Pret a Manger

Prêt a Manger appears on almost every high street and in almost every shopping centre around these days. You can’t walk three miles without seeing at least one. They are noticeable by there royal burgundy colour and their infamous red star, which is hung above most, if not all, of their shops.

I’d always been a bit reluctant to try a Prêt, as I’d heard so much on the news and in magazines about how unhealthy it is and how much fat ...
...the time came to try one. There are Prêt scattered all around the country, and most are the same inside, although some are a lot smaller than others.

== My Experience at Prêt ==

Entering through the doors to Prêt is quite an unusual experience on your first time. On entering I was unsure as to what to expect! Inside though it was very attractive. The floors were tiled, almost like McDonalds but seemed to be a lot cleaner ... more

Prêt a Manger appears on almost every high street and in almost every shopping centre around these days. You can’t walk three miles without seeing at least one. They are noticeable by there royal burgundy colour and their infamous red star, which is hung above most, if not all, of their shops.

I’d always been a bit reluctant to try a Prêt, as I’d heard so much on the news and in magazines about how unhealthy it is and how much fat is in the products they sell, however in last month, the time came to try one. There are Prêt scattered all around the country, and most are the same inside, although some are a lot smaller than others.

My Experience at Prêt

Entering through the doors to Prêt is quite an unusual experience on your first time. On entering I was unsure as to what to expect! Inside though it was very attractive. The floors were tiled, almost like McDonalds but seemed to be a lot cleaner and almost sparkling. The walls were a deep red colour, the same as the exterior of the sandwich bar. One thing that surprised me was that there was seating inside. I didn’t know Prêt was a sit down restaurant type café, I always thought it was a take away and the insides were like that of Baguette Express- tiny. I was wrong though. The seating area wound back behind the counter area, and there was definitely enough seats to seat around twenty people. As with most sandwich bars, there were four “high chairs” at a high table facing out the window. There was then various other two seat and four seat tables scattered around.

The counter where you order is straight in front of the door, and upon entering you are automatically thrown into the queue. The queue wasn’t overly long when we arrived though we were a bit worried about getting a seat as there were only two tables left. Luckily most of the people in the queue were taking away their lunch so we were in luck with getting a table. Reaching the counter, I began to ponder over what I wanted. There were various sandwiches, wraps and cakes on display but not an overly huge amount. The choice of food at Prêt is rather extensive with lots of different options to choose from! (See “menu” part of review if you want to know more..if not..skip that bit). I eventually decided on a “Mature Cheddar and Prêt Pickle” sandwich, followed by a “Banana Card box cake”. My mum opted for Tuna Baguette, followed by a chocolate mousse. We ordered a drink each too; Chocolate cappuccino for my mum, and a sparkling lemon drink for myself!

Our food was plonked onto a tray and all ready for us to tuck in too. We proceeded to one of the only tables which were left which was perfectly fine and perfectly for us, sat two people. The seats weren’t overly comfortable in my opinion. They were made out of silver metal, and leaning back in to it hurt a little. None the less I didn’t let it spoil my enjoyment. The table was very clean… no fingerprints or sticky marks in sight. The table was made from metal too, and was rather small, but plenty of room for all of our meal to fit onto! Now it was time to TRY the food…would it be just as delicious as it sounded?

Unwrapping my sandwich, I was hit with a pleasantly savoury smell. The bread was seeded brown, and was very thickly sliced. It didn’t look like any of your sliced shop bought nonsense, rather it looked like the rustic, just baked wedges! I still have the habit of dissecting food before I eat it, so off came the top brick of bread….and YUM! It looked delicious inside! The cheese wasn’t grated, instead there were huge bit swards of thick cut cheese layered on top. There seemed to be a light layer of some sort of spread on top which didn’t look like butter exactly.. But it didn’t exactly look like mayonnaise either! Piled on top of the huge “wads” of cheese, were various toppings. There was some bright green, slightly limp looking lettuce, some red lettuce, and 3 large rings of onion, which I pulled off! There was then two huge dollops of black looking pickle. The smell radiating from the sandwich once the two pieces of bread were separated was delicious, a really cheesy bakery smell! Plonking the two wedges of bread back together I took a bite! The first thing I noticed was just how moist and delicious the bread was. The seeds didn’t really bring anything to the bread taste wise however they brought a nice new texture to it. The cheese was so thick, and tasted really nice..though it did leave me slightly thirsty afterwards. The pickle was gorgeous and actually tasted really like the bottled stuff you get, which in my opinion is not a bad thing! The lettuce was ok, but didn’t taste like anything however I can’t comment on the onion rings as I picked them off! Overall I was plenty happy with my sandwich and it left me feeling very full! I was so full, that I had to leave my cake until later on that day!
After my sandwich has gone done and I wasn’t stuffed anymore, I took my cake out! It was set in a nice little packet and looked very cute sitting there. It reminded me of a muffin, but looked very cake-esk too! On top of the cake was a layer of butter cream which was deliciously bright white in colour. On top of this cream icing was a mini banana thing…I don’t know what it really was, but it definitely wasn’t edible. The cake wasn’t huge, but just a perfect size for filling you up without leaving you absolutely exhausted from eating! Biting in, the first thing I tasted was the butter cream. It tasted very much so like vanilla but there was also a nice banana hint to it too..much like banana milkshake. Getting past the icing, you reach the cake underneath. It reminded me very much of banana bread in taste, only the texture was slightly more spongy. The cake was gorgeous and I’d definitely recommend it.

Well I certainly enjoyed my lunch! But did my mum? Yes she did! She loved her baguette and I have to say it looked delicious. She ordered it on a brown baguette but I’m pretty sure you can get white ones too! The tuna spilled out of the side of the baguette which suggested a huge filling inside, and when my mum opened it up to see the contents, the filling speculations were confirmed. There was an incredibly fishy smell coming from the tuna but my mum said it wasn’t an “overly fishy” tuna, which in my opinion is a good thing.
She really enjoyed her chocolate mouse too. She managed to eat hers in the café. It came in a little plastic pot and was fairly big in size. The chocolate mousse looked really rich and creamy but I didn’t try it myself. I can safely tell you that she loved her dessert though and by the looks of the empty pot, it went down as a huge success!

Our drinks were nice too. My lemon sparkling water was very fizzy and citrus tasting and my mums cappuccino was apparently delicious, but again I didn’t try it myself!
Overall we were thoroughly impressed with our meal and would definitely dine back here with a guarantee we’d be getting a nice lunch time treat.

As well as the gorgeous food, the staff and service was very good too. The woman we had on the till was very nice and friendly and always wore a smile on her face. There didn’t seem to be any staff loitering around the place, they all seemed to have their own jobs to be getting on with and I feel this was a good thing as it didn’t make you feel awkward or intimidated as if you were being watched eating. The staff all seemed to be above 20 years old and there wasn’t any teenage employees on. I’m not sure if it was just in that particular store or if none of them hire school aged children. We weren’t interrupted once through our meal which I feel was a good thing as we were happy and didn’t have anything to complain about ourselves.

The facilities in the café were fairly pleasant. The toilets were very clean, but very small and when I went down to use the toilets, there was another two people waiting. Like I say though, they were very clean and there was plenty of toilet paper, soap etc to use. Smaller Prets don’t tend to have toilets in them however we were lucky this one did!
There didn’t seem to be any child friendly facilities such as high chairs or drawing packs however the menu did cater very well for children.

A bit about Prêt …for those who want to know!

The first Prêt opened 23 years ago and over those years, the private company Prêt a Manger has grown to over 190 shops in the UK. Prêt are very big on charities and helping charities and throughout the year they support various different charities. For example in the past they have helped the homeless, and on other occasions have provided food to people who cant afford to buy it themselves.

Prêt a Manger like to think they are different from other sandwich bars in that use only natural ingredients and do not use chemicals in their products. There are no pre packed items and all sandwiches are made on the day of purchase in the Prêt kitchens. Most Prets have kitchens in store however some of the smaller ones do not. Fresh ingredients are dropped off at the shop every day to make sure that the products are of the highest qualities and always fresh and delicious tasting!!

Prêt are also very up on saving the environment and being eco friendly, and do all they can do to help with keeping it “healthy”. For example many of the shops now have recycling facilities.

The deliciously tempting…menu!!

Prêt are definitely most famous for their sandwiches, baguettes, wraps etc and there is a very good reason for this; they are delicious. They do a huge range of different products, however to name just a few, you could chose from, a all day breakfast, chicken valentino, Classic super club or chicken avocado sandwich, a hoision duck wrap or a “posh bacon” baguette! If you fancy a hot wrap there are a couple of choices including Jalapeno chicken hot wrap!
If you fancy a warmer type of lunch or snack, you can choose from a soup, or salad or sushi! The soups on offer include chicken leek and potato and chicken noodle and more interesting options such as bacon cheese and tomato and Thai corn! The salads are the usual as with the sushi!

To go with the savoury options there are also a choice of crisps and other nibbles such as yoghurt coated nuts, cheese and onion crisps and various other delicious bites! Of course you may want something a little sweeter and this is where the delicious array of cakes and desserts will come in handy! If you want something cake based, you can choose from products such as apple cake, banana cake and chocolate cakes, however if you want something more dessert-ish you could choose the lemon cheesecake or such like!

There are also plenty of products that would be perfect for a breakfast time treat! Many of these products include porridge, fruit with granola and yoghurt, croissants with various fillings such as chocolate, ham and cheese and almonds and egg and bacon. However maybe you just want a simple snack mid afternoon and if this is the case you can perhaps choose a muffin which come in flavours such as double berry or double chocolate, or a sticky current bun!
Whatever you want, there is something for you!

Their drinks list is very extensive too! You can get various smoothies such as strawberry and mango as well as various sparkling flavoured waters. Obviously coffees, teas and hot chocolates are also available to enjoy!!

Prices

Prêt is fairly expensive if I’m honest. Our lunch cost around £12 which I think is quite expensive. However the quality of the food was delicious!
Sandwiches/wraps etc range in price from around £1.50 to £3.50 depending on what your having, and drinks are set at about £1.50 depending on what you want.
The cakes were fairly high priced too, costing around £1-2. I cant remember all of the prices however you can probably find these online or in your local store!

The things they don’t want us to know….. The nutrition

Recently Prêt has released all their products nutrition information for the public to see. In my opinion this is a really good idea as it helps people to decide what they want, and can often steer people off choosing the more fatty and higher calorie choices. The nutrition can be found in leaflets in store or online at their website. Obviously I’m not going to tell you all the nutrition information however if you wish to find this out you can visit, http://www.pret.com/menu/.
It is very handy in that the nutrition provided tells you whether they are suitable for you and if you have any worries or allergies you can be told this by viewing the information. If you cant be bothered to look up the info..let me just tell you now, that they are by no means healthy. However Prêt has introduced some lower fat options though so you could always opt for these!

So …should I go to Prêt?

I’d definitely give it a go anyway! The food is really delicious and you are almost guaranteed a friendly member of staff. The food like I say is of a high standard and there is something for everybody. It is not overly child friendly however there is a large kids menu which offers simple things such as cheese and ham sandwiches. Its not overly posh, but its definitely not a “Minky” place and you wont find any youths hanging around inside with nothing better to do! It is definitely a step up from McDonalds! So all in all, I think it is worth a try and it is almost impossible not to find something you like!
 

...less