Pret A Manger in Lambeth

Loved this coffee shop I've stopped at many times for a coffee, located inside the station, with nice view of the station concourse. Today (30 October 2024 1pm) that all changed when I ordered a coffee and discovered it was only slightly warmer than lukewarm. I told the lady who served me (who appeared to be a manager) it wasn't hot enough, and to my surprise her reaction was to say it WAS hot enough as it had come from the machine, and she didn't appear to want to change it. Fortunately, the man dispensing the coffees overheard our conversation and immediately proceeded to replace my coffee. The new coffee was hot, at the correct temperature. Annoyed by the attitude of the lady/manager I then asked her whether the fact that the coffee had come from the machine meant it was necessarily hot enough, to which she replied yes. She then went on to say, defensively, that everyone had their own ideas of what is hot enough, and that she liked her coffee cooler! I told her I had had 100s of Pret coffees (which is true!) and knew when the coffee was below an acceptable temperature. What an awful experience, especially if she is a manager. I suggest retraining for her!

Super sandwiches and salads, diet desserts, yoghurt cia available

Decent cafe, nice food at fairly reasonable prices. Conveniently located inside Waterloo station.

Fast, efficient, nice to sit in. Perfect as a quick stop or for a coffee and a snack.

Another Pret with out of service toilet…

I came here before theatre. Very good customer service. Thank you.

Just a coffee shop. A minute from Waterloo station. Good place to take a rest after walking in busy London

They never had ice in their store , i visited 5 times , All time they didnt have ice in the store. So what is the reason to put iced drinks in the Menu if you cant do it. Terrible service

A very spacious place with calm and relaxing atmosphere. I visited for my morning coffee, ordered my regular latte and it was the best coffee I have ever had from a Pret. I didn't think pret cared about coffee art but it looked quite good too! The place was not too crowded on a Sunday morning and the service was quick.

England London Continue comments. For me, and I think for many people, it is a classic in England. It is a popular chain place for many people, especially with its croissant, coffee and sandwich varieties for breakfast. Even though the products are made fresh in the kitchen, the variety can sometimes be limited. My favorite is the croissant with hot mozzarella and the croissant with hazelnut paste. Their tea is not bad, their Americano is good. My friends' favorite is the egg and avocado sandwich. I think a place stuck between a fast food cafe can do more successful work by transforming it into a more comfortable cafe style.

The toilets in this store have been “out of order” for more than a year. Obviously, there is no concern for customer convenience!

The Pret is fine. The problem is that the toilet has been closed for a few weeks now. They claim that it's broken. I don't think it's true. It's illegal to have that many tables and not to provide toilet. Someone from government should go there and investigate.

The staff there don’t allow the use of toilet anymore.been like this for almost two months. They say toilet is broken. I think they just don’t want to clean it do closed it to the public. I bought drinks there to use the toilet but i was disappointed every time. By law Pret is not allowed to have eat in customers without having a toilet. I cancelled my subscription and my colleague did too.

Very nice cafe good food and drinks. The people are friendly.

Paid £3.80 for an Iced Latte that was given to me in a hot coffee cup. Wasn’t able to mix my Iced Latte as there was no straw and I wouldn’t have paid for the Iced Latte if I’d been told that they were out of straws when I ordered.

They don't have a working toilet... in a café.

I tried the white filter for just £1.80, and it was good. The staff were friendly and welcoming. I visited around noon on a Thursday, and it wasn't very crowded. I’d love to go there again.

Cocoa is a bit expensive, sandwiches are very fresh and tasty, staff is nice, interior is great.

Love this venue - it’s perfect to people watch here

Nice cafe/bakery, quite expensive but that's how Lodnon is... Food is very tasty and the staff is nice. Highly recommended 👍

"I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the kind soul who generously treated me to a free coffee this morning. Their thoughtful gesture transformed what could have been a stressful day into a beautiful morning. It's heartwarming encounters like these that restore faith in humanity and remind us of the profound impact of simple acts of kindness. Thank you for brightening my day and spreading positivity." ❤ loved your smile and service dovydas

This review of my own experiences at this branch of PRET UK is a subjective summary of my very own, first-hand experiences as well as several observations about how members of the Team of this PRET branch interacted with other customers and each other - so on latter occasions, my observations have very little in verbal exchanges witnessed yet, much more in body language of individuals observed in dynamic interactions with others. It would be pretty much unreasonable to compare Teams or individuals between branches of PRET UK but it may be a useful source of feedback  if I compare multiple reflections that I made at various branches - not all of them were positive experiences. As all humans, I too, see,  recognise things, distinguish between  and value them  by contrast. I don’t consider myself to be masochistic enough to put myself through unpleasant, negative experiences even if there are points to learn from those. In other words, I am pain-avoidant enough not to risk another negative episode of experience at a place once I had one. Acknowledging the fact that such negative experiences can be one-offs - just as much as any positive ones -  I find it important to state that there is clearly an element of distortion stemming from such bias given the perspective that I take in this review for which, I try and adjust by making it clear that this review was born out of noticing a pattern of behaviours in dynamic interactions with me, with other customers and among team members at PRET UK’s Waterloo Road branch that I find not only consistently maintained between September 2023 and February 2024 but consistent weith excellence therefore exemplary and commendable. I wish to name a few names of Team members whom I interacted with and whom, I find, beyond delicious cups of coffee, gave me their enoughness in all the domains of human dynamic interacting from kindness and good sense of humour to attention to detail. These people are: Anatoly, manager; Parida, manager; Davidas, barista; Anastasiia, leader. Of course, all the other members of this particular branch do their job pretty well but these individuals consistently went beyond and above expectations, in my experience. (NB. This review was sent to PRET UK's customer service as well)

Great experience at this Pret store, staff are extremely kind, helpful and friendly and a big thank you to Viviana who is absolutely amazing!!! Thank you!

Great experience at this Pret store, staff are extremely kind, helpful and friendly and a big thank you to Viviana who is absolutely amazing!!! Thank you!

I just want to say a massive thank you to the team, especially Sidarul, whose enthusiasm, kindness and generosity have completely brightened up my day. The staff are terrific, and I couldn't recommend this Pret more!.

Fly's all over the caramel shortbread, told staff but didn't seem interested until we raised our voices about how disgusting it was.

I'm a fan of your oat and spelt cookies (and more besides). Disappointed however to see the cookie section of the counter at Waterloo Station this afternoon populated by small flies! Hence 2 stars. Please take action to remedy.

Quality of experience from ordering to the drinks themselves varies dramatically depending who is behind the counter, you'd rather expect more consistency as presumably everyone is trained to the same standard. Best quality is when the shop is quiet, if it's busy it is stressful inside.

Staff are nice enough but the drinks are not very nice. Hot chocolate doesn't taste of chocolate at all, just slightly sweetened milk, and the coffee tastes burnt. Pretty nice service but even for Pret the drinks are bad.

Too many of these in the city lol. Food was okay.

Für einen kleinen Snack immer gut

Een fijne zaak waar ze heerlijke sandwiches en salades en koffie verkrijgbaar is.

I'm always in here working ... Great location, busy at times but always a seat. One of the most reliable prets for Internet. Toilets are good but can be out of action for periods of time as idiots break them.

Quick. Easy. And consistently good coffee

A standard Pret a manger. I took a double espresso

Vasta scelta per pranzi veloci, cibo discreto. Bella la possibilità di avere un rubinetto con acqua potabile a disposizione. Non molto economico a fronte di altre alternative simili

Poor. Sandwiches resembled underthawed airline fare and wouldn't pass muster at a supermarket or Greggs, let alone a proper sandwich shop. Don't accept cash either.

I think this is the worst Pret in london, they don’t have any air conditioner (it’s boiling over there 🥵) the workers are not happy clearly, they are basically roasted in there every day. Poor staff working in those conditions, such a rich company treating staff so badly!!!

Problem with subscription for the first time in 5 years, nice man offers a drink while I check subscription, only for the manager to come over and cancel it, in pretty bad faith. Pretty disgusting behaviour when I’ve been a loyal customer for this long.

Hidden away little gem of a shop. Staff was amazing, and coffee was great

Please fix the temperature of the London Waterloo pret a manger. It is too hot for people to reasonably work here.

Una cafetería grande y cómoda para desayunar o merendar con amplia variedad de pastas y sándwich

Staff in the morning are always soo friendly and cheerful, also the warm chocolate croissants are lovely!

It is one of the excellent cafes

Super lovely staff (strong accent but was kind enough to repeat herself and enunciated), hand sanitizer available and spacious. Only downside is dire lack of plug sockets and slightly short staffed so could be slow service during busy hours.

Me encanta este sitio, buena comida , buen precio y buena atención siempre.

One of the worst coffee shops around. They treat you badly, don't smile at all and look at you like they're doing a favour to you. My stomach even got upset and I lost my hunger honestly. It doesn't take much to smile back at someone and be nice! Regret.

Be very careful - the Prets in Waterloo Station charge considerably more than normal Prets which I think, for a trusted/familiar brand like this, is appalling.

Located close to Waterloo station. Pretty busy store, noisy but lively atmosphere. Not a lot of veg sandwiches or wraps on the shop floor when I visited. Luckily didn’t want to eat. Staff are a bit slow at serving customers which caused a few people to get frustrated but I was luckily served and out the door within 10 minutes. Had a hot chocolate and it was served piping hot. Tasted as I’ve come to get used to with Pret.

A convenient location close to Waterloo Station, with plenty of seating. I enjoyed a flat white with a vegan wrap but the bread was too soft and the wrap fell in half.

Coffee not sweet enough with little syrup and a few times after I visited they still don’t have cold drinks. Asked for frappe and got served cappuccino with a very confused look from the barista when I said I ordered frappe.

Desastre. No funcionan los baños.

מקום נעים לשתות קפה. ליד תחנת הרכבת ווטרלו. מיקום מצוין

Very horrid customer service. I asked for cold soya matcha as I’ve to rush and drink this in 5-10mins but they gave me a scalding hot one even when I insisted that I asked for cold, they say they don’t have it cold but used cold milk for this. I scalded my tongue on this and they said they used cold milk for my drink??? I then approached another staff to tell him to add some ice into it cos it’s burning hot and he said they have no ice so they could only add some “cold” milk to it, which I then tasted after to find it still burning hot. They were very unfriendly and repulsive as well. It was a tall white dude and an Asian lady, quite rude and I don’t plan on visiting this branch anymore. I highly discourage anyone to visit this branch.

I have been to many Pret outlets in UK, but this Pret does not have good quality hot drinks. The taste of hot drink (hot chocolate) is not good as compared to other pret outlets. They have to improve the quality of taste of their hot drinks. Never bought the food so not sure of that quality. But can guarantee taste of hot drinks is not up to the mark

Nice, spacious Pret! Main point is that the staff are efficient and fast. Very on the ball which is nice to see.

Pret Waterloo.. chicken salads have seen better days, and twice as much chicken

Normally I'm a great fan of Pret. However, the wait for paying for my sandwich was not acceptable here. The food was still as good as ever but not the lack of staff.

I went this morning to get a coffee. I asked for 5 pumps of hazelnut syrup. I got the coffee and it wasn't sweet enough like I had before. I told the staff(asian male with glasses) it doesn't taste like 5 pumps of syrup. He asked his coworker(seemed like the other staff made my coffee) how many pumps he put in. He said "7 pumps". ??? I asked for 5 pumps and he put 7 pumps? Why?? And if he really put 7 pumps, why was it not sweet? Anyways, I asked for more syrup because it was not sweet at all. And this staff told me to pay 3 times next time. What the heck

Kind staffs but the inside seatings are not that good. I find it hard to have a seat whenever I visit this place, especially during the lunchtime.

Hours listed vs actual hours open are never the same.

Recommendation: order Coconut Latte

On the App it says open like the rest, I get their and it’s closed

They literally never have the vegan options there.

I couldn't buy anything because they DON'T HAVE CHANGE, a busy full of people place pretend they don't have change, PATHETIC

This is my first review on anything ..Absolutely disgusting customer service ..I had never met such a rude person in my life.….I am sure she had some personal problem in her life which she was taking out on me.such a shame that Pret is representing their brand with such frontline staffs..

Terrible service. Either that the orders are not communicated clearly and professionally to the person making the drinks (which changed from drink making to till work chaotically, or they were all just really lazy and not bothered to be there or work. Chaotic service. The elderly lady next to me waiting by the counter . and they got her order wrong, had to wait an extra minutes for tea (when other customers who had ordered much later then her got their orders first), and my own latte was made well after (5 minutes after ) I ordered it, again while drinks for other customers who came and ordered much later where made almost immediately. And in both cases was left up to us to repeat and re-request our orders again to which we recieved lazy and incorrect replies from the gentleman with the pony-tail at till. Dont get me wrong, It a nice space for anyone wanting to do a bit of work and eat, but the staff they choose to represent them are wrong. Could the store do better in selcting of staff (even no staff or self service would be better in this instance)? Yes, they could. Chaotic service.

Always love going here for my lunch on the way home when catching the train! Food is always amazing. It’s quick, and easy and just the perfect way to end a London trip!

I was sold not fresh chocolate croissant today!!! Likely I was dining in and when tried the croissant that was as hard as stone and obviously was cooked few days ago (yes, yes, few days ago, as if it would be from yesterday still it will be somehow soft, but the croissant I got was totally hard). When I approached one of the team member he told that everything is fresh and was cooked “just few hours” ago. What was reducidos to hear looking at that croissant. The guy was keep telling that it’s fresh, though when I told him to try this croissant he declined it and offered to change to another chocolate croissant, which look exactly the same as what i got! I was offered either refund or change to another pastry product. Was extremely disappointed with this visit to Pret as first time was served so un fresh food!!!

the guy at the till didn't say one word during serving me, just some movement to indicate to me where I need to put the payment card, thing that I already know.

Kept getting the order wrong after 5 times and still getting it wrong. Workers don’t have a clue of what’s going on around them. Waiting time is really long. It was catastrophic.

Very rude staff, they charge Extra = more = if u done in!!! I asked 4 code 4 wc & he almost yelled that at me... Very dirty & HOT only 1wc inside 4tge whole shop so u can imagine line... Bad experience... I will not come bck 4sure soon...

This store is very hit and miss. Sometimes it’s great, you get what you want and then can be on your way quickly. But too often it is understaffed with a shortage of products. Not what you pay extra for!

خيار جيد للفطور السريع جربنا الفلافل والتونا جيده لحد ما

Really dissapointed because I became a member purely because I work next door to this shop and they NEVER have ice in the afternoon for the iced coffees - to the point I had to go and buy some from the tescos next door and give it to them ! - they say it’s a usual thing for them to run out early afternoon- this is really disappointing Pret

Good quality fresh food. Sandwiches and wraps tasted great. The Mac and cheese with the kale was nothing special..

We popped into the outlet next to the jubilee bridge on the south bank. We do use Pret very often in Oxford, its in the top five with ease. But how very disappointed we were at the jubilee bridge one. Quite busy which is normally a good sign, but on this occasion so wrong. It took the young person three tries to get my black coffee black, when is black no milk like saying with milk? And then the white coffee was just tipped out of the cup which was not washed before a new black coffee with milk was replaced. I said look please do me a black coffee and I'll put no milk in myself. Cup emptied (not washed) new black coffee made and passed to me so I could not put my own milk in. If I said it was similar to drinking dirty water (without milk) that would be close to how bad it was. My partners flat white was also dire. So why was it busy? Are people so desperate for a drink that the name alone draws them in? I'll consider a drink from the river before I use that place again. The seats were OK hence the one start star.

Decent place to study, fair amount of seats and the staff seem friendly during the week. High volume levels and foot traffic through lunchtimes as to be expected, but that means that it's noisey so hard to study. No smoothies or milkshakes available at this branch, and toilets are keycoded.

Cheese & tomato 🍅croissant.. and coffee are my type here

Quick service. Comfortable seating. Good coffee.

I've popped in a couple of times with my granddaughter, for a cake & a babyccino. She loves it.

Half of the menu was unavailable, and customer service left too much to desire.

Great selection of food, every day, quick and good coffee, friendly manager and staff. Big seating area, great location

I was happy with the wide selection of food available. Hot and cold optio s as well as vegan, fish, pastas, healthy salads and a huge variety of drinks and snacks. The cafe was clean and welcoming. There was no queue and seating as available. Will definitely come here again.

Ordered a soy matcha latte. Ended up with 3/4 flavourless froth, 1/4 was full of big lumps of matcha powder. Normally i like the matcha lattes from pret but todays barista heated the milk poorly, only gave me half a cup and made zero effort to mix the powder. Undrinkable. Literally threw it the bin.

Full to the brim because of a demo.

Kahvesine bayikiyorum mukemmel bir yer

I am a pret subscriber. I have been into this store 30+ times in the last couple months. They never have ice. They never have cream. I asked them when they expect to get more ice...they couldn't tell me. I asked them when they expected to get more cream...they said couldn't tell me. Don't expect more than the most basic hot drinks from pret, if they've available. Smoothies / cold drinks will never be available, despite being part of the subscription. Very bad business practice.

After placing my order, a contact in my party needed the loo. After asking for the entry code, the girl who served me advised that they were closed today. After qouting her the legal requirement to her, she replied ' I just work here'...i referred this to Bryan the manager who, after repeating the unacceptable situation, and breach of requirements for a restaurent with over 10 tables, just looked blankly at me. The food and coffee were very good, the Service was less than palatable.

Great like every time. Marvellous.

I had an amazing lunch from you today!! Great quality and fresh food. Thank you so much for all your hard work!

Not a lot of choice at 8.30 a.m. on a Sunday morning. Coffee for me was too strong and a little bitter.

Lovely location, good and airy layout. Good place to chill out

I visited branch on 15/11/22 at 15:30, It seem that changing mind on the choice of a hot drink in time was a big issue here. Have been told I can't change it and have to stick the one I originally ordered according to the Asian gentleman (possibly a manager/managers assistant, definitely acted like one) His customer care wasn't great the way he spoke other customers was also rude when asked where was the sugar. Lucky for us a nice mannered professional lady was at the till and she was the one allowing us to change the drink. I hope the gentleman change his customer approach as he is making this place very unpleasant and not wanting to come back again.

Why are the toilets here always closed?

Great location and always well replenished through out the day. One of the few Prets that still have mixed nuts and honey for porridge making it top tier for me. Staff are friendly and efficient.

Of all the stars in the Universe, the brightest of them all is Flavia.

Team member called CR is an absolute star. Amazing customer service! “CR just like Cristiano Ronaldo”

Кафе прекрасное и универсальное: цены приятные, полезные и вкусные блюда, а вода бесплатно из специального крана.

I go here every morning and it’s always a pleasure. Staff are genuinely so polite and always ask how people are. Speedy service most of the time (although some days could use more staff making actual coffees but it’s not all the time).