Conor Pope reviews cottage pies.

Tesco Value Cottage Pie €1.49 for 400g, €3.72 per kg

Highs: Coming from the Tesco Value range, this is very cheap. What's more surprising is the healthy (comparatively) ingredient list which doesn't contain too many flavour enhancers or stabilisers. Prior to, and immediately after, cooking this looks pretty good.

Lows: Does bargain basement really have to mean horrible? There is so little meat in the sauce that it almost looks as if Tesco has slapped a dollop of gloopy potato on some vile gruel and called it Cottage Pie when the closest this came to a cottage was almost certainly some grim industrial estate on a congested motorway. It is also the only pie unsuitable for home freezing which suggests it has already spent some time in a deep frozen state. The only shame is it's not still in it.

Verdict: Pretty nasty but very cheap

Star rating: **

Quorn Cottage Pie €4.49 for 500g, €8.98 per kg

Highs: This is ideal for vegetarians and for those less than keen on eating heavily processed beef of unknown origin. It has less calories and less fat than any of its rivals so it is certainly the healthy option, although describing any ready meal thus may be somewhat oxymoronic. It has real peas and pieces of carrot and the mashed potato is surprisingly pleasant. This is also the only meal reviewed that could possibly feed two people.

Lows: The box makes much of the fact that it is "surprisingly" low fat - although the company's surprise is in itself surprising, given that this is a meat-free product, so should be lower in fat. Made with 52 per cent mash potato and eight per cent quorn, it is less substantial than the price tag might suggest.

Verdict: "Surprisingly" pleasant.

Star rating: ***

SuperValu Cottage Pie €2.49 for 400g, €6.22 per kg

Highs: If you're fond of mashed-potato related fare, this might be for you. Even though the ingredient list says it is made with 48 per cent potato - compared with 52 per cent in some of the other brands - it does seem like there is an awful lot more here than elsewhere. The picture on the box makes the pie look appealing.

Lows: From there it is all downhill. Both the potato and the sauce are so bland, PriceWatch had to return to this on a number of occasions to remember what it tasted like - in truth, not a pleasant task. It looks vile before its time in the oven and it doesn't get much better after cooking. Right down to the difficult-to-remove plastic film, this appears identical to the offering from Dunnes Stores, yet is between 30 and 49 cent more expensive.

Verdict: Gives ready meals a bad name.

Star rating: *

Denny Cottage Pie €3.79 for 400g, €9.47 per kg

Highs: This is the poshest of the pies and looks the part both before and after cooking. Eating it revealed that first impressions weren't wrong - the mash crisps up very well and tastes like real potato. The sauce, complete with a healthy dollop of red wine, is also comparatively very good. Some 25 per cent of this is beef, which makes this a whole lot more, er, meaty than its rivals.

Lows: The taste comes at a price, both literally and metaphorically. There are 115 calories per 100g of this pie compared with closer to 80 in the other meat-based products, and there's also substantially more fat. It is also a good deal more expensive than the other brands.

Verdict: Good but pricey.

Star rating: ****

Dunnes Stores Cottage Pie €2.19 for 400g, €5.47 per kg

Highs: This is a little cheaper than its SuperValu competitor and is made cheaper still because it is currently on special (at least it was last weekend) so two packets will cost you just €4.

Lows: Like the SuperValu product, it is needlessly difficult to remove the plastic film. It is made with just 15 per cent beef and the resulting absence of any real substance makes this a less than attractive option. It doesn't look pleasing on the eye coming out of the oven and despite taking a long time to cook, it was virtually impossible to crisp up. The potato and the sauce are very dull - it's not horrible but nor is it worth buying unless you find yourself starving, in Dunnes Stores, and suffering from a sudden and chronic loss of imagination.

Verdict: Not good but at least it's cheaper.

Star rating: **

***** Excellent **** Great *** Fine  **Below Par *Awful