Pret a Manger in St Albans

It used to be good value for money, especially the food quality. Now it is overpriced and the food is not great. You better off going to M&S next door and buy your sandwich/salad.

Stopped for a coffee and a snack, quite chaotic at the till, no available places, and what I noticed is that several tables occupied by people with nothing on the table or with laptops... Not sure how profitable is for business to have someone buying a coffee and sitting there in front of laptop for hours... Tables where dirty, cups, plates and crumbs... I visited on 1 April 24 as we visited Veraluminium park and the cathedral, and this is my opinion and impression of this Pret a Manger branch... Personal I won't return and don't recommend as I had a bad experience...

For nearly £5 I’d have hoped for my wrap to not be missing a third hidden behind the label. The guy shouting orders out across the room every 20s seconds is an interesting touch.

Their buns are so delicious. I suggest that they have a stove for people to put the buns out to heat them up, which will make them even more delicious.

Quality of food very low, staff could smile more, shop could be cleaner. If you are charging this much for your coffees at least make the experience pleasant. I probably wouldn’t bother much to leave a bad review if friendly staff. Not the type of vibes you need

Used to be a good cup of coffee, but nit any more. Wouldn't rush back.

Everything perfect except for the air con ...too cold

Top-tasting brilliant hot chocolate with cream on top of a cappuccino by my top barista Daniel! ☕️☕️👌🏻😋✌🏻 Very nice ambience, however Xmas music is a bit inflational atm! 🎅🏻🎶🤪 hohoho! 🤷🏻‍♂️🫤

Was charged £4.80 for an iced latte, have you lost your mind?

Quick service and excellent choice of food. Very nicely made.

Really disappointing visit today Are you aware that they charge at least 25% more if you eat in ?!!!!! I was shocked that my lunch came to £12 !!! When i queried this was told its the eat in surcharge. I never been so lost for words. The macaroni cheese inflates in price from £5.67 to £7.09 Just because you're eating in on a dirty table that you have to remove the previous occupants leftovers and crumbs from, plus the luxury added bonus of a wooden fork to eat with. There's no waiter service and the food is not cooked fresh as you order. This is very poor given restaurants in St Albans offer set lunch menus for £8. I even took my crisps and cake back to work with me, despite having been charged extra to eat those in too. The macaroni cheese wasn't even enjoyable, I suspect sitting in the heated cabinet had made the pasta rubbery and the cheese was all congealed. I shall not be visiting again on this basis.

Prices raising, sizes shrinking. Shame

Lots of seating space but can get very busy around 12:30-13:30

Just bought cappuccino here and it wasn't drinkable, its way way too bitter.. can the manager try to taste the coffee and see for themselves? Maybe retrain the barrista?

I would like you can make the opening hour longer in summer as I pass by 5:30pm every day and already closed. It is a pity!

Wow so disappointing… went in for a porridge bowl and when I asked for the small sachet of honey that always comes with the porridge, I was rudely told by Alexandra (proposing as the manager) that Pret don’t give honey. I then queried her as for years I have recieved this, to which she then changed her answer saying they don’t have any because nobody has brought it downstairs. ?? What? How can you refuse a customer honey in their porridge because your staff hasn’t brought it downstairs? So I then asked if she would give me her name as I would like to raise a complaint. She at first refused and argued that I have no authority over her and she does not have to give me her name. I replied that surly if she felt she had acted accordingly then she should have no problem giving a customer her name. She still refused to give me her surname. All I wanted was a silly little sachet of honey! That apparently was upstairs in a box somewhere. FYI Starbucks has no problem giving you as many honey pots as you like, and berries, and seeds. Why did I go to Pret!! Pret A Manger literally means ‘ready to eat’… well my porridge wasn’t.

Only went in to buy coffee so I coud use the loo. It's all very nice.bit dark bit jeez Louise it's expensive

Food is great - creative and nutritious. Staff always polite and efficient

I love their coffee usually but this time they gave me a coffee that was cold and wasn't a flat white anymore. I drink flat white for years and i know that this coffee was laying around for a few good minutes at least. Disgusting.

The place was cold, lacked atmosphere, serves 'drink in' in takeaway cups and is overpriced. The staff need to check out Costa next door...

One star for nice seating and facilities. One star for nice food and coffee. Lost three stars because I feel ripped off by the pricing - changes every time! Last visit a coffee and smoked salmon breakfast roll £7.50 and I protested without response, today £6.75 - used to be around £4 🤷‍♂️😣 Won’t by stop there again when a (better) coffee and cake in Nero’s is a £5 plus a loyalty scheme ✔️

Paid good money for coffee watched the so called 'brista' make a very diluted 2 shots of coffee and then shared it with at least 3 drinks not on!?

A shame that it feels pretty clostrophobic and quite noisy. The staff were unwilling to warm my chocolate croissant. And there's only one size latte

the subscription is a great idea, but they cut their hours so it’s useless. Not acceptable to close at 4:30. The other prices are silly

Of all the places to eat in St Albans, why would people choose Pret? A clinical and soullese bun fight. I'm sure people have their reasons...which I imagine include buying a baguette to eat at your work desk.

Most of the times they cant make you a Frappé. I dont know why is that.. never give you a reason. Maybe its more hardwork then just pouring a hot drink from a machine. Cancelling my subscription.

Really not on top of keeping the place clean and free of wrappers and used coffee cups. Needed to clean up the area before we could eat

Typical Pret, busy and noisy. Food is OK but a bit over priced in my opinion, coffee is fine. Nice location in St Albans

great service from Muhammad Ghaznavi excellent service. delicious food 🍱

Not great. Below usual Pret standard

Excellent local sandwich and lunch stop.

They saying close at 6pm but at 5pm door close

The coffee and food are all very average. The only thing is its central location.

Coffee has taken a distinct downturn. Watery and bitter. Always served from paper cups when drinking in

They have a collection area in the pret where its a free for all when it's busy. Anyone can take your drink or take one without paying. Had a an order and when they read out the three drinks that I ordered. I went up to collect them,but someone else thought it was theirs and took a mocha. I had to ask for one,after there weren't anymore coming. Received a 'mocha' but if they call a latte a mocha then I guess I recieved one.

St Albans branch - rude, unhelpful manager Karl. Please consider improving your soup recipes to cater for people with allergies such as garlic currently none in the range do!

The hot chocolate just tastes of milk the wraps are £5 so overpriced

Disappointing. Place is gloomy and untidy. Pay extra to eat and drink in, no trays, paper cups: what am I paying extra for? Staff not that helpful

Very disappointing - bad coffee

Just had a frappe each... Very nice, Staff are so good and hardworking.. well done

Needs to be a more hygienic place

Coffee is rather strong and staff not helpful if you need help and can get very crowded around midday

Coffee is good but St Albans branch is to crowded with tables. So not as good experience as the Costa next door. That said the food is always great.

Decent food and always quick service

Many lines not available with some items looking less than fresh ☹️ The fridge containg the drinks was broken, I reported this to one of the assistants who was excellent, immediately got us some ice, he reported the issue to his manager who sadly did nothing. I hope the warm fruit juices etc, do not cause anyone upset stomachs.

The only thing is that one never knows what time they are going to close

I only bought a sandwich worth £4.25 a couple of days ago when I visited St Albans. Only today I looked at the receipt, I discovered that I was charged for a latte too. It made me angry. Be aware!

Generally can't go wrong with Pret. I'm a big fan of the philosophy and the food. But some of drinks served on the last visit were really sub par; I'd expect better.

Never cheap but always good quality, the best coffee shop on any High Street.

Always my go to place for coffee sandwiches and drinks. Very friendly customer service.

HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE! Was waiting at the till to collect my toasted sandwich and forgotten to collect my drink and only realised passing in front of the collection point. I asked the head barista what the drink on the counter was to which she replied “Can’t you see?”. She then asked what I’ve ordered and said “take it then” pointing at the drink. Pret’s food is nice and everyone walking in already knows that, however, the difference from other chains is made by the customer service which failed terribly at this branch.

Dissapointed my cappuccino was only half full

It's good right but also a safe option - not going to rock your world but it will always deliver!

A bit crowded, masks were worn but little or no social distancing. Coffee and sandwiches were good however.

busy ,but cleaned down tables .too noisey.coffee good.

I come here all the time and they are the only place that always gets my order right. Great deal with the subscription too.

Great staff, great location. One of my favourite places to have tea in st Albans

Although it has been extremely busy today, David has offered a fantastic customer service while I was waiting for the other customer to pay while she forgot her card. Thank you very much David!

Many tables rock on unsteady foundations, but other than that it’s a great coffee shop. Deceptively spacious, coffee’s great too.

Choice of pastries is good, and they are always fresh. Pain au raisins often still warm from the oven

Great food and drinks reliably provided by fantastic and courteous staff.

Went in today for a coffee and sandwich..I am 76 and have a back problem. there was a que of 6 people standing waiting for their coffee so I went into the empty part of the cafe I sat on my own 10 metres away from the que.first one rude individual told me I couldn't sit down..when I refused to stand up he got a 20 st bully to tell me if I didn't stand with the rest of the customers he would throw me out..wonderful customer service. I will never set foot in a Pret a manger ever again..disgraceful behaviour

Quick, usually fairly friendly -- please update your hours! This location is only open until 5pm most days not 9pm

Over priced, over crowded and badly designed. Rude staff.

Good collection of food including salads and coffees. Huge sitting arrangement, nice atmosphere, great place to meet friends in the heart of the St Albans town centre near M&s Extra charge for eating in, staff are not friendly.

Food is normally good and the coffee is surprisingly good too! Service is often a little chaotic.

Generally OK but not today. Asked for an Americano with two extra shots. Person behind the counter totally confused about what two extra shots meant. Argued with me that there was no such thing, was pretty impolite about it too. Eventually agreed to provide me with a drink containing an extra shot plus another extra shot. Bizarre and embarrassing. Photo of americano with extra shot plus extra shot included to illustrate the complexity of the order 😒

This is a great Prett with friendly helpful staff. The store is acutally quite big but you will be lucky I'm normal times to find a seat as it is pram city. All your typical Prett food on offer and conveniently located on the high steet next to boots. So if I am visiting St Albans this is always on my lunch list.

Nice and quiet place to meet friends for a coffee which very tasty

I love there defrosted cakes and burnt coffee beans . I also love the extra charge for eating in a cramped dirty environment, and my personal favourite pricey drinks for less liquid. you guys sure know how to run a business. I fill abused

My favourite sandwich eatery. I believe they are only let down by not offering sizes for some of there hit drinks. Something they had to do for the US market but refuse to offer in the UK.

Had a delicious salad here but should have remembered from last time about the wooden cutlery - I'm delighted to see it's not plastic, but a wooden fork with rounded ends is useless to spear a tuna salad! Will bring my own cutlery in future!Food great and typical Pret fayre.

The chocolate croissant is to die for!!!!

Disappointed 😥 Love the atmosphere normally, though today it was just noisy and loud. People couldn't be bothered to tidy up after themselves which turned into a chaotic scene pretty quickly. It's a shame as normally it's a very good place for a catch up and/or a warm drink; with or without snack. 😉

Always surprised how small the range of food options is at Pret

Our recent experience was food was very good, unfortunately our flat bread sandwiches were very poorly prepared. The contents fell out as we took them out of the packaging due to the completely broken flat breads falling apart as we tried to hold them.

I've always found the coffee good and the staff friendly but why in the winter months do you keep the air con going. Personally I don't find it a comfortable temperature to sit, read my paper and enjoy my coffee without keeping my coat and scarf on. When I was there earlier this week a third of the customers kept their coats on. My wife actually said " I'm cold can we go ". Sadly we will not be back until the warmer weather arrives. It's a pity because I really enjoy the coffee

Bad coffee and staff that dont care

The best sandwich shop in town 😁

love this place good coffee and many choices of food

Had lunch here on a busy pre Christmas Sunday. Food excellent as usual and still managed to get a table now they have increased the seating, and we were early. Great to see another environmental measure being implemented - wooden cutlery - but.... really need to make the fork tines sharper - they have rounded ends and are next to useless for trying to eat a tuna salad! Can't even spear a piece of lettuce! Ended up using it as a shovel!

Finom kávé és remek szendvicsek

The same everywhere, this one has at least been recently refurbished although the service is disorganised at times.

Good pret with lots of seating and the usual range of pret food and drink. Good strong coffee and with staff who actually listen to what you want, a hot coffee for example.

Nice Pret. Quiet today but can be busy. Lots of seating. Usual quality but helpful staff

It was the worst service ever, so bad I asked for a refund and left.

Food is standard between all the stores but not cheap

All ways a good atmosphere Good selection of food and drinks.

Yum yum. Special christmas edition vegi Christmas meal sandwich. So tasty. Please bring back next year too!

Great coffee and better food than other coffee chains. Would like to see less plastic usage though

It's a Pret! Does what it needs to. Queue can be long on weekends. Posh cheddar baguette always a winner

Lovely food, pleasant staff, nice coffee ☕

I cannot commend the staff here enough. I visited at a time when there just so happened to be a slight argument fuelled by a misunderstanding between a customer and a member of staff which escalated way beyond reason. Despite the customer being incredibly rude on a personal level to the staff, they dealt with the issue in such a composed way. My drink and cookie were delicious, but I am mainly in awe of how the staff didn't let adversity affect their professionalism or their other customers' experience. I hope that the customer in question didn't bother you any further- I couldn't stand to stay and listen to her tirade but you all dealt with it excellently.

I have been visiting Pret in St Albans for over 10 years. The cafe has been refurbished and it feels less comfortable than the previous fit out. One of the most aggravating things is that the cool groove music has been replaced by some awful electronic cacophony. I don't know where the music was being streamed from but it was less than enjoyable. One main reason that I am likely to find another cafe is that Pret have installed a coded door to access the toilets. Not only is this unnecessary (Who are they keeping out? I am not sure that there are many non-customers visiting the loos but if it helps a few people .......) but the coded door has the most annoying beeping sound to that everyone at the back of the cafe knows that the right code has been input. The beeping is almost non-stop given that people regularly go to the loo. Also, mother's with babies juggle as they push the coded panel and tackle the door ..... The whole atmosphere in the cafe has gone from cool, comfy and chilled to hard chairs and electronic white noise. Also, as an aside, on one occasion I had to wait to be served whilst the manager had an extended and inappropriate whinge to her staff about the nature of the universe. The previous manager was fab. I think that she may have been having a bad hair week. I visited Pret a few times and Nero's down the road is a lot more relaxed ..... as well as the upstairs cafe at Waterstones ..... and Cafe Roma .... Costa Coffee next to Pret is a lost cause (across the country) unless you like cheap coffee, laminex and plastic chairs .... lift your game Pret you used to be a great cafe. Costa? You need a cafe personality overhaul ......

I like Pret but not so keen on this particular one. Doesn't seem as comfortable as most.

staff so rude and awful coffe made me sick to my stomack would never go back again! prefer small family coffes then this chains

I normally try and avoid the coffee shop chains, but decided to make an exception and pay a rare visit to Pret-a-Manger in St Albans. The macchiato was very good and there was also a good selection of cakes and snacks – in future my visits to Pret-a-Manger will not be so infrequent.

Coffee lovely.place had nice atmosphere but the member of staff who served us was so very rude...

This Pret has improved greatly with additional and seating and a better layout. Were able to get a table on a lunch time on market day. Food good as always, staff friendly.

Nice food, lovely staff, could improve the vegan range though.