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Our Panera Bread Lunch Meals Review takes a look at a year’s worth of stops at Panera and sampling just about every item on the menu. When a restaurant chain has over two thousand locations in the United States, it’s not too hard to find one open close by. In New York, there are plenty of Paneras located on Long Island in which our main office is located. So we have spent many trips during the week heading to Panera. Quite simply if it wasn’t good, we would not be going back as frequently as we have done.
Panera was founded as the Saint Louis Bread Company in 1987. It was purchased by Au Bon Pain Co in 1993. In 1997, it became Panera Bread. It was a publically held company for twenty years until it was purchased by the Germany owned company JAB Holding Company. The German conglomerate also owns Keurig Green Mountain and Krispy Kreme as well as many other well know food and coffee brands.
In a world of fast food, Panera offers very healthy alternate choices to fast food choices like Mcdonalds, Burger King, Wendys and other drive-through fast food chains. Some may argue that Panera should not qualify as a fast food restaurant and that is debatable. Still , many Panera’s have drive-throughs and the average wait time for a sandwich is usually only a few minutes. In our opinion, that qualifies as fast food.
What we love about Panera is the wide selection of choices one can choose from. We are not talking about just the sandwich selection, but the fact that the restaurant offers sandwiches, soups, salads and even pizza. The latter was actually a big surprise in how good their piazza is. When you think about it, it actually makes sense as one of the hallmarks of a great pizza is the bread, and that my friends is one of Panera’s specialties.
We thought the best way to go through our favorite Panera lunch meals was to rank them in a list. Our favorite selections are picked first and utilize our letter grade ranking system. We placed items in three categories of sandwiches, soups, salads and pizza. We then listed the top 10 items to choose from at the end.
Our Favorite Panera Sandwiches Ranked
# 1 – Smokehouse Bbq Chicken Sandwich …….A+
# 2 – Toasted Steak & White Cheddar……………..A
# 3 – Napa Almond Chicken Salad Sandwich…..A
# 4 – Toasted Frontega Chicken………………………A-
# 5 – Chipotle Chicken Avocado Melt………………B+
# 6 – Roasted Turkey & Avocado Blt…………………B
# 7 -The Spicy Take Chicken Sandwich…………….B
# 8 – Mediterranean Veggie………………………………B-
# 9 – Tuna Salad Sandwich………………………………..C+
# 10 – Grilled Mac & Cheese Sandwich………………D
Our Favorite Panera Soups
# 1 – Autumn Squash Soup ………………..A+
This is a seasonal soup. They should serve it all year round because it’s by far their best soup.
# 2 – Broccoli Cheddar Soup………………A+
# 3 – Chicken Tortilla Soup………………….A
# 4 – Baked Potato Soup……………………..B+
# 5 – Black Bean Soup………………………….B
Our Favorite Panera Salads
# 1 – Asian Sesame Salad With Chicken………….A+
# 2 – Fuji Apple Salad With Chicken………………..A
# 3 – Bbq Chicken Salad………………………………….B
# 4 – Citrus Asian Crunch Salad With Chicken…B-
# 5 – Caesar Salad……………………………………………C
Panera Pizza Ranked
# 1 – Margherita Flatbread Pizza………………………..A+
# 2 – Chipotle Chicken & Bacon Flatbread Pizza…A+
# 3 – Sausage & Pepperoni Flatbread Pizza………..A
# 4 – Pepperoni Flatbread Pizza………………………….A
# 5 – Cheese Flatbread Pizza………………………………B
The Ultimate Recommended Panera Lunch Meal
Half Smokehouse Bbq Chicken Sandwich and cup of Autumn Squash Soup with a bag of Panera Chips.
Panera Bread Lunch Meals Reviewed and Ranked article published on BigCityReview.com© 2022
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