Christmas food in London

Sally Clarke and Ottolenghi’s various locations both have quality take out/prepared foods. Harrod’s of course has its famous Food Halls but their items come with a price and I haven’t had much from there so can’t comment on quality.

You could do as a lot of British people do, and buy the whole lot from M&S. They do a good range of pre-prepared vegetables and meats and traditional sauces, in the chiller cabinets, ready to oven cook (or microwave in some cases). Also Christmas puddings and brandy butter.

You may need to preorder it as they do get tremendously busy. https://christmasfood.marksandspencer.com/

Marks and Spencer. M&S
They always have great quality food!

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions.

You can also preorder and have it delivered, but you’ll need to book that immediately. For M&S, google Ocado. Waitrose is also v good and they have their own delivery service, or you could take a chance and go down to Waitrose opposite Finchley Rd tube station, but as Golden Girl said, the shops will be super busy and may have started running out of things.

The other high quality supermarket is Waitrose. They do deliver but I’d expect all the Christmas week slots to be taken by now. There is a branch fairly nearby. They’ll have lovely things in for Christmas.

Cross post!

The M&S special Christmas food that Golden Girl linked to can only be collected in store. Their main line (things you could pick off the shelf) can be delivered via Ocado but again Christmas slots are in high demand.

On the odd occasion I need groceries delivered, I use Ocado. There's a great range from a few different retailers. Again, being for Christmas, delivery slots will fill up fast as we approach that time.

I've mentioned it several times on this forum, showing my true colours as an absolute peasant after Ottolenghi and Harrods being mentioned up thread, but many places will be open right through the holiday doing takeout food for delivery. I use Just Eat and Deliveroo. Uber Eats is also good and will probably have some quite fancy places for delivery in Hampstead.

ETA- it seems we're all in agreement lol

If you were going to be in London I would have suggested a trip over to Sloane Square and Partridges https://www.partridges.co.uk/ Magnificent food and not absurd prices, great staff and a fabulous experience. Everything from ingredients to complete meals. They deliver but as far north as you will be it will be on their 3 day National Delivery rather than the local delivery.

Problem is, you will be way up north in Hampstead. Is that too far for you to carry stuff home on the tube? Circle and District to Embankment then Northern Line to Hampstead...

Otherwise, as mentioned above, Waitrose, M&S. There might be a slot at Waitrose, but if you go in to stores you will see it all...

Agree with the suggestions above. I would go to Marks and Spencer so you can see all their ranges. Waitrose is also a good option.

Tesco, Sainsburys and Asda will all have extremely good ranges of pre-prepared and easy to make meals, as well as the a wide range groceries, fresh meat/fish tinned, dry goods. No need to limit one to M&S which at times does not always give the best value.