A cheap pasty lunch served in a greasy paper bag - what more could anyone want really? (Greggs in general)

Member Name: worst_trip

Product:	Greggs in general
Date:	30/09/09 (13 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Provides reasonably priced, reliable - if mid-range quality - baked goods in all its branches

Disadvantages: Pasties a bit heavy on the mashed potato filling

Greggs the baker's is not the kind of shop you might want to eat at every day, but it sells a decent range of sweet and savoury pastry products and breads (and a perhaps slightly less appetising range of pre-packed sandwiches and filled rolls). Also on offer are hot and cold drinks.

Most high-streets in towns have a branch of Greggs, and the shops are inevitably queued out the doors around lunchtimes, when it seems the whole world and his wife all go there - housewives with kids, working people from offices, shops and building sites all around - everyone drops in to Greggs pick up a bit of takeaway lunch. (Some branches have an instore sit down area where you can eat, but in my experience these are pretty grim and best avoided unless it's absolutely pelting down rain outside.)

The prices are reasonable - I think it's just over 50p for a single sausage roll, which is the product we most often go in to purchase - and the baked goods generally spankingly fresh-cooked. They don't use or claim to be the kind of bakers where premium ingredients only go into the pasty fillings; the base of the majority of these is mashed potato - and nearly plain mashed potato at that - certainly in the case of Greggs' "cheese and onion" pasties, which I used to eat a lot of when I was younger. Still, being served both hot and freshly cooked, Greggs pasties (which sell for just over a quid each currently) are a light-years ahead of much of the produce you'll find in the dodgier type of provinical baker's shops; after a number of bad experiences at single chain 'local' bakeries, I would opt for Gregg over an unknown baker's any day.

One slight criticism of the shops is that they serve you your scalding hot, grease-filled takeaway pasty in a very flimsy paper bag that soon gets soaked through with cooking oil from the pastry; but at least these 100% paper bags - if cheap and a bit nasty - must be fully biodegradable, so it's a case of swings and roundabouts there, then.

Sweet products from Greggs aren't as good a bet as the savoury goods in my experience - especially since they axed their line of fantastic caramel-covered ring do-nuts recently. I've had some pretty stale cup-cakes from Greggs lately, so I don't think their quality control for this part of the stock is always up to scratch.

Summary: Compared with local shops, definitely a case of better the baker you know - always go to Greggs!