When panera broccoli cheese soup’re on the go and in need of a quick and easy meal that feels a little lighter and healthier than your typical drive-thru offerings, Panera Bread is a great option. Honestly, no matter what the occasion, Panera is basically always a great idea. Panera has plenty to offer, but there are certain menu items that really aren’t worth all the hype and attention they get. As healthy and delicious as Panera paints itself, the nationwide chain’s menu isn’t entirely healthy or delicious.
And there are some menu items that are just plain terrible, though you might hear people rave about them. For a place known for its soups, salads, and sandwiches, Panera Bread’s sandwich options are kind of a mixed bag. There are ultra-delicious offerings, and then there are the restaurant’s offerings that sound good but really aren’t. Take, for instance, the Steak and Arugula Sandwich. Specifically, while the flavors of all the ingredients brought out the best in each other, the cold, soggy tomato king of ruined the texture.
Additionally, when you order a sandwich with steak in it, you expect the steak to be the star of the show. But with this Panera menu item, the steak is more like a guest star making a two-episode run. Perhaps one of the healthiest options at Panera Bread is the Ten Vegetable Soup. Just the name shows that the dish is full of nutrients, and at only 100 calories for an entire bowl, it’s certainly diet-friendly. But that doesn’t mean it’s worth ordering. The vegetables all simmer in a broth, but the flavor just isn’t there. That isn’t to say that the soup is gross by any means, but the lemon added to the mix doesn’t help and actually makes the entire bowl pretty bitter and acidic.
When the temperature outside starts to drop and the days get shorter, there’s really nothing quite like a nice cup of hot chocolate to warm you up. As delicious as a cup of hot chocolate might sound, Panera’s isn’t what you want. It isn’t very chocolatey, and with as many toppings as it includes, the flavor throughout the drink isn’t strong at all. For the most part, Panera’s hot chocolate is more like warm milk with a slight chocolate undertone. As surprising as it might sound, Panera Bread actually has quite a few drink options that you can choose from. Some, like their coffees and lemonades, are seriously delicious.
59 you have to shell out for it. When you order a salad for lunch, a nice iced tea probably sounds delicious to go along with it, but at Panera, the green tea is pretty weak. The thing is, real green tea doesn’t have any calories or any added sugar. So when you drink Panera Bread’s Papaya Green Tea, you aren’t actually getting the full green tea experience. The turkey sandwich is definitely one of the most old-school sandwich options out there, and at Panera Bread, it’s hailed as an easy and simple option. According to the menu, Panera’s Turkey Sandwich is pretty classic.
After all, turkey tends to be pretty bland on its own, and at Panera Bread, the turkey is just that. And all the other ingredients in the sandwich aren’t really standouts, either. Lettuce and tomato are on so many sandwiches that they’re totally expected, and there’s not even a signature sauce to bring out more flavors in the sandwich. Because Panera Bread literally has the word “bread” in its name, it’s no secret that the chain restaurant makes a ton of bread. Specifically, Panera makes over 250 million bagels every year, with some being a lot better than others. The Cinnamon Crunch Bagel at Panera Bread has 420 calories, and that’s without any kind of cream cheese or butter spread on top of it. In 2020, Panera Bread launched a new line of menu items that were neither soups, nor salads, nor sandwiches.
The items were, instead, flatbread pizzas, and they had mixed reviews upon their launch. There were three pizzas initially available: a Margherita option, plain cheese, or a Chipotle Chicken and Bacon option. While Twitter users have been generally pretty positive about the flatbreads, with one user sharing that “The chicken chipotle flatbread at Panera slaps every time,” other reviews haven’t been quite as kind. As Panera Bread likes to hail itself as one of the healthiest fast food options out there, it’s not surprising that it would offer a sandwich like the Mediterranean Veggie sandwich. Yes, the sandwich has no meat on it and is loaded with healthy vegetables and a spread of hummus, which is made from vegetables. Eat This, Not That ranked the Mediterranean Veggie sandwich as one of the healthiest options at Panera Bread.