Ok. So I finally tried the Canadian incarnation of Pret, in the form of the East York A&W outpost noted above.
I decided to start basic, and grab the Chicken and Bacon Sandwich (essentially a club sandwich, but one less layer of bread)
So, Bacon, Chicken, Lettuce, Tomato, Mayo on Multigrain Bread, not toasted.
I entered the establishment.
Overall, feels like an A&W, though, they've muted the colour scheme just a bit, and in talking to staff more of that is contemplated.
The sandwiches, and salads are in an open-face fridge (no doors); and the soups/ Mac n' Cheese are in a warmer immediately adjacent.
You grab what you want and take it to cash to pay as per the norm. What you grab, generally, comes with no extras (drink or sides); but you can add those at the cash including any A&W products.
I grabbed said sandwich and a Rootbeer in a mug and ate in.
*****
Price, $8.99 for the sandwich, whatever A&W normally charges for a medium rootbeer, all-in about $13 w/tax.
Broadly, I think it's decent value for money, but the details are below
*****
Sandwich Review:
Bread, a multi-grain, was really quite good, very fresh, very moist, but not soggy at all, full points on the bread. I'd personally prefer my Club toasted, but this was decent.
Mayo: Flavour-less, I mean, standard, run-of-the-mill mayo and fine, as long as something else drives flavour
Lettuce: Fresh, decent Crunch.
Chicken: Pretty good, reasonable portion
Tomato: OMG we need to talk about how fast casual places deal w/tomato..........it was ripe-ish......but ice cold, colder than the rest of the refrigerated sandwich. It had zero salt on it............not
particularly tomato'ey. Note to everyone, tomatoes do not do well in fridges, they suck the flavour out of them. Also tomato needs salt.
Bacon: Decent, but needed more, in particular because that was the only driver of flavour, so that smokey-ness needed to be more prominent and so did the salt. There are ways to get there other than more bacon
But 50% more bacon would have improved the sandwich enormously.
Overall: 7/10 Not brilliant, but decent value-for-money. I somewhat suspect their foods that have purposeful flavour in their condiments (ie. pesto) may be better, I'm intrigued.
I took note of the Moroccan Soup in the hot case, the description for which there was some appeal, but didn't try it.
****
On freshness: They had only one of the type of sandwich I picked up, in the case; and this was mostly true of other types, I think their most popular had two out.
I noted that when one checked one out on order at the till, the cashier called to the kitchen to make another. I watched them restock as I ate.
That's a positive in their favour.
****
I don' think they're quite there, but as grab n' go food.........I see potential..........just some need to tweak.
I made need to start a whole thread on how the food industry deals w/tomatoes, LOL....
