Panera Bread

I am 70 years old and this is my first complaint. I have always loved Panera and although the prices are almost ridiculous, I go there because I like the atmosphere, food, and the coffee. I have had some bad experiences lately as far as the quality for the cost and laid back for awhile from going. Today I thought I’d give it another try. The menu had several new things at this time. I asked how the chicken salad SANDWICH was and the cashier reassured me it was delicious! I ordered that and the chicken Cobb salad. My salad came up and sat there for 20 minutes and right at the time I was going to comment that my salad sat there for so long, and where was my sandwich, they plopped down this thing about the size of a biscuit on the plate and walked away.

I sat down with it and was amazed. I had a stroke a few months back and to be honest, didn’t have the energy to go to the other side of the store again to complain.

The salad was “wilted” greens unlike the lettuces I’ve always had in a Cobb. They were warm and mushy from the dressing being on it all morning, or it seemed that way. The avocados were brown and there was 1/2 a boiled egg and 3 little slices of chicken…. all totaling about 1 cup.

The sandwich: the 3 inch circle of bread was so tough I could hardly chew it,

(I do have good teeth…lol) there was about 1 level tablespoon of chicken salad and most of that space was taken up by a grape. There was a whole fistful of some tough, dry frilly little green lettuce type stuff (?) piled sky high on top making it look like a grass sandwich. I’m kind of glad I didn’t enjoy it because it was only about four bites when I took off 80% of the green stuff. What bite I got of chicken salad WAS good though! The potato chips were good.

While I “thought” I was ordering a pick-two…. the price came to $18.00. Like I said, I know y’all are $ but THAT was ridiculous for what I got. I didn’t complain tho.

I also asked if they didn’t give the ticket to buy a pastry for.99cents anymore and she said “yeah but I can’t give you one because I already rang you up”. 😳

I don’t want to say I’ll never be back because I love the coffee but I can’t say I will recommend the food. I was sorry I didn’t complain and have them make it right when I left hungry and was sitting down the street eating my McDonalds hamburger. 🤢

I just suggest they consider what they are putting on peoples plates. It DOES have to be eaten.

I visit this specific Panera almost daily. This is the first time I saw the associate whot was taking my order. It was very noisy and she kept asking me to repeat myself. In itself that wasn't an issue, but the way she acted was outlandish. She tried to stare me down and generally acted like she wanted to pick a fight with me. It was so ridiculous that I complained to the manager on duty, which is the first for me. This person needs some serious training so that she can understand - customer service is not pushing buttons on the register. It's making the customers feel welcomed. She can easily intimidate someone. I don't get easily intimidated, but I was absolutely taken aback by her odd, aggressive behavior over absolutely nothing. Not only does she not understand "diffusing a potential conflict", she clearly doesn't know what common courtesy means. I won't come back to this Panera again. I don't need to be in a bad mood in the middle of a busy day over an order of chicken soup. It is also obvious that this type of personality manifests itself easily during interviews and training. The fact that Panera placed her up front with this horrible attitude is a disservice to the restaurant and most importantly to its customers.