Pret A Manger - The Oracle — Restaurant in Reading

Don’t go to the Prêt à Manger at the Oracle Mall in Reading for a unique dining experience. The food and drink are the same as you’ll find at every other Prêt. Go there to observe how well managed a service establishment can be. Sit back, watch and find patterns in what might look chaotic as staff move energetically from point to point. Watch especially for the way one till becomes four within a minute or two of a rush of customers. I find it remarkable that without any apparent coordination, food restocking stops, cleaning activities stop, pigeon chasing stops and four cashiers appear at the four tills with extra support for the baristas. It’s magic. Watch also the lead barista, who manage their machine like a sonar operator on a submarine (I know that only from watching movies) with intensity, purposeful action and stunning efficiency. Nowhere have I seen complicated coffee beverages made that quickly and accurately. Watch for a position that I don’t really understand but I think it’s a QC and support function: when it’s busy, one apparently extra person moves freely among the cashiers and the baristas with a role to clarify, troubleshoot, double-check accuracy and ensure drinks are handed to the correct customer. I haven’t seen this anywhere else and I think it’s unique to this Prêt location. I said don’t go there for the unique dining experience, but the coffee really is better than any other Prêt I’ve been to, I think because of the meticulous attention they pay to cleaning the espresso machines. It’s certainly the most consistently reliable coffee at the Oracle. And the air-con...

I went to use the Pret app subscription to pay for my drink, but the app said that it required an update before using it. After doing this however, the app just would show the Pret logo and then close.

I showed the woman serving me (blonde, Polish sounding) that the app was crashing every time I opened it, to which her response was "That's not my fault, I can't do anything about it and I can't give you your drink". She then gave me an email contact for Pret support, which I told her was ridiculous - I'm not going to wait for an email reply to be able to get my drink. Then she said "Well I can't just give everyone free drinks", gesturing at the people behind me, despite me saying that I would show her the email confirming my Pret subscription. The general feeling that I got was that she didn't believe that I had a Pret subscription, even going as far as to say "Well everyone else's apps are working." No, low shaming tactics like this aren't going to work.

As an employee of Pret, you can't just tell me that the app is not your problem and offer no help (you would not even allow me to show you the email confirmation - ridiculous). This was extremely rude behavior and poor customer service. I will be canceling my subscription and no...

I visited last Sunday morning, spent quite a bit of money on here, 2 porridges, 2 toasted sandwiches, 2 pastries and 2 coffees and a cold drink. I asked the girl behind the till where the toilet was? She told me in the oracle right over the opposite side. Once I went upstairs it was all locked and closed. I had to walk all the way around to go and use the toilet in the hotel room about 1 mile away Leaving my partner in prets wondering where on earth I have gone? On my return I was very angry as she should have told me the centre was closed? Really not good at all a coffee shop with no toilets ??? I have always enjoyed this coffee shop, staff have always been great But the fact no toilets and was sent to the oracle toilets where centre closed. Was so...