Ready to Eat (Pret a Manger)

Member Name: Whizz11

Product:	Pret a Manger
Date:	17/02/09 (304 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice range, tasty, food to the homeless

Disadvantages: Expensive, calories

Ready to Eat

Pret a Manger is my lunchtime, well, and breakfast treat. Pret a Manger is a French phrase meaning ready to eat and that's exactly the way to explain the food they sell in their outlets.

Pret (as it is most commonly known) is a UK sandwich retailer. As of November 2006 there were 155 UK shops with 118 of them in London. I work in London so these stores are very handy for me. You could probably walk down any busy London high street and find one, they are that prolific.

They are very easy to spot. They have a sign out front which says Pret in big red letters with a red star behind it which is their logo. Inside all the stores are the same, they have a lot of chrome in them and red seats and booths for sitting. The sandwiches and other food stuffs are displayed in big metal cases or fridges in some instances to keep the produce cold.

Pret was founded in 1986 by two friends at university. What I love about Pret compared to other places where you can buy food is that they always make their sandwiches fresh. Each sandwich is guaranteed to be made that morning with all natural ingredients and if there is any food left at the end of the day it is collected by charities and taken to the homeless. I think this is a really responsible thing and nice thing for them to do. It also guarantees that I get a nice fresh sandwich everyday. It does mean however that you generally have to eat on the day of purchase as they do not include any preservatives but generally that is what most people do anyway.

Their sandwiches come ready packed in little cardboard boxes. They have a really nice range of sandwiches on bread but they also do wraps, baguettes, sushi and salads too. They always list all the ingredients on the front, including any fillings they might have used such as mustard or mayonnaise. What I also like is the fact that they make their own soups each day which are also nice and hot when you get them. You can log onto their website each day to see what the soup of the day is and then decide if it's something you want for later. They produce their own fizzy drinks cans and have some really great flavours such as orange, apple, mango and mandarin and grape and elderflower. They also have their own range of hand cooked potato crisps which are lovely and crunchy.

I also like to go in there at breakfast time as they are one of the few places I have found that sell fruit loose by the piece so it's always handy to pop in their for a quick banana or the like. They also have a great range of pastries and yogurts/muesli for breakfast too.

They serve coffee as well which is really nice and sometimes it's nice to just go in there for coffee. All the coffee they now serve is Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance and organic so by buying it you are doing something good for the environment too.

The staff are always quite friendly in there which is nice and generally very fast. It gets so busy in there, especially at lunchtimes that they need to be busy to keep up. You can pay on switch card too which is very handy if you've just popped out quickly in your lunch hour and don't' have any cash as some sandwich shops in the area only take cash.

My only criticisms of them would be that sometimes the outlets are very small and there's hardly enough room to swing a cat, let alone fight for the last chicken club sandwich. Also they often don't have much seating either so if you do want a seat at lunchtime you do need to get in there early.

The sandwiches are fairly expensive, for example a club sandwich is somewhere in the region of £2.50 so include a drink and crisps with that and you are spending nearly £5 a day on lunch which can get expensive. Also, sandwiches are generally notoriously high in calories, their cheddar, tomato and pickle having approximately 648 calories in the pack! This is why I generally only go in there once a week for a treat but I certainly enjoy it when I do.

For more information you can visit their website at www.pret.com

Summary: Pret a Manger