Midtown Lunch

While Pret is at most an occasional lunch spot, owing to the high price of their sandwiches, I do make frequent morning visits because their coffee tends to be darker and stronger than the other joints in the Rock Center area and it’s made with organic milk for less than the cost of a similar cup at the ‘bux. And they offer a 10% Rock Center discount with the Privilege Card (I have a card, somewhere, but I’ve never had a problem just asking for the Rock Center discount). Anyway, I like the morning ritual of settling at my desk, getting the lay of the land then going out to get cup of coffee. Usually I just get coffee but if I missed breakfast I might get an egg sandwich, too. The other day, I overheard that the Pain au Chocolate ($1.99) had just come out of the oven and quite frankly I have a hard time saying no to any Pain Au Chocolate. Dark chocolate in a buttery, flakey pastry? Yes, please. Somehow I had avoided the siren song of Pret’s chocolate croissant… until now.

It’s common knowledge at this point that the chocolate chip cookies at Pret are stellar when they are hot and fresh. And you can say the same about their chocolate croissants. The one I had was so soft, so buttery, so light. And the chocolate was mmmmm melty. So much better than my chocolate croissant from Micheal Cluizel.

While I think a hot and fresh croissant always scores points over a less fresh one, I went back and had, let’s just say “a couple” other chocolate croissants on different days (obviously for the good of the Midtown Lunch community) and even their not quite as fresh croissants are still pretty damn tasty and since they keep them in that heated thingy they tend to still be at least a bit warm. They make them fresh all morning according to demand, but the odds of getting one fresh out of the oven are higher earlier in the day. The very best ones I’ve had there have been golden-y brown, so if they look a little on the darker brown side, pass until another day. And it’s always worth asking if they just came out or when they have another batch coming out.

If you love croissants and have an addictive personality, I might suggest closing this window and forgetting about this post.

Pret a Manger, multiple locations.