Marks & Spencer Food Store

Obviously, going to Marks & Spencer is such an British expat thing to do… and I’m not even an British expat — I’m American!
Still, it’s a joy to find a decently-​curated variety of international wine, all sorts of cheese, tea, biscuits to complement the tea, pita chips, hummus, crackers, Sicilian lemon curd, crumpets, and the M&S label of yogurts (which are quite good, especially the Madagascar vanilla flavor).
Yep, those are a few of my favorite things.
All of this does come at a pretty penny, however. I spent about $ 80 USD and have enough food for maybe… I don’t know, 2.5 days?
The aisles are short and narrow and you’re pretty much guaranteed clusterf*ck-conditions at any given time. Still, I love M&S for what it is: inimitable comfort food in the western style!

It’s funny, I have an image of quality and tasty food for M&S and a really poor one for their clothes. I used to live in the UK and, honestly, even though I liked it, I barely bought anything there unless it was really especial, like some cheeses that I couldn’t find in Sainsbury’s. But I must admit that I was happy to see M&S here in Hong Kong. And this branch is right downstairs from my gym so I walk past every other day. I can’t recall the number of times I’ve been inside checking something out and haven’t bought anything. It’s just not worth it, it’s SO EXPENSIVE! Just as an example, a little 150 gr. bag of nuts is around 45HKD… come on! And that applies to pretty much anything.
If you like ready made ‘English’ food (sounds appealing huh?) you may like it as that’s what they are really good at. You pay a higher price for the convenience but it’s good.
Two good things about his place: cheese and wine. The cheese selection is not greater than any other supermarket and around the same price, but you can find a couple of odd cheeses there, different from the range at other stores. And I’m a fan of their wines. I found a great one there, that a friend recommended to me, it’s a Spanish garnacha grape wine called La Sabrosita. It’s a thick red wine priced at less than 100HKD and I love it. For such a small store, the space taken by wines and the selection they have is really impressive.
Okay, their chocolates are okay too (I only care for dark ones though). They only have a couple but it’s great to find different brands from the main supermarket chains. And this applies to every other item in their store.

Mark and Spencers means only one thing to me, FOOD.
Although there are a lot of different sections selling garments, shoes and accessories, they don’t really appeal to me, due to price mainly; and seriously who needs clothes for M&S? There are a whole lot of other shops selling those; so it boils down to one thing that remains appealing, FOOD
It feels like M&S feels the same too and thus has come up with this innovation of a store selling M&S brand foods only. And boy I have to tell you it was such a bliss walking into this shop; cookies, pastries, different types of cheeses and other foodstuffs imported from Europe filling shelf to shelf. Only a food addict could understand how exciting it is to see all these. As a local, all of these seem exceptionally exotic and new to me; I might have heard of the names of these ingredients from s cooking show, but seeing those in real is whole different story.
Perhaps we should thank the tea culture of the brits that gives rise to a vast array of tea biscuits. It has almost become an art form to creating the perfect biscuit to go with tea. The food store has a entire section selling different types of cookies and biscuits; the are so much to choose from that i can spend all day sampling each and every cookie.
Actually there are a lot more to say about this store, but wouldn’t it be better for me to save the joy of discovery to you and have you to find out yourself? Anyways, you will most definitely love this place if you like food, no matter eating or cooking.

For a true homesick brit, this M& S store does provide you with some level of comfort in the form of food from home.
To be honest this place doesn’t break any new boundaries nor presents anything that is ground breaking; its still the good old M&S store with their food items. You could find that with any other M&S store. The only difference is that this place does only that– it sells food and nothing else, which to be me is great because it does without the boring parts (I haven’t bought a suit from M&S at least). Someone must have told the M&S people about this particular vacant site because they could not have chosen a better location to set up a food shop. With the bridge from the North Wanchai office towers going towards Queens Road East, this is the perfect place to stop by and grab something whether you are walking back home or taking the MTR. Moreover, there’s a gym upstairs (was) which also caters for some people who go to the gym after work.
The food is the standard fare and exactly as I want it– Shepherds Pie, Yorkshire Pudding and bourbon chocolate biscuits. yes its 30 degrees out there but I don’t care, I miss the rain and the greyness so the closest I can get is with some proper grub. There is also a huge selection of frozen food items ranging from pies to pizzas so there’s something for everyone. A small wine selection is also there and I am happy to report that its not as poor as I thought it would be.
Never thought i’d say this but good on ya, M&S!