Wetherspoons festive menu: I tried the Wetherspoons Christmas dinner for £15 - I think I’d have to be drunk to eat it
Chains up and down the country launched their festive menus earlier this month to capitalise on seasonal trade. One popular pub chain, Wetherspoons, however, has received the most media attention for launching its Christmas dinner for £15. Is it worth the hype? Our reporter Sophie Mei Lan went to find out.
Going for a family meal to Wetherspoons normally only involves breakfast or, at most, a chippy lunch.
I find it more of a boozer than a brunch spot, but with the temptation of their festive menu to warm a cold night, I took the kids and a friend to try it out.
My nearest Wetherspoons in Wakefield has just been refurbished, but I always find it too noisy to take the kids.
Instead, I opted for The Winter Seam Wetherspoons, at Xscape Castleford, in the hope it would be more family-friendly.
Unfortunately, even on a weekday night, it was packed to the rafters with people swigging beer.
We managed to find one spare table left vacant with the remnants of the previous family who had sat in this same corner.
We ordered the full turkey dinner (£14.99, including soft drink), festive loaded fries (£8.99), and one of the new spice bags, which comes with rice or chips and chicken or Quorn nuggets (£10.93 including a soft drink). It all sounded promising despite being slightly more expensive overall than the standard menu.
This came to a total of £43.90. Not bad for a Christmas meal out.
Granted, the only Wetherspoon’s I’ve ever truly enjoyed is the one in the White Rose Shopping Centre, Bridlington’s The Prior John, and the one in Millennium Square, Leeds - The Cuthbert Brodick - just for breakfasts, that is.
Since I have had my own family, ‘Spoons, as Wetherspoons is commonly known, provides a cheap and sometimes cheerful place to take the kids during their fussy eating years.
Christmas dinner and a soft drink for £14.99
Our dinner arrived, and it looked lacklustre to say the least. We were served decent portions of each dish, but it didn’t appear appetising.
The festive dinner looked and tasted like warmed-up sliced Turkey from a packet, the mash tasted more like powdered mash, and the chantilly carrots, which looked like the most appetising thing on the plate, were raw yet somehow slimy.
The stuffing was the most edible thing on the plate, but not even the gravy could mask this Christmas dinner’s flaws.
Festive loaded chips
I had higher hopes for the festive chips. Granted, they didn’t look merry, but chips, melted cheese and some sad-looking pigs and blankets couldn’t be too bad, could it?
For some reason, they were. The chips were standard Spoons’ chips, which are fine, but the little bit of melted cheese was flavourless, and the pigs and blankets looked like they’d been wrapped up way too warm all day. Chewy and overcooked.
I try the new spice bag
I was intrigued to try the new spice bag, which is a popular Dublin takeaway.
The chips looked browned, and there were a few chillies and slices of onion, with browned Quorn nuggets. Sadly, there was way too much salt and pepper seasoning. It was inedible.
This dish looked a far cry from the salt and pepper bags I’d seen at York Christmas Markets, and at just over £10, these were not even that much cheaper.
It left me coughing and sneezing with all the salt and pepper covering the food.
The staff were lovely, however, and helpful, and said they’d had mixed reviews of it. I joked that you’ve got to be drunk to enjoy it.
When it comes to dining out in a chain restaurant for £15 for a dinner, I’d much rather get a decent roast from a Toby Carvery or a local pub.
I think Wetherspoons should stick to what they’re good at: breakfasts, refillable hot drinks, and cheap beer. The guaranteed thing I always love about Wetherspoons, however, is their toilets.