We stopped in at about 8 pm on Sunday evening for a healthy light dinner, after spotting the Panera Bread sign on I-24. We chose Panera Bread for its free wi-fi service so we could locate a hotel for the night in Paducah.
This store has a drive thru and an outdoor dining patio, but it was almost dark so we ate inside to utilize the wi-fi with adequate lighting.
I love the food at Panera Bread stores because they're converting to a non-GMO menu as much as possible and because their food options are very healthy compared to any of the other fast food franchises. We always order the Pick 2 combos - soup and salad, soup and sandwich, etc.
I'm particularly fond of the black bean soup and baguette, and I order it whenever it's available. During this visit I also ordered the Strawberry Chicken Salad, which was amazing - filled with blueberries, mandarin orange slices, fresh pineapple, strawberries, crisp greens, grilled chicken and roasted nuts. We belong to the Panera Bread card club, so we got a complimentary strawberry rhubarb cake for dessert.
We've eaten at a dozen Panera Bread stores around the country and never had a problem with the wi-fi before. However the store in Paducah seriously needs to upgrade its wi-fi. It's almost non-existent ... literally takes thirty seconds for a page to come up.
Other than the wi-fi, everything was good. The staff was friendly and the food was ready promptly.