There are very few meals in the world that can top a Christmas dinner. The elevated roast is hard to beat, thanks to its many sides, including classic roasties, Yorkshire puds, tons of veg and of course pigs in blankets.
In the run-up to December 25, plenty of supermarket cafes have added the hearty dish to their menus. It's the perfect pick-me-up when you're doing your festive food shop and need a break from all the crowds.
Four writers decided to pit M&S, Tesco, Asda and Morrisons' cafes against one another and find which one did the best dinner - and one of them was a cut above the rest. Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Asda all have turkey dinners on the menu, while Tesco and M&S are both offering alternatives to the yuletide meal.
Sainsbury's
Rating: 3.5/5
The supermarket has a few festive dishes on its menu, such as 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, Adam Maidment wrote for the Manchester Evening News.
Adam bought the turkey dinner, which comes with turkey slices, roast potatoes, pigs in blankets, cauliflower cheese, Brussel sprouts, Yorkshire puddings, cranberry sauce, a stuffing ball and gravy. There was plenty on the plate, including five roasties and not one, but two, Yorkshies.
The turkey was a little bland, but there's plenty of other options to make up for it. The gravy had a nice herby taste, although it was a little on the thin side, and the roast potatoes were tasty and verging on crispy - if they'd been cooked a little longer they would have been perfect. Adam isn't a fan of sprouts, but he said they were surprisingly nice. Again, the cranberry sauce was nice but nothing to write home about. There were no stuffing balls, even though they had been advertised on the menu.
Adam said: "It’s a very good offering and it was a lot tastier than I had expected it to be, to be fair. Supermarket cafes often get a bit of a bad rep and I'm just as guilty of that as anyone else. With other offerings on the menu, and with vegetarian options too, you can see they’ve tried to offer a variety of things.
"And it’s maybe even changed my mind on sprouts. Winner winner, Christmas dinner."
Morrisons
Rating: 5/5
Writer Bethan Shufflebotham visited her local branch with hopes of tucking into a hearty Christmas dinner. And she wasn't disappointed. Sadly all of the Yorkshire puddings had gone for the day but that didn't stop the meal from being top-notch. Between 11.30am and 3.30pm, you can get a two-course meal for less than a tenner, or three courses for £11.99 - saving around £2 on the total value. The set festive menu includes starters such as prawn cocktail and Brussels pâté for £3.99 each. For the main meal, customers can get a Christmas turkey, vegan or veggie roast for £7.49 a dish. Meanwhile, £2.99 desserts include Christmas pudding, Bramley apple crumble and sticky toffee pudding.
Bethan went for the tomato and basil soup worth £3.49 for her starter. It came with two packs of spreadable Lurpak - no expense spared here, we all know how dear it is. The portion size was frankly, massive, and almost overflowing the deep dish. The soup hit the spot. It was warm, comforting and delicious.
Bethan choose the turkey dinner for main and crumble for afters. The Christmas turkey dinner. When it came out, there was a mountain of food, so much so that you couldn't even see the plate. There was 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.
The stuffing ball was perhaps a little on the overdone side, but the crisp pigs in blankets were perfect. Plus, top marks for roast and mash potatoes. Completing the plate was a Yorkshire pudding - a bit on the soft side but nothing detrimental - with a pot of cranberry sauce and lashings of rich and tasty gravy. 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.
No Christmas meal is complete without dessert and Morrisons Bramley apple crumble with cream was the perfect finale to what had been - as far as supermarket cafes go - a stellar meal. If three courses is perhaps a bit much, festive hot sandwiches and burgers are also available, as well as a Mini Christmas Turkey Roast. Fans of Pigs in Blankets can order a stand alone portion for £2.99 to satisfy any festive cravings, served with a pot of cranberry sauce.
Asda
Rating: 3/5
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). 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), Tom Molly writes.
Due to a deal that allows you to get a mince pie and a hot drink for £3, it cost Tom £9.55 for a Christmas dinner, a mince pie and a toffee hot chocolate with whipped cream. As he arrived before they started serving Christmas dinner at 12, he ate his dessert first.
There was too much whipped cream, and it kept spilling out at the sides. It was nice but sickly sweet. The mince pie was impressive, both in size and taste.
On to the turkey dinner, the pigs in blankets were also really tasty, even if one of the bacon 'blankets' was missing its mini sausage 'pig'. The stuffing balls were actually quite good with almost a meaty texture and the Yorkshire pudding was the right amount of crispy.
The roasties were decent too. On a more negative note, the turkey was limp and uninspiring, while the sprouts had seemingly been boiled or microwaved within an inch of their life.
M&S
Rating: 4.5/5
Marks and Sparks may not have gone the full Christmas dinner hog, but 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).
Dianne Bourne opted for a fancy candy cane frappe (£3.75) to start. She describes it as 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. She also tried the mince pie latte (£3.30) which was pleasant but there wasn't much of a mince pie flavour in it.
Next came the turkey pie, it arrived in a large owl with a puff pastry topping. Although it was warming, and pleasant enough, it was just a soup with a bit of pastry over the top. Moving onto the Turkey roast toastie, which at £6.50 was a little steep but when Dianne bit into it, it was worth every penny.
There was a generous hunk of turkey met, delicately wrapped in richly buttered wedges of toast with a herby sprinkling on top and some kind of melty cheese too. It was beautiful and a huge serving too.
Now, let's get into the desserts. The Christmas tree tiffin slice (£2.95) was a tasty chunk of chocolatey biscuity stuff with bauble sugar decorations on the front. And the red velvet candy cane loaf (£3.50) was pleasantly moist, although the crunchiness on top (sugar crystals used to look a bit like snow) was questionable.
Tesco
Overall rating: 3/5
Dianne Bourne headed to Tesco to see what its cafe was offering for Christmas. Again, no Christmas dinners on the menu. Instead there was a panini which left the writer uttlerly disappointed. "The most pathetic slithers of dry turkey slathered with an unholy mix of mayonaisse 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", Dianne writes.
Thankfully, Tesco cafe redeemed itself with the Yorkshire wrap. It was packed with sausage, bacon, stuffing and cranberry and smothered with a thick, gloopy gravy. Absolute heaven.
On the drinks front, they've come up with a few festive ones - although the cherry plum winter warmer (£2) tasted a bit like medicine - or Gluhwein with the alcohol sucked out. The gingerbread latte (£3.30) had a bit of a syrupy taste, however 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.
Dianne writes: "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.
"To end on a positive note, the actual café itself that I tried (at Tesco Crewe) was a really pleasant environment, having apparently had a bit of a recent makeover with snazzy posters and colourful chairs. And there was lots of room between the tables which meant for a pleasant and relaxing experience with our festive food."
