There's Nothing Like a Salad at Panera Bread

Tonight I took the kids to Panera for dinner. I honestly haven't had such a disappointing and revolting culinary experience in some time. First, I ordered the kids PB&Js. Now, maybe I'm dense here, but is a half sandwich and a Go-Gurt enough food to qualify as a meal?? They used to include a drink. Now they don't. Now they charge you a buck and a half for a juice box. This all pissed me off. I can get a kid's meal at a proper restaurant for the same price, with a drink. I ended up splitting the bread that came with my salad between the kids. Ok, I should be completely honest here. The bread didn't come with my salad; I had to ask for it because they forgot to give it to me. This also was an irritant. On top of it there was weird slime in the ice dispenser. Pink and black slime. So, I passed on the ice. By this point, I was bordering on livid.

Ah, but I have failed to get to the piece de resistance: the salad. I ordered a chicken caesar salad. I always order a chicken caesar salad. Or at least I used to. After today, perhaps I shall not. I was nearly finished with the salad when I spotted something red in it. Now, one generally does not find anything red in a caesar salad, so I was slightly concerned. Then I looked closer and became rather repulsed. It was shaped like a half-circle with black dots on it. At this point I turned to Ann for a confirmation of my fear. And she confirmed it. There was a ladybug wing in my salad. Bug parts in my salad! Ewwwwwwwwww.

I showed the manager, who was also repulsed and made some promise to call the lettuce distributor. She gave me some gift certificates for my trauma. I think I'll use them on soup.