Sandwich boxes Typical
The hungry-room band
$12.89 to $16.29 per box (typical)
Reported range via ezCater listings summarized by menu guides. Pay this end when the meeting runs long and people need a real meal, not a snack with good branding.
The Office Order Playbook · 2026 boxed lunch guide
Panera Boxed Lunches: What's Inside, Prices & How to Order (2026)
Every box, what's actually in it, the real calorie total with the cookie counted, and the no-stress office ordering playbook. The boxes themselves are built from the standard items you can browse by category, so the totals here connect to prices you already know.
Every other page lists boxed lunch prices and stops. This one makes the decisions for you: which box for which person, what the cookie does to the total, and how to order for a room without the hallway scramble. Box formats come from Panera's boxed lunch menu as reported in cafe catering PDFs. Box prices are labeled typical. Main-item prices and nutrition are from our checked menu numbers.
How to read the labels: Typical means a box price or format reported by catering listings and guides, not in our checked menu numbers. Estimated means a full-box calorie total we built from a verified main plus verified chips and cookie. Verified main prices need no badge: they are 9-city averages checked September 30, 2026.
Start here
What's actually in the box
Pick a format. The tray shows the build exactly as Panera's boxed lunch menu reports it, with the verified calories for the parts we can verify and an honest estimate badge for the parts Panera does not publish.
A Panera boxed lunch is an individual catering box: one main item plus sides, packed and labeled per person. It sits between a single cafe order and a shared catering tray: more personal than a platter, with none of the serving setup.
Sandwich Box
Best for the hungry room. A full sandwich carries the most protein and the most staying power. It is also the box most likely to cross 1,300 calories once the chips and cookie land.
Honest footnote: add about 540 cal to any sandwich for the chips and cookie alone. The pickle adds crunch, not meaningful calories. Full-box total: estimated.
Good to know: box formats follow Panera's boxed lunch menu. Contents and builds vary by cafe, so confirm the build when you order.
The hook
The box math nobody shows
Menu guides print the sandwich calories and stop before the box is closed. The closed box adds about 540 calories: kettle chips at 150 cal plus a Chocolate Chipper Cookie at 390 cal, both verified in our menu numbers. Order the box for the convenience, not the calories.
Turkey and Cheddar box
~1,310 cal Estimated
Sandwich ~770
150
Sandwich: the mainChips: 150 verifiedCookie: 390 verified
Mediterranean Veggie box
~1,060 cal Estimated
Sandwich 520
150
Lightest sandwich, still a full box: even the lightest main lands over 1,000 cal closed.
The takeaway is not to skip the box. It is to choose the main like the cookie is already decided, because it is.
Try it
Build your box total
Pick a main. We add the verified box extras and show the closed-box total, badged estimated. Salad boxes swap chips and pickle for bread: the cookie is still 390, so treat salad totals as planning estimates.
~1,400 cal
860 main + 150 chips + 390 cookie. Pickle included, negligible calories.
Order it when the room is hungry and lunch has to hold until dinner. Watch the 2,430mg sodium in the sandwich alone.
Full-box totals are estimated. Panera does not publish boxed lunch nutrition. Verified pieces: chips 150 cal and Chocolate Chipper Cookie 390 cal from the official guide listed menu numbers. Main calories are verified, except the Turkey and Cheddar box example, which follows the reported box example at about 1,310 cal total.
What it costs
Box prices, with the decision attached
Box prices live outside our checked menu numbers, so both bands below are labeled typical. What we can verify sits beside them: the main-item price you would pay in the cafe, and the closed-box calories you should plan for.
Salad boxes Typical
The light-eater band
$12.19 to $18.19 per box (typical)
Reported range via the same catering listings. The top of this band beats the top of the sandwich band: premium salads cost more boxed than classic sandwiches. Do not assume salad means cheaper.
Bacon Turkey BravoSandwich box · 47g protein in the sandwich
$11.81verified main price · 860 cal
~1,400 cal Estimated$12.89 to $16.29 per box (typical)
The room skipped breakfast. Most filling classic in the case. Budget the 2,430mg sodium for the rest of the day.
Mediterranean VeggieSandwich box · the vegetarian anchor · 18g protein
$8.12verified main price · 520 cal
~1,060 cal Estimated$12.89 to $16.29 per box (typical)
Every order, no exceptions. Lightest main, cheapest main, and the box that keeps the vegetarian in the room fed without a special trip.
Tuna Salad SandwichSandwich box · 24g protein · 1,200mg sodium
$9.93verified main price · 590 cal
~1,130 cal Estimated$12.89 to $16.29 per box (typical)
You do not know the room. Familiar, light, and gentle on sodium. The safe default between the heavy Bravo and the veggie box.
Green Goddess Chicken CobbSalad box · 40g protein · best salad score
$12.99verified main price · 580 cal
~1,120 cal Estimated$12.19 to $18.19 per box (typical)
Light eaters who still need lunch to work. Most protein of any salad. The salad box to order when salad has to be the whole meal.
Fuji Apple Chicken SaladSalad box · 28g protein · sweet and crunchy
$11.73verified main price · 710 cal
~1,250 cal Estimated$12.19 to $18.19 per box (typical)
The crowd-pleaser. The salad most likely to vanish first. Mid calories, real protein, no lecture attached.
Caesar Salad with ChickenSalad box · 35g protein · 2,620mg sodium
$11.71verified main price · 670 cal
~1,210 cal Estimated$12.19 to $18.19 per box (typical)
Only when Caesar is the request. Great protein, but the salad alone passes the daily sodium value before bread and cookie.
How to read this ledger: the middle column is the only verified price on the row (9-city average, checked September 30, 2026). The box band is typical and the closed-box calories are estimated from verified mains plus verified chips (150 cal) and cookie (390 cal). Salad boxes replace chips and pickle with bread, so salad totals stay planning estimates. Full sandwich numbers are in the sandwich guide and full salad numbers in the salad check.
The part no price list gives you
The office order playbook
Five rules, in order. Run them top to bottom and the order mostly handles itself. Skip rule 3 and you will spend the meeting sorting lids instead of eating.
Count heads, then add one or two boxes
Headcounts lie politely. Someone brings a guest, someone who declined gets hungry at noon, and one box always gets built wrong. The extra boxes are cheaper than the apology tour.
Do this: final count plus two. Make both extras Mediterranean Veggie boxes: they suit the widest range of eaters and keep without drama.
Always include vegetarian boxes
Do not wait for someone to ask. In any room over eight people, at least one vegetarian is present, and the person least likely to announce it is the one who ends up with chips and a cookie for lunch.
Do this: at least one in five boxes is Mediterranean Veggie, even when every RSVP says otherwise. It is the safe vegetarian box: lightest main, familiar build.
Label every box with a name
Typically, boxed lunches can carry individual names, and this is the feature that justifies the format. Unlabeled boxes turn a five-minute handoff into a lid-opening ceremony while the food gets cold.
Do this: name on the lid, dietary note under the name. Send the name list with the order, not in a follow-up email the cafe will never connect to it.
Match the box to the eater
Sandwich boxes carry the protein and the calories. Salad boxes carry the lighter mains, plus bread and the same cookie. Sending every person the same box wastes the one advantage the format gives you.
Do this: sandwich boxes for the hungry, salad boxes for light eaters, Half and Half for the undecided. One line in the invite: sandwich, salad, or half and half. That is the whole survey.
Order 24 to 48 hours ahead and confirm the window
Typically, this is the safe window, and the morning-of call is part of the order, not paranoia. Cafes build boxed lunches around the regular lunch rush: a confirmed window is what keeps your 12 boxes out of that crush.
Do this: order at catering.panerabread.com, screenshot the delivery window, then confirm by phone the morning of. No serving setup is needed after that: hand the boxes out and start.
Before you pay the premium
Boxed lunch or platter?
Boxed lunches are the convenient format, not the cheap one. Here is the honest split, in the order offices actually hit it.
Mixed dietary needs in one roomVegetarian, light eaters, and big appetites together
Boxed wins
Each box is built and labeled for one person. Nobody has to pick through a shared tray for what they cannot eat.
Shared pans force one build on everyone. You will order extra pans to cover the same ground.
No time to set upClient meeting, interviews, training starts on the hour
Boxed wins
Hand them out. No serving, no portioning, no keeping soup hot while people drift in.
Pans and packs need table space, serving tools, and someone willing to own the setup.
Budget is the decisionFeeding many people on a fixed number
At $12.89 to $18.19 per person typically, boxed is the premium format. Convenience is what you are buying.
Platter wins
Bagel packs near $1.42 per person and group soup pans near $5.41 per person (typical), stretch much further. Run the numbers in the planner.
Exact headcount, food must look cared forThe impression matters as much as the meal
Boxed wins
A named box per person reads as planned. It is the format that looks like someone thought about the room.
Platters read casual. Right for team lunches, wrong for the client you are trying to land.
Still deciding? The catering planner prices the platter side with verified pack prices and a headcount tool. If the room is mixed and the clock is tight, stop calculating and order the boxes.
Where your next question leads
If individual boxes feel pricey, party trays often cost 40 to 50 percent less per person. Planning something bigger than boxed lunches? See the full catering menu and group options.
Questions, answered
Frequently Asked Questions
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Per Panera's boxed lunch menu, as reported in cafe catering PDFs: a Sandwich Box pairs a sandwich with chips, a pickle spear, and a cookie. A Salad Box pairs a salad with bread and a cookie. A Half Sandwich and Half Salad Box pairs the two halves with bread and a cookie. Format details vary by cafe, so confirm the exact build when you order.
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Typically, including ezCater listings summarized by menu guides: sandwich boxes run $12.89 to $16.29 and salad boxes run $12.19 to $18.19. Box prices are not in our verified 9-city menu numbers, so every box price on this page is labeled typical. Main-item prices shown separately are verified 9-city averages.
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Order through Panera catering at catering.panerabread.com. Typically, order 24 to 48 hours ahead, put a name on every box, and confirm the delivery window with the cafe. Same-day large orders are the ones most likely to go wrong.
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A sandwich box adds about 540 calories to the sandwich alone: kettle chips at 150 cal plus a Chocolate Chipper Cookie at 390 cal, both verified. So a Turkey and Cheddar box lands around 1,310 cal estimated and a Mediterranean Veggie box around 1,060 cal estimated. Salad boxes add bread plus the same 390-cal cookie. All full-box totals are badged estimated because Panera does not publish boxed lunch nutrition.
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Typically, yes: you can put names on individual boxes and request swaps when you order, which is exactly why the format works for mixed office groups. Ask the cafe to confirm any swap that changes the main item or removes the cookie, since builds vary by location.
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It varies by cafe and by whether you pick up or choose delivery. Typical there is no single national minimum worth planning around. Confirm your cafe's minimum, delivery fee, and delivery window at checkout before you send the headcount to the team.
Go deeper
The three guides behind this page
This page makes the boxed lunch decision. These pages hold the verified numbers and the platter math behind it.
Plan the platter side
Verified pack prices, per-person math, and the headcount planner for bagels, feasts, soups, and drinks.
Catering plannerCheck the sandwich numbers
All 20 sandwiches with prices, protein, and sodium, including the hot and cold split that decides the box.
Sandwich guideCheck the salads
Calorie traps, add-chicken math, and the salad scores behind the Green Goddess and Fuji picks above.
Salad guide