Panera Bread

Usually I like Panera bread. Don't know if it was a bad day or wrong place, but the pasta I received was pretty dry and I was chewing extra for most part, the tomato soup wasn't that good either. Also the side drink from cooler was pretty diluted and frankly unimpressive (don't remember which one, some peach thing I think). But they hosted me for 3 hours without a complain, their WiFi is good enough and in general the servers were quite friendly.

Like many nowadays it was clear they were short staffed or unorganized. The two young gals ringing things up were being told from what look liked a manager (olderish man) that they didn’t have certain food left. When they did in fact have it. He just didn’t want to deal with more orders. Which makes sense because the list for rapid pick up was extremely long. I have a picture but I would hate to post others names. The male manager I truly think was trying his best with what they had as far as staff. Customers were trying to be understanding but the wait times were unreal with no communication was a bit frustrating. We ordered our food at 6:16 and did not get it until 7:02. We dinned in and we over heard many conversations from disgruntled customers. The staff was so focused on the rapid pick ups to play catch up it seemed they pushed us who dined in to the bottom. When we did get our food it was wrong. I wasn’t trying to make a big fuss about it but after paying $43 and not getting what we paid for it was a bit annoying. The worked apologized over and over. It wasn’t their fault they were just working with what they had. Honestly it shouldn’t be allowed to have that many rapid picks up when they are short staffed. The unnecessary stress put on workers was clearly overwhelmingly. 3 stars not so much for the wait but more so for the lack of communication and wrong food.

I always go for panera especially if I want fast food. The drive through is a fabulous idea and should be cloned in the rest of the stores in the area. Sometimes I just can't move me and all my stuff fast enough to go inside and order and wait and carry my meal out. Of course, you should also consider cloning your friendly front counter staff and your clean restrooms. This review appears to be about all Panera stores. I only go to a few, obviously, in my area. They have several cool features, great bakery content, and always good wholesome food.