Panera Items That Are Seriously Overpriced

Panera Bread has quite a hold on the fast-casual lunch market. It's been a place to go to get a coffee and a pastry and do some work on their always free wifi. Aside from breakfast staples, the bakery-themed chain also has served up plenty of lunch options since opening in the 1980s. The menu started off as your basic soup, salad, and sandwich cafe menu. However, in recent years, Panera Bread has expanded its menu to include some unsuspected new items, like mac & cheese and flatbread pizzas. 

It's harder to classify Panera Bread in 2022. Back when the chain first exploded, Panera had a lot of consistency that helped define its brand. For instance, there were always tiny samples of free bread at the door. There were must-order items for newbies, like the broccoli cheddar soup or a cinnamon crunch bagel. It felt like a homey bakery and it garnered a reputation as being a "healthy" option for a quick lunch. In more recent years, it seems like Panera's gone from trying to be your friendly neighborhood bakery to another fast-casual chain trying to keep up with the Joneses. 

Another major change since the dawn of Panera Bread is its ever-increasing price points. Sure, there are factors like inflation that just can't be ignored. However, the restaurant has garnered a bit of a reputation of being overpriced (via Reddit). To help you navigate the menu before your next Panera run, we decided to point out a few items on the menu that are just flat-out overpriced.

The price of a simple grilled cheese sandwich at Panera Bread is one of the more shocking listings on the menu. A grilled cheese is quite arguably the easiest sandwich to make of all time — it's bread, butter, and gooey cheese. Despite its simplicity, Panera bread is charging a whopping $8 for a plain cheese sandwich. When looking at the online menu, Panera won't charge you to add some extras, like tomatoes, but others, like bacon, will add almost $2.50 to the price tag. 

To put it into perspective, In-N-Out customers have learned that you can order a grilled cheese off of the fast food chain's "secret menu" that will cost you less than $3 (via Hack The Menu). The cost-per-serving of grilled cheese is low, around 50 cents per serving according to research from Cockeyed, so it's shocking that Panera is charging so much for such a classic staple. 

The final regular sandwich that Panera Bread is seemingly over-charging for is their tuna salad sandwich. On two slices of black pepper focaccia, the sandwich features tuna salad mix, greens, red onions, and tomato slices for $9. Each sandwich does come with a "free" side like chips that is included in the price, but the total is still hard to justify. 

According to Impact Alpha, the average can of tuna costs less than $1 to consumers. A restaurant chain like Panera Bread is likely buying their tuna and other ingredients in bulk, which only brings the price down more. That, considered along with the minimal toppings on the sandwich, doesn't seem to justify a $9 price tag. Tuna salad is something that can easily be made at home for a quarter of the price, so it's unclear how Panera Bread thinks its version is special enough to charge an arm and a leg. 

At its core, Panera Bread is a bakery and, in case you forgot, they do sell full loaves of bread. Most of them are reasonably priced, but a few, including the brand's rustic sourdough loaf, are seriously overpriced. This loaf of bread is priced at around $8.50, which is nearly double the cost of almost all the other loaves for sale. Panera Bread's website doesn't clarify what exactly makes the rustic bread such a high-dollar item, but it's worth noting before you buy one from the bakery rack without looking at the price tag. 

According to Cost Aide, the average loaf of bread costs around $5 or less. And in 2022, a loaf of sourdough bread at Walmart costs less than $4. Customers on Reddit seem to agree that the bread isn't worth the cost. "All I can assume is they are actively trying to deter people from buying bread to keep their limited supply for the cafe," U/Pizookie123 wrote. 

A more recent addition to the Panera Bread menu is their warm bowls options, which are essentially different variations of grain salads. Most of them are hearty and filled with a lot of ingredients, but the pricing is a bit confusing. Most of the bowls that have chicken (including one version of the Baja bowl), ring up for around $12 a piece ... pricey, but more justifiable with the added cost of lean protein. However, if you opt for a meatless version, it will still cost you about $11. It seems logical that the meatless options would be a better bargain, but the difference is only about a dollar. 

The warm grain bowls are loaded with ingredients. The meatless Baja bowl has quinoa, feta cheese, avocados, tomatoes, salsa verde, Greek yogurt, and black bean and corn pico de gallo. It's actually an easy recipe to replicate at home, and the ingredients will likely amount to way less than a whopping $11 per bowl.  

Like any fast food chain, Panera Bread couldn't resist hopping on the chicken sandwich bandwagon. Sure, they were a little late to the game and no one really expected them to participate, but they jumped on board anyway. That said, unlike low-price chains like McDonald's or Popeye's, Panera Bread's chef chicken sandwiches cost way more than a couple dollar bills. 

There are two takes on the sandwich — original and spicy, which is nothing unique in the era of chicken sandwich wars. Regardless of which option you pick, a sandwich will cost you a hefty $12 a piece, as of 2022. Sure, both versions feature chicken breast on a brioche roll with a few toppings thrown between. And certainly, the allure of trying a sandwich topped with spicy pickle chips and buffalo sauce, or emerald greens and Parmesan crisps might be tempting enough to have you shell out the cash once or twice ... but it still doesn't seem like a competitive price point for Panera to succeed long-term in a market that's already highly saturated.