Au Bon Where?
Written: May 17 '02 (Updated May 17 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Wide variety, clean, good value
Cons: Service can be iffy
The Bottom Line: Kid friendly, vegetarian friendly. Panera Bread is a great place to go for soup, salad, sandwiches and more.
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| GravityGirl's Full Review: Panera Bread |
I have been to the Panera Bread in Framingham, MA more times than I can count. I have been there with many different groups of friends and everyone is always happy- my future in-laws love it, my female friends love it, my male friends love it and if there is a Panera Bread near you and you have not been….what are you waiting for? Go there ASAP for lunch or dinner. In fact, as I am writing this, I wish I was there right now.
What is Panera Bread?
Panera Bread (hereafter PB) is a somewhat upscale bakery-café. Their format is very similar to Au Bon Pain, but I happen to prefer PB.
Theoretically, someone could eat three meals a day at PB. For breakfast, they have bagels and specialty pastries. I must admit, I am rather disappointed by their bagel selections- there is most definitely an overabundance of "sweet bagels" including, Blueberry, Cinnamon Crunch, Dutch Apple & Raisin, French Toast, Featured Chocolate and Peanut Butter and Banana Crunch. For someone who enjoys salty bagels, I have much less to choose from but if you are a fan of sweet bagels, you will definitely be happy.
I really prefer to come to PB for lunch and dinner. I always get the same thing: the "You Pick Two" combo which allows me to choose two items from the following "menu:" ˝ salad, a bowl of soup and a ˝ sandwich. I almost always choose the same two things- a ˝ Caesar salad and a bowl of broccoli cheddar. PB has a rotating soup menu (more on this later) but they offer broccoli cheese every day. There is a reason for this- broccoli cheese is a thick, rich and delicious soup. The cheddar is not overwhelming and often times, I have found huge broccoli spears in my soup. As for the Caesar salad, the lettuce is often not as crisp as I would like, but it has been improving lately. The salad comes with shaved parmesan cheese, sourdough asiago cheese croutons and the most delicious dressing ever!
As I mentioned before, they serve their soups on a rotating basis. Their soups include: Broccoli Cheddar, Low Fat Chicken Noodle, Baked Potato, French Onion, Garden Vegetable, Tomato Florentine, Black Bean, and Cream of chicken. I have tried the baked potato and found it to be merely "okay." It isn't nearly as good as the baked potato soup at Tony Roma's. My fiancé has tried many of the soups and he seems to like black bean and chicken noodle the most.
I tried one of their sandwiches once and hated it. The asiago bread was tasty, but the roast beef was just awful. They do seem to have a wide variety of sandwiches- you can choose from panini sandwiches (for those of you who do not know, a panini sandwich is a sandwich that is placed in a waffle-iron type device that makes it hot and grilled), and then they have specialty sandwiches like the one I tried that consist of set ingredients. Finally, you can have a café sandwich which seem to be much simpler choices- turkey on sourdough, ham and cheese on rye, etc. One of the last times I was in the restaurant, a couple was there for the first time. They looked at the menu and saw "Penut Butter and Jelly on French" and asked if it was a joke!!
Clearly, there is something for everyone. Your food is served to you on real plates with real silverware which is a nice touch. All meals also come with crusty bread rolls- my favorite!!
The You Pick 2 option is definitely my favorite- for the more adventurous, it really allows you to experiment- do you want soup and salad? soup and sandwich? sandwich and salad? If you want to try everything they have to offer at PB, this is definitely the way to go.
Décor
The PB in Framingham, MA is very nice. It is located in a shopping center with a Target and a Home Goods. The inside has counters with stools, tables, some booths, leather-type chairs in front of a fireplace and now that the weather is warming up, they have added chair and tables outside.
Service
This is my only complaint. The high schoolers they hire to work here are very hit and miss. It is a counter-service restaurant, so there are no waiters or waitresses but I still have problems.
One fellow is the bane of my existence. Once, I placed an order with a friendly cashier and then went to wait for my order. It was taking a long time. The cashier walked by and said to this fellow "Dude, that order is to go- look right there- it says TO GO!!!!!!" This was my order; I was the only one ordering at the time. More time passes. The young man places my food on the counter for here. Sigh.
I understand that everyone makes mistakes, but I am not done yet. On another occasion, my fiancé actually saw this same fellow eating whipped cream out of the can. This is the store whipped cream that goes in people's coffee drinks. I was totally disgusted when I found out and I will never ever get a coffee drink there.
Just last night, I picked up a salad and some bread to go. It took such a long time to order because my cashier was so easily distracted by his co-workers that he would stop taking my order to talk to them. There were at least two or three breaks in my order/paying because he was busy talking to his co-workers about unrelated matters.
However, even though they drive me crazy, I am not letting this affect my rating. The food is so good that as long as they get it to me, I am going to be happy.
I almost forgot to add that some of the people who work there are very nice and will give me exrtra croutons and dressing for no charge. I really appreciate the extras.
final thoughts
This place is great- the prices are a little expensive, but the food is worth it. PB is much nicer than Au Bon Pain.
You can even take home their bread for family dinners, recipes, etc.
What are you waiting for? Go there tonight!
Recommended:
Yes
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