Pret’s Christmas Lunch 2017: Return of the King?
And we’re back. I’ve been hyped for this sandwich since the day it left the shelves almost a year ago, and that hype has intensified wildly since Pret’s (wonderful) Twitterers started teasing it late last month.
So of course, me being me and ridiculously eager to finally get my hands (and mouth) on Pret’s Christmas Lunch Sandwich, I walk in at 12:05 and greedily grab the most stuffed one I can see. And I mean it really was stuffed.
What I failed to notice was that the primary stuff it was stuffed with was stuffing (and a lotta turkey), but relatively little spinach, cranberry sauce, and — in my opinion the most important ingredient to have just the right amount of — crispy onions. Sadly, this meant that biting in to the sandwich didn’t have quite the exciting crunchy texture I love so much; the spinach was still noticeable, but the absence of crispy onions really took away a lot of this sandwich’s depth for me.
Crisposity complaints aside, the flavours are as good as ever. The second half of the sandwich had, as you can see above, a more sensible distribution of ingredients — including the delicious cranberry sauce which holds the sandwich together both physically and flavourically. I’ve never been a big fan of anything green, but even I can appreciate that the spinach is not only somehow nice (more so than last year I think — whether that’s higher quality ingredients or what, something’s changed for the better), but it actually has an intrinsic role in this artisanally constructed package.
So, it’s a mixed bag today. I admit that I was too hungry and hyped, and consequently didn’t take the time or thought to pick a sandwich that looked well distributed but one that just looked full. This meant half of the sandwich wasn’t quite what I expected, but the other half gave what was hopefully an indication of the direction we’ll be moving in as I improve my sandwich selection, and Pret (please) improve their crispy onion quota 🙏
Overall, I’m going to give this one a 7/11.
