Talking about what we’re having for lunch has become a staple of British culture over the years, and at the forefront of that conversation, is the meal deal.

Pioneered by Boots in 1999, the meal deal has established itself as one of the nation’s lunchtime favourites, prompting other UK retailers to get on board and offer a combination of a main (usually a sandwich or pasta dish), snack and drink for a heavily discounted price.

But there is a question that has stirred debate across office floors and canteens for the past two decades.

What is the best value-for-money meal deal? Well, we’re finally able to put that to bed thanks to our Meal Deal Calculator.

To find out once and for all which meal deal gives you more bang for your buck, the team at online slots site Betway got to work analysing over two million possible combinations across Tesco, ASDA, Boots, Sainsbury’s, Co-op and Morrisons.

As the meal deal pioneer, Boots dominates the top and bottom of the value for money rankings, offering consumers the widest variety of options. They do, however, also take home the top spot for the worst value-for-money meal deal in the Chicken mayo sandwich, Fruit-tella and still water combo, offering a value by percentage of just 61.40%.

A surprise inclusion in the bottom half of the table is the Tesco meal deal.

The supermarket recently increased the price of their meal deal earlier last year for the second time that year but are meal deal shoppers getting value for money?

Tesco has positioned itself at the forefront of the meal deal over recent years but data shows its offering is among the lower end of the scale when compared to fellow retailers. Tesco’s Egg & Cress Sandwich, Kinder Bueno Bar and Glaceau Smartwater finished rock bottom of the rankings with a poor value by percentage of just 73.08%.

Commenting on the research, Vix Leyton, consumer expert at Hotukdeals and host of False Economy podcast, said:

“Ultimately value is in the eye of the beholder, if the Meal Deal Price seems like good value for you broadly, the only real decision should be what you'll enjoy the most. One thing to be careful of is the ranges that sit next to the Meal Deal but aren't actually in it, avoid being stung at the checkout by reading the offer carefully and making sure your lineup is included in the deal.

“Conversely, if you're getting a drink and a bag of crisps, it's worth perusing the 'mains' as it might be as cheap to throw one of those in your basket as well and keep it for meal time.”

Methodology

Betway used product data from the websites of major retailers Tesco, ASDA, Boots, Sainsbury’s, Co-op and Morrisons to determine the individual price of items and the cost of a meal deal. Due to product data being unavailable on the Boots website, product data was collected manually from their flagship store in Nottingham.

Once data was collected, we calculated the value by percentage of over two million possible meal deal combinations using our Meal Deal Calculator which took into account the individual cost of items and the cost of a meal deal at each retailer..

The individual prices of all items are based on the standard store price taken on the day and doesn’t take into account regional variations or items purchased at non-high street locations such as airports or service stations.

Prices were based on data collected on 17 January 2023.