Review: Panera Bread underwhelming

Two out of Five Stars

By Alexandra McCluskey
Staff Writer

Growing up in a relatively healthy household, I had always heard of the Panera Bread chain, yet never actually went there. Until recently, that is.

Panera is categorized as a bakery/café fast food chain of restaurants, which seems a bit confusing, but the combination is pleasant in itself.

It serves up a menu full of various sandwiches, soups, pizza and breakfasts, along with an extensive drink menu.

All of these factors made the decision of choosing difficult. I was recommended the mac n’ cheese due to my minor obsession, so of course I was honed in on that.

What I didn’t know is that Panera offers a “You Pick 2” deal, where you choose two entrees from the list offered. I thought this was perfect for my odd taste in serving size. It took forever and a year for me to decide on another entrée to go with my mac n’ cheese.

I ended up settling on half a deli turkey sandwich, without onions of course, along with the mac n’ cheese bowl. Paired with a simple water and an included side of kettle chips, I was set with my $15 meal.

As some family members and I sat down to wait for our food, I got a bit confused with the layout and where to go, but I figured it out. Along with this, our food took forever to come out, and honestly wasn’t impressive in the slightest.

One individual in out group ordered the chicken and pepperoni mozzarella melt toasted baguette, which sounded heavenly. But the sandwich was only half full inside.

Additionally, I was overall unimpressed with my meal, the bread being too dry, and the fillings of the sandwich almost bland. The only saving grace was the mac n’ cheese, which I now need on demand in high qualities 24 hours of the day.

For how expensive the items are, especially if you want to feed a group or get a full-sized meal, it’s not worth it. The location we originally went to, the south Cedar Street Panera in south Lansing, was completely out of the chain’s new baguette sandwiches. So we left and relocated to the shop on West Grand River in Okemos.

I guess the experience was OK, but I definitely wouldn’t choose to go back there; for anything other than the mac n’ cheese that is!