- Tomato against bread does a soggy sandwich make.
Oh, that's amazing. (lettuce crunches)
Carrot is not fruit.
The place that does the best meal deal is...
(dramatic air whoosh)
(upbeat rock music)
Hi, my name's Tom
and I'm on a quest to find the best of everything.
Today I'm gonna be trying an array of meal deals
from a number of the UK's most popular supermarkets
and figuring out which is the best so you don't have to.
Whether or not people admit it
I think meal deals
are one of the most popular lunch options.
You get a sandwich,
you get a drink,
and some kind of side.
All the supermarkets now do to them
and today we're gonna be trying the offerings
from Tesco, Sainsbury's, ASDA, Co-op, Boots
and Marks and Spencer,
and figuring out which one's the best.
Now, as I am a fan of the scientific method,
we are going to be conducting this investigation as follows:
same sandwich, chicken salad.
Same side, fruit box.
Same drink, berry smoothie.
See I do think these things through.
Bring on meal deal number one. (voice echoing)
Okay, so meal deal number one is from Co-op.
I will say that they're a soggy bread.
It's 'cause the tomato is right next to the bread.
Smoothie looks good.
And then the fruit looks,
fine.
It doesn't look like brown or soft or gross.
So yeah. (lettuce crunches)
It's soggy sandwich. (clears throat)
It is!
I'm sorry.
The tomato and the bread are next to each other,
which means that the moisture from the tomato
is eked into the bread.
Having said all of that,
the flavor of the chicken itself isn't bad.
Moving on to the smoothie.
Lovely.
10 out of 10.
Now the fruit.
The offering I could get was melon and grape.
The taste of it is really, really, really mild.
It's almost like melon flavored water.
So, fruit part, meh.
Sandwich, meh.
Smoothie, great.
I think we can go way up from here.
Next up is Sainsbury's.
We had a bit of an issue of availability.
They didn't have any chicken salad sandwiches available,
but they did have a chicken triple,
which is three different chicken based sandwiches.
One of which is chicken salad.
So the investigation's not out the window.
We'll be trying this one.
That's fine.
On top of that, they didn't have a berry smoothie available,
but they did have
a watermelon and raspberry smoothie available.
So we're trying that.
On top of that,
they didn't have any fruit boxes available.
So instead we have (record scratches)
reduced price carrot batons. (chuckles)
This feels very sturdy.
If you look, the tomato is sandwiched between the chicken
and the lettuce.
That's a point there,
because that means it's not gonna get soggy.
(lettuce crunches)
A few more bites for science.
(lettuce crunches)
Wow, Okay.
This sandwich is already such a step up.
This sandwich actually has seasoning in it
which is very important in cuisine.
What is it called?
Cooking? Food? Cu...
Sandwiches. (lettuce crunches)
Not a berry smoothie so you've lost points
for availability there.
But, was the smoothie that is available any good?
Yeah. (hands slap the table)
Now, carrot is not fruit.
So, I will say it's a failure in that respect.
Seeing as we now have carrot batons,
what are they like? (carrot stick snaps)
There was crunched there, you know?
As carrot sticks go, (carrot stick crunches)
these are fine.
So yeah. (bag crumples)
I haven't had carrot sticks in ages.
This is actually really nice.
A bit of hummus?
No, stick to the plan!
(60's soul music)
Next up is Tesco.
Feels good.
Bread is not soggy.
Chicken, tomato, lettuce, then bread.
Therefore, the tomato doesn't get the bread soggy.
(lettuce crunches)
Slightly more soggy than the Sainsbury sandwich,
but a lot less soggy than the Co-op sandwich.
So at the minute it's kind of in the middle
of the kind of soggy area.
It tastes sort of like chicken Caesar.
Tesco's offering a fruit as apple,
which wow, is surprisingly crunchy.
(apple snaps)
Isn't that crazy?
It's the winter now in the UK
and I don't expect these strawberries to be any good,
but,
yeah, they're not really.
This apple though.
That was witchcraft.
Berry smoothie.
Excellent!
Tesco really did well here.
They didn't come to play.
You're gonna wanna keep your eye on Tesco.
They know what they're doing with the meal deals.
(mischievous orchestra music)
Okay, next up is Asda.
I have a personal affinity with Asda
just because it was the nearest supermarket to my house
when I was growing up.
Come on Asda,
let's turn it out.
Having said that,
you know what they're doing don't you?
(adjusting in the chair)
You know what they're doing don't you?
It's tomato next to the bread.
It's the tomato next to the bread
that will kill chicken salad sandwich.
They had a berry smoothie so that's great.
Tick for point there.
They did not have any kind of fruit part at all,
but what they did have was a yogurt and oat cluster thing
which is literally the closest thing I could get.
So, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to deduct
a couple of points there for availability.
(lettuce crunches)
Lots to consider here. (lettuce crunches)
Many variables. (lettuce crunches)
It's soggy.
It's a soggy sandwich.
It's a shame.
The flavor of the sandwich is really, really good.
The smoothie.
Excellent.
That's a really sweet one, ooh! (clears throat)
But not bad.
(plastic container clicks open)
What is this?
(shaking and mixing clusters and oats in container)
(yogurt splashing on clusters and oats)
Oh my God.
(clusters and oats crunches)
It's not bad.
It's not really for me.
I can't imagine like sitting at a desk at work or something
and eating this little cereal thing with a tiny spoon
at like two in the afternoon.
I'd feel a bit daft.
So in general, the good meal deal
let down by the sogginess of the tomatoie bread
and the fact that there was no fruit box.
Okay, so next on the meal deal roundup is Boots.
One thing I've noticed here
is that no matter which establishment you go to,
it's always chicken, mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomato.
Why is it always the same combination of salad?
I don't know what that's about. (salad crunches)
Okay fair enough, cucumber in this one.
It's salty, it's peppery.
It kind of has that like Caesar taste again,
but it's like the most flavorful.
It's just let down by the fact that everything inside of it
is very kind of like wet and limp.
The fruit from Boots was mango.
It's really good.
As mango in a box goes,
that's pretty nice.
Now of course, the berry smoothie.
Delicious.
10 out of 10. (claps hands)
Let's do the next!
We've made it!
We're here to the final meal deal,
and it is from M & S, Marks and Spencer.
Marks and Sparks.
I think we all know the Marks and Spencer's
slightly more upmarket supermarket.
Upsupermarket.
Upsuper upmarket.
It's one of the more expensive shops.
As a result, I expect the sandwich to be better,
and to be fair,
looking at it,
it looks better.
It looks very well filled.
(lettuce crunches)
Oh, that's amazing. (lettuce crunches)
That sandwich is by far the best.
There's like layers of chicken in there.
And also, the chicken has like a char grilled flavor
that none of the other sandwiches have.
Honestly, this one just blows the rest out of the water.
And you know, to be fair, it should.
It's more expensive.
(lettuce crunches)
Hmm, yeah.
Excellent work on the sandwich and mayonnaise, good job.
Moving straight onto the fruit.
Melon, kiwi, blueberries, pineapple, and apple.
It's a whole medley.
So try blueberry.
Blueberry is good.
Not soft and gross and squish, excellent!
Pineapple.
Again, surprisingly good structural integrity.
That's a damn good fruit box.
(shaking smoothie in the bottle)
The berry smoothie.
Ooh that's lovely!
Oh, it's got acai in it.
That make sense, it has a kind of like spiced flavor almost
and I guess that's from the acai berries.
Wow, good job M & S, okay. (air whooshes)
So many deals of meals were consumed here on this day.
I am surprised how different those were.
Like, the quality and flavor varied so much.
After having sat with my thoughts.
Weighted, wondered, ruminated over which is the best.
The place that does the best meal is... (drum roll)
(water droplet drops)
(drum roll again)
Marks & Spencer.
Marks and Spencer is upmarket
and the meal deals even
are just that bit more expensive.
And I used to think "It's just a sandwich.
What's the big deal?
Why would you spend the more money?".
And after having tried them all side by side,
I can tell you that that chicken salad sandwich
was head and shoulders above the rest honestly.
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And until next time, see you later.
(upbeat 60's pop music)