Panier Rouge - Yonge and St. Clair

[pâté chinois]

Seeing as I could not find posts on this new place on CH, I decided to check it out for myself.

Prêt à manger fans: rejoice. Panier Rouge is very similar to it, but on a smaller scale.

My meal: ceasar salad ($8) and petite chicken and herb sandwich ($3.25) - total with tax: $12.71

The salad: good sized portion, presented in a cardboard box. The lettuce is crispy, but slightly brown where the knife cut it. Garnished with thinly sliced onion (easy to remove), cheese shavings (not sure what kind, but tasty), a wedge of lemon (nice!), and the most disappointing croutons I've ever eaten (due to the fact that they are limp). Dressing is in a separate container, which is great.

The sandwich is the "baby" version of a bigger size. It is served on very fresh and soft multigrain bread (Country Harvest maybe), and garnished with lettuce, tomatoes, a few slices of cooked chicken (I think fresh, not the cold-cut variety), and an herb sauce (not mayonnaise as far as I can tell). Very good and fresh.

There are lots of beverage choices, but not too many dessert options.

Will I go back? yes, because I'm curious and want to try other sandwich varieties.

Did I love it? no. It was good, but not that great.

At prices similar to Delica's, I still prefer Delica.

[mrsleny]

Here's their website: http://www.panierrouge.com/

No prices though :(

[BlueGoo]

Thanks for the review, I am looking forward to checking them out too.

However, every time I see the sign my eyes get bogged down at the spelling of "panier" - shouldn't it be "pannier"??

[Tatai]

Why should it be "pannier"? A panier, as spelled, is a basket in French. Having the word "rouge" in the restaurant name would negate using the "English" word pannier.

[pâté chinois]

I forgot to add that one thing I think is missing from their packaging is a list of ingredients. If I had food allergies, there's no way I could eat there without asking tons of questions to staff.

Peppermint: my mistake: salad price was $8, not $9, but still. The more I think about it the steeper the price seems.

They did have two soups today: carrot/ginger/squash and oven-roasted red pepper. I went for the salad instead.

Coffee and "fancy" teas (a French brand I can't remember), and very basic pastries: muffins, cookies. Delica has much better options in my opinion - I looove their carrot cake.

[peppermint pate]

I was just going to post about this spot today. Drove by and thought to myself, hmm, looks like Pret-a-Manger.

I love the idea of a petite sandwich option. I often feel like a half-sandwich. Too bad it's Country Harvest bread and not something a little more interesting. $9 for the Caesar? That's crazy steep.

What else do they have? Soups? Pastries? Coffee?

Yonge and St. Clair is lean on good food options so I hope this place is decent. Thanks for posting.