Food Dear god, what a crushing disappointment. Rather like the film Dune, I find myself on the other side of the overwhelming critical plaudits for Pret a Manger's festive offering which has garnered four and five star reviews from the likes of The Independent and Time Out and generally very positive in places which don't do the star rating sort of thing. The only write-up I've found vaguely in line with experience is from "My London" back in July when they originally went on sale and their writer Melissa Sigodo wrote: "As I bit into the festive meal gone lunchtime snack, I couldn’t quite distinguish the different tastes, as a mish-mash of carbohydrates rolled together in between my jaws like a cement mixer."
Folks, this was a chore to eat. Right through the middle is a thick seem of crunchy spinach which is ever present throughout every bite and overpowers pretty much everything else the sandwich is trying to do. On top of that, the seeds in the too thick malted bread are rather large and tough as grit and yet still somewhat distinguished from the crunchy onions which have been sprinkled throughout. All of this means the turkey, stuffing and sauce which should be the stars of the meal make no impact and you're left with an ordeal of sandwich which seems to take forever to work through. About half way through I had to take a break, not because I was filling up, but to give my jaw a rest after chomping away at the crusts.
Usually I love Pret. Is it a perfect company? No. The wikipedia has a list of their failures including a failure to list all of the ingredients on their packaging which led to deaths. That will account for the incredibly details label stuck to the bottom of the packaging which makes those elements which could cause an allergic reaction as clear as possible. It's currently owned by a holding company which originated with a family whose ancestors were enthusiastic supporters of Adolf Hitler, although the mother of the current owners was Jewish and they run a foundation which offers support to victims of the holocaust and Nazism. Wow, that took a turn. You can bet the end of this paragraph wasn't what I expected it to be when I started writing it.
But I love their porridge, their soups and their coffee. Outside of the Tesco Chicken Salad, the other sandwich I'll walk out of my way for is the Classic Super Club at Pret which somehow manages to get the right balance between the poultry, bacon, lettuce, tomatoes and mayo. Pret's outlets always have a good and consistent atmosphere no matter where you go from Liverpool to London. During the lockdown we'd regularly order a bag full of goodies from there via Deliveroo and it always cheered us up. My first experience of them was a soup at Cheshire Oaks and of all the chain food places, Pret's one the few which has never let me down. Until now. Sulk, sulk, sulk.
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