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What should I order at Panera?

Panera is a bakery that also serves lunch, and the bread is the thing to decide about. A broth soup with a half salad is a different lunch to a bread bowl.

Order a You Pick Two pairing a broth-based soup with a half salad, and take the baguette side rather than the bread bowl or a chips bag. Panera's core problem is that it is genuinely a bakery — the bread is good, it is everywhere on the menu, and a sandwich on thick bread with a side of more bread is easy to order without noticing.

Best choices

  1. 1You Pick Two: broth soup plus a half saladTwo half portions with different jobs — this is the format the menu is best at
  2. 2Broth-based soups over the creamy onesChicken noodle and the vegetable soups are broth; the bisques and chowders are cream-based dishes
  3. 3A half sandwich rather than a wholePanera's bread is thick-cut; half is a normal portion of sandwich, not a small one
  4. 4Salads with grilled chicken, dressing on the sideThe salads are substantial and the dressings are generous — on the side is the useful ask
  5. 5Apple or the baguette side instead of chips or a cookieThe side choice at the end is a real decision the menu presents as a formality

Watch out for

  • The bread bowl is a full loaf serving as the dish — the soup inside it is the smaller part
  • Creamy soups (broccoli cheddar, bisques) are cream-based; they are a different category to the broth ones
  • Sandwich bread here is thick — a whole sandwich is a lot of bread before any filling
  • The bakery counter is the last thing you pass; a cookie or a scone is a deliberate add, not a rounding error
  • Some 'salads' arrive with candied nuts, dried fruit and a sweet dressing together

Also asked

Is Panera actually a healthy lunch?

It can be one of the better chain lunches, because broth soups and large salads are genuinely on the menu rather than tucked in a corner. The complication is that it is a bakery first — the bread is excellent, it comes with everything, and it is offered again at the counter on the way out. A broth soup with a half salad is a straightforward lunch. A whole sandwich on thick bread with chips and a cookie is a bakery lunch, which is a fine thing to have deliberately.

What is the healthiest soup at Panera?

The broth-based ones — chicken noodle, the vegetable soups, and the lentil or bean options where available. The distinction that matters is broth versus cream: broccoli cheddar and the bisques are cream-based dishes and are the richest things in that section. Neither is a mistake; they are just different foods sold in the same cup.

Is the bread bowl worth it?

It is a loaf of bread with soup in it, so the honest framing is that you are ordering bread as the main item and soup as the filling. If that is what you want, have it — it is good. What catches people out is ordering it as though it were the soup, when the bowl is the substantial part.

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