Fresh salads and soups in MCO’s Terminal B atrium
Panera Bread sits in the main Terminal B atrium at Orlando International Airport, before you head down to the A/B or C gate trains. If you’re trying to avoid another fryer-heavy meal, this is one of the few spots up here doing greens and broth instead of just burgers and chicken strips. It carries a 29 rating, squarely middle-of-the-pack for MCO, but the menu is more produce-forward than most of its neighbors.
You’ll see the usual Panera lineup: Fuji Apple Chicken or Caesar salads, Broccoli Cheddar and 10 Vegetable soups, plus sandwiches like the Bacon Turkey Bravo and the Chipotle Chicken Avocado Melt. Expect typical airport pricing: most full-size salads and sandwiches land in the $11–$14 range, with soups around $7–$8 for a cup. Portion sizes track with street-side Panera, so one main generally gets you through a 2–3 hour flight.
Being in the public atrium of Terminal B means you can eat here even if you’re picking someone up and never clearing security. It also means lines spike hard around the 7:00–9:00 a.m. rush and again between 4:00–7:00 p.m. when both the A and B security checkpoints are jammed. Baked goods and breakfast sandwiches usually hold up fine earlier in the day; by late evening, the pastry case can look picked over.
Skip anything that clearly sat under the heat lamps too long, especially flatbreads and paninis that start to dry out at the edges. Soups are the safer play when turnover is slow, and salads can be tweaked on the fly if you ask them to leave off a dressing or topping. If you’re watching time to your flight at Gates 1–129 in A/B, budget at least 15–20 minutes here plus 15 minutes to clear security and ride the correct train.
Tip: Mobile order through the Panera app as you walk into Terminal B; pick up at the counter, eat in the atrium, then head straight to the A or B security line when your group is ready.