dinner

WHEN it comes to Christmas dinners, Brits take it very seriously, from getting the right amount of crunch on roast potatoes to whether Yorkshire puddings belong on the plate.

So when I found out that the luxury department store Harrods and the bargain pub chain Wetherspoons both offer festive dinners for the same price, I had to go out and see exactly which was better.

Each dinner costs £15, and I took everything into account from initial impressions to taste and texture to value for money.

I thought I’d start on a high, by heading to Harrods in the heart of London for the first of the two options in my Christmas dinner taste test.

I’d been teased by social media posts about just how good their Christmas Dinner Box is, seeing influencers tucking into thick slices of turkey crown with lashings of gravy and hot cauliflower cheese.

It’s Christmas time so naturally the shop was heaving with both tourists and the rich regular shoppers, so I make a swift beeline to the Food Hall.

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Thankfully there’s an easy way to find the roast dinner – follow your nose and look for the spinning chickens on the Rotisserie Counter.

You’ll then see a suited and booted staff member whose job it is to gate-keep the long queue, which took 20 minutes to complete on my visit.

My meal was a tad sloppily-placed into a cardboard lunchbox. But you can’t deny that for just £15, it’s huge.

It comes with two thick turkey slices, three cuttings of ham, eight roast potatoes, one stuffing ball wrapped in bacon and sage, a long pig in a blanket, cauliflower cheese, cranberry sauce and a splash of meat gravy.

With a smile, I was handed over my weighty dinner, but it came with a new challenge; where to eat it.

Unlike Wetherspoons, Harrods offers no seating, so having to find somewhere to eat it before it got cold was slightly frustrating.

Faced with eating my lunch standing on a busy London street, I had to high-tail it back on the tub to my the office to dig in.

I started with the star of the show -the turkey. And I was very impressed with out moist it was , after all, we’ve all tucked into a home-cooked Christmas dinner that’s much too dry.

The marmalade-glazed ham was lovely too, although it was quite fatty along the side. But once that was cut away, the meat itself was soft, nicely flavoured and not too salty.

Of course no Christmas dinner is complete without roast potatoes and these had a great herby flavour.

They weren’t as crisp as I’d like, probably because they’d been sitting underneath the meat while I travelled o the tub, but you couldn’t argue with the fluffiness inside.

The stuffing ball was generously sized and, in my opinion, fancy. It came wrapped in bacon and a whole sage leaf; nothing like I’ve made from the Paxo box at home.

The cauliflower cheese is a great addition as everything sits on the creamy surface, not to mention it was delicious.

There wasn’t a lot of gravy, but I’m sure that if I’d asked for another ladle full they wouldn’t have said no.

And love it or hate it, I had cranberry sauce on my dinner. Not a lot, but enough for that sweet flavour and, as you might have guessed as it’s Harrods, was full of actual whole cranberries. 

However, how does it compare to its Wetherspoons rival, charging the same amount?

My next stop was to The Pommelers Rest Wetherspoons on Tower Bridge Road in London.

The standard price for ‘sliced turkey breast and winter vegetables’ Christmas dinner is £14.99 – however in London you pay an extra £1, so costs £15.99, including a soft drink.

It’s detailed as having four turkey slices, along with pork, sage and onion stuffing, roasted Chantenay carrots and parsnips, Maris Piper mash, two pigs-in-blankets, peas, cranberry sauce and gravy, as well as a soft drink.

It doesn’t sound too bad, right?

I will say, the huge portion on the classic Wetherspoons blue and white patterned plate was much bigger than the Harrods version, so it’s great if you have a hearty appetite.

But that’s where the positives ended. It had thin slices of turkey, of which I only counted three rather than the promised four.

Not only did the potato mash have a crusty skin on the top, but its a sacrilege to have mash rather than roasties.

There were two tiny pigs in blankets, two small carrots, some cubed parsnips (which together I doubt made one whole one) and a flurry of green peas.

Even the gravy was a let down, tasting like it was made from granules.

The cranberry sauce came in a pot on the side which I appreciated – but when it came to taste it was very artificial and packed with sugar.

Maybe it wouldn’t have felt too dissappointing if I hadn’t already tried the Harrods alternative.

But it didn’t feel like the usual great value for money that you get from Wetherspoons meal deals.

The only way Wetherspoons could trump Harrods is the fact that it has seating, and was a much bigger serving.

But I’d rather be standing on a busy London road, eating my lunch from a takeaway box than tucking into the festive dinner at a table in a warm pub.

For more on taste tests, Sun Travel checked out the UK’s best ice cream shop which serves Aperol, Pimms & cornflake scoops.

And Sun Travel also tasted the new viral Dubai chocolate ice cream served at a top London attraction – it was a huge disappointment.

When actor Andy Garcia arrived in Los Angeles, seeking a career in entertainment, he had no idea that he’d end up becoming a longtime resident.

“I moved to Los Angeles in 1978, looking for work as an actor,” Garcia says. “I lived in Hollywood in a storefront apartment on Sycamore and Fountain. I lived there a couple of years, moved, and have been in Los Angeles ever since.”

In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

The early years were hard, with Garcia working various jobs including stints as “a professional waiter, mostly at the Beverly Hilton, and loading trucks for Roadway at their distribution docks in the City of Commerce,” he says.

Today, the actor is known for roles in “The Godfather Part III,” which garnered him an Academy Award nomination for supporting actor; “Ocean’s Eleven” and its sequels; and the title role in the 2022 “Father of the Bride” remake. Currently, he stars in Paramount+’s drama “Landman,” playing the dangerous cartel boss Gallino, who holds a powerful position opposite fixer Tommy Norris (Billy Bob Thornton) in the series’ oil industry and cartel feud.

Los Angeles is also the setting for “Diamond,” a movie written and directed by Garcia, that pays tribute to 1940s Los Angeles. The contemporary film noir story, which just wrapped production, stars Garcia as a private eye who operates like a 1940s Raymond Chandleresque detective in present day Los Angeles.

“Los Angeles has been our home for many years,” Garcia says. “I never thought it would be my home for this long, but it has been. I’m fortunate that I have all my family living nearby.” Ideal Sundays for the actor are built around family, watching football games on TV, eating Italian cuisine or a good steak, and finding time to play golf at Lakeside Golf Club.

7 a.m.: Coffee first, then Pilates

I’m always up by 7 a.m., regardless. After I wake up, I do Pilates at home with a Gratz reformer. But not before coffee! After that, it’s breakfast at home and football time.

10 a.m.: Golf with a stop at the drink shack

Usually on a Sunday, we get ready for football on the East Coast, like watching the Miami Dolphins, which starts at 10 a.m. If there’s not a game on, I’d squeeze in a little golf at Lakeside Golf Club in Burbank, where I’m a member. It’s a great walking course. The membership is a great hang. It’s very family oriented. There’s always a lot of kids around on Sundays and the weekends. There’s a shack in the middle of the course that serves sandwiches, beer, cocktails, soft drinks and so forth. After several holes, if you want to stop, you can get a snack or a drink there. For me, it’s to get a drink.

2 p.m.: Late lunch

It’s a four-hour round, and since breakfast was at home, lunch would be in the clubhouse. I recommend the Cobb salad, which comes as a very large serving, so you don’t need anything else with it. They also have a junior cheeseburger. It’s somewhere in between a big burger and a slider. It’s quite delicious. If I want to go a bit on the unhealthy side, that would be my go-to.

3:30 p.m.: Back home for family plans

I’d then head home for more ball games on TV. The grandkids are there. We just hang out at the house, and decide what to do for the evening. We either cook at home, or if we’re up for a road trip, we’ll pick one of the restaurants that we like.

7 p.m.: Dinner out for gnocchi or ribeye

We usually have dinner early, so if we’re going out, we head for one of our favorite restaurants. In the Beverly Hills area, we like to go to Via Alloro because our friend Tanino Drago runs the place. Tanino’s the chef and owner, and is a very old friend of ours. He actually did my daughter’s wedding here at the house. I tend to always get their spinach gnocchi bolognese, as part of the arrangement on the table. The menus change but they always have it or regular gnocchi. We’ve known the Drago family for years and it’s a place a lot of our friends frequent. We love Tanino and the way he cooks, the atmosphere. It’s like going to a place that’s like family.

Another favorite is Angelini Osteria on Beverly Boulevard. Gino Angelini, the chef there, is a neighbor, so we go there a lot. When the family goes, it’s my wife and I, four kids, the kids have two husbands and a significant other, and three grandkids, so that’s 12 around the table.

We also love going to Musso & Frank Grill in Hollywood. We try to order the ribeye cap steak. It’s a limited supply, so sometimes they run out of it. For me, it’s a martini and a ribeye cap. As soon as I could afford to go out to dinner, in the early ’80s, I started to go to Musso. It’s easy to get to. Parking’s right behind the restaurant, and they’re great people. I love the history of the place, and the food is terrific. It’s a classic steakhouse.

9 p.m.: A nightcap and a little piano music

After dinner, we go home. I’d have a nightcap. Sometimes it’s a little bourbon, or an Italian digestif like Amaro Averna. Then I’d do a little piano playing. I play original material because I don’t read music. That’s how I learned the instrument, so it’s themes I’ve developed, or improvisation. I started as a percussionist when I was very young. I play all the Afro-Cuban percussion instruments that are inherent in Cuban music. I started to play piano at age 30 for a film I directed called “The Lost City,“ which I wrote the original music for. I was always interested in piano. My aunt played classical piano and it always called to me.

11 p.m.: Off to bed

I go to bed no later than 11 p.m. My ideal Sunday is always around the family. What are we doing today? Are the kids coming over? Are we cooking? Do you guys want to go out to dinner? It’s always about gathering the clan.