The Basic Panera Sandwich You Might Want To Avoid - Tasting Table

"And landing second to last in our ranking of Panera Bread sandwiches from worst to best was, sadly, the classic grilled cheese. We based our ranking on criteria like overall taste, filling-to-bread ratios, and unique toppings or sauces. The grilled cheese is as basic as they come, consisting of bread and cheese grilled to a buttery, gooey crisp. It's perfect in its simplicity, and Panera's high quality, freshly baked bread as the foundation sounded promising."

"But in the absence of sauces and toppings, we were really hoping for that famously crunchy and gooey textural contrast between the bread and the melted cheese. Disappointingly, the texture was its biggest failure. The bread was soggy and mushy and the melted cheese had hardened into a chewy, cold glob in the time it took us to get the sandwich home."

Panera Bread offers many soups, salads, sandwiches, and flatbreads, but the classic grilled cheese ranks near the bottom of sandwich choices. The sandwich contains only bread and melted cheese, with no additional toppings or sauces. Texture problems arise: bread becomes soggy and mushy and the melted cheese can harden into a chewy, cold glob during transport. Ordering the grilled cheese to-go often results in a disappointing sandwich, even after a half-hour trip. Numerous customer reviews, including Reddit threads, criticize the grilled cheese for dry bread and processed-cheese texture.

Read at Tasting Table