JOINT BEST RATED
Pret’s Christmas Lunch sandwich (£3.75, left) was joint top rated with EAT’s Christmas Full Works Bloomer (£3.95, right), with both sandwiches scoring 5/5
Pret Christmas Lunch sandwich – £3.75: This is the sandwich to beat all pre-packed snacks. It looks like any other Christmassy lunch at first but, between the meat and the bread, sits a crispy stuffing sheet. The revolutionary inclusion of orange zest not only quietens down the pointlessness of the salad, but it pulls every morsel of flavour from the turkey. You’ll be fooled into thinking it’s December 25th – Gareth Davies. RATING: 5/5
EAT Christmas Full Works Bloomer – £3.95: Housed between two thick slices of a bloomer loaf, the bread is more than substantial enough to hold the myriad of ingredients inside. This sandwich is an extremely meaty experience with the filling including turkey, stuffing and slices of smoked ham so is certainly not for the faint hearted. The winning factor with this sarnie is the perfect balance of quantities, with the cranberry perfectly balanced so as to avoid being too sweet or too sharp. EAT also do away with the abundance of mayo seen in so many competitors. In my opinion this is just one step down from a Christmas dinner – Martha Cliff. RATING: 5/5
WORST RATED
Asda’s £3 Extra Special Turkey & Trimmings was the worst rated sandwich on the list, with a score of just 1/5
ASDA Extra Special Turkey & Trimmings – £3: This deluxe ‘handmade’ sandwich is anything but luxurious. It’s absolutely packed with meat, so much that you can barely get your jaws around it, but the end result is a dry bland mouthful with an aftertaste of bitter cranberry sauce. There’s also far too much spinach here – my pet hate. A waste of money. I put it down after two bites – Imogen Blake. RATING: 1/5
THE REST
EAT’s pricey £3.95 Turkey, Stuffing and Crispy Onion Baguette came a very close second in the classic Christmas feast taste test
EAT Turkey, Stuffing and Crispy Onion Baguette – £3.95: EAT’s Christmas baguette was garnished with just a spattering of rocket, so salad-fearers like myself can rejoice. There is extra room for all the good parts and the negligible greenery doesn’t taint the taste at all. Instead, savoury and sweet takes hold. The cranberry sauce? Delicious. And while prune and pancetta stuffing sounds unusual, it really works. It’s all finished off with a tasteful amount of mayo so it’s neither soggy nor dry and packed into my favourite kind of bread – a baguette – so it’s hearty too – Lauren Bell. RATING: 4.5/5
Tesco Turkey and Trimmings – £2.35: There’s plenty of mayonnaise in this meat feast of a Christmas lunch sandwich which gives essential moisture, though not everyone will like that. This really does taste festive, with plenty of stuffing, tender turkey, and crispy bacon. The filling is generous – all except for the cranberry, of which I could have had more. The malted brown bread prevents it from feeling too artery-clogging. For £2.35, a bargain and a festive triumph – Imogen Blake. RATING: 4.5/5
M&S Help Shelter Made Without Wheat Turkey Feast – £3.80: I find that GF bread can be quite dry, but this is a really lovely soft sandwich. There was a nice amount of filling with a good flavour. I would avoid if you don’t like cranberry sauce as at times that could be a little over powering. The turkey was nice and moist too – Hana Carter. RATING: 4/5
Lidl Festive Feast – £1.69: The Festive Feast was everything you want from a Christmas sandwich – filling and flavoursome with lashings of tangy cranberry sauce. The turkey was moist and the herby stuffing tasted like the real deal, while plenty of mayo and bacon gave it some extra saltiness. The only unwelcome addition was a thick wedge of spinach leaves which added nothing – and which I promptly removed. The cheapest sandwich on the list and one of the tastiest – Imogen Blake. RATING: 4/5
Asda’s cheaper Turkey & Trimmings sandwich was tastier than the more expensive Extra Special version
ASDA Turkey & Trimmings sandwich – £2.50: It may be 50p cheaper than the Extra Special version, but this pared down sandwich actually tastes a lot better than its luxury counterpart, which is our worst rated turkey sandwich. It has a good mix of meat, stuffing and sauce and the turkey actually tasted like turkey as well, rather than like plastic as can be the case. Save yourself 50p and buy this one instead – Imogen Blake and Talya Varga. RATING: 4/5
Costa Coffee Turkey & Bacon Club – £3.95: It feels so wrong yet so right. It’s greasy and cheesy and like it will clog your arteries instantly but the combination of gooey cheese, creamy mayo, bacon, turkey and cranberry is guilt-inducingly delicious. It’s very rich however and I’m not sure I could have more than a few bites. But for a naughty hot treat, this is a good shout – Imogen Blake. RATING: 4/5
Caffe Nero Festive Turkey Special: I really hate these large floury buns that coffee shops use for their sandwiches and toasties. The cranberries in this bun are lovely but the filling is dry as a bone, and it’s a shame because the truffle mayonnaise is a truly delicious, luxurious addition, and doesn’t overpower the other flavours as truffle usually does. There just isn’t enough of it. The cranberry flavour is beautiful, though, and I’m not even offended by the spinach leaves. It looks awful, but exceeds expectation. If it wasn’t so dry, it might be among the best I’ve tasted – Imogen Blake. RATING: 3.5/5
Sainsbury’s Snow Globe Sandwich – £3.50: This looks horrific as it’s encased in a gaudy plastic dome and is sprinkled with edible gold stars. But actually, it’s not half bad. It’s absolutely stuffed with meat – perhaps slightly too much – but it’s all very tender and flavoursome. The slick of cranberry is a welcome addition, though with the brioche bun everything is slighty too sweet. It’s the size of a burger mind you, so one for when you’re starving only – Imogen Blake. RATING: 3.5/5
Aldi’s £1.69 Turkey Feast with Pigs Under Blankets scored just 2/5, proving that sometimes you do get what you pay for
Sainsbury’s Turkey with Pigs Under Blankets – £2.20: This is a decent effort from one of Sainsbury’s many variations on the turkey sandwich this year. It’s meaty but the filling doesn’t overwhelm you and the mayonnaise keeps everything moist. There’s plenty of cranberry to add a festive touch. The sausages are your classic cocktail variety and it does feel like I’m a child on a school trip when I eat it as the meat is all pretty bland. It’s not something I would choose but a decent effort – Imogen Blake. RATING: 3.5/5
SUBWAY Festive Feast – £4 with drink: This almost smells of Christmas. It’s packed with meat and don’t worry, you won’t go hungry with this so don’t Meal Deal it. The cranberry sauce was welcome but there needed to be more stuffing. I wasn’t sure about the tomato. How festive is a tomato? A solid performer but is it up to Pret’s festive offering? I’m not sure – Jeremy Barnes. RATING: 3.5/5
M&S Help Shelter Turkey Feast – £3.50: This was tasty enough but the overriding flavour was the (overly sweet and not very tangy) cranberry sauce. The turkey was great and stuffing was generous, and bacon was a welcome addition but on the whole, it was pretty bland. Underwhelming – Unity Blott. RATING: 3/5
Greggs Christmas Lunch sandwich – £3: All it really needed were some sprouts to make this a truly Christmas lunch. Tasty, but on the bland side, and lacking any festive punch. Greggs’ Festive Bake however is truly glorious and everyone should sample one. – Imogen Blake and Nicholas Booth. RATING: 3/5
Crussh’s Festive Turkey Feast scored poorly in our Christmas feast taste test, with a rating of just 2/5
Sainsbury’s Turkey Feast Sandwich – £2.20: The turkey was a bit dry but I like that they mixed up the greens with spinach instead of soggy lettuce or rocket – Talya Varga. RATING: 3/5
Starbucks Turkey Feast Panini – £4.25: The coffee chain’s turkey and cranberry ciabatta is four parts dusty bread and one part filling. The middle is tasty enough, but it’s like paying for five coffees and the barista burning the beans in four of them and nailing just one – Gareth Davies. RATING: 2/5
Aldi Food To Go’s Turkey Feast with Pigs Under Blankets – £1.69: Brimming with British pork and turkey, this well-stuffed sandwich will leave you feeling exactly that. There is the merest slick of cranberry chutney and a decent amount of turkey, but it’s all overpowered by the sausage, bacon and sage and onion mayo. At £1.69, it’s a pretty hearty offering but definitely more meat feast than festive feast – Jo Tweedy. RATING: 2/5
ASDA Turkey and Trimmings with Pigs Under Blankets Wrap: The crunchy layer of salad slaps you in the face with your first bite. Without that, it probably works, but Christmas is meant to be indulgent and guilt free. Whoever is eating salad for their Christmas dinner needs to have a look at themselves, and so does Asda – Gareth Davies. RATING: 2/5
Crussh Festive Turkey Feast – £3.95: When will cafes learn that spinach has no place being in a Christmas sandwich? There are far too many leaves in this one from Crussh which is perhaps to be expected since it’s a health food café. Unfortunately this tastes a bit too virtuous, with the turkey bland and rubbery and the stuffing lacking the powerful sage and onion flavour it deserves. The cranberry is an unpleasant afternote. It’s not the worst I’ve tasted, but I don’t want to finish it – Imogen Blake. RATING: 2/5