M&S ruined my Valentine’s

Happy Valentines everybody! While it’s not the biggest holiday in the year, it’s a great opportunity to stop and remember to say I love you to those who mean the most in your life. I personally enjoy it, maybe that is because I’m the girl and I get spoiled…

This year, my boyfriend and I decided to have a meal in and watch a movie. We’re flying out to South Africa on Thursday so didn’t feel the need to splash out.

I didn’t want to cook or make a mess, so I suggested doing a ‘Dine in for 2’ at Marks and Spencer’s. We get a starter, main, side, dessert and wine for £20. It’s a little expensive, but hey, it’s Valentine’s Day (And I deserve it!).

We looked at their menu, made our selections and set out yesterday evening to the Colliers Wood branch. We hedged our bets that this is the biggest store in the area, so they should have a decent selection.

However, upon arriving in the food hall, I noticed a group of people crowded around the end of the two aisles, just behind the table of Prosecco and red roses. Mentioning this to my partner, we went to find where the valentine’s dinner stock was. We looked, and looked. Simply couldn’t find it! Surely such a big store should store their signature promotion of Valentine’s Day!

It wasn’t until we passed the small crowd again that I realised, this was their Valentine’s selection. These people around these 2 fridges had the same idea as us. I edged my way towards the first fridge, and what I saw was disappointing. For mains, there was a choice of Duck a l’orange or pepper steak. Bearing in mind, their website boasts of at least 20 choices, I was very annoyed. What if I was a vegetarian or had specific dietary requirements?

Even their sides of rainbow veg and stuffed mushrooms were dire. We ended up settling for some bread topped with red onion, especially as the main portion sizes were like something that’d be served in a gourmet French restaurant.

Irritated, we moved onto the second fridge. Desserts just abysmal as the first fridge, only serving a choice of passion fruit profiteroles or your bog standard chocolate profiteroles. We resolved to look at their frozen desserts (not in the deal) and decided to get their pecan and toffee Roulade. Thankfully was more than 2 choices for the starters – although the actual choices were never going to be a saving grace.

Since the dessert was out of the deal, we ended up spending £19.20 (80p under the Valentines offer) but couldn’t get the wine that was part of the deal. So anybody unsure of where to get their dinner for tonight: DONT GO TO M&S…

For me, the heart of any celebration is the people, and the food. And, seeing as this is meant to be a cheat day, I still feel like I’m eating rabbit food.