Independent guide to Panera menu prices and calories Not affiliated with Panera Bread
Independent guide Not affiliated with Panera Bread
Prices and calories at all three sizes
A bowl is $11.00 at 980 calories and a small is $6.38 at 490. The bread bowl is the odd one: $9.70, which is $1.30 less than the bowl and 160 calories more. Read from all 2,239 US cafes.
The macaroni and cheese Panera Bread serves comes in three sizes, and the price does not climb the way you would expect. Whether you search for it as Panera mac n cheese or Panera macaroni and cheese it is the same shell pasta in white cheddar sauce. Read from all 2,239 US cafes in August 2026.
At 2,231 of 2,239 cafes
At 2,231 of 2,239 cafes
It turned up at 186 of the 2,239 cafes we read, about 8 percent of them, so treat it as something you find rather than something to expect.
Worth knowing before you order it: the kids portion is 490 calories, which is exactly the same as the adult small, and it costs $1.02 more. If it is a smaller portion you want, the small is the cheaper way to buy it.
This is the part of the menu most worth knowing, and it runs the opposite way to the bread bowl on the soup menu, where the loaf is an upcharge.
$6.38
490 calories
$11.00
980 calories
$9.70
1140 calories
A mac and cheese bread bowl is $9.70 against $11.00 for the bowl, so it is $1.30 cheaper and 160 calories heavier. The loaf takes up room the mac would otherwise fill, so you are buying less mac and a sourdough bowl to eat it out of.
The same holds for the bacon version at $10.46 against $12.14. If the mac is the point, the plain bowl gives you more of it; if the bread is, the bread bowl is the cheaper order. On the soup menu the bread bowl works the other way round and costs about 69 cents more than a bowl.
Panera macaroni and cheese nutrition is the second most looked-up thing about this menu. Here is every figure the snapshot holds, and the tags Panera puts on it.
| Mac and cheese | Small | Bowl | Bread bowl |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bacon Mac & Cheese | $6.99 530 cal | $12.14 1,050 cal | $10.46 1,170 cal |
| Mac & Cheese | $6.38 490 cal | $11.00 980 cal | $9.70 1,140 cal |
| Lobster Mac & Cheese | $12.23 620 cal | $22.57 1,250 cal | $15.18 1,270 cal |
National averages across the cafes that carry each item. The bread bowl column is the one to read twice: it is cheaper than the bowl beside it and heavier than it.
Neither is tagged gluten conscious, and nothing on this menu is tagged vegan.
A bowl of mac is more than twice the heaviest soup on the menu. Full figures for everything else are on our nutrition page.
All three are also sold as group trays, which is what you are buying if you are feeding a room rather than a person. They are priced as one item, not per head.
Mac & Cheese
$26.31
1,950 cal per tray
Bacon Mac & Cheese
$29.39
2,110 cal per tray
Lobster Mac & Cheese
$39.87
2,500 cal per tray
A tray is roughly twice the calories of a bowl, so it is closer to two servings than to a party size. The rest of the group menu is on our catering page.
All 2 items on the mac and cheese menu, cheapest first. Mac & Cheese is the least you can spend at $11.00, Bacon Mac & Cheese the most at $12.14.
| Item | Typical | Range | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mac & Cheese2,231 cafesThe same price at every cafe that sells it. | $11.00 | one price | 980 |
| Bacon Mac & Cheese2,231 cafesThe same price at every cafe that sells it. | $12.14 | one price | 1,050 |
Typical is the average price across every US cafe that sells the item. The range is the cheapest and the dearest cafe in the country, because Panera franchisees set their own prices. Open an item for the state by state breakdown.
Every figure below comes from the same reading of 2,239 cafes as the table above it.
A bowl is $11.00 and a small is $6.38, averaged across all 2,239 US cafes. Bacon Mac and Cheese is $12.14 for a bowl and $6.99 for a small.
In a bread bowl the regular mac is $9.70, which is $1.30 less than the bowl rather than more, because the loaf takes up room the mac would otherwise fill.
A bowl is 980 calories and a small is 490. In a bread bowl it comes to 1140, because the bread counts towards the total.
Bacon Mac and Cheese is heavier at every size: 530 for a small, 1050 for a bowl and 1170 in a bread bowl. Panera flags both as high sodium.
Yes, and it is the one part of this menu where the price runs against what you would expect. A mac and cheese bread bowl is $9.70 against $11.00 for the bowl, so it costs $1.30 less and carries 160 calories more.
That is the trade: a smaller portion of mac, plus a sourdough loaf you can eat. If it is the mac you want, the bowl gives you more of it.
Panera tags the regular Mac and Cheese vegetarian. It does not tag it gluten conscious, and the Bacon Mac and Cheese is neither.
Both carry Panera's high sodium flag at bowl size. Nothing on this menu is tagged vegan.
Almost exactly double. The small is 490 calories at $6.38 and the bowl is 980 at $11.00, so the bowl is twice the food for 1.7 times the price.
The small is also what a You Pick Two holds, next to a half sandwich or a salad.
No. People search for it because it is a combination customers put together themselves: a cup of Broccoli Cheddar Soup poured over a mac and cheese. Panera has never sold it as one item, so no cafe will have it on the board.
Ordered as the two things it is, that comes to $5.57 for the soup cup and $11.00 for the mac, or $16.57 together, at about 1,400 calories.
Mac and cheese is just the start. Here is what pairs perfectly with it.
Broccoli Cheddar and Mac & Cheese are the ultimate comfort food combo. Dip your bread into both.
Half Mac + half sandwich = the perfect lunch. Frontega Chicken and Chipotle Avo Melt are both on the menu at almost every cafe.
Every item at Panera with 2026 prices. From bagels to salads to bakery treats.
More independent guides to Panera Bread prices, menus and ordering.
