Much like walks in the park, meetings that overrun and waiting in queues on automated phone lines, Pret has always been firmly associated with lunch.
Providing reasonably priced and cheerily colourful sandwiches, as well as breakfast bowls and porridges, daytime food has been what they’ve done best. Until now, perhaps. The chain has launched a new Dinners range, hoping to branch out into evening meals, too.
Right now Pret’s Dinners are only available in London, with 30 outlets working until 9pm to create the new hot food options. There are curry and rice bowls, focaccia and hot bakes, and wraps. Delivery is available from Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat.
As a keen fan, I wanted to see what they were like. Are they enough to fill you up, a valid dinner choice? I tried a few dishes available – here’s what I thought.
The Thai Red Chicken Curry Hot Rice Bowl is the most dinner-y thing I try, whereas the other bits could arguably be called more lavish lunches.
It’s rich, with a boisterous red Thai sauce that isn’t so spicy it’d scare anyone away. Pret’s penchant for veg can be tasted even within meat dishes like this, with the roasted sweet potato providing more of a texture kick than the chicken, which is ripped more thinly, but still has its say.
Priced at £8.95, it’s hearty, but leaves me wanting a tad more. Overall, I’d give it a 4/5. Not bad.
Next up is the Prosciutto and Mozzarella Focaccia Pizza and the Tomato, Mozzarella and Pesto Focaccia Pizza. They’re both good fun – soft and deep, but still with a good textured cheesy crunch. And ingredients aren’t spared on top, which is always a plus.
They’re £7.95 each, but I’d say they’re best shared with a side if you’re eating for dinner – which makes them a little on the spenny side. In fact, the menu is probably best viewed as an opportunity to share, if you’re partial to wanting a little more winter comfort. But still, the quality is really good. It’s a 4/5 for me.
I also try one of Pret’s side orders: the appropriately seasonal Pigs In Blankets Mac and Cheese Bake. It passes the ‘is this just a novelty or not?’ test, with barrels of strong cheese, al dente pasta and juicy pigs to offset the creamy cheese. Delicious and well priced at £5.99, but definitely best as an indulgent side rather than main.
So, I may have been a little piggy myself having ordered the side dish, but hey – it’s Christmas! And given how cheesy pasta has been awarded the number one comfort food dish this winter by online cake shop Jack and Beyond, I thought, sod it, I’m going in.
There’s more I didn’t try, of course – you can view the whole menu online. For vegetarians, there’s a Sticky Aubergine and a Sweet Potato Chilli Hot Bowl, which I’d imagine would follow a similar path of generous veggie portions, with the on-brand colourful smattering of herbs and spices. I’ll be trying them next.
My thoughts? There’s an approach you need to take with this menu: don’t just order one thing. The quality’s there, but ordering one alone may leave you peckish. And anyway, ordering a fun side adds a lift to the spread when you unpack it at home.
Plus, the focaccia and the mac and cheese come in satisfyingly slidy packaging, revealing the dish slowly and dramatically like an iPhone box. On the lockdown scale of fun things to do, this ranks pretty high.
Overall, I think Pret is doing a good job in shifting into dinner dishes – but I’d like to see what they can do to turn British dinner comfort food staples into Pret Dinner classics. Pret’s own fish and chips, roast dinner or pie and mash, anyone? It’s got my vote.