Caffè Panzera

I had a beer here with my aunt. It’s a nice place with cool casual outdoor seating. Waiters speak english. Beers cold and coffees hot. I would stop by again.

My husband and I had a few hours before our train was to leave, so we popped out of the train station to find some lunch. The staff here was not very friendly. Our waiter would hardly even let us look at the menu. He kept rushing us and asking questions like do you want a sandwich, do you want a pizza. We asked for a portabella mushroom pizza and he responded, «Eh, mushroom,» and we ended up with regular, canned mushrooms on our pizza. The food itself was okay, nothing special.

Panzera is the type of establishment that elicits very polar reactions: you hate something about it, you love something about it. For example I was not enthused by the € 18 bill for a lunch made up of nizzarda salad (string beans, cherry tomatoes, boiled egg and tuna), cappuccino and water. Now, that’s preposterous even in Milan. I did love the double-​stacked sandwiches though, and to the moment I haven’t found anything comparable around. The sandwiches are made of «pan brioche», which looks like a dome-​shaped bread, but contains eggs in the dough and remains incredibly soft and velvety. It’s a gourmet option, sliced to be served with different types of ingredients, with the «King salmon» option taking the cake. My personal recommendation: take a couple of those to go, you’ll be presented with a classy box with your goodies conveniently sliced in half for sharing, or just to avoid nasty splodges on your shirt. I like to have an excuse not to share them…
The sweets are good, the cappuccino a hit or miss, depending on who’s maneuvering the milk foamer. The seating area is wide and convenient (there’s an upper floor as well), but the moment you sit down, the prices balloon. They accept all credit cards, including Amex.
Again, choose selectively and Panzera will be a pleasant experience, with not so much of a sticker shock.

Caffe Panzera wasn’t bad. My husband came I ate here while in Milano during our honeymoon. We just wanted a quick lunch before we got out and about in the city. I had a turkey and cheese sandwich with some salad. Believe it or night my sandwich was very simple but good. It was toasted and had mayo on it and that’s it. My husband had lasagna, bread, and salad. He said the lasagna wasn’t bad but not like his moms (side note: we LOVE his moms lasagna). The lasagna was a little bland but it was ok for a simple lunch. Overall the caffe wasn’t bad.

Good location outside of the Central Milan train station. We ordered some Peronis and enjoyed a sandwich while making our plan of action for getting to our hotel. Right near the metro entrance and trolleys. We sat outside and had quick service.

Caffe Panzera is conveniently located across from the Milan train station and offers outside seating, a upstairs tea room, a small section for eating any snacks bought from the glass sandwich case, coffee bar, or pastry section, or a restaurant area. The place is beautifully decorated in warm woods and has the typical Italian café feel. This place was very busy as it is a main stopping place for people to quickly sip a coffee at the bar before catching a train, or grabbing a bite in any of the previously named areas. This is not a place I would go to buy a full meal. I saw the meal options being served on plates, and it didn’t appear to be anything special. This is definitely not meant to be a nice dinner option. It is a place to enjoy a cheap quick meal. My husband and I opted for pizza which we found is hard to find bad pizza in Milan. The pizza while not mind melting was good. I chose the pizza with sausage and saffron as I had never seen saffron on a pizza before. The pizza actually had a good flavor to it, and reminded me of the typical Milan dish of risotto and saffron. It was just the pizza version. What I found surprising about this place is that even though it was packed, the service was quick and friendly. At the end we enjoyed an espresso and were surprised by the quality of the coffee. We were only expecting average as it was cheap and an average place, but the coffee had a great taste and was very good.

The food was okay here, but not as good as other places we’d tried. We had the risotto with saffron and a steak dish, which were fine but not a big deal. The waiter was not the friendliest either. The restaurant was cute on the outside, but I think you could find a better place for dinner.