Marks & Spencer

Aaaah Marks & Spencer ! I think any M&S Food will always get a 5 stars rating from me except if something REEEEEALLYY bad were to happen.
Even back home (in Paris) M&S would be my go-​to if i ever needed something preped in advance of quality and pretty healthy. Especially when i worked a lot and couldn’t be asked to cook something for lunch in the evening (i hate to eat my dinner at the next lunch, i need renew). It would also be my guilty pleasure British scones and pastries treat when i missed my good old London.
Now that i’m back to cooking everyday for every meal, M&S is my go-​to whenever i need fresh bread (the fig and nut is gorgeous), salads, dips like hummus or pesto sauce. I would also go for meat and fish and wine in the future. That kind of small things that i want of quality because to me it is the closest to the french quality i’m used to that i can easily find in a supermarket. It’s more expensive, but it’s oh so worth it.
Carefull though for this shop is EXTREMELY busy from all the travellers and workers passing by. I mean it, very crowded, especially at rush hour, evidently.

This little supermarket in Waterloo station is amazing. It sells frozen meals (delicious curries, wraps, pies paellas), desserts (choc puddings), breakfast items (porridge, cereal), fresh fruits, freshly packed salads (found the most amazing mango crayfish cous cous salad), lollies, chocolates, milk, and bread.
The prices are great and you can meals ranging from 2 – 5 pounds — half the price literally of eating out in London.

I like the M&S food stores because of the huge selection of fresh and reasonably healthy food items ready to eat, and this store is no different. (If anything I wish they would have a bit more regional profile to their food selections.) I am not too impressed with the beer and wine selections though; if they want four or more stars from me, they need to improve those. I probably wasn’t there when the store is at its busiest and yet there was a fairly long but very fast-​moving line. My cashier was very nice.

A wonderful place to pick up cheap, healthy take away… especially when I can pretend that the healthy dinners countered their rich, fattening desserts. I had an extended stay in London a few years ago for research and my accommodations had a small kitchen for self-​catering. It was so nice to be able to pick up a quick, appealing meal enroute back from my day in the archives for under 10 quid. The options were so much better than the offerings at Sainsbury or Tesco.

I hate it when I forget to bring my lunch to work. HATE.
Luckily M&S is there for me. I’ve stopped in this particular Simply Food one too many times to pick up a salad or a snack or two for lunch. I’m particularly fond of their carrot sticks and houmous snack. What do they put in their houmous? Angel dust? It’s divine!
I just wish there was another convenience store option at Waterloo Station because it would be SO useful to have a place to get a few groceries on the way home. And no, that «Whistlestop» shop doesn’t count.

This marks and spencer is located on the station in Waterloo, and can get extremely busy, with queues looping around the shop! However, they do have a lot of staff, all of whom are very friendly and polite, who help deal with the crowds very quickly. They have lots of food for on the go, however unfortunately they have no in-​store fresh bakery. They also have ready meals, lots of snacks and groceries, and is okay value compared to the other food on the station.

I was looking for a healthy lunch for my trip to Liverpool and headed into Simply Food.
This location is pretty big and contains many of the groceries commuters would want to pick up on their way home for dinner or breakfast the next day.
I was happy to find precut fruit, I picked up the tropical fruit salad and some grapes and apples. There were hundreds of sandwiches but I found the green salad aisle and then the more savory salads such as couscous or three bean salad. They are marked so I knew which ones were low in fat and good for me. YEA. Thanks for making that part easy.
The payment line was super long, cattle style with «register 4» by electronic voice so you know which register is free next. The line went so fast I wasn’t even able to pick up those impulse buys.
The food I bought was very good as well — fruit and giant couscous salad with squash, mint and vinaigrette.
.

POB hit the nail on the head with how busy this store can get. They only sell food unlike most Marks & Spencer stores but what else do you need anyway. The store itself always have a lot of queues especially at lunch time. Strange considering how many other food places are available in the area.
Waterloo Station can be a very busy station and you’re always dodging someone whilst walking to any of the shops inside the station including Marks and Spencer. They do accept Debit /​Cards which most other shops in the station do not accept.
The store is a little small considering how many shelves they’ve got and walking around inside can be a little tricky. I must admit that you will hardly ever find an empty shelf and you will find a wide variety of foods unlike Sainsbury’s across the road.

This Marks & Spencer store is on the main concourse of waterloo station. No matter what time of day you are there, it always seems to be extremely busy. I always find it difficult to get around the store as the aisles are very narrow & there are usually large crowds of people in there. The food is generally quite nice but can be expensive and I would prefer if I could make my choice of purchases without feeling too rushed. The queue for the tills are usually very long but the tills are always well covered. The staff are very good at keeping your waiting time to a minimum. The store also offers cashback