Pret A Manger Classic Super Club sandwich

There is an infamous urban myth that says you are never more than 20 feet from a Rat in the United Kingdom. The same can almost be said of a Pret sandwich, as the Pret A Manger chain of sandwich shops in the City of London appear on almost every other street. Indeed, there are 5 Pret outlets within 0.3 miles of my workplace, according to Google Maps! They are probably the most popular chain in the city, with the Pret Sandwich or some other comestible bearing the Pret logo being a very common site on office desks.

So I picked the nearest branch and off I went to sample the Pret Classic Super Club sandwich.


First Impressions

Pret sandwiches are packed in a uniform, utilitarian style box, with no labelling to differentiate between them, so they're as plain as you can get. The corporate identity is paramount.

On the sandwich front, the filling appears to be almost bursting out of the front of the sandwich, promising a feast of Chicken, Bacon & Tomato, with copious amounts of salad leaves. Lets take a closer look.


Detailed Inspection

When opening the sandwich, it's plain to see that a lot of the filling is salad leaves. So much so, that at first you can't see the rest of the ingredients. However, after sweeping the leaves into the bin (more on that in a minute), the rest of the filling becomes clear.

The filling with with salad leaves removed

There are a couple of sizeable slices of Tomato, however the chicken and bacon appear a bit thin on the ground bread. There appears to be a fair amount of bread with no chicken or bacon covering it. As is so often the case, the top slice of bread has no butter or mayo applied.


Taste

This is actually quite a good tasting sandwich. The mix of chicken & mayonnaise seems about right, with the bacon adding a slight smoked flavour. The bacon could benefit from being a bit crispier, having a slight rubbery quality to it., however that's tricky to achieve with cold bacon. The Tomato adds the right amount of moistness/freshness into the mix.

The bread seems fresher than some of the other sandwiches reviewed so far, (perhaps benefiting from the Pret policy of making the sandwiches in store every day) so has a softer texture than other efforts.


Verdict

This is probably the best sandwich I have reviewed so far, with regards to quality of ingredients and taste. However, that should be expected considering the price premium over bog standard Tesco efforts. But at the price level it's sold for, they could make a bit more effort to ensure the chicken/mayo mix covers more of the bread. But other than that there is a lot to like.

Oh, and if you're wondering why I emptied the salad leaves into the bin, I can't eat them or any other 'raw' leaves (rocket, spinach etc.). So it is more than annoying going into Pret and finding virtually all of their sandwiches filled with either salad leaves, rocket or spinach!

But that annoyance aside, I give this 4/5.

Tesco Chicken Salad with Bacon Sandwich

Bacon is a magical ingredient - add it to a burger and it can transform something ordinary to great heights. So I'm always tempted by a sandwich that includes bacon!

Does adding bacon to this chicken salad combination make it an irresistible delight? Lets see...

First Impressions

I decided to leave the sandwich in the box when taking the photo, as it looked as if the filling was on the verge of falling out of the bread.

Plenty of filling on show

At first glance this looks quite promising. As it's a No Mayo sandwich my only worry is that it might be a bit dry.

Detailed Inspection

After taking the sandwich out of the box and opening it, we find that there is a fairly decent amount of filling, although it's clear they are bulking it out with the salad leaves. But there is still a decent amount of chicken and bacon.

They have also made a fairly good attempt and spreading the ingredients across the depth of the bread.

Taste

The big problem with this sandwich is the lack of mayo - despite the presence of a slice or two of tomato, the overriding impression is of dryness. Both chicken and bacon are quite dry when cooked and used on their own, and especially when used cold, and this is reflected here. Plus the use of brown bread, which is itself inherently dry, adds to this impression.

The flavour of the chicken and bacon is fine, if unspectacular, but I couldn't detect any seasoning. Also the flavours don't seem to blend together either. The salad leaves add a little crunch, but don't add to the flavour.

Verdict

The use of Mayo in sandwiches is always debatable, as overdone it can render most sandwiches tasting very similar, but in this case it would have helped not only overcome the dryness, but also blend the flavours together a little more.

It's not a bad deal at £2.20, as chicken and bacon are two of the more expensive ingredients to buy, and combined with the £3 offer Tesco do to include crisps and a drink then overall it's quite good value. Just keep that drink handy when you're eating it.

I give it 3/5.