Pret Sandwiches – Classic Or Dud?: especially in the current climate, when even stepping out of the air-conditioned office womb makes you feel like you’re in Beau Geste, nearest = best as far as sandwich parlours are concerned. Which means that most days it’s off to Pret, whose sarnies I have gradually become rather annoyed with. One of the reasons I am getting jaded is their cockfarming Posh Ingredient Syndrome.

When you go to the deli and ask for a chicken salad sandwich what they will put into it is chicken and, yes, salad. At Pret however the brand must be differentiated from such plebeian tastes and so into every sandwich goes the red onion. I do not like onion in sandwiches, but obviously every other customer adores it, because it’s in EVERYTHING now except the mousse. Their salad wraps occasionally avoid it too but those tend to include the mysterious 80s-esque concoction “bistro mix”.

(NB I know red onion can be part of a salad but I will have no truck with such things. When I say salad I mean Proper Salad i.e. lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, that’s your lot. I am a salad philistine.)