Panera Bread
Reviews and Complaints

I just went to the Panera Bread in King of Prussia to get a hot chocolate. An older Caucasian woman was the one who helped me out. She overfilled my cup so that when she put the lid on...the whipped cream and liquid spilled out the lid. She takes a rag that sitting there and wipe my lid off...THEN WIPES THE COUNTER OFF AND THEN WIPES MY LID WHERE I WOULD PUT MY MOUTH AGAIN! I said excuse me...I need another lid...she looked at my like I said something crazy...and I said to her I just watched you wipe the counter and then wipe my lid off again. she gave me a new lid but I just had to file this complaint because...how many times do they do this without being caught? it's disgusting!

You have a store in deep trouble that’s risking the great brand you’ve built.

My family and I have had a series of incredibly poor experiences with your store in Sugar Land. If it were just one thing like slow service, I’d probably let it go as no one is perfect, but this store needs a total make over.

First, the store is dirty. Not just on one occasion, but consistently over a half dozen visits. Dropped food is left on the floor where people step on it most every time I’ve been there.

The staff is friendly, but completely untrained. On several occasions, new staff members unfamiliar with the registers are left to figure it out for themselves. My friend and I usually coach them through the transaction and try to help them relax. By the time we visit again in a week or two, everyone is new again. During today’s visit, a new employee on the register was visibly stressed by the growing line and shouted to the back “I need help up here! There’s congestion!”. Even if it looks like congestion, we’re your customers.

The food quality is laughable. Today two of us got your Napa Chicken Salad sandwich which contained so little chicken salad, we could barely locate it. Both did contain a hunk of lettuce and half of a tomato slice. It was so bad we threw it in the trash and wondered why we spent $8.00 each for something we couldn’t eat.

Please visit this store and take action before it’s too late. The management team needs to go. The team needs to be trained. You’ve worked too hard building a great brand to let this represent Panera.

Ordered on line at Canton, Ohio store. One of the sandwiches in the order was a tomato - mozzarella flat. When I took it out of the container I find a hot soaked sandwich. I phone the store to ask why it was hot. They told me they heat all flat bread sandwiches. I ask if they usually become completely soaked on bottom slice and all the cheese is gone. Her response was sometimes. The girl I spoke was very nice sounding but really not a good sales person for this sandwich.

Date 9-7-16

I went to Panera in Hemet CA
First time there and will NEVER return.
I ordered and because they were out of bread bowls they gave me a sprouted grain roll. I got home, cut into my bread and there was a white plastic thing in the middle of the roll. I called the manager and he said (exact words)
It happens what would you like me to do, replace it... Ok bring it back. I didn't get one word in.. As if he was answering himself. I will definitely be calling corporate in the morning

Ordered a Panni turkey, kale, cheese. This was the second sandwich this week that was terrible. I took one bite and it was all bread. Opened up the sandwich and I saw two very small pieces of turkey, kale, and a piece of melted cheese that was difficult to see. This was the second time this week that I had a bad sandwich at Panera. I thought going to Panera and paying $6+ for a $0.50 sandwich is not good idea. This was the second time in a week, the first time I could not even eat my sandwich which I sent back. What is going on with your sandwiches which are usually very good and have a nice serving of meat or other products and now difficult to even eat.

So on 8/10/2016 around 9PM I ordered some dinner from the store on the NE corner of the intersection of Pines Blvd and Hiatus in Pembroke Pines, FL via the rapid pickup feature online. I arrived at the store to find that my food wasn't at the rapid pickup area so I flagged a waitress down in the back area to see what the hold up was.

I had ordered a "pick two" with a turkey bravo sandwich + tomato soup and my girlfriend had ordered a baked potato soup bread bowl and a frozen watermelon lemonade. However, this is where it turned a bit frustrating.

First off, it was kind of hard to get anyone's attention in the back because they were all goofing off. Once I finally got the waitresses attention, I had let her know that I had a rapid delivery order that wasn't there. She saw the bag that they had behind the counter, handed it to me, and was about to turn around to continue talking to her friends. This had happened in the past to me and it was usually because something had run out, so I handed it back to her and asked "Are you sure everything is in there?" at which point she said "Oh yeah, I think we're out of baked potato soup." I then made a quick call to my girlfriend, asked what replacement soup she wanted, and let the waitress know that I wanted a tomato soup and that the original order had a bread bowl.

So normally if an order is missing things, one would think they would double check that everything was correct with the order before handing it over to the customer. Well... first thing that went wrong was that the waitress gave me a breadbowl thing and sent me on my way. I had almost gotten to my car before I thankfully decided to check the bag to make sure that everything else was in there. She had given me a breadbowl... but didn't give me the soup! She didn't even think to give me the actual soup that was to replace the soup they were out of! Strike two!

Fine, whatever, I was a bit peeved at this point, but walked back across the parking lot and went back in to get my girlfriend's soup. She gave me the soup and I headed home. I had just gotten home to have dinner with my girlfriend and was about to bite into my sandwich when... My girlfriend mentioned that she had ordered the frozen watermelon lemonade! At this point I was pretty pissed off because that meant I had to drive back to the store to claim the drink or get a refund.

And so I drove back to the store (quite a bit pissed at this point having wasted almost an hour at this point), walked in, and talked to one of the other waitresses. I showed her my receipt and also asked to see a manager. At this point, it was about 15 minutes before closing time and she had cleaned the frozen drink station, so she gave me a bit of an attitude and tried to get me to get something else like a sweet tea. I had wanted to see a manager one way or another but the waitress basically just made the drink and handed it to me expecting me to take it and leave, which I thought was rude.

I still insisted on seeing the manager to see if she would at least do something. Honestly, I'm not one to complain about a $2 drink and wouldn't really care if the manager comped it or not, but after a particularly frustrating visit to Panera, I was just hoping that the manager would give a damn a little since none of the prior 2 people I had interacted with really cared that they had just messed my order up and wasted an hour of my time. Much to my dismay the manager barely seemed apologetic and didn't really take any action in the situation, which just frustrated me even more.

So I just took my drink and headed home even more frustrated than before. People aren't perfect. Mistakes get made. It's what you do to quickly correct those mistakes that makes a difference between a good experience and a bad experience for a customer. I'm no stranger to restaurants, having done 5 years in the restaurant business as everything from a host to a waiter to a bartender. What frustrated me the most is that if I had ever messed a customer's order up, I would have gone above and beyond to correct it. Maybe that's why I always got tipped 20%.

Anyhow, what's done was done. I had gotten home and wanted to just eat and be done with it. I go to grab a spoon from the Panera bag to eat my soup... You guessed it... No plastic silverware or napkins! And I'm pretty sure that they messed the lemonade up to because it looked and tasted weird. We ended up tossing it.

Here's the thing... I'm not usually one to complain on sites like this over things that don't really matter in the grand scheme of things, but this is actually not the first time that something like this has happened to me at this particular Panera! This is literally the 4th or 5th time I've gotten a rapid delivery order with missing items from this store! It's not uncommon to be out of soups or other things, but please hire people that at least have enough attention span to get things reasonably right. My bag was literally missing half my order and I spent about an hour of my valuable time running back and forth to get the pieces of my order!

July 7, 2016 time 5:00
I am a new Panera Bread customer and ever since my first visit I have been impressed. During this entire week I have been to four locations and have been pleased with the quality of service every time until I visited Cafe1240. First off it was very dirty and table were not clean floors were even worse and the manager seem unconcerned as he walked passed and through all the clutter with stride. The quality of my food was not the same as it has been at the other locations, in fact is was well below average. I wanted to ask for a refund but watching the manager walk in circles with his hands on hip made me feel as though any complaint might not be worth the attitude of hassle. Although I will be visiting Panera Bread again, I will definely bypass this location, also there is a smell in here that smells really weird

So today, a friend and I went to the Panera Bread in Sparta NJ. Yes it was late and the establishment was about to close. We walked in around 945. Now myself and friend are both waitresses and understand how frustrating it is when you have last minute customers that you keep you late or ruin the work you just cleaned. It sucks, but in this industry it happens. My friend is eight months pregnant and it was a Sunday night in an area where everything shuts down around ten. We were starving after working all day. As we ordered the girl who punched it in asked if we would mind taking it in to go bags because all of their dishes were done. Fine, no problem, we understand. Then came time for the employees to make our food. The one girl starts off screaming I already closed everything and put it away and shut everything down! Now from our point of view fine then give us our money back and we'll leave. No they decide to give it a go and make our food. Well after waiting and listening to each of the girls and one boy behind the counter complain about us, slamming things around, and the fact that they needed to leave and go home our food was finally ready. Mind you in our to go boxes, thrown into a bag, and tossed across the counter at us. So now hungry, annoyed, and biting our tongues to stay quiet we decide to sit outside because of how much of an inconvienance we were causing these employees. Well we open our food and our chicken paninis are cold, cheese isn't melted. This is probably due to the fact that the Machines were off and they didn't give them enough time to turn back on. Again they said okay to making these meals from the beginning. Then at least do it right because if I was an average person who does not wait on tables for a living I would've complained and you would have had to make it all over again. Therefore prolonging you leaving and closing. Now after throwing out our sandwiches I had ordered the chicken tortellini as well. I will attach a picture of what I received. I could not believe they were willing to serve this to a human being. Look everyone is tired and has long days but the way these employees made us feel was unacceptable. Not only did the food suck but I have never felt such negativity from an employee to a guest. There wasn't anyone who appeared to be a manager around and if there was they were not conducting themselves properly. There was however one employee who stuck out he gave my friend the baked goods left over from the day and was very nice. Thankfully so because those baked goods were our dinner.

I always come to Panera Bread in Miramar Parkway in Miramar, Florida and I always have a bad experience with customer service. They have the worst customer service that I have experienced. First off, I was given a wrong change and the person from the register did not even apologize. Also, they usually almost burn a toasted bagel. Lastly, they don't even smile or greet their customers. They all seem not to like their job. All these happened not just one time but almost everytime. How hard can it be to say sorry, greet your customers and toast a bagel properly.

I can't believe how awful a manager was treating a employee when all she did was ask a question. He cursed at her and said I don't care what the f* you do. This is suppose to be a family environment and I was in shock when I heard this! I don't think I will EVER be eating at this location again. Also if you are going to be hiring people like this for your managers this is absurd, managers are managers for a reason.

Someone else got my credit card information saved to their account. When I called to have it removed panera bread said for security reasons they could not go into the persons account and remove my card information!
What kind of bs is that! If I don't know the person and they have my card information then it should be my... My security we are talking about!
Now I have to call my bank and cancel my card because panera bread won't remove my card information from someone's account who has my information on their account without their permission. How the hell are you supposed to get permission from someone you don't know?
Panera bread you suck I will never go back and will tell everyone I know to avoid them forever!

I have been dining in your establishment for many years, and each time was delightful. I began to hear about some issues with Panera from colleagues and friends, but I didn't care. I always thought that it was the people's fault, and if they weren't happy with Panera, they shouldn't dine there.
On the evening of Monday, January 18th, which was a holiday, I took my family to dinner at Panera. I had been up for pasta or something else, but I picked Panera because my children like the kids' meals. Panera isn't as affordable as some other restaurants, but who cares?
That evening, when I placed our order with the attendant, I noticed that she didn't seem happy. It looked like she had had a bad day. It took a little while for her to take our order, but she finally finished and gave me my change and our pager. I didn't blame her for the time we had to wait, because there was a long line and she was the only one taking orders. Unfortunately, this is the way it always is at Panera.
After we were seated, our order came. It was wrong. My mother's meal, my brother's extra bread, and my daughter's tea were all missing. I didn't consider this a big problem because people all make mistakes. I went back to the young lady who took our order and informed her of the missing items. With an arrogant attitude, she said very abruptly that I should have checked my order before I left her station. I hadn't done so because I had had confidence in her ability to do her job competently, but I held my tongue and asked her to check her computer because I didn't have my receipt with me. She said, very loudly and sarcastically, "back in line, "sir", no cuts." She placed an unacceptable emphasis on "sir." Then she said, even more sarcastically, "or try to talk to my manager, " and laughed.
I hadn't wanted to involve a manager for a simple mistake that might make her look bad, but because of her attitude, I said, "fine." The cashier called out, "another one for you, Siri, " and I stood there and waited. When I first came back about the mistake, the line was out the door, and by the time I got tired of waiting for a response and got back in line, the line was down to four people. This is when the manager finally came.
The manager asked who needed her, and the cashier said, very loudly and sarcastically, "don't worry, a customer tried to cut in line, " and laughed. Everyone in the line heard, and I felt humiliated. To defend myself in this embarrassing situation, I said just as loudly, so all could hear, "I'm not trying to cut in line. She made a mistake, and I just wanted it corrected. That's all." The manager, Ms. Siri Fadul, ran to me and yelled, "sir, leave the store right now or I will call security."
I was astonished at her reaction, and I said, "please calm down. Let me see if I understand. You guys made a mistake. I came to get it fixed, and your employee refused to do it and gave me attitude. And for that you ask a customer to leave? How silly is that? You know what, just forget about it. I'll order again." She replied, "No sir. You yelled at my staff and I have to protect my people." This was a false accusation, since I had never lost my temper. The footage from your store's security camera will back me up on that. But even though I wasn't at fault, I apologized to Ms. Fadul and said, "I am here with my family to have a good time. Just forget about it. I just hope you'll be more professional next time, otherwise customers will leave the store with the same impression that i have." Then I got back in line to get the problem resolved.
Ms. Fadul made things worse and humiliated me one more time by telling other people in the line, "I apologize for his behavior. The whole experience was a nightmare. Before I left the store, a fellow customer ca, e and told me, "you should file a complaint against those people. I saw the whole thing. In a situation like that, believe me, you have a case.'
Later on, I believe that Ms. Fadul realized that her attitude had been a mistake and tried to atone for it by offering me a free meal. I insisted on paying, because I wasn't there to take advantage of anyone, as they had insinuated.
As if Ms. Fadul hadn't done enough already, when the kitchen had finished with the missing items, Ms. Fadul brought them to the table herself. With a frown, she looked at my mother and said, "we apologize for your son's attitude, " while touching her on her shoulder. The whole family was shocked by her actions and couldn't stop talking about it after we left the store.
I would like to make some suggestions so that no other customer will have to suffer through an incident like the one I did. First, you should resolve the problem of extremely long lines by always having three people on duty to take orders, whether or not the store is crowded. You should hire a qualified customer service manager to deal with these kinds of situations. You need to invest in training your employees, and under no circumstances should you let a person with a quick temper, such as Ms. Siri Fadul, deal with employees and customers.
When someone makes a mistake, apologize politely and stay respectful. Try to look at things from the customer's point of view. Remember that when you accuse a customer of "cutting in line, " you are accusing him of taking a spot that rightfully belongs to someone else, which is a serious accusation. Never embarrass a customer in front of other people.
Employees should be trained not to involve a manager for simple issues. Employees always make mistake, since nobody is perfect, and they should be able to deal with them and solve problems right away.
Finally, employees should never ever talk to the friends and relatives of the customer in an attempt to convince them to side with the employee in a dispute, because they won't succeed and they will only make matters worse.
But if they go ahead and make the attempt, the should never touch these people. Not only is this unwanted touch an insulting invasion of privacy, under some circumstances it can also be a criminal offense.

On 5/11/16 my husband and I decided to finally try Panera Bread after hearing it was overpriced. I decided on an BLT Avocado Turkey and Onion Soup and my husband chose Chicken Ham/Swiss also with Onion Soup. It took me 5 minutes to find the teeny tiny piece of bacon that didn't even look real! The turkey was tasteless, like it was soaked in water and definitely no seasoning. The Avocado was the only flavor and the bread was dried out so I pretty much took it all apart, added a little salt and ate it like a tiny salad. My husband was not impressed with his Chicken Ham/Swiss either and especially for the price. As for the onion soup...I guess we expected there would be some cheese that you could actually see, that's what makes onion soup...the cheese! It was salty which could have certainly have been shared with the sandwiches. For $3.79 each that was about .50 a spoonfull for the little bowls. $2 for ice tea is a little steep so for the amount of food we got a bill for $22.54 was absolutely ridiculous! All the years Panera Bread has been in Topeka, Ks. we have never gone and we sure made a mistake when we finally did. People have told us it was overpriced for the amount and quality of food and they were right! Extremely disappointed and one of the very worst meals we've ever had.

I came in to Panera Bread this morning at 7:30 May 13, 2016 to buy breakfast for myself and husband. Unfortunately wasn't even greet it with a good morning, I greeted the manger myself. When I placed my order I had to repeat my order several times to her. I initially ordered 2 Asiago bacon egg, bear claw, cherry pasty and 2 Carmel lattes. But requested to change my lattes to regular coffees and when I changed my order the manager seem bothered by it. And though she charged me for the medium coffees she didn't remove the charge for the lattes. When I made her aware that she had charged 4 coffees and I requested the refund her mannerism and again lack of customer service attitude. I made her aware that her ugly attitude was noticeable and for her to relax. As Karlie Gilbert attempted to refund me the 2 Carmel lattes, to my demise she was charging me once more. I didn't notice the charge until after the fact I was at my work. So neatness to say, I had to drive back to Panera Bread and request my refund for the second time from Karlie Gilbert. When I made her aware that the mistake was done once more there was no apology nor any concern that I, 'The Customer' had to come back again and experience the lack of customer service by a Manager. I am baffled that this young lady is a Manager and shows no concern what so ever when a customer make her aware of how horrible her CS skills are. She did offer a voucher but I declined to receive it as I don't think a voucher was going to make my day any better nor I have the urge to be back any time soon.

I am a usual customer at Panera Bread. The food is great and most of the customer service is welcoming and nice. Today May 5, 2016, my family and I went there for dinner around 5 o' clock pm, there was a woman employee that I've never seen during the times that I have been there who was absolutely crude and immature. I walked in with my family and there was a man who who took our order. When my sister and I went to pick up our food we said kindly without any rude attitude and language, " Excuse me, may I have some butter" the woman who worked there (description of the woman: 5 to 5' 2", small, dark skinned (black), brown eyed, red dyed curly hair, wore make up and had a hat on when I met/saw her) was saying rude comments about how the customers were too needy. She threw 3 little individual butters at us. She did not nicely place them on the plate and did not give or ask us if we had a knife. I did not get spoon for my soup and I went back and waited at the place where u pick up the food, a minute later I just politely said, " Excuse me, can I have a spoon" and as soon as that woman saw me she was something like" hey there is a girl who was just up here asking for something before". She had a attitude and she vent about how I was being rude. As she was walking out to go or take a break she vented the way out. Also the place is usually neat and clean. This time it was a mess there were dishes and messes at the tables. Not only I complained about it to one of the workers but 3 others did and finally someone came to clean up the mess. The mess made seating scarce. Lot of seating but most had disgusting messes. The place on the inside on 5-5-16 was not ascetically pleasing is was gruesome.

My boyfriend and I decided to place a to-go order at the Panera Bread located at 2645 Lawndale Dr. in Greensboro, NC last night. Upon arriving and reviewing the menu, there was a very sarcastic girl who came up and encouraged us to move down to get a better look at the menu. It was very clear after she stated, "that was a set-up" (and the entire team joined in laughter) that there was an issue. As we were waiting for our order to be prepared there were several comments made by this particular individual that confirmed she apparently/clearly had an issue with me being Caucasian and my significant other being African American. This is absolutely UNNACEPTABLE and shame on the assistant manager ASHLEY for not stepping in. This woman physically came behind the counter after dumping all the trash and was trying to assist in making my salad. This was absolutely NOT going to happen as she was clearly trying to mess with our food. I was beyond embarrassed and humilified at the lack of service but more-so at the harassment received at this location. As we are both Panera card holders and have frequented this location I can honestly say, this location will NO LONGER receive any business from us. Shame on Panera management for not holding their employees accountable and allowing this unacceptable behavior.

Sincerely,

Discrimination

On 4/24/16 I stopped @ Store #4169 in Vero Beach, Fl 32960.
There was a long line but you don't mind waiting if the end result is good. Not the case. When It was my turn I ordered Steak and White Cheddar Panini and a Ham and Swiss sandwich on rye. This was ordered to go I was informed no rye bread so I said put it on wheat. I paid and walked away waiting for my sandwiches to be made. I glanced @ my receipt an the Ham and Swiss sandwich was ordered as 1- Chicken Ham Swiss Flatbread. I never even said chicken so where did that come from? I couldn't go back to the line as it was long. Just then my little buzzer rang and I went to pick up my order. I told the people making the orders that i didn't order any flat bread I ordered a Ham and Swiss sandwich. these people were very accommodating they made my sandwich. I left first you have to wait in a long line then you don't even get what you ordered!

On Fridays, after work, it has become routine for a group of us to meet at Panera to end the week with great food, fellowship, and fun. To our disappointment, we experienced the worst customer service (and apparently so did quite a number of other patrons as well). The Centerville, Ohio store was not busy, as we were the only ones in line (there were four of us). We ordered our usual cuisine and sat, knowing our order would be ready in under a minute. Five minutes passed, then ten, finally after 15 minutes, my husband approached the food pick-up counter and inquired about our order. The young man who was working alone appeared new to the job and extremely overwhelmed. He apologized but clearly needed support. The manager showed up and by this time 26 minutes had passed while we waited for our soup and salads. When my husband expressed one half of our party was finished eating while the remaining was still awaiting a bowl of chowder which we had already inquired about twice before. The manager simply looked at us blankly and said not a word (almost as if he didn't speak English?) We noticed other patrons (who had ordered when we did) returning to the order counter and from their body language they, too, were not pleased. I must say the young man who initially took our orders (his name was Jake) could not have been more professional and courteous! Clearly, Jake could only provide so much assistance as this debacle was out of his hands (but we all agreed that Jake is definitely manager material). In summary, what was to be an enjoyable evening at one of our favorite restaurants turned into a conundrum. We still have no idea what warranted such below average and actually unacceptable customer service. We all decided to take a moratorium from Panera until we hear that the wonderful customer service we've come to expect and enjoy returns to our favorite neighborhood Panera.