Syracuse Sandwich: Panera Bread's Ham and Swiss

Who: Panera Bread What: Ham And Swiss
Where: Route 11, Cicero Phone: 458-9436 Website: Panera BreadParking: Shared Lots Accepts Credit Cards: Yes Take-Out: Yes Delivery: No

     I haven’t reviewed as many Panera Bread’s sandwiches as I thought I would have by now but this is the fourth review I am doing of them. A hot Saturday with lots of running around to do, left me in no mood to cook or even put a sandwich together myself so we stopped at Panera. When we walked in, it looked like a ghost town with only two or three tables being occupied. We expected this because of the holiday weekend and figured we could order quickly, oh how wrong we were. The threesome ahead of us clearly had never been here before and didn’t understand the “You pick two” option. The very patient cashier explained the best he could until they somewhat understood and finally formed an order. It was way too hot for soup so I opted for a half of a salad and half of a sandwich. The bbq chopped chicken salad is by far the best salad I’ve ever ordered out, so for those of you who like salads check it out. I went with a basic ham and Swiss on stone mill rye bread.

     The sandwich comes with ham, Swiss, lettuce, tomato, red onion, and a Dijon mustard and mayo mix. The girl making the sandwich just dropped the two slices on ham on the bread without fluffing it up so for pictures sake, I did this myself. But the ham tasted the same as the ham I get at Wegmans, which I love. The bread has rye caraway seeds crusted along the outside which give the sandwich a light salty flavor with each bite. The Swiss had little flavor which was a little disappointing but the rest of the ingredients were fresh and very flavorful. The lettuce and tomatoes were they best I’ve had from Panera and the addition of the red onion gave the sandwich a little sweetness. I liked the taste if the mayo and Dijon, but what I liked more about it was that there wasn’t a ton of it. The sandwich wasn’t as good as my salad but that doesn’t mean I won’t order the sandwich again.

Rating: Satisfying – This time it was good hopefully it will be next time too.