The Best Chain Restaurant Grilled Cheese Sandwich Is Sadly The Priciest One We Tried

The mighty grilled cheese sandwich is one of the world's foremost foodstuffs for delivering decadence on a reasonable budget at home. What feels more luxe, after all, than gooey cheese? Sure, there are plenty of glow-ups that can make your grilled cheese seem even fancier, but the basic ingredients are typically among the more affordable items at the grocery store. Those economics change, of course, once someone else is grilling your cheese. And, with Panera Bread's $9-plus offering taking the lead in our ranking of the best grilled cheese from seven restaurant chains, it's one instance where you really do get what you pay for.

Those grilled cheese sandwiches you can make for a fraction of the price (which does not include tax and might vary by location) just don't account for all the times that you might want one outside of your own kitchen. And only Panera's rendition achieved the crisp, buttery exterior and gooey interior of toasty sandwich dreams. Its standard ingredients, basic sliced white miche bread and American cheese, are not explicitly premium (though you can add bacon and white cheddar for an additional fee), but Panera puts them together more successfully than any of the other spots we tried. The cheese pull was unparalleled, the individual flavors effectively asserted themselves, and the properly brittle outside texture gave way to an appropriately warm, yielding sandwich center. Plus, Panera's grilled cheese comes with free chips or an apple, which helps offset its higher price tag by a bit.

Our grilled cheese ranking demanded an expertly balanced carb-to-dairy ratio, adherence to expected texture, overall flavor, and value. The cream of the crop best approximated what you might remember from sweet childhood snow days while home from school, or even the classic, no-frills grilled cheese that you may have perfected as an adult. Panera's sandwich swept those first three categories and passed the last one thanks to the aforementioned chips. Without that included side, Modern Market Eatery's Kid's Grilled Cheese Dipper, which also isn't exactly cheap at around $8.35, might have had a better chance at the No. 1 spot.

On the flip side, Potbelly Sandwich Works' grilled cheese could not come within striking distance of our evaluation requirements. Its default multigrain was more conducive to a standard sub sandwich. and thus resistant to crisping. It was also dry to the point of seeming as though it was prepared without any butter (or mayonnaise, like Five Guys). And, although it was melty enough, the amount of cheese was surprisingly scant. Adding injury to insult, it's also $9 without any extras. The cheapest one we tried, Which Wich's $6.50 grilled cheese Kidswich, was also the second worst among the bunch, and, absent any sides, kind of puts these prices into perspective. Between the superior quality and the additional snack, those lesser grilled cheese options are just the thing to make Panera's winning grilled cheese seem like an even better proposition.