The best Valentine’s Day supermarket meal deal tastes ‘simply divine’ and costs just £11.97

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, and from dinners in romantic restaurants, to cuddling up in the cinema, there are lots of ways to celebrate. But if you’d rather kick back at home, then the supermarkets have you covered with their Valentine’s dine-in deals. From Sainsbury’s to Aldi and beyond, the top retailers have come up with the goods: there’s classic steak and chips, ‘marry me’ chicken, and of course, red heart-shaped puddings.

In a bid to help you work out which meal deal is really worth your money, the team at Metro put them to the test. Cost? £18 with a Clubcard, or £12 with a Clubcard for the Tesco Express deal which doesn’t include a starter is included. What do you get? Starter, main, side, dessert and drink. When is it available? From February 10. As the meal deal isn’t available yet, it proved rather tricky to get hold of, so had to settle with the Tesco Express version of the deal: pulled beef shin pies, triple cook chips with Cornish sea salt, Gü plant zillionaire cheesecake, and four 125ml cans of MOTH Margarita.

I wasn’t thrilled by the £18 price tag, but when you consider the cocktails are £12.50 on their own, it seems more reasonable. The meal was very tasty, the little pastry hearts on top of the pies were a lovely touch, and the filling was tender, with a rich, hearty gravy. The chips were the ultimate side dish – I only ever want chips to be triple cooked from now on. The only real issue I had with the meal deal was the sides. I hate having to choose between potatoes and vegetables and ended up adding some additional veg to my plate.

I also mixed up some gravy to pour over the top, as the idea of pie and chips without it seemed plain wrong. The vegan Gü zillionaire cheesecake pots were my only option, and sadly I wasn’t a fan. Vegan chocolate is no match for the real thing, but this could easily be resolved by picking something else. Aside from the chips, the star of the show had to be the MOTH Margaritas, which are a brand new drink offering for this year. The cocktail brand is everywhere, and it’s not hard to see why. I’ll definitely be trying more of their drinks soon.

Overall verdict? Tesco, I love you, but as much as I enjoyed the chips and cocktails, I’m just not convinced this is the best deal out there this year. The price is rather steep compared to some of the rival options. Reviewed by Courtney Pochin, senior lifestyle reporter. Cost? £14 or less. The cheapest combo is just £2.99 per person and includes the Specially Selected heart shaped pizza, Valentine’s Day mini heart shaped garlic bread and pink mini heart pancakes. It goes up to £5.36 with prosecco.

This was a fab deal and if you’d told me it was from a more ‘fancy’ supermarket I’d have definitely believed you. The tempura prawns starter were crispy and just the right side of spicy, while the seabass fillet was super fresh with a delicately spiced Asian inspired butter. I was a little worried about my side, the truffle and parmesan mash, as too much truffle can be overpowering, but thankfully it was only a savoury hint.

As for the cheesecake, although I’m of the opinion you can’t really go wrong with cheesecake, it certainly didn’t disappoint. Plus, the love heart decoration was adorable. Overall verdict: One of the main plus points is that it was an easy meal to cook (so you aren’t stuck beside the oven all through date night) and the portion sizes were perfect, with no heavy ‘I need a nap’ feeling afterwards, which would be quite the Valentine’s passion-killer.

Reviewed by Jessica Lindsay, assistant lifestyle editor. Cost? £15 (with a More Card). What do you get? Starter, main, side dish, dessert and drink. I’d be lying if I said my first thought for a romantic Valentine’s meal would be to head to Morrison’s. But the supermarket deal ended up surprising my girlfriend and I. We started strong with the starter – scallop and king prawn thermidor – which was our favourite dish.

Ten minutes after placing the two small ramekins in the oven, my kitchen smelled like a professionally run restaurant and I was so eager to try them I ended up burning my tongue. My girlfriend concluded the creamy seafood mixture was ‘the best thing I’ve ever eaten from a supermarket’. It was a decent size and not too filling before the other two courses – although I could’ve happily eaten a bucket full.

Starting on such a high, the rump steaks were also delicious and the heart-shaped butter was a cute touch. However, I found the pink peppercorn buried inside made for quite a medicinal aftertaste. The garlic butter baby new potatoes were a tasty accompaniment – as was the (very drinkable) wine. To conclude the decadent meal we opted for melt-in-the-middle pudding. In hindsight, I would have chosen something lighter – as the rich dark chocolate left us a little too full.