Panera pizza is said to be really good, but skip the plain cheese: a follow up


This is not a sponcon, but if Panera wants to send me a $50 gift card I will write another story about them. It must be at least $50 so I can eat there twice. I’m running this because our last story on Panera was surprisingly popular. I eat at Panera when I can. I like their food because I am basic and I like bread, I like soup and I like sandwiches. Plus it occupies that unique space in between fast food and sit down chain restaurants, as we discussed before. As we also discussed, Panera recently premiered flatbread pizzas. They come in margherita, chipotle chicken & bacon and plain cheese varieties and retail under $9.30 (near me, I don’t know if they’re more expensive in other areas). While they seem to take longer than other items, they’re said to be really tasty. Unfortunately I haven’t tried them yet because Panera is far from me, but I trust these reviews. My friend Zakia (you may know her from the podcast) loved it too and gave me a review to use! Here’s her review and some others from Twitter and Instagram.

I got the Chipotle Chicken and Bacon Flatbread and it was so good! It was actually better than I thought it was going to be. I love chipotle on anything, but was still skeptical. I am so glad I took the chance and got it. Also, you get a huge pizza for about $9. I couldn’t finish it in one sitting. It’s worth the money and it tastes great! I will definitely get it again. – Zakia.

In the interest of balance some people don’t like it, particularly the plain cheese. That’s how I came to the conclusion in the title, all the negative reviews I found were about the cheese.

So it looks like the chicken and margherita varieties are the best and like the cheese isn’t worth it. People are saying on Twitter that this is not Panera’s first foray into pizza. They had a pizza called the Crispani. I did a little research and they only had that on the menu from 2006 to 2008 as it was hard for employees to make. Still, Panera Pizza is new to me as I was living overseas when the Crispani came out. I’m definitely going to try this. The nearest Panera is 40 minutes away and I don’t travel much, but now that I talked about it I can write off the mileage to get there. It’s not like I’m traveling to watch movies this year.

Why does this young woman not have her hair tied back?

PaneraPizza

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

16 Responses to “Panera pizza is said to be really good, but skip the plain cheese: a follow up”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. sara says:

    This looks similar to the pizzas Cosi has ( all cosis near me have closed 😞)

    • AndaPanda says:

      Omg, Cosi was so good! I used to get their sandwiches in college when I flew with my sports team to the east coast. I live in CA and I don’t think they exist near me.

      Panera pizza looks good and this article made me want to try it. I think a $50 gift card is deserved!

    • Chicken Tetrazzini! says:

      Cosi still exists in Chicago and Boston, but it just isn’t the same as the franchises. I miss Cosi so very much

    • Jensies says:

      Cosi! They had one open in my college town when I was in school. I remember laughing hysterically at them because they had s’mores on the menu that you made you made yourself over like a Bunsen burner and they charged $15 for them.

  2. Becks1 says:

    I’m laughing because there’s a difference between Panera pizza being good, and being the “legit best pizza” someone has ever had. I kind of feel sorry for that person, lol.

    That said, I’m not picky and I’ll try these pizzas, probably stick to the margherita based on these reviews.

    I don’t think its going to take the place in my heart currently occupied by the cream of chicken and wild rice soup though.

    • SamC says:

      Ha! I had the same thought when I saw that comment. That person is missing so much! My guilty pleasures are the cheese sticks from Little Caesar’s or cheese bread from Amato’s in Maine, but neither is at all convenient, so based on the pics I’d try the cheese flatbread as an alternative for that, luckily many pretty decent pizza options in my area.

      • Arglette says:

        SamC, hello! I think you’re from RI, I remember from past comments because I’m in RI too…may I ask what are your favorite pizza places? I’m from here originally, left, and am back temporarily because of the pandemic. I feel like kind of a newbie since I haven’t spent quality time here in years.

        Sorry to go off topic with this — but I appreciate Celebitchy’s advice and would certainly try a Panera pizza sometime!

  3. Jillian says:

    I would like to know where all these reviewers are from. No judgement but I’m from Chicago and, well…yeah, I guess judgement. I don’t imagine I’ll ever have occasion to try this unless I do some unusual traveling

  4. Also Ali says:

    The poor reviewer who just realized cheese pizza is…cheesy bread. 2020 bringing the pain again.

  5. goofpuff says:

    Ugh the long hair all over that food bothers me.

    • Anna says:

      I know, right? Gross. If I ever even thought to eat Panera pizza, this ends it now after seeing this image. Seriously disgusting. Wear a damn hair net. Isn’t that required for food service? Jeez. Also, I can’t believe with everything going on right now that I’m commenting on a pizza article. lol

  6. josephine says:

    Except for the margherita the combos seem odd to me. A loaded vegie pizza would be interesting – hope they expand the offerings.

  7. ME says:

    I’m sorry but that girl making the pizzas needs to have her hair tied back. Anyone want hair in their Panera Bread pizza ?

  8. Bunny says:

    Unfortunately, the two Panera locations in our town nearest us cannot complete an order without messing it up. They leave the protein off sandwiches, forget half the order (sandwich and salad, minus the salad), forget the dessert we’d ordered, etc.

    We gave them chance after chance because we understood that they may be short-staffed due to Covid, but they truly don’t seem to care.

    Pre-Covid, we went about once a week, and I went a second time every week for a local meet-up.

    The last time it happened, I deleted their app from my phone. We won’t be returning and we’ll do our meetup somewhere else.

    For what its worth, the person in the picture with long hair hanging over the food, wearing shorts in their commercial kitchen, doesn’t help. Yuck.

  9. Amy says:

    Panera manager here! The girl might have been doing one of the training sessions after the cafes close, we had them when the pizzas started. Associates don’t have to be in uniform and nothing gets served to any actual guests of course, we just let them take it home if they want. I wouldn’t have chosen that picture for my cafe’s Instagram though on perception alone!!

    So funny to see this coverage here after being a long time reader! I consider it my personal shout out 🙂

  10. Sara Grubbs says:

    The only thing I have to add is that Chef Claes of Panera used to be with Pizza Hut and generally is a great guy.