Panera is now testing a dinner menu

If Panera Bread is one of your go-to restaurants for lunch, get ready to add it to your after-work dinner plans as well.

While the restaurant chain has always been open during the evening hours, they are officially testing a 10-item dinner menu full of hearty, wholesome, made-from-scratch meals that not only sound amazing but seem like a pretty healthy way to end your day.

The menu is full of hot sandwiches and three new product categories for Panera: artisanal flatbreads, hearty dinner bowls and seasonal sides, all with no preservatives, sweeteners, flavors or colors from artificial sources. It will be available from 4:30-10 p.m.

There is some bad news, however. For now, the menu is only going to be available in Lexington, Kentucky starting his month and Providence, Rhode Island in September. If testing goes well, it will eventually roll out to other Panera stores in the country. So, if you’re in Lexington and Providence, do us all a favor and try it out so we can get it too!

While we wait patiently for our chance to check it out, let’s take a deeper look at the menu, starting with the new dinner bowl category. Here, you’ll find a teriyaki chicken and broccoli bowl and pesto chicken bowl. Both include seared, roasted chicken served over a brown rice and quinoa blend. The teriyaki chicken bowl is topped with cilantro and toasted sesame seeds, while the pesto chicken features a nut-free basil pesto and garlic cream sauce. It’s topped with grated parmesan and fresh lemon.

For the flatbreads, they’ll be serving up margherita, steak and blue cheese and chipotle chicken and bacon. The steak and blue cheese flatbread includes grass-fed beef, caramelized onions and blue cheese.  The chipotle chicken and bacon flatbread features smoked chicken, bacon and grape tomatoes, along with chipotle aioli and cilantro.

While the steak and chicken obviously have meat and are also topped with garlic cream sauces, the margherita is vegetarian. It comes with grape tomatoes, sliced fresh mozzarella, a tomato bell pepper sauce and fresh basil. All selections are served on artisanal flatbread and include a fresh blend of fontina and mozzarella cheeses.

For sandwiches, you can choose from toasted pastrami or toasted Tuscan grilled chicken. The pastrami comes with melted Emmental cheese, creamy mustard sauce and caramelized onions, while the grilled chicken includes provolone, parmesan, arugula, smoky tomato confit and basil mayo.

Lastly, for sides, they’ll be adding parmesan broccoli, sweet potato mash and tomato, basil and cucumber salad. The parmesan broccoli is seasoned with garlic cream sauce, grated parmesan and salt and pepper. The salad includes grape tomatoes and diced cucumber tossed in Greek dressing with fresh basil and sea salt, while the mash is simply sweet potatoes, roasted pecan pieces and crunchy apple chips.

We can’t wait till they roll out this new new dinner menu near us! Which one of these new items sounds like it could be your new favorite?