Pret A Manger

Ah, good old Pret! A very speedy and convenient place to grab bfast or lunch! It was my go-​to place for fast meals in Europe and now it is my go to place to grab a simple western meal in HK! Pret is not the greatest but it’s is pretty decent for the price and taste! They serve an array of soups, salads, sandwiches, wraps, both hot and cold, as well as juices and fruit cups. You can usually look online on their website for their weekly soup menu.
Their soups are pretty good actually. I love the tomato and creamy mushroom! Not a big fan of the kale and ham or pumpkin though. My favorite lunch items to get are their hot BBQ pork wraps and their toasties! Their cold Peking duck wrap is also good as well as their cold sandwiches. They also have Mac n cheese which is one of my favorite things to get! I’ve tried them all and the prosciutto and smoked salmon are the best! I am not a big fan of the kale and cauliflower…
In the morning, their organic coffee/​lattes are pretty decent, similar to Pacific, and their croissants are pretty good as well. There isn’t much seating inside so usually people grab their meal to go.

Pret a Manger hardly needs an introduction, the British sandwich and coffee chain that’s ubiquitous in working areas and has become a favorite among HK white collars. ‘Pret a Manger’ means ‘Ready to eat’ in French, but of course, my mom loves to tell me that she’s at ‘Pret a MANAGER’.
The sell here is freshly made, no additive, soups, sandwiches and, salads that can be plucked straight off their shelves and consumed. There are 4 types of each food category (e.g. 4 different types of wraps — meatball, chicken tikka, pulled pork, falafel) every day, with one being a meatless choice. The quality of everything is decent, price is a bit higher than average (A salad costs HKD 5X and a hot wrap is HKD 4X). It is worthy to note that they bake everything in the morning and their cookies are surprisingly good — you can smell them if you pass by in the morning.
Everything is sold same-​day, everything left at day-​closing is donated to Feeding Hong Kong, a charity that picks up their foods to serve the lesser privileged in the city. Not all stores do this though, but you can help, according to their site — «Tragically a few of our shops have no regular charities able to collect from them. If you are a Hong Kong registered charity and interested in collecting unsold sandwiches on a long term basis, please contact Gabrielle Kirstein at Feeding Hong Kong on Tel: 2205 6568»
Pret checks all the boxes to become a go-​to lunch spot: convenient location (the Quarry Bay one is INSIDE Taikoo Place, no need to even go outdoors), quick service, fresh ingredients, decent flavor, reliability and a conscience (CSR is all the rage among young professionals). With just one drawback being the lack of variety — 4 choices of salad means you can only go so many times before repeating yourself — Quarry Bay Pret has become a canteen of sorts for the Taikoo Place workers, expect a bustling Monday to Thursday lunch, and emptiness during Friday (people actually eat ‘out’) and all dinnertimes.