Boots

It was back to work with a bump, today. The bump was slightly hangover shaped, as in my usual nonsensical fashion, I’d waited until the last night of my time off work to go out and drink deeply from the trough of alcoholic delights. To offset my feelings of poor health, I was considering a trip to Snax for a stodge fest, but ended up popping to Boots, with Gary and Nelly.

Exterior

I must declare that I’m somewhat disposed against chemist shops that sell sandwiches. I’m not entirely sure I have a cogent argument as to why that is, but the notion of purchasing lunch from the same place you might buy verruca medication, tampons, deodorant or condoms just doesn’t fill me with an overwhelming sense of tasty well-being.

I dare say that Boots isn’t the only place where you can both lunch and buy this array of items (supermarkets, local stores and service stations offer the same), but it’s chemists that form the majority of mental anguish on this subject.

Selection

Their lunchtime meal deal is extremely popular, though, and at £3.29 for three items, comprising a main element (salad, sandwich, wrap etc), snack and drink, it sounded like a bargain.

I opted to match a Hoisin duck wrap with a bag of wasabi peas, then chose a very healthy looking smoothie concoction that luxuriated in the name “green machine”. Having completed the very reasonable financial transaction, with a smiley and pleasant young lady performing the necessary steps, I returned to the office to munch my items.

I ran in to a bit of a problem with the wrap. Firstly, it was rather excessively packaged in cardboard and I found it quite difficult to get the wrap out of this casing. When I did, I thought the filling was rather good, with a good amount a well-flavoured duck and nice crisp salad. The wrap itself was altogether too leathery, though, making some mouthfuls an excessively hard chew.

Meal deal items

I’m a big fan of wasabi peas, as I’ve written about before, so I was entirely happy with them. The smoothie was alright. The deep green colour will no doubt frighten off some, but it was a rather sweet and fruity concoction. It could have used a little more body to be truly satisfying, but it was not bad.

So overall, Boots was solid, but a little unspectacular. The wrap wasn’t much good, although the contents were good. The wasabi peas were wasabi peas. The smoothie was sweet and reviving, but lacked a little character. Am I converted to the notion of lunching from a chemist? Not really, but this cheap and cheerful lunchtime option represents decent quality and therefore good value.

Scores

Blythe scores Boots
3/5 for food
2.5/5 for presentation
3/5 for setting
3.5/5 for service
giving an overall 12/20

Today’s quester were: Gary, Nelly, Blythe

We ate: meal deals, with mine featuring Hoisin duck wrap and wasabi peas

We drank: green machine” smoothie, selected other juice drinks

We wore: leather jacket, no jacket, suit jacket

Total bill: £3.29 each

Boots (the Chemist)
St James’s Centre