Today being Hungarian goulash day at Eat, I had a look over at Pret‘s menu and decided I’d give it a try, despite some concerns over the size and flavoursomeness/health of the soups from friends on Twitter.

Description: A thick, tomato based soup dominated by Moroccan spices (cumin, chilli, paprika) and onion, with the odd lump of chicken and floating chickpea. Pret’s website lists ingredients: chicken, chick peas, onion, tomato, apricots, garlic, organic vegetable bouillon, jalapeno chilli, paprika, cumin, mint, coriander & cinnamon.

Health: At 306 calories for a 14 oz portion, this weighs in heavier on the calories but lighter on the portion than many Eat soups. But not terrible – it is pretty high in fibre and low on saturated fat and salt, which is good stuff.

Taste: Actually pretty good. Despite having spoiled my taste buds with the salty moreishness of Eat soups, this Pret offering manages to be tasty without needing to slap you in the face with sodium chloride. The soup is well spiced, the texture of the tomato and onion is just right and its a good eat the whole way through. That said, it is not as chunky as it should have been – more meat, more chickpeas, definitely needed.

Full-o-meter: Seems pretty good for a small portion – maybe the fibre content/chickpeas help.

Verdict: 4/5. A good first experience of Pret soups. I’ll probably go back there. However, the marketing hype is overplayed… on the cup is a message from someone (their founder?) talking about a customer complaining about their soup not being tasty enough, big enough, etc…. and how they’ve hired a big time soup chef, Nick Sandler, to sort them out. Well, Pret, good as your soup was today I think Eat still has you beat. So let’s see a bit more effort and yes – even bigger soup cups!