Pret A Manger, Swan Lane

Published on: 11 Apr, 2012
Updated on: 16 Apr, 2012

As we entered Pret A Manger in Swan Lane we met someone whom we know. She asked whether we were doing our coffee shop review, and said that she thinks this is one of the better ones in Guildford. And she was right.

Take into account all it has to offer: there’s a lot of seating that isn’t obvious from looking through the windows from Swan Lane, it has a good atmosphere, the staff were excellent, the decor’s good, and most of all there was a good selection of food and drinks at prices that seemed cheaper than similar rival coffee shops.

We liked the coffee and our snacks. It was fairly busy on our mid-morning visit. But there’s plenty of seating throughout the ground floor (also with an entrance from Angel Gate) and seating upstairs too.

The one criticism would be the musak playing in the background – is it really necessary?

Subject	Comments	Score
*Pret A Manger, Swan Lane*
Coffee	Tasted fine. £1.60 for Americana and £1.99 for a cappuccino.	2.5
Cakes	Almond croissant £1.29, biscuit 99p – excellent value.	3
Menu range	Fairly wide choice, lots of sandwiches and snacks to take away.	3
Interior	Interior brick and wood standard with grey corporate colour. Generally clean, a few crumbs on seats. Deceptively spacious upstairs area.	2.5
Atmosphere	Busy and lively – shame about the musak.	2.5
Access	Generally good, some steps to Angel Gate entrance and upstairs area, but we witnessed wheelchair access to the downstairs disabled toilet without the need of any assistance.	3
Service	Good – friendly and helpful staff.	3
Information	Notice on door about free wifi – and it was simple to hook up to.	3
Value for money	Excellent value for money.	4.5
Opening hours	Mon to Fri, 7am to 5pm. Sat, 7.30am to 5pm. Sun 8am to 6pm.
Address	26/28 Swan Lane, Guildford, Surrey GU1 4EQ Tel: 020 7932 5371.

What they say about themselves:

Pret opened in London in 1986. College friends, Sinclair and Julian, made proper sandwiches avoiding the obscure chemicals, additives and preservatives common to so much of the ‘prepared’ and ‘fast’ food on the market today. The two of them had woefully little experience in the world of business. They created the sort of food they craved but couldn’t find anywhere else.

Because Pret is private we don’t face the same pressure to grow that a public company does. We will develop slowly, one shop at a time. There are about 295 Pret shops worldwide at the moment. Most of them are in the UK and between them we turn over roughly £380 million a year.