Overview

Although this branch of Pret has a good step-free entrance, the staff are among the worst I have encountered at Pret, the choice of tables available to wheelchair users is limited because they are crammed so close together, and the situation with the accessible toilet is a total disgrace - see below.

Transport & Parking

Green Park station is a few yards away an - on a good day - is fully step-free, but check before you travel, because the lifts are this station are notoriously unreliable. Zillions of buses go along Piccadilly. I don't know about parking in this area.

Access

The entrance is step-free and easy, the serving area is spacious. So far, so good. But when a wheelchair user wants to settle to enjoy food and drink at a table, the choice of tables is very limited because the tables are crammed so close together, and with such big and heavy chairs, that it's difficult or even impossible to use most of them. There just isn't room to manoeuvre and park.

Toilets

Zero stars. I wanted to use the accessible toilet. The toilet appeared to be engaged. I waited for ten minutes, then knocked on the door calling "Hallo? Anybody in there?" No response. I unlocked the door with a coin, and found the accessible toilet cubicle empty. The door had been deliberately locked from the outside by staff. I complained to the team leader about this. His attitude and response were unhelpful, rude and intransigent. He said that the accessible toilet is locked to prevent homeless people showering in it. (NB I pointed out to him that there is no shower in this toilet.) I said that by locking the toilet in this way, staff are discriminating against disabled people, who are not able to use the toilet on the same basis as everyone else. Furthermore, by locking it staff are causing people to wait - as I did - for a very long time, imagining the cubicle is genuinely occupied, not knowing that it's empty and simply locked. This policy is totally unacceptable, it is disrespectful and discriminatory and causes stress and distress to disabled people in need of a toilet. Pret must stop this discriminatory toilet-locking policy immediately. It is a total disgrace.

Staff

Staff at this branch are unusually unhelpful, slow-witted and incompetent - it took three attempts for us to get the drinks we had asked for, because staff were not paying attention, or did not understand perfectly clear instructions. The staff I spoke to concerning the toilet were rude, intransigent and unhelpful - especially the team leader, who was standing in for the manager, who had abandoned the shop at 4pm. After a long and fruitless discussion with the team leader about the toilet, he offered to get me a feedback card so that I could put my complaint in writing. He then went downstairs and didn't return. Is this customer service??

Anything else you wish to tell us?

I never want to go to this branch of Pret again - it was an altogether horribly stressful and unpleasant experience.