Marks & Spencer's £10 Dine in for Two

I've never even considered buying food from Marks & Spencer because I've always thought it's extortionately expensive. However, my boyfriend suggested trying their £10 Dine in for Two option over the bank holiday weekend for a change. It sounded like a good deal and we fancied a night in, so we went to Marks & Spencer in Culverhouse Cross to see what we could find. I was quite excited about seeing the words 'Food Hall'... I'm easily pleased.

You can choose a main, side, dessert and drink for... you guessed it, £10! Unfortunately there wasn't a huge amount of choice on offer, but we still ended up with an appetising three course meal.

The bolognese pasta melt looked amazing, so I didn't mind that it was the only main course on offer. There were plenty of sides available (chips, onion rings, broccoli mix, salad, peas and carrots), but we decided to go for the peas and carrots so that we could pretend to be healthy. Although the chips and onion rings were extremely tempting, we didn't really need any more carbs to go with our main meal! There wasn't much choice on the dessert front either, but our Lemon Tarte au Citron slices looked fantastic so we were happy to go with those. Neither of us are big drinkers so we decided to go for two bottles of White Grape Juice rather than getting a bottle of wine. Rock and roll.

The pasta melt only took 30 minutes to heat up in the oven, and the cheese on top was beautifully crispy when it came out. The peas and carrots took a few minutes to heat up in the microwave so we served those with the pasta melt. The melt was easily big enough for three people, but we polished it off between the two of us as we eat more than the average person. Sad but true. It actually tasted like something you'd order in an Italian restaurant, so I was very impressed. They definitely weren't stingy on the bolognese mixture and the pasta was of much better quality than the Tesco Value pasta I usually eat!

We still managed to fit in our dessert after finishing the pasta melt... there's always room for dessert! I like to think it goes into a different part of your stomach whenever I need to justify eating dessert to myself. The crust tasted like super buttery shortbread and the lemon topping was scrumptious... probably because it contained 534% of my daily sugar allowance. No complaints! Again, these slices could have probably have served 3 or 4 people quite comfortably.

The white grape juice was also a great choice. It was very sweet and tasted like Schloer, but a bit sweeter and less bitter. We finished one bottle with our meal, then drank the other bottle the next day. Much more satisfying and thirst-quenching than a bottle of wine!

Has anyone else tried the £10 Dine in for Two offer when you've decided to have a night in? What food did you choose?