas Turkey Roast or a stand-alone portion of Pigs in Blankets.
Rating: 5/5
Asda
For writer Tom Molloy, who has previously been left underwhelmed by Asda's festive offering, he claims this year's menu is an improvement. However, it still hasn't jumped to the top of his must-visit list.
"Since last year, a Christmas dinner has gone up by 95p to £6.95. Cheaper choices include a brie and cranberry toastie (£4.25), pigs under blankets toastie (£4.25) and tomato soup with a roll (£3)," he said.
"Meanwhile, desserts are priced between £1.75 for a mince pie to £2.50 for a Black Forest gâteau. Under the 'festive hot drinks' section are standard tea (£1.60) and an Americano (£2.45), which feels like cheating, or you can get a toffee-flavoured hot chocolate (£4.25 with whipped cream or £3.70 without).
"Due to a deal which allows you to get a mince pie and a hot drink for £3, it cost me £9.55 for a Christmas dinner, a mince pie and a toffee hot chocolate with whipped cream. As I arrived before they started serving Christmas dinner at 12, I had to have my dessert first."
Tom liked his dessert, even if he enjoyed his meal in an unusual order, praising both his drink and his tasty mince pie. He adds that once he was able to order his Christmas dinner it arrived quickly, and he had nothing but good things to say about the staff. However, he wasn't entirely impressed by the main course.
"The turkey was limp and uninspiring, while the sprouts had seemingly been boiled or microwaved within an inch of their life," he states.
The pigs in blankets were "really tasty", according to the writer, though he claims one of the bacon 'blankets' was missing its mini sausage. Meanwhile, he thought the stuffing balls had a good texture, the Yorkshire pudding 'was just the right amount of crispy', and the roasties were 'nowhere as bad as last year'.
Tom adds: "Overall, I left a lot more satisfied than last year but would still probably say that a carvery is better value if you want this sort of thing."
Christmas dinner - 2.5/5
Mince pie - 3.5/5
Hot chocolate 2.5/5
Overall rating: 3/5
Marks and Spencer
Dianne Bourne was left wowed by M&S Cafe, even if they have not "gone the full Christmas dinner hog" this year.
She says: "For 2022 there's a warming turkey pot pie soup (£5.50) and turkey roast toastie (£6.50) as well as a rather bargainous pot of 'festive' mini sausages on a bed of cranberry sauce (£1.50).
"There are also festive drinks to try and I go for the rather opulent candy cane frappe (£3.75) which is like a large milkshake with a hint of mint chocolate in there. It's finished with loads of cream and a cute candy cane chocolate on top. We also tried the mince pie latte (£3.30) which was pleasant but we couldn’t really pick up much of a mince pie flavour in it.
"The Turkey pie soup arrives in a large bowl with a large puff pastry circle on top. It was pleasant and warming - but it was really just like a soup with the added pastry for pizzazz.
"The Turkey roast toastie seemed rather expensive at £6.50 but wow, that’s until I tasted it. It was worth every penny if you ask me - with a huge hunk of turkey inside all wrapped in richly buttered wedges of toast with a herby sprinkling on top and some kind of melty cheese too.
"It's that massive you could easily share this - particularly if you go for the five dinky sausages which you could then share as a side to create a really fun and tasty festive meal on your shopping break."
If you still have an appetite after all that then desserts are well worth a try, according to Dianne. She adds: "We sampled the Christmas tree tiffin slice (£2.95) which was a tasty chunk of chocolatey biscuity stuff with bauble sugar decorations on the front. The red velvet candy cane loaf (£3.50) seemed a tad expensive for a cake slice but was pleasantly moist, although I was a little troubled by the crunchiness on top, which was the sugar crystals used to look a bit like snow."
However, the toastie remains her dish to beat, as Dianne thought the "standout" pick "tasted as decadent as a Christmas Day dinner," and she says that makes it "a real winner" in her eyes.
Turkey roast toastie: 5/5
Festive sausages: 4/5
Turkey soup pot pie: 3/5
Cakes and drinks: 4/5
Overall rating: 4.5/5
Tesco
Having enjoyed "the turkey toastie of dreams over at M&S", Diane was left disappointed by Tesco's "turkey feast" panini.
In her review, she claims: "The most pathetic slithers of dry turkey slathered with an unholy mix of mayonnaise and cranberry sauce, with a smattering of stuffing in there for £4.75. The panini bread itself was quite pleasant but the filling so thin that it was about as far removed from a 'feast' as you can get."
Thankfully Tesco Café redeemed itself with the festive Yorkshire pudding wrap (£6.25), according to Dianne. The foodie loved the thick gravy and "delicious" dish, which she says was packed with sausage, bacon, stuffing and cranberry.
"Inexplicably, there was some kind of salad included - perhaps to look like sprouts?" she adds. "Either way it was fine, I actually quite liked it within the weird sausage, gravy, cranberry batter mix of it all."
Unfortunately, she wasn't a fan of all the festive drinks. She says the cherry plum winter warmer (£2) tasted "a bit like medicine - or Gluhwein with the alcohol sucked out" and the gingerbread latte (£3.30) had "a bit of a syrupy taste". But she thought the Yule log hot chocolate (£3.80) was a winner. "It worked well with the squirty cream on top and a collection of choc shavings in the midst too," she explains.
Coming to the end of her taste test test, she wrote: "For dessert, it was a Viennese mince pie (£1.25) which was right up my street as it was heavy on the pastry, with a fairly thin layer of mincemeat. I particularly enjoyed the giant wodge of pastry and sugar on top." The café itself offered "a really pleasant environment," she adds.
Turkey feast panini: 1/5
Yorkshire pudding wrap: 4/5
Mince pie: 4/5
Drinks: 3/5
Overall rating: 3/5
Have you tried any of these supermarket meals? Let us know which is your favourite in the comments below.
