Restaurant Review: New Broth Bowls at Panera Bread

Panera Bread is always a favorite for lunch - it's quick and, can be, healthy! They have introduced a new menu item called the Broth Bowl. For the base you can choose either Soba Noodle Bowl or a Lentil Quinoa Bowl and then you can top them with protein. The Noodle Bowl can be topped with Chicken or Edamame while the Quinoa bowl can be topped with Chicken or a Cage Free Egg. The bowls range between $7-$9.

I'm not a big fan of quinoa so I went for the Soba Noodle Bowl with Chicken. Besides the noodles and chicken, the bowl has spinach, napa cabbage, roasted mushroom & onions, sesame seeds, cilantro and an umami soy-miso broth.

As usual with entrees at Panera, the bowl comes with a side. The bowl did have good flavorful ingredients. Honestly I thought the chicken was a bit of an odd pairing - I think maybe seafood, shredded chicken or even the funky meatballs I get in my Pho would be better. I'm sure they use the chicken because it goes on sandwiches. The brother had a lot of flavor - needed a little salt. The overall bowl though - good flavor, lots of variety in textures. I was still a little hungry after - but I liked it.

They have videos on their site and one is even about the giant spoon - honestly that's one of the things I didn't like. The spoon is too big to even eat with and eating long noodles with a spoon?!? Not so easy.

The other thing to mention - right now if you have a Panera card and go to their website - you can get $5 off a bowl! If you log in to the site and go to this page - watch broth bowl three videos - you'll get a pop up notification that $5 off a bowl has been loaded to your card! Then if you watch the other 3 - you'll get another reward of a free drink! I have no idea how long this offer will last - so get it while you can!

Be sure to check out my review of their new Pasta Primavera.