Panera Bread

If you want the best tasting french bread in the Peninsula . .I'd even go the stretch to say the whole Bay Area, at least, in my opinion, and, I'm a quarter Italian - having an appreciation for that, delicious, down-to-earth, good old-fashion tasting sour-dough french bread, I would pick 'Panera Bread.' If some of you are not familiar, well, you can find them (the restaurants), just about everywhere. And I would rate them as just about the friendliest chain as well. If I was going to select an eating place, as a mainstay of patrionizing, I would pick Panera. Reasons? They have a fairly varied food selection, to start with. If you started with say, a breakfast apetizer, they have a rather large choice of pastries. They even have their . . par excellance . . 11" x 11" box of assorted cherry and cream cheese pastries, which, I swear, just to look at, starts up those salivary glands, frightfully fast. You look at it and say, gee, I bet the office would love to dig into a nice box of pastries for the morning, eveyone is so busy, and on the run, I bet they would just love to grab a quick morsal of nourishing enjoyment, that would have to put a smile on just any - down-in-the dumpster's attitude , no matter how bad their day was going. And, you don't want to ponder this for too long, because the whole territorial mindset just might settle in, and you start thinking, gee (again), I could easily polish off one of these boxes just by myself. I mean, they really look just down right deluctable. The price? Just $11.99. The restarant, you could say, really specializes in lunches for the afternoon crowd - though they're open till 9 pm., and, there's a nice selection of hot soups - such as, basal, cream tomato, and, the broccoli/chedder - always been a favorite of mine. And, accompanied with a nice tall cup of strawberry-lemonade. Sound tatalizing? Trust me, it is! I just recently bought the bowl (and was big too), for just $7½ (with my dollar off as a member). It came with choice of chips, or bread. And, if you've never tried their broccoli/chedder . . I swear . . it's to die for! Incidentaly, I mentioned earlier, about 'hot.' Now, seriously though, where can you find a restaurant that will serve you a piping hot bowl of soup? I remember back when I was a toddler . .hey! it wasn't that long ago! My aunt - whenever I asked her if she likes her coffee hot! Would, without exception, would sit there on her chair giving me a look, as if to say, now, what kind of question is that? And then staunchly exclaim, "I like my coffee . . scaaaalding hot!" Well, at Panera, you can actually make that happen, because every Panera has a microwave. How bout that! Panera, is generally always very clean, as well as their restroom, but, they do have a high turnover, so, don't be too hard on them, they actually do moniter things pretty closely. Seating is no problem, they have lots of cushiony booths, and, tables, and, in fact, the Panera at the corner of El Monte & El Camino, have a rather large outdoor pateo, with eating that is very nicely spaced apart, for those of you that might have a bit more of a secluded bent in mine. If you go to the 'Plant,' (at the corner of Tully, and Monterey Rd.), there will be a Panera right there. The Plant, has a number of places to visit - 'Target,' 'Home Depot,' 'Best Buy,' 'T-Mobil,' 'Chase Bank,' 'Jamba Juice,' 'Starbucks,' 'Krespie Kreames,' 'Ross,' 'Apple Bee's,' 'Famous Dave's,' and, more. Oh! Don't let me forget, but, if you sign up as a Panera member, rewards in food items will come your way. I've been a member for years, and on one occasion, my reward was a free bagel, every day, for a month . . not bad, huh! Annnd, if you sign up online, you can have a free coffee every day. Now, where are you going to get a better deal than that?? Panera is more specifically at: 2199 Monterey Rd. The cross street, is Tully/Curtner. As I mentioned earlier, Panera is part of 'The Plant.'

2/11/23. Unlimited coffee. No coffee mug. Arrive early for various pastries. Afternoon have less pastry choices. Not crowded.

Panera seems to have increased their vegetarian choices, though they still have a very limited choice of both soups and sandwiches. They are also very expensive for what they are.

The service was good. The people were very pleasant seemed happy. The place was clean. The food was good. I do like my broccoli cheddar to be thicker than what they typically do. But everything was flavorable and I was very pleased with my experience.

Fast service, very hot food, good cold caramel beverage, healthy and they come at your table once ready.