So this is a little bit of a different review for me. Not eating out for once. As it’s that time of the year it was time for the M&S dine in for two for £20 for valentines. I’m not going to list all the options there were available but I will discuss what I went for. It’s a really good deal price wise, for example the wine alone was £11 by itself (Romeral, a Rioja which I had had before and knew would be good) and overall I made a saving of about £15 on all the items individually.

For your £20 you got a starter, main, side and a desert for 2 and also a small box of chocolates. I decided to try the salmon pearls to start. These appear to be a new addition to the M&S special occasion dine in. I have had their standard salmon pate quite a bit before and it is always good so I thought you can’t go wrong. Plus they looked pretty impressive in the packaging. The mousse was wrapped in what seemed like a layer of butter which was coated with edible pearlescent powder to make it look like a pearl and then placed in a shell. The shells were stuck to the packaging with glue to stop them sliding about and sadly the glue had also stuck to part of both of the “pearls.” They still looked pretty ace though. The pearls were accompanied by a small sprig of samphire, just enough to add a little saltiness to each bite. The mousse was gorgeous, creamy and delicious with lemon cutting through the cream to give a lovely zing. Very impressed.

Now, the main was “edited” slightly. I got the individual beef wellingtons and the butternut squash, pepper and red onion side. I looked at it on the plate and thought it was lacking a sauce so chucked a bit of the onion in a pan with some stock and a little red wine and made our own kinda jus. It was all, again, delicious, although I was a little disappointed that I put it in for the time stated for medium rare and it was done all the way through. Oh well, it was still very nice, the beef just melted, the pastry was perfect and there was a good portion of it and the veg.

Now about the pudding, the chocolate salty balls! M&S only do their salted caramel profiteroles at New Year and at Valentines. I think I might also have seen them at Easter once. They are literally amazeballs and there was no way I was ever going to pick another desert. They are wonderful little choux balls from heaven. If you are near an M&S and it is one of these times of year get them! Nom nom nom nom nom. I kinda wished I had bought another box, or two.

So the food was lovely and if interspersed with some rather uncomfortable chat considering that it was a “valentines” dine in, although we weren’t eating it on the day. Alas by the end of the evening I was single again. But it wasn’t the fault of the food. I ate the chocolates by myself after he left.

Foodie x x

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