There are many things that I like about Panera Bread. Their coffee is delicious, and I love how it is self-serve so that I can mix the coffee blends and add as much half-n-half as I want (which is so much that I don't think you can legitimately define it as a cup of coffee any longer). I also enjoy their variety of pastries, bagels and accompaning cream cheeses. And there is one other thing that is great about Panera... What is that again...?
Oh yeah, their WiFi. Their absolutely FREE WiFi.
Panera Bread was one of the first establishments to offer this, which, during the days of dial-up internet connections, was a miracle from on high! Do you remember how much of a pain in the ass it was to load your friends' Myspace pages using a dial-up connection? Especially if they had backgrounds, music and GIFs running non-stop all over their pages? Ugh! Fortunately, dial-up (and Myspace) has pretty much gone the way of Betamax. And yet, Panera's free WiFi still comes in handy when I want to download newly purchased books onto my Kindle, or when I want to save my data plan when I go online with my cellphone.
So why does it sound like I'm building up to a BUT? It's because I am. Let me now expose my BUT (har-har):
I love going to Panera Bread, BUT buying their meals is HIGHWAY ROBBERY!
Some food establishments have the complaint of having skimpy meals (I'm looking at you Long John Silvers!). Others have the complaint of having overly high priced meals (be prepared to take out a Payday Loan if you want guacamole added to your Burrito Bowl at Chipotle's). Panera Bread has the dubious distinction of having entrees that are both skimpy AND expensive!
Let me show you what I mean:
This is the Barbecue Chicken Flatbread Sandwich with a side of Potato Chips. This tiny, tiny little meal cost me $7.99! That exhorbitant price DID NOT include my fountain drink, which was another dollar and change. So, in all, this meal (which I made a concentrated effort to slowly eat over the span of ten minutes) set me back ALMOST TEN DOLLARS!!!
This was my first time ordering a flatbread sandwich at Panera Bread. Needless to say, it will be my last. Don't get me wrong. It was delicious. All six bites of it. But I was hoping for a little more bang for my eight bucks.
From now on, I'm going to stick with the coffee and bagels. I feel like I'm getting my money's worth out of those menu items (particularly when I get the Free Coffee Refills). And I plan to use the Hell out of their WiFi to make up for the travesty that was my Flatbread Sandwich debacle.
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