Pret A Manger - Banbury Road

You're on Banbury Road heading towards Summertown, probably running late for something, and you need actual food that isn't going to wreck your day. This Pret delivers exactly that—no surprises, no pretension. It's the kind of place where regulars know the till staff by name and the queue moves at a sensible pace, even at peak lunch. The coffee's fine, the sandwiches are what you'd expect (fresh enough, decent bread), and they've got a solid range of salads if you're being virtuous. It's not somewhere you'll linger for hours or take mates to make a night of it, but that's rather the point.