Value For Money: Prawns

Tested by  CONOR POPE

Marks & Spencer Large Peeled King Prawns, €5.99 for 140g, €.42.78 per kg

Highs: M&S has an excellent reputation for its prawns and, if these are anything to go by, it is completely deserved. These are firm and meaty and have a nice sweetness to them. They are the freshest-tasting of the bunch and great in a salad, a pasta dish or the sandwiches so beloved of Roy Keane. In fact, they are the only ones that you could easily eat from the pack unadorned by even a drop of mayonnaise. They are grown on an eco friendly farm in Honduras, we are assured.

Lows: They are the most expensive option we tried, although it does seem like a price worth paying.

Verdict: Excellent

Star rating: *****

Dunnes Stores King Prawns, €2.49 for 150g, €16.60 per kg

Highs: If the M&S prawns are the best, then these slightly smaller, but equally meaty, ones are the best value. When we bought this particular batch, they were on a half-price special. They come all the way from China and there are plenty of them, so you'd easily get a starter for four out of a single packet.

Lows: They lack something in the freshness stakes and had a slightly stronger fishy aftertaste than we would have liked, although it did disappear once they were dunked in mayonnaise or added to a pasta dish.

Verdict: Good value

Star rating: ****

Atlantic Cold Water Prawns from Lidl, €1.79 for 100g, €17.90 per kg

Highs: Had the Dunnes prawns not been on special, these would have been the cheapest on the market, which is to their credit. The dill features very prominently in the mix.

Lows: A bit too prominently, frankly. The most important thing about a prawn is the texture, and these were just a bit too mushy for us. The "brine" was very, very salty; between it and the dill, there is no room at all for any prawn flavours to come through. There are four E-numbers listed amongst the ingredients and, in addition to the dill, there is also dill flavouring.

Verdict: Cheap

Star rating: **

Rob Roy Black Tiger Prawns, €3.99 for 100g (drained weight), €39.90 per kg

Highs: While some of the products are either way too salty or way too fishy, these prawns have a comparatively balanced (although some might say dull) flavour. According to Rob Roy, these come to us soaked in springwater, which is a nice thought, if entirely irrelevant to the flavour.

Lows: One thing the spring water seems to have failed to do is soften these little fellas; the ones that came out of our plastic tub were as tough as old boots. While the Lidl prawns were too mushy, these chewy prawns weren't to our taste either. They were on the pricey side too.

Verdict: A bit hard

Star rating: **

Nautic Prawns, €1.72 for 100g, €17.20 per kg

Highs: These are very dinky little prawns from Denmark and, doused in Marie Rose sauce, they could easily do a turn as a peculiarly 1970s prawn cocktail starter. They are very cheap and had travelled a shorter distance than the competition to be with us.

Lows: In truth, it was hard to find anything nice to say about these. The texture was grimly spongy – but that is hardly surprising in cheaper prawns. What was more unforgivable, in our eyes at any rate, was the artificially generated sweetness which lingered long in the memory and did absolutely nothing to help these prawns' case.

Verdict: A poor alternative

Star rating: **