Autumn has barely begun, but M&S Café is already giving us plenty to look forward to this cosy season. It is undoubtedly my favourite time of year for flavours – with the aromas of warming cinnamon, maple and the now ubiquitous pumpkin spice wafting invitingly from cafés across the country.
M&S Café’s latest menu is predictably packed with warming comfort food, trend-led creations and dessert-inspired drinks in a range of seasonal flavours.
Leading the launch are the returning Yorkshire Pudding Wraps, which became a social media sensation when they first appeared last year. An imaginative reinterpretation on the classic Yorkie, this time M&S has introduced two new roast dinner-inspired fillings. Whilst purists may call this sacrilege, it’s certainly a twist I’m willing to embrace!
The slow-cooked roast chicken Yorkshire Pudding wrap combines British roast chicken, sage and onion stuffing, Savoy cabbage, roasted carrots and a rich gravy béchamel, all tucked inside a crisp Yorkshire pudding. It’s a full Sunday roast in handheld form – and arguably one of the most stylish ways to eat a roast dinner on the go.
The slow-cooked pulled pork version is filled with six-hour-cooked pulled pork, creamy leeks, Kentish apple cider sauce and sage and onion stuffing, wrapped in a crispy Yorkshire pud.
Both are gloriously indulgent and guaranteed to require plenty of napkins. At £8.50 each, you may consider a little pricey, but at least you will come away feeling satisfyingly stuffed (just like a roast dinner!).
On a chilly autumn day, few things appeal more to me than an oozing cheese toastie for lunch or a warming curry for dinner. So you can imagine my delight on discovering that M&S has devised the perfect marriage of these two comfort food favourites. Their new chicken tikka masala toastie taps into the UK’s enduring love of curry-house classics, offering hand-cut sourdough filled with tikka-spiced chicken breast, creamy coriander and mint sauce and melted Emmental, then finished with chilli butter for a spicy kick. Priced at £7.25, again it isn’t cheap, but for a tempting tower of cheesy goodness, I’d say it’s worth splurging on.
For a lighter option, the menu includes a Spanish chorizo & butter bean egg bowl (£6.95), while the Greek feta, spinach & roasted pepper egg bowl (£6.75) offers a vegetarian alternative.
Even if you don’t have time for a bite to eat, I’d say it’s well worth treating yourself to one of the new indulgent dessert-inspired drink options on the menu. At the forefront is a new range of creamy hazelnut drinks inspired by the retailer’s popular Foodhall hazelnut creme spread. The flavour is available as a latte (£4.45), hot chocolate (£4.50), matcha (£4.80) or iced matcha (£4.80). Perhaps this trend will take off and we’ll see the new M&S Custard Cream spread also being reimagined in drink form…
The Black Forest matcha (£5.40) also recreates a retro dessert, pairing ceremonial-grade matcha with cherry purée, oat milk, whipped cream cold foam and milk chocolate flakes. Then, to complete the drinks line up, M&S have finally embraced the autumnal beverage staple that is pumpkin spice. Rather than creating one standalone drink, this is debuting in the form of a syrup which you can add to coffee, matcha or any other drink for 50p.
For a quick snack, the viral gingerbread & white chocolate cookie returns for £1.25, alongside new treats including loaded chocolate chunk banana bread and raspberry & almond crumble flapjack.
With so many innovative food and drink choices on the new M&S Café menu, dark and rainy autumn days indoors may not seem so bad after all.