Loch Fyne has checked its 2015 Christmas party menu sales figures, and has checked them twice!, and it’s official: steak and seafood is set to beat turkey this year as the festive choice in the UK.
Steak is likely to outsell turkey by a factor of two-to-one, Loch Fyne says based on last year when well over 8000 plates of the sirloin steak with baked field mushroom and béarnaise sauce were served compared with less than 4500 of the honey glazed turkey, venison sausage and creamed mash, across its 37 UK restaurants.
Seabass also proved a more popular choice than turkey with nearly 5000 plates of whole seabass with roasted fennel mayonnaise sold at Christmas parties last year.
Among the starters, Loch Fyne believes its modern twist on the festive classic prawn cocktail – crispy prawns and paprika squid with cocktail sauce and slow roast cherry tomatoes – will be the favourite choice on this year’s Christmas party menu, available from November 14 to January 9. This is based on the success of its chilli and garlic squid with prawns and samphire which sold over 7000 units last year, compared to the 5000 plates of the next most popular choice Bradan Rost smoked salmon rillettes with whisky butter.
The glazed clementine tart with chocolate orange ice cream is expected to be this years’ winner among the desserts, beating the traditional Christmas pudding with warm brandy pipette.
On Christmas Day itself, diners are more likely to stick with tradition and order the roast turkey with all the trimmings however venison is an increasingly popular second choice and is closing the gap fast.
Giles Codd, marketing manager at Loch Fyne, said: “We’ve always found steak to be the clear favourite and we expect this year to be no different so our team are ensuring there’s plenty on order.
“Among the starters, prawns tend to take the top spot so this year we’re going to offer an interesting remake of the 1980s Christmas classic, prawn cocktail.”