A decent meal for two, with wine, for as little as a tenner? Irish Timesfood writer TOM DOORLEYhad his doubts when he was asked to sample three supermarket meal deals. But he was pleasantly surprised

SCEPTICAL? YOU BET I was. At least when I go out to review a restaurant, I travel in hope. Or at least I try to. This was different. My mission was to taste and review the meal deals that seem to be popping up all over the place at the moment.

You know the kind of thing: two courses, for two people, with a bottle of wine for a price that would barely cover the bottle of wine in the first place.

It all started with Marks & Spencer, the “ready-meal” expert, which has many years experience of feeding people who cannot or will not cook for themselves. But the very phrase “ready-meal” carries a certain dread.

I’m an old hand at the M&S meals. This comes from being occasionally alone in our Dublin flat, needing food and being too knackered to cook for one. That’s the curious thing. I love cooking. At worst, it tends to be therapeutic, but even I rarely have the heart to do it just for myself. And M&S often comes to the rescue.

So when it launched its meal for two, with wine, for €12.50, I reckoned it would be pretty decent. When I heard that Tesco was doing the same deal for €11.50, I wondered. And then, when I heard that Dunnes Stores were offering it for a mere tenner, I became, well, as I say, sceptical.

However, undaunted, I set about sampling the wares of all three of these chains. Now, I should explain that these meal deals work in different ways. All involve two courses for two with side dishes and a bottle of wine (or fruit juice). So that much was clear. But there is some confusion as to when you can take advantage of the deals.

Tesco runs them all the time. Marks & Spencer does its €12.50 deal every second weekend from Thursday to Saturday, while Dunnes Stores . . . well, it’s hard to say. Dunnes, you see, has neither press office nor PR company, so communicating with the organisation, as a journalist, is not easy. I tried three Dunnes branches and the staff there all seemed to think that the meal deals would run occasionally.

THE FIRST SAMPLING was accompanied by a decent appetite, honed by the long drive to Dublin, and it hit the spot for me on the night. From Marks & Spencer I chose The Grill Ginger, Lime and Coriander Chicken Breasts (you get two small ones each and there’s loads of chilli in there too). It was a pleasant and healthy way of eating quite zingy flavours. Being a male, I accompanied this with Gastropub Chips, just to take the edge off the healthiness. They were good, even if they needed 10 minutes more cooking than it said on the packet. They looked like the ones you get in Burdock’s and – I know this is heresy – were much more satisfyingly crunchy.

To follow, there was Raspberry Panacotta which was, if you like, simply delicious in that it’s a very simple idea: sharp raspberry topping on a delicious smooth, sweet, vanilla-scented, creamy, er, well, jelly basically.

After a day’s digging in the garden, I tackled the Dunnes Stores combination of Fresh Irish Beef Meatballs in a Tomato and Herb Sauce. I expected the meatballs to be stretched with breadcrumbs or some other filler, but no, they were solid, tasty, meaty. I expected the sauce to taste rather synthetic, but no, it could have been home-made. These were not the best meatballs I’ve ever had, but they were pretty darn good and it was no hardship to eat them. They came with Carrot and Swede Mash (which also contained potato), which most certainly could have been homemade, being surprisingly buttery and creamy.

I finished with a little pot of tiramisu, which was made in Italy and was not bad. I’ve had less convincing tiramisu in certain “Italian” restaurants.

Tesco’s Chicken Breasts with Roasted Balsamic Onions, Pancetta and Mascarpone sounded, to be honest, pretentious. I mean, did roasted balsamic onions exist before this dish? I don’t know, but I doubt it. However, I have to report that as ready-meals go, this was exceptionally tasty, well- conceived and, once again, sound value for money. I particularly liked the way that the mascarpone and the pancetta combined to produce a nicely intense sauce.

The accompanying Finest Colcannon was, however, the star, made up of lovely, creamy mashed spud with plenty of savoy cabbage, which retained that crunch which generations of cooks were determined to boil out. I could have eaten this on its own.

The Tarte au Citron wasn’t bad, but pastry cases tend to soften over time and this one was heading for limpness. I’ve had worse in many restaurants, but the filling was a bit sweet for me. Mind you, if Tesco’s lemon tarts (as we call them in rural Co Cork) were made entirely to my liking they probably wouldn’t sell at all. I like a tart tart, so to speak.

THE TWO CHICKEN dishes were sluiced down with rosé wines. Marks Spencer’s Froglet Rosé is firm, fruity and dry, perfectly decent with this kind of meal. Tesco’s Canti Pinot Grigio Rosé is a little less dry but still a decent mouthful of pink wine.

Dunnes’ Douglas Green Shiraz-Cabernet, from South Africa, was head and shoulders above the others. This may be a simple wine, but it has plenty of chunky fruit and a kind of angular charm rather than the usual New World tutti-frutti thing.

The ideal ready-meal? Tom Doorley's winning dishes and wine

Best main course: The Grill Ginger, Lime and Coriander Chicken Breasts, Marks & Spencer

Best side dish: Finest Colcannon, Tesco

Best dessert:Raspberry Pannacotta, Marks & Spencer

Best wine: Douglas Green Shiraz-Cabernet, Dunnes Stores