your favourite pret sandwich/baguette/hot wrap

the bomb yo

Discovered the Malaysian chicken curry soup recently, annoyed that they only do it on Mondays.

i assume those meatball wraps are about as fatty as a big mac right?

Used to have the pret soup all the time, now I changed jobs and found that the new Pret is a bit further away than EAT and the EAT soups are better.

debatable

eat's lentil and bacon soup is a down-to-earth creamy lentil soup with some slight red slivers that might once have been bacon. pret's is a chunky creation with huge bits of bacon, celery, beans, tomato - basically a chunky tomato + bacon soup that one had a passing acquaintance with some lentils.

eat's off-the-shelf gyoza dumpling soups are awful. pissy weak stock, half empty cardboard pastry DUMPLINGS!.

aaaah, genuine lol there

xxxp The wrap has more calories, carbohydrate, sugar, fat and fibre, but less protein and salt according to

http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/food/nutrition/nutrition-counter.mcd

vs

http://www.pret.com/menu/hot_food/swedish_meatball_hot_wrap_3485.shtm

Not so much the gyoza ones, more the "very big" Chicken Laska and the Musroom risotto ones, particularly.

I won't go to EAT; they invited a friend of mine to interview for something like their head of menu development and strung the person along for a suspicious length of time. My friend felt like EAT were on an idea-swiping mission and were generally sketchy, so ended the process.

The chicken laksa from Hare and Tortoise is absolutely amazing, so I can't really have it from anywhere else without feeling a bit meh/cheated.

do not understand the appeal of Pret tbh... way overpriced and for some reason I always think of them as unethically corporate.

way overpriced

nah

they invited a friend of mine to interview for something like their head of menu development and strung the person along for a suspicious length of time

My guess would be that your friend was their second or third choice and they were keeping her in play just in case the first didn't play out.

Italian Prosciutto Artisan Baguette

This is still the king, even if the bread does occasionally have the consistency of moon rock.

You can get nicer sandwiches at slighlty lower prices from M&S and not-much-worse sandwiches at much lower prices from supermarkets. Makes Pret seem a bit wanky and redundant in my eyes. Should I give em another shot?

'nicer' is subjective, maybe the distinctive pret flavour ambience is not to your taste. but pret sandwiches are generally 2.99-3.99. are m+s really cheaper than that?

m&s are pretty cheap...i like m&s a lot i have to say, esp if you want to break the sandwich's despotic rule and have like some empanadas and a salad or whatev

MDC, without getting into the finer details, it wasn't like that.

M+S sandwiches are awful imo. If it has got to be a sandwich chain and there's no Paul around, then I'll usually go for Pret.

M&S sandwiches should be much, much better than they actually are, and most supermarket sandwiches are awful. I prefer yer standard sandwich shop/deli sandwiches for lunch most days but occasionally I still get Pret cravings.

Apostrophe is underrated imo.

Also I will consistently rep for the people who serve in Pret because they all seem to work as some kind of well-oiled machine no matter how busy they are, whereas the service in Eat is like 5 times slower even at quiet times.

Best service in chains = Pret and Caffé Nero.

i will try both pret and eat next week as an experimonk.

Caffe Nero and "best" shouldn't exist in a sentence tbf.

I think I'm jaded because my market town's been overrun by Neros and Starbucks's to the detriment of the lovely Hitchin teahouse. Seriously, one town does not need this much fucking coffee!!

Sill have never gone to a Starbucks. YAY ME.

Nero's coffees are at least drinkable, unlike all other chains' coffee I've had the displeasure of sampling.

i must admit i once had a lovely hot chocolate the one time i ventured into a nero.

Nero's coffee is pretty obviously better than most of the other big chains IMO. Although when you come out of one you have this weird feeling of having been in the pub, pre-smoking ban.

Nero does proper Italian hot chocolate, the thick/gummy stuff, which wins bonus pints from me.

Although when you come out of one you have this weird feeling of having been in the pub, pre-smoking ban.

― Matt DC, Thursday, 12 May 2011 17:05 (28 minutes ago) Bookmark

OMG IT'S TRUE. what is this bizarre phenom???

I used to attribute it to the fact you could smoke in there, but post-smoking ban it's still the same. It's probably a combination of lighting and whatever they put in the coffee that gives you that sense of hyper-awareness of your environment and feeling a bit manky that you got from boozing in a smokey room during the daytime. NB - as far as I'm aware this only happens in daylight hours.

Anyone tried the Wensleydale & Apricot Chutney Bloomer from Pret?

anyone tried the still water infused with iced tea and peach. fucking love it.

Search: the BBQ pork hot wrap. Think it might be a little smaller than the others but it is packed full of meat.

Crayfish thai noodle is good and surprisingly spicy for a sandwich shop chain...I agree with the comment upthread that their staff are usually good and fast at processing queues.

I ate so much Pret in my 20s I can hardly bear it now.

Chef's special, Vietnamese baguette. With chicken. 2/10, must try harder (concept that is, I did not purchase).

there's none of this Pret nonsense oop ere in Ull but i gotta give a shout to Gregg's Mexican Bandit baguette, that is one delicious and satisfying sandwich.

When I used to go, it would be for the Malaysian chicken soup or a wrap.

They've introduced a new bacon sandwich thingy, which must be good because it's always sold out whenever I get there

Search: the BBQ pork hot wrap. Think it might be a little smaller than the others but it is packed full of meat.

this fucking sucks in my opinion, tasted like pork stew in a wrap, not pulled pork.

They've introduced a new bacon sandwich thingy, which must be good because it's always sold out whenever I get there

nope... it's sort of cold and has no ketchup on it, it is shite.

do like pret's soups tho.

the smoked salmon sandwich is the best thing in there, seriously thick wedges of the stuff, delicious, and relatively good for you.

Never been, but I can't see the name without thinking of 1994 film Pret a Porter.

The sandwiches are served to customers by naked models walking up and down a runway.

Only joking.

Eat now offering a chicken banh mi too. Madness.

pret's is gone, i never had it. pret's avocado and crayfish salad is good, had today for the first time.

we have a diff menu over here but pret is pretty dope

Slow Roasted Beef, Arugula & Parmesan

this sandwich is fantastic

Eat now offering a chicken banh mi too. Madness.

This changes everything

Oh wait, it would if they weren't mainly only in London :(

think the austere 'jambon beurre' buttered stonebake w/ ham and cornichons is pretty much indisputably the best thing they do, and it's only £2.50

In fact I am ready to award the all-time gong to their new chicken and crushed pea baguette, it is sensational

Anyone else been in the Pret on Great Eastern Street? It's massive and has loads of tables but there's only ever about three types of sandwich

I’ve noticed a really poor range in a few other Prets as well. I think that as you get closer you get to Pret HQ (in Victoria), they tend to have a better selection.