Needed a quick bite to eat and found myself driving by Panera Bread and figured I would try it. The restaurant is outside hill crest mall and used to be a Krispy Kreme many years ago. All re-modeled now, kind of a combination of a restaurant and coffee shop. They also have free wi-fi so there were a lot of students doing homework there. The menu is basically sandwiches, soup and salads. You order at the counter and they bring you the food to your table. Here's the good:
- They post the calories on the menu. I think this is fantastic and wish more places would do so. I changed what I was going to order when I noticed my chosen sandwich was 1,000 calories - crazy.
- Soups are good. I had a low fat black been soup which was very good... assuming you like black beans.
- My turkey sandwich was pretty good. They had a combo mayo / mustard spread that I enjoyed. The sandwich was made with rye bread and stuffed with turkey (it's processed meat though).
- My wife had the Turkey and cranberry panini which was rather good.
- You can get your soup in a bread bowl - I love eating my bowl after soup!
- The food came out fast.
- The restaurant was clean and so were the washrooms. Lot's of parking.
And the not so good...
- Didn't like the french onion soup - it's a poor imitation.
- I must admit, I don't get doing homework at restaurants. Although there were many tables, at least 3/4"s were full of people there for free wifi. I can easily see not getting a seat to eat during a busy time.
- Not to contradict myself but the posted calories means I didn't get to eat the sweets there - I felt too guilty.
I would go back for a quick bite. A location is opening in Markham by the whole Foods.