Comment by twic | Hacker News Reader

Comment by twic | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

Sandwiches in the UK are a scandal. Pret got huge in part because their sandwiches we so much better than the other options. Imagine that!

When Pret launched, your options were a packet sandwich from Boots or something, which would be stale sliced bread with a single layer of tasteless waxy cheese, or something from a sandwich shop, where the choices are (1) tuna mayonnaise that has been there since yesterday (2) a cheese bun wrapped in cling film and kept in a fridge (3) a (one piece of incinerated) bacon, (limp) lettuce, and (tasteless, but mercifully thinly sliced) tomato.

Things are a bit better now, but to be honest, still terrible. You can wander around New York or Madrid and find a random sandwich place on a street corner that would be in the top 10 in London.

My theory is that this a manifestation of a broader cultural weakness of (most) British people, which is that they can't imagine that a better world is possible. Nobody looks at that "famous ham and cheese" and thinks, "okay, but what if there were five slices of each of those, and the bread tasted of something, and there was lashings of a delicious wholegrain mustard dressing?". Because they don't imagine it, they don't demand it, and Pret keeps on churning out abysmal lunches.

I'm not sure I agree with this AT ALL. I've spent most of my adult life split between New York (5+ years), California (5+ years), and also Berlin and Paris for a few years. I'm originally British and live in London now. I've eaten sandwiches in all of these countries (obviously).

Pret's sandwiches hold up to any sandwiches I've had in any of those countries. I've had the occasional better sandwich (especially in Paris), but I would take Pret's sandwiches over most of the crap sandwiches I ate in New York. New York sandwiches tend to assume that packing in TONS of shit quality meat makes the sandwich better. I don't actual like to eat through an inch of American-quality processed meat to mask the fact that the bread is crap.

French style sandwiches have less total filling but the filling itself is high quality and tasty, including the butter. Also the bread tends to be extremely delicious by itself.

The only sandwiches I would get in New York are freshly made bagels from the better bagel places in Brooklyn. However, this is comparing apples to oranges because this whole discussion is about pre-made sandwiches which you get off a shelf and go, not freshly made sandwiches.

I don’t understand why “pre-made sandwiches” are a common occurrence. Occasionally necessary, sure.

On an average day, if I don’t have 5-10 minutes to wait for a freshly made sandwich, I’ve gone wrong.

Pret sandwiches are airport food, it's incoherent to suggest they're comparable to the sandwich you can get in from bodega deli counter in New York.

Dude those bodega deli sandwiches in NYC are mostly shit. Cheap bagel, cheap bread, cheap meat. The only good thing is the "value for money" since you get basically an inch of meat, but the meat is the cheapest bottom of the shelf quality meat you can buy.

Trust me, I spent years getting those bodega sandwiches in New York and sure, when you're drunk they seem good, but it's not quality fare by any stretch of the imagination.

You and I have completely different perceptions of reality.

I currently live in London and eat Pret all the time.

I have easily found better sandwich shops than Pret in NYC, Boston, Chicago, LA, Berlin, Paris, SF... I could go on.

Specifically in NYC there are some amazing sandwich places all over Manhattan (though that's not to say the other boroughs don't have excellent shops as well). My favorites are generally the Italian-style sandwich shops which have great Italian cured meats.

In response to your last paragraph, I think that's part of what people are complaining about – there are precious few places in London where you can get a freshly made sandwich, and for being pre-made, Pret isn't much cheaper than a lot of the fresh-made sandwiches you can get in other countries.

Also I think fresh-made is maybe giving a bit too much credit to that idea, as Subway is freshly made but I'd much rather have a Pret.

That's not my experience, every office I've worked in has had a nearby sandwich shop where you could choose wholegrain bread and a wide selection of fillings and watch them make it for you.

My theory is that this a manifestation of a broader cultural weakness of (most) British people, which is that they can't imagine that a better world is possible.

What a load of bollocks that is.

Your comment made me laugh out loud. It's so true, and even worse in the regions than in London.

As with most things in the UK, price comes before quality. Sainsburys, who used to be my "Thank God there's an okay sandwich" place when on the road switched to a lower quality supplier, to an online backlash [1]. I can vouch for the quality drop; after that there wasn't much difference between the major supermarkets.

1. https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/sainsburys-moved-supplier-before...

This so painfully accurate I cringed.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com