There's one Pret A Manger sandwich that is still a masterpiece. But while the high street favourite used to offer value and quality... now it does neither, says TOM PARKER BOWLES
- Tom Parker Bowles says the UK chain is now overpriced and 'forgettable'
- READ MORE: Is this Britain's most expensive lunch?
It's just gone noon on a dreary Thursday and I'm sitting in a Pret A Manger, contemplating my decidedly average Posh Cheddar and Pickle baguette. Across the road is a vast building site, the highly anticipated £1 billion-plus redevelopment of Kensington Olympia, probably the biggest building project in London, if not the country.
There are builders, foremen, site supervisors, truck drivers, welders, dozens of them, all in high-vis jackets, eating their lunch in the early autumnal gloom. A quick glance shows a remarkably diverse choice of food: Tesco salads and Sainsbury's sandwiches, falafel wraps and the remains of last night's curry, toasted panini sandwiches, Greggs sausage rolls and Korean rice bowls.
But despite them being 20 metres from Pret, I can't see any trace of that famous red and white branding.
Inside Pret, trade is steady but slow. A trickle of office workers, tourists and the odd courier grabbing a coffee. But at what is usually peak time, when you'd expect to find queues and not a seat to be had, all is quiet.
'It's edible, just about. I certainly wouldn't eat it again': Tom Parker Bowles says that while Pret A Manger was once the hero of the high street, it is now in danger of becoming a sandwich basket case
Even bankers are staying away, which doesn't come as a huge surprise, because my cheese baguette costs an eye-watering £6.50. This obviously includes the compulsory 20 per cent VAT charged on eating in, but simply put: Pret has become unaffordable. The cost of a basic egg and mayonnaise sandwich here has rocketed an astronomical 72 per cent to £3.25 since August 2020, while a can of Coke Zero has soared by 54 per cent to £1.70.
In contrast, Tesco's lunchtime meal deal has risen a mere 11 per cent in the same period. And it's not as if Pret is cash-strapped. Profits are booming, up 83 per cent on last year. Yet if you're eating in a tube station (Kensington High Street, for example), Heathrow or Gatwick, your Posh Cheddar and Pickle baguette can cost as much as £7.15. Meaning that a quick lunch, with a packet of crisps and a green juice, doesn't leave you much change from £20.
So, what's going on?
I've always had a quiet respect for Pret. The service is warm and friendly. I admire its approach to food waste (it gives away unsold sandwiches to homeless charities) and ingredients (organic milk, 'higher welfare' chicken).
The Jambon-Beurre sandwich is a masterpiece, providing you get it in the morning, when the roll is still crisp, and its Chicken, Avocado and Basil sandwiches taste mighty good when 36,000 feet over the Atlantic and faced with whatever British Airways is calling 'lunch' that day. The shops are always clean. And did I mention the Jambon-Beurre?
But the baguette I'm holding today is hardly memorable. In fact, it's totally and instantly forgettable. The bread is a little soggy, the cheddar decent, although you only get two mean slivers – for that price, you might expect half a truckle. The pickle is dull and oversweet. It's edible, just about. I certainly wouldn't eat it again.
Especially since less than a mile away, in Shepherd's Bush Market, is Sam Sandwiches, an Algerian hole-in-the-wall where £5 gets you one of London's most magnificent creations: fresh baked bread stuffed full of chicken or merguez sausage, fried egg, chips (yes, crisp, golden chips), olives, salad and harissa paste. It is a masterpiece.
And not much further is the ever-wonderful Hereford Road restaurant, where £16.50 gets you two courses of some of the best British cooking in the country. Hell, I could buy my own Gail's Bakery baguette, get a wodge of Montgomery's cheddar from La Fromagerie, whack in some Daylesford chutney, cut the thing in half, and still have two markedly superior sandwiches. At the same sort of price.
The Tesco meal deal comes in at £3.90 for a drink, packet of crisps and sandwich. OK, so its Cheese & Pickle sandwich is pretty horrible, tasting of industrially refrigerated despair. While the Greggs Ham and Cheese baguette, for £2.70, is similarly drab (although I worship its Steak Bake). But even Gail's sells sandwiches for less.
Pret used to offer value and quality. Now, it does neither. What was once the hero of the high street is in danger of becoming a sandwich basket case.
Pret's posh cheddar and pickle baguette can cost £7.15. Here, Tom Parker Bowles says the chain is no longer a highstreet hero
