Panera Bread

Panera was quite busy when we arrived. This was our first time at this location, as we were visiting someone in the hospital. It was honestly just really nice to have familiar food while we were in a high-stress situation. Despite it being busy, the food came out fairly quickly through their pick-up window. They have both a cashier where you can place your order and a kiosk nearby. We ordered the You Pick Two (turkey bravo sandwich, broccoli cheddar soup) and a new Asian-inspired salad. Everything was really good! They had some kind of issue with their register system declining people's cards, but the cashier helping everyone handled it with grace and a calm demeanor, which I greatly appreciated. They have teas and coffee from dispensers, a small cooler with bottled drinks and water, but no water dispensers set up anywhere, so make sure to add a beverage to your order.

I didn’t think a bad Panera was possible, but this really is just awful. 1. It’s truly rare that they are serving food at all during business hours. Daily they tape paper signs to the door with scrawled messages to the affect of “we will try to start serving breakfast around 8 or 9” or “sorry, bagels only all day because there’s only 2 of us today.” So I completely get the understaffed issue. It happens and it’s not their fault. But I’m sorry, most Panera food is pre-made and just needs to be reheated or toasted/topped. You could at least serve soup. It’s a bag you pour into a bucket. It doesn’t take 3 employees to do this. 2. Despite the fact that they usually don’t have food to serve, they never turn the items off on the app. They let you order all kinds of food, pay for it, then proceed take your money anyway without providing the product for which they were paid. This is a regular, normal practice here. To get around this, I’ve tried to order at the counter so I’ll know before I pay what they actually have. 3. When they do have food, oh-my-god is it bad. I’ve been served ice cold soup, hard, burned bread, brown apples, hard cookies, sandwiches with the meat missing, pizza with no sauce, rotten lettuce, soaking wet bread, you name it. It’s almost comical how gross it is. 4. For beverages, it’s unsweetened black tea ONLY. No lemonades, no flavored teas, nothing. For bakery, they are not serving standard Panera bakery items. They serve weird miniature cookies? Like, the size of coin. Not sure what these are or where they get them, but they charge the full Panera price for them. So….$3.00 for one bite of crunchy cookie like of a style and size similar to store bought chips-ahoy. It’s baffling. I didn’t think it was possible for Panera to be this bad. I’m sorry but this is absolutely horrid.

Hello, I am working on a Sunday trying to get my meal at this location, which is inside the hospital. I physically walk to the cafe at 1550 and the doors closed on me as I am walking up. Now I usually don't complain but the fact that they're turning away customers 10 minutes away from original closing time is actually quite surprising. I even decide to call and place an order instead, and the worker picks up and says that they're closing and there's only three workers so that I can't even order for a pickup. All I wanted was a soup and bread. This place will never get money from me again.

I come here weekly and have noticed a real decline in customer experience. I assume what I've noticed is related to staffing issues like we're seeing everywhere. My orders have still been efficient and high quality, but without fail at least one of the following are empty at all times: iced coffee/tea, cup tops, creamer/milk. This location is inside a hospital, so many doctors and nurses race in specifically for drink club refills and are visibly frustrated when met with empty items and no time to ask/wait for refills. Trash bins are consistently OVERFLOWING, eventually piling up trash on cabinets. I previously said I love the kiosk checkout, but today they had paper taped over them (with no note) to discourage people from using. Several customers lifted paper and submitted anyway. I ordered online, but as I walked past the register the employee told a customer they're only accepting orders for bakery... Bizarre