Panera Bread

I happened to be checking out this mall on this early Friday morning, when I happened upon the food court. One thing that I can say about the mall itself, is that is definitely bustling, and by no means a dead mall. So I noticed one of my all time favorite restaurants Panera Bread, with a pretty decent line of people waiting to place their order. I was at the right place at the right time, with an empty stomach as well. I decided to go for the bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich. I noticed that on the menu, it was prices very reasonably, even less expensive than the fast food place right next door. In a matter of minutes, my sandwich was prepared and I found a cool seat right in he middle of the food court. The sandwich was great as always, and now I will be able to spend even more time walking around the mall without an empty stomach!

I read through some reviews before posting - sad to see my exact complaint was posted a year ago. Ordered online - smooth system, fast preparation, tasted great. However, the “Rapid Pickup Shelf” was a disaster. Staff kept all online orders on their side of it with names facing them, and never announced an order more than once. If you plan to wait patiently, be prepared to wait forever because the staff is completely oblivious to the many people waiting for their mobile orders that are sitting on the staff side of the shelf.

I don’t normally eat something I didn’t prepare myself, just because of situations like this, but I’ve been forced to get something from the food court when I don’t have my lunch. The past two times I’ve ordered here from the app, my orders were wrong. The first time I asked for no cheese on my sandwich because I’m vegan. Shoulda checked it when I picked it up but saw that when I opened it, there was feta on it. Went back down, still in my lunch break, and they fixed it, or so I thought. Got back and looked at it and there was no feta but there was also none of the extras I added on. The second time I got a salad and again asked for no cheese and again there was feta. I didn’t realize this until I got home. I used to like Panera. Had a good selection of things I could eat, but I’m done. I’m ll never go back to this location. If you want your order done wrong, go here. Cross posted on Yelp.

Underwhelming compared to the other Panera locations. It is in the food court of the big shopping mall so traffic and wait are expected. However we arrived in the early morning and the wait was still much longer than other Panera. It was likely due to the short of staff; it seemed to me there were only 1 person working in the kitchen besides the one taking orders.

A welcomed establishment in the pentagon mall that has a bunch of junk food. There was not much of a line compared to the other establishments which was surprising. They have a reduced menu but there is enough to make it feel like you’re eating at a Panera. I can’t believe the everything-cookie was 800 calories! Lol. Photos as of May 2019.