Panera Bread

Over priced for what you get. Salad a splash of dressing Togo with brown lettuce. Sandwich looks like it was all slapped together with barely anything on it. I keep giving this place chances and it always disappoints! Way too expensive. 2 people lunch time with 1 drink 35$. Will Not be back! Quality is terrible.

I used to love Panera Bread, but I have had several bad experiences there since Covid, and I now think it’s a much better option to eat lunch at home or at another restaurant. First we tried take out. By the time we got home, the sandwiches were soggy. The quality of the salads seemed to go down; we were getting brown lettuce. When Panera reopened with patio dining, I tried that, but it was horrible. It was over 100 degrees, and too uncomfortable to eat outdoors, even though I had a shaded table. The patio was surrounded by idling vehicles on three sides: the In-N-Out drive-thru on one side, the Panera drive-thru on another side, and Panera’s curbside pickup on the third side. The idling vehicles made the temperature on the patio even hotter, and who wants to breathe in all of that car exhaust while eating? I tried the patio again on a cooler day, with temps in the 90’s, it was still too uncomfortable to eat. When Panera reopened for indoor dining, I was delighted and decided to try again. When I went to find a seat, all of the dine-in customers were crowded together in the center of the dining room, so social distancing was impossible. This completely defeats the purpose of the low-capacity indoor dining edicts. The whole point of being at low capacity is to spread the customers out throughout the dining rooms, so they will be far enough away from each other that they are less likely to contract the virus from each other. I moved a chair aside and sat at a table in the back, more than 12 feet away from the nearest person. An employee came over and told me that I had to leave. I told them that it doesn’t matter sense to seat everyone so close together and that I was trying to social distance. I asked for a manager. They not only made me leave the section but the manager tried to take my tray of food away, food I had already purchased. We actually got into a pulling match over my tray of food. They told me there was no more room to eat inside and that the dining room was at capacity, but no one told me it was at capacity before I ordered my food. I specifically went there to dine-in, and I would have left without ordering if I had been told there were no tables for dine in. I was forced to bring my food outside to the patio or the manager would have pulled my tray away from me. I sat outside sobbing because it was 98 degrees outside and too uncomfortable to eat. I finally went back inside, and the manager said that a table just became available so I sat down. I spent the rest of my meal writing this negative right because I am so disappointed with how I was treated at Panera, which used to be one of my favorite lunch spots. What would have been the harm if they had simply let me eat at the table at the far end of the restaurant? Instead they forced me outside int the 98-degree heat for two minutes. Why not let me sit 12+ feet away from other customers in the A/C, instead of chasing me into a hot polluted patio? Btw, they knew that I was there to dine in, and they did not come outside to inform me that there was an indoor table available. I came back in and found it myself, because I couldn’t stand eating inside. Now, I have a very bad memory of being treated badly by Panera staff. Let’s talk about the FOOD. I still had pieces of brown lettuce in my salad. Something that I used to love about Panera was the Asiago cheese flakes that they put in the Caesar salad and French Onion soup. Now, they just sprinkle on cheap grated Parmesan. The quality of the food is going downhill. Panera used to give out free cookies if the lines to order were too long. Now they fight with you if you try to sit down and have a meal. I’m sad that one of my favorite low-price restaurants is just not a comfortable place to eat anymore.

First and last time at this place. I came right before closing and the car in front of me ordered, I get to the speaker and the guy tells me they’re closed and it’s not even 10pm yet. I had to wait 10 mins for the car in front of me at the drive thru which he took their order but refused to let me order. Horrible experience here, the man at the drive thru doesn’t care about customers