What is your Pret A Manger lunch grab of choice? Mine is 100% locked down: the smoked salmon granary sandwich, the green (sea salt and cider vinegar) crisps and the yoga bunny can. Such is the speed at which I can wolf this combo down at my desk, it became a running joke on the leaving card of my last job.
But who’s laughing now that I get to taste-test Pret’s biggest menu relaunch in 33 years? Not even the knowledge this involves eating 20 separate breakfast and lunch items before 9am is enough to deter me.
Taste everything, I was told. Reader: I tasted everything.
Arriving at Pret HQ in central London, I’m taken down into the bowels of a faceless office building, only for a door to open into a chrome and green wonderland, tables laden with platters of salad, sandwiches and row after row of little plastic pots. First impressions: colour! If you’ve been lunching at Pret for a few years, chances are you’ve got stuck in a rut and nothing pulls you out of that like some bright pink pickled cabbage – which is everywhere this morning.
It’s been a difficult two years for Pret, after the deaths of two separate young women following allergic reactions to items bought in its stores. In October it announced it will be clearly marking all ingredients, including allergens, on freshly made products.
Today’s launch is clearly about fresh starts, but it’s also a response to changing customer tastes and the growing ubiquity of hipster cafe culture.
On which note, where else to start than a bit of smashed avocado?
The Open Sandwiches
Crazy to think that avo smash wasn’t already on the menu at Pret, given what a brunch cliche it has become everywhere else. In fact, it feels a bit late to be smothering it on everything here – it’s an ingredient in two of Pret’s three new open sandwiches – but then the real star of this show is the gluten-free bread.
I’m not surprised to hear customers have been badgering Pret on this for some time – again, what’s taken the brand so long? Good news for coeliacs and the gluten intolerant is that this bread tastes like... bread. It’s sturdy enough to work as a base and has some actual flavour, praise be, due to the mix of oat, teff and buckwheat flour, plus two separate kinds of quinoa. On point, huh?
The classic Smashed Avo (£3.25) is a great start – hand-smashed in store, I’m told, with a dusting of chill salt (obvs) and a squeeze of lemon. If they can keep this consistency, um, consistent – neither over-pureed or too chunky – this is a good breakfast choice, though I actually prefer the Chicken Caesar and Avo (£3.75), developed because Pret’s chicken caesar sandwich is a best-seller.
Anything with chicken sells in Pret, say the chefs I speak to this morning – though I get the impression they are all kinda keen to nudge customers towards some less, ahem, basic choices.
Oh, and there’s a ‘sweet’ open sandwich too, which feels a bit surplus to requirements. The Coconut and Berries (£3.25) is the first of LOTS of coconut yoghurt on a menu designed to appeal to those ditching dairy. Fine if you like the stuff, but I had a housemate who both cooked and washed her face with the same big vat of coconut oil and I’ve not felt quite the same about it since.
The Breakfast Birchers
I’ve never really got the breakfast pot thing – they’ve always seemed a pricey option, especially given I’m a coffee and run commuter. For those who do buy into them, you’ve got two very different options here, both of them vegan thanks to that coconut yoghurt.
The lighter and sweeter of the two is a Tropical Bircher (£2.99), where the passion fruit and mango bits just about balance out the coconut. It’s a less pronounced taste in the Almond Butter and Berry Bircher (£2.35), where the almond lends the whole snack a nuttier, more substantial texture. These both get made onsite overnight, but I can’t help wondering why people don’t just soak their own oats in the fridge and save themselves some money. I don’t mean “me” people – but you could.
The Salads
If you’re a salad luncher (as a carb loader, I’ve always admired you lot), there are four major new boxes.
The first two, a Cali-Style Salmon Salad (£6.50) and Asian-Style Veggie Box (£4.50), come with a zingy green herb dressing. The second more Euro pair, Pret’s Greek Salad (£4.99) and a rather rustic sounding (but actually pretty punchy) Ham, Egg & Beets Salad (£5.50), have a creamy feta dressing that’s a bit overpowering – so apply it judiciously.
Which of this quartet you go for will massively depend on your tastes. I thought the Cali-Style was the freshest of the bunch – both in flavour and on trend – but easily the most filling was the ham jobby. Carb fiends note this one comes with potatoes, rather than rice (as the other three do). Also worth a mention were the truly delicious slow-roasted mushrooms in the Asian box. A real highlight.
As well as the salad boxes, there are three salad pots – because what we all need is more plastic – which riff off the main salads a bit, but with a more poke vibe. More of a light lunch than the massive salad boxes, but less laughable than Pret’s existing spinach and egg pot, because – tell me – who really buys those?
The Sandwiches
These are on a side table which feels rather unfair to the lovely French chef who talks me through them and tells me that they are “a marriage of French and English” influences. I give her major points for her off-Brexit message. Are you listening, May et Macron?
There’s an Avo and Bacon Breakfast Baguette (£2.19) that is – sorry, mes amis – un petit peu on the soggy side. Two of Pret’s classic lunch sandwiches are also getting swapped out for jazzier new versions: the Humous and Chipotle Wrap (£2.99) is replacing the standard roasted veggie job, that never quite worked for me. And the cheese and pickle sandwich is now a Veggie New Yorker on Rye (£2.99), which is HUGE news if you’re a deli fan. And bang on for a hangover.
Oh, and for the next two months, you can also enjoy two new Chef’s Specials. First up, the Bang Bang Veggie Wrap (£3.50), which uses the roasted sesame sauce from Pret’s recently launched chicken salad of the same name, but in a meat-free combo of (you guessed it) avo, crunchy broccoli and that pink picked cabbage.
But my favourite? The Chicken & Pea Crush Baguette (£3.85) – which is lovely and fresh (that’ll be the mint). Turns out I’m a basic chicken bitch, after all.
The Puddings
Are we nearly there yet? Okay, I also ate two puddings for you, I’m a hero, and the good news is they’re both veggie. Hang on, some puddings aren’t? Ugh.
One of the puds is the most sugary thing I’ve ever consumed in Pret but I love it: a Lemon & Blueberry Cheesecake (£2.35) in yet another goddam pot, which has a delicious light mousse texture thanks to mascarpone cream. The second is a Mocha Pot (£2.35), which swaps out the cream for coconut yoghurt to make it vegan (AGAIN), and gives you a double bitter shot of both coffee and dark chocolate with an added drizzle of espresso made by the barista in store.
A bit too bitter if you ask me. Perhaps it’s because this is my penultimate product of 20, and I’ve already had two coffees to get through this mega taste-athon for you all, but I lean toward the Cheesecake over the Mocha. However, I do think the latter will be a big hit and it’s great that vegans have so much choice on this new menu.
The Smoothie
On any normal day, this last one might be my whole breakfast. But today, the Coco-Berry Bircher (£2.75) is just a postscript and, sigh, made from more coconut – which almost pushes me over the edge. But thanks to the blueberries, raspberries, banana and apple mix, it’s surprisingly the palate cleanser I need for what has been a marathon morning. It’s just turned 9 o’clock.
I need to lie down.
The menu will start rolling out from 9 April, with the Ham, Egg & Beets Salad launching in May.
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