It’s September: the time of year when the children are shuttled back to school, the leaves are crisp, your colleagues are back from their holidays, and you can breathe a sigh of relief that the relentlessness of summer is coming to a close.
Admittedly this month is a little on the warm side (and the trees have been shedding their leaves since August…) but autumn is certainly upon us, and with it, warming, comforting meals.
All of which is to say, Pret launches a new autumn menu on Tuesday that firmly shifts the focus of your harried office lunch towards heartier fare than a summer salad. Think toasty, cheesy, flaky, warm pastries and ciabattas, a smattering of aggressively sweet drinks, and a deck of new cookies to welcome in the season.
I nobly took on the task of tasting some of these new items, to sort the wheat from the chaff. Here are The i Paper’s top picks (and the orders worth skipping).
Feta Spinach Pastry, £4
There’s something very pleasing about a brick of pastry. This slab (and its meaty counterpart, also tested below) has a good heft, suggesting it will satisfy as it gets colder. Or ward off a hangover, as the case may be. The pastry isn’t bad quality. It’s nothing to write home about but is crisp and layered and not too greasy.
Tastewise, the dominant flavour is oregano (probably from the sprinkle over the top) but the ratio of cheese to spinach is good. The tang of the feta is not particularly strong but that makes sense given “soft cheese” ranks higher in the list of ingredients. It’s not much like a good spanakopita which I assume it’s inspired by, but it’s a great late breakfast or particularly filling snack. Not enough to constitute a meal but surprisingly moreish.
4/5
Bacon, Cheese and Jalapeño Pastry, £4.00
At first glance, this is far less appetising than the feta one. It’s the same shape and heft but the sprinkling of cheddar on top has been heated to a point of crustiness that means the taste is somewhere between flavourless and burnt.
The filling is also far less satisfying. Perhaps unfairly, I took the “meaty” sticker on the front to signify that this was a particularly carnivorous snack, but the bacon is infrequent, chewy and lacklustre. The cheese mix is dominant and “soft cheese” once again comes out to play. This means the filling and the pastry meld into something pretty unappetising. The jalapeno is present in hints and there’s a bit of smokiness but in general it is a claggy, slightly greasy block. Not a favourite.
1.5/5
Beef Birria Ciabatta, £7 – WINNER
This is the one I’m most excited about. Whacking birria beef (tender, slow-cooked meat in a fragrant and spicy broth) into a ciabatta seems inspired, as the bread (ciabatta can be notoriously dry) can absorb the meat’s sauces without compromising the structural integrity. There is also some black bean mole and (surprisingly) some grevé cheese which adds nuttiness.
I wasn’t disappointed. The beef was hearty and flavourful and the other ingredients all complemented each other with none overpowering the whole. The spiciness of the jalapeño is subtle at first but builds as you eat more – something I discovered because despite having many other things to sample this was the option I finished.
4.5/5
Chicken Caesar Ciabatta, £7
I get what they are trying to do here, I really do. Chicken Caesar is a classic of the workday lunch and can be found in salads, sandwiches and even dips. So why not pop it in a ciabatta and heat it up? While they’ve made the sensible choice of swapping any lettuce for roasted spring onion, there is very little else to say about this sarnie.
It’s dry and bland and just… fine? The single layer of chicken makes it feel particularly bread-heavy even in a parade of sandwiches, and the bacon (as in the pastry) has a flaccidness that I really dislike. If I spent this much on this item I’d be disappointed. I’d still eat it because it isn’t bad, but I’d feel unsatisfied and be dozing off at my desk within two hours.
2/5
Pret’s new autumn range includes soups, warm ciabattas and new baked goodsThree Cheese and Tomato Ciabatta, £6
The only offering of the day not dominated by soft cheese. Instead, the eponymous Three Cheeses are cheddar, mozzarella and “hard cheese” – given the context I understand this to be some kind of pecorino rather than just Cheddar by a different name. On top of that are roast tomatoes and a red pepper tapenade, finished with some basil.
I found this greasy and uninspiring – the tapenade was overpowering, I think because the cheddar was quite mild and mozzarella is not particularly flavourful at the best of times. The basil, when it came, did lift it but it wasn’t enough. I wouldn’t feel good if I finished this, just a bit oily.
2/5
Banana Cinnamon Porridge, £3.50
I like that they are continuing to spice up porridge and adding banana to a cinnamon and brown sugar mix makes perfect sense. I also like that the topping is just that – on the top – meaning you have control of how sweet each mouthful is. Otherwise, frankly, it would be too much.
As it stands, this is alright. Pre-cut banana is a risky business because it oxidises so quickly, and the heavy sprinkling of brown sugar and cinnamon does disguise that but doesn’t stop it – thankfully the slices on my porridge were only mildly brown. I’d eat this happily on a cold morning but I’d prefer way less sugar – I found myself scooping a bit off to avoid an unwanted sugar high.
3.5/5
Pumpkin Spice Latte
Full disclosure: I am a black filter coffee person. The most I’ll push the boat out is a flat white and that happens probably once every six months. This means I am not the target audience for these drinks. But I am a journalist in search of the truth and so I bravely persevere.
Would it surprise you to know that the dominant flavour here is sweet? Sweet with a hint of cinnamon. It tastes like walking into the TK Maxx candle section in October: technically not unpleasant but not in any way compelling.
1/5
Toasted Marshmallow Latte
It just gets worse from here. If the PSL is sweet, the TML is unbearably saccharine. I actively dislike this – it is very artificial and unpleasant, like a fake scent that’s pumped into a gel pen for seven-year-olds.
0.5/5
Toasted Marshmallow Hot Chocolate – BIGGEST LOSER
Somehow this is worse than the marshmallow latte. Vile. There is nothing else to say. Hot chocolate, even one from somewhere like Pret, deserves better than this.
0/5
Loaded Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread, £3.50
Now for the sweet stuff: this banana bread is also “loaded” with dark chocolate chunks, some kind of caramel topping (according to the press release it’s miso caramel) and an almond praline.
I wish they’d deloaded it honestly because the cake itself is quite nice. A gentle banana sponge with proper dark chocolate chunks – it’s sweet but the richer cocoa percentage cuts through that nicely and I’d happily finish the slice. I like the occasional crunch of the praline but the caramel is wildly unnecessary and unpleasant. It’s claggy and sticks to the roof of my mouth and I do not enjoy it.
4/5 without the topping, 3/5 with
Chocolate Hazelnut Praline Cookie, £2.85
This cookie promises a lot – roasted hazelnut, sea salt caramel, milk chocolate – but is surprisingly bland. The bite I enjoy the most is the one where you can actually taste the caramel’s contrast. It is craggy and crisp on the edge, which I like, but I find the centre, where it is soft, almost tasteless. I do however finish the whole thing…
3/5
White Chocolate and Raspberry Cookie, £2.85
I was worried this would be very sweet and I was right. This revamped version of raspberry and white chocolate can work well but it needs proper tartness from the berry to balance it out. There is none of that here. It just tastes mildly fruity unless you bite into a white chocolate chunk, at which point your whole mouth is blasted with sweetness. Meh.
1.5/5
Triple Chocolate Cookie, £2.85
These are often my favourite type of baked good: I love the contrast between the deep cocoa and the varying sweetness of the three types of chocolate. However, once again, this is bland. I’m disappointed. It just tastes like a cookie version of an Oreo: sweetened cocoa and not much else.
2/5
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