Part of me wants to say try it again, but I know you might not want to spend money on what you think might be crap. Their mushroom soup is good, too, though.
Heh. The KFC near me used to run out of chicken. On a particulary busy weekend, I can understand it, but whenever we went there, they were out of something; breasts, wings, fries, biscuits. It was amazing.
I suppose there’s two things that differ us: I don’t think $8-$10 is a lot to spend on a meal out (even fast food runs $6-$8 for a belly full of decent food, so it’s not like Panera is that much more) and I don’t order a cold cut sandwich. I would agree, I’d be pissed off too if I paid $10 for a cold turkey sandwich or something.
I get a half ceasar salad (theirs is tasty) and half of a pannini sandwich. Last time I got this:
Very filling and worth the $10 (with drink), I thought.
I drove through Arby’s once and they were out of Roast Beef. Nicely done, Arby’s.
I like the taste okay, but you can almost feel the extra fat they’ve pumped into stuff to get the right mouth feel for Americans sense of richness in food.
Here’s a link to their menu and nutrition information. One orange scone has 55% of the RDA of saturated fat:
The cinnamon roll, which tastes great, is at 70%. Most of the breads seem okay, maybe a little high in sodium. The Turkey Artichoke panini, however, hits you for 98% of the RDA in sodium. In fact, every sandwich I looked at, plus the French Onion soup, are loaded with sodium.
I still would eat there on a rare occasion, but from a health standpoint this is not really a great place for lunch or pastries.
Why are people saying it costs so much more than fast food (for what you get)? Burger King value meals (as an example) are often over $7 around here. Panera is hardly much more expensive than that.
I love St. Louis Bread Co and go there a couple times a month. I like their bagels, muffies, sandwiches and soups. My bf likes their coffee so he’s usually up to go there for breakfast when he is in town visiting. It’s not good for you or anything really (hello carbs!) but I prefer it to regular fast food.
And I don’t know how you people aren’t getting full there, especially if your sandwich comes on bread other than their “country.” And when you get soup they give you more bread, even when you get a bread bowl. And I think you even get bread when you order a salad. And IMHO the bread is pretty yummy, their soups thick and filling, and they’ve never shorted me on sandwich fillings, usually I almost want to take some of them off because they gave me too much.
Seriously. Even disgusting Subway’s “special” ($5 turkey foot long) with chips and a soda is almost $8. The bread is dry, the cold cuts are cheap, the cheese is horrible. . . yeah.
Sorry to continue the hijack but I once walked into a 24 hour Dunkin Donuts at 1 am to buy a dozen. They had coffee. That was it. The girl behind the counter said that she wasn’t allowed to go into the back to make donuts because she was the only one there. The “cook” wasn’t scheduled to come in till 4:30. I asked her why she didn’t just lock the doors and either make donuts or go home.
She said she couldn’t do that because they had to stay open. … for coffee
And Panera’s Asiago bagels are from heaven.
I used to work at Panera part time. I will tell you I have since learned the nutrition of their food is horrendous. You can find good healthy meals there, but stay away from pretty much all the desserts and anything made on ciabatta.
So, could you recommend specific menu items? I am required to spend a lot of time in the vicinity of a Panera and it would be handy to know what the good choices are.
I just found out that my favorite thing at Cosi – the Signature Salad – has like three days’ worth of fat calories.
You are nuts.
A Quarter Pounder with Cheese Value Meal at McDonalds is $5.49. That includes a drink. You can exploit the Dollar Menu about get out with a sandwich, small fries and drink for $4.
A You Pick Two with a half sandwich and half salad/soup is $6.29. Add a drink at $1.59 and you’re up to almost $8. That’s only a half sandwich. A more apt comparison would be a full panini for $6.29 with a fruit cup for $1.49 extra and a drink pushing it to $9.50.
Now, if you like fancy breads and lunch meats $8-9.50 is not a lot to spend on a lunch at all. However to claim it’s not significantly more expensive than fast food is just not true. It’s between 40% and 100% more expensive. Again, this might be worthwhile to some people, but it’s not comparable in price.
I like Panera quite a bit, but every time I go there I end up spending $10 and feeling ripped off when I’m done eating. Logically I realize that I’m better off eating the smaller, marginally healthier lunch and I probably don’t need to feel stuffed after a meal. Intuitively I always can tell I’m sacrificing (fullness and money) by eating there as opposed to some greasy burger joint.
Ouch. Well, one every few months won’t kill me. For a while.
I like Panera but it is significantly pricier than fast food. We like it, but it burns a hole in the wallet, and actually is closer to a casual dining lunch place (Pei Wei, Chili’s) than a Mickey D’s or the like.
OMG! Your must be using another caesar dressing than mine did. Mine had almost no garlic and no anchovy at all. I understand a lot of dudes don’t like the 'chovies, but your breath afterwards should be able to kill vampires at 10 paces. I couldn’t tell their caesar dressing from ranch.
You’re right, of course. Like I said, my Panera meal fills me up for $8. To get the same full feeling from McD’s, I would get a Quarter Pounder Value Meal, large. That’s also about 8 dollars and significantly worse for me (at least my salad has veggies).
I guess I could get 2 double cheese burgers, a medium fry, and a medium soda for. . . well, that’s still about $6 or $7.
Oh, and my sad half sandwich is actually pretty damned big. It’s about the size of a regular sandwich I’d make at home. Plus half a salad. Plus a hunk of baguette they give you. I’m really not seeing how anyone is NOT full from this.
Oh, it certainly wasn’t gourmet deliciousness or anything, but I feel it’s heads and tails above caesars I get most places (which usually taste of mayo-- wtf?). It hits the caesar spot, though certainly not like a fresh, table side prepared caesar would!
I’ve never been to Panera but I’m sure it falls into the restaurant category of “fast casual,” which is pretty much any self-serve place that’s a notch or two better than McD’s. I read a newspaper article a while back on the phenomenon; fast casual has really taken off in recent years, with outlets and revenues expanding rapidly. But this was before the recent freefall of our economy, so who knows how things will shake out.
To continue the hijack, I tried “The Soup Man” a few months ago [the chain started by Al Yegabeh or whatever his name is – he’s the original “Soup Nazi” who inspired that Seinfeld episode]. The soup was tasty enough but too salty and a bit of a letdown, given my no doubt inflated expectations. Soup and half-panini and a drink set me back ten or eleven bucks, IIRC; I won’t be going back anytime soon.
Went for the firts time yesterday. Had a Caeser Sandwich and a bagel. I was pleasantly surprised with both. and the iced tea was good.
I love the turkey artichoke panini and the broccoli cheese soup. I guess I’ll just make a point to avoid sodium for the rest of the day when I get them.
They had a muffin around the holidays, I think it was pumpkin, that was heaven but the dang thing had a day’s supply of fat and calories and it was as big as your head but you couldn’t stop eating it. And by “you”, I mean me.
Oh, sweetie, it’s been two years since I worked there. But their nutrition info is online, so feel free to pick and choose. Half a Chicken Caesar sandwich on three cheese bread is 400 calories. Add in a 9.25 ounce bowl of French Onion Soup (You Pick Two) and you have about 600 calories, not too bad for lunch.