Saint Louis Bread Co.

Saint Louis Bread Company does not knock my socks off. It just doesn’t.
My girlfriend and I came here May 4 for lunch before a matinée at the neighboring AMC 12 Creve Coeur.
The parking lot is too small, especially at noon. If you abide by the signs, it’s one way around and if you don’t find a parking spot, you go to the back, you park at CPK, or you park in the theater parking lot and walk over.
But that one-​way directive is ignored, so it would be terribly easy to have a little fender-​bender in this Lilliputian parking lot.
The ordering line was lengthy. I didn’t see an empty table in the house, however, by the time you get your food, something could be available.
She ordered broccoli cheddar soup in a bread bowl, with potato chips as her side. I ordered a bowl of broccoli cheddar soup, with an apple as my side. Once we had our food and beverages, we were able to snag a table. Don’t be telling any secrets at lunch. The tables are too close together.
The soup was good, with a nice balance of the broccoli and the cheddar. It was hot, flavorful and filling. I took my apple home. She took her chips home.
My lunch cost $ 5.71.

Not my favorite location. Staff seems a bit rude. Younger staff, no care about the store or professionalism. Not speedy service. Not polite. Not much more I can say– food and coffee qualities are the same as every other location. Wouldn’t go out of my way to stop here– and unless I was really hungry, I’d rather drive further to another location.

Constantly understaffed and slow. Every time I’m
In here, especially in the evening, it seems to take forever for Anyone or anything to happen. This is of course compared to all the other b cos I’ve been to… this one is so frustrating because it’s so close to home. I’ve decided to drive to a further one to save time. Saddd

I like the fact that this location is not pushing kiosk ordering.

3.5 or FOUR STARS. Not the best Bread Company, but not the worst. Pretty typical for a St. Louis Bread Co. café… fast, fresh and very busy. Location is right off of Olive and it can get busy at lunch. They feature a good and diverse selection of bagels, breads, soups and salads. They DO VERY MUCH need more people cleaning the tables here. Service and management here is lacking on keeping things clean. I hope they do a few updates and fix the service gaps, this is a popular Bread Co. Servers do not have the same work ethic as some other locations and that is one reason it has so many low ratings I imagine. Service 2, food consistency 4.

This place is filthy. Restrooms are nasty and the dining area looks like a pig sty with unbused tables full of trash. With no paper towels in the restroom I’d seriously doubt if the staff is washing their hands. Not good, people. Better get your hepatitis shots updated!

Don’t come to this Bread Co. if you expect to use the internet because one is able to connect to their wifi, but the internet will not work. How can this place call itself a coffee shop with no functioning internet? Thank you for wasting my time Panera.

I’ve been studying here for almost 2 years now. It’s by far the best one. And I mean I’m here sometimes 5 – 10 hours a week. It’s bigger then others, and I have space issues, so this is awesome for me. I always always special order things, and I mean I completely change them, not just «no dressing», but I’m making up my own entrees. They are always nice about it. It’s a big big deal that I can go to a place that I can actually order something. At this location they have poppyseed bagels, which are my all time #1 favorite. That with some veggie cream cheese. Yum! I wish they had their veggie soup on weekends. I wish they had more outlets (people have to seriously fight over them!). But these are not things that an individual store can control, so no points taken away for that. Bathrooms are clean. Coffee is (usually) full. Managers are super awesome. And I’ve never had issues with the employees.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve closed the place down. When I graduate I should buy them a card for making it possible by caffeinating and feeding me through school. lol

I am a Saint Louis girl who grew up on Bread Co. I love me some broccoli cheddar soup with a baguette on the side and a giant ice tea. It’s one of my go to places if I need a quick meal. I’ve only had a few bad experiences at Bread Cos, and they have all happened at this location.
The main issue is that they’re slow. They’re slow in a lazy, ‘I don’t care about my job’ way. Most of the employees look like they’re walking in concrete. The last time I went I was tempted to go behind the counter and ladle out a cup of soup for myself because they were just so. painfully. slow. If it’s dinner rush and there’s a line nearly out the door, you think these kids would be pouring soup and stirring salads like their lives depended on it.
My sister and I went here for a quick dinner a few months ago — stopped by around 6ish and ordered two soups to go. The line was pretty long and there were lots of people waiting for their food. We were still waiting at 6:45. I actually got on my phone and tweeted at @Panera and told them to do something about their Creve Coeur location. They responded «Sorry we disappointed you! We will be reaching out to our Creve Coeur team!». We finally got our food and left around 6:50. I highly doubt their social media team talked to anyone in CC because the service is still horribly slow as of last week.
Second, I have never seen a manager here. Maybe the employees would look a little more alive if they had some supervision! I always see if I can scope out managers at stores because it at least suggests the managers care about how things are going out front. Never seeing one just confirms my suspicion that the manager doesn’t care about how his/​her restaurant is running.
Third, the workers are just rude. I know they probably ask «Do you want a baguette, apple, or chips as your side?» about 1000 times a day, but that’s their job. Do it with a smile, not a glare, or get a job in a morgue where you don’t have to talk to other humans.
I really hope Bread Co’s corporate management reads Unilocal reviews, because they either need to do an overhaul of the management and employees at the Creve Couer location or they need to thoroughly retrain them. If you have a chain like Panera, customers expect consistency and at least decent service. This location is severely lacking in all aspects of customer service.
Now if I want Bread Co I go looking for another location. I’m confident I could drive to one out of my zip code and take my togo order home in the same amount of time it would take to order at the Bread Co just up the street from my house.

My favorite soup is the autumn squash soup. I love the flavor and really like how it is topped with toasted pumpkin seeds. I wish it was available year round, not only in the fall.
Yesterday I came with family and friends, and knew exactly what I wanted. I ordered a big bowl of the squash soup. When the soup came out, it had one measly pumpkin seed. If they had left them off, I would have figured they just forgot. But there was just one! Then I thought, maybe they ran out… However, a few minutes later I got up and walked by an older gentleman with a big bowl of autumn squash soup, FULL OF BEAUTIFUL TOASTED PUMPKIN SEEDS! That made me feel like it was personal. Thanks for ruining my afternoon.

It’s bread co. Stuff here is friendly. They all know me by now since I go there for break a lot. All very nice, pretty clean, and quick.
The you pick two deal is amazing.
Bacon turkey Bravo and chicken frontega are my favs

Surprising 4 stars!
Bridging the gap between sit-​down and fast food, St. Louis (Panera) Bread Company fits right in that nook. The Mediterranean sandwich was made vegan by holding the dairy — the sandwich bread was really quite outstanding it was so soft and herby. The black bean soup and bread were delicious as well. There were spots to enjoy our food outside and inside and the service was rather quick.
With a large space and free wifi, I did notice that many people were working or meeting up here.

EDIT 10/​23/​2013: Apparently they don’t feel like getting back to me.
Here’s the full story on why I’m giving this location one star.
My grandmother went in, bought a baker’s dozen of bagels, a single cream cheese, a bakery item, and left. Upon returning home, she noticed that they had not put the cream cheese tub into her box of bagels, and so asked me to return to the store and retrieve it for her.
I showed up at the store with the mindset that accidents happen, we’re all just people, no big deal. I waited to speak to someone at the counter, and when I presented the receipt and explained what had happened, she went to consult her manager before just handing over the cream cheese. Again, this makes perfect sense, she can’t just give things away, she needs a manager’s approval.
What *wasn’t* cool was that on her way back to the counter with the cream cheese, she stopped next to the other employee — the one who waited on my grandmother — and said loudly enough for me to overhear «I wanted to make sure he wasn’t scamming. You know how people are.»
Yeah, no. That’s not how you act when you’re in customer service. I worked a register for *years*; I know that you have to put up with a lot of crap, but you never say something bad about a customer, especially not where they can hear it.
After she gave me the cream cheese, I hesitated for a second, trying to decide whether to let it go. But no, that really wasn’t appropriate. I asked to speak to her manager, when he had a minute, and explained that I was willing to wait as I could see that he was working the line and was busy.
I moved down to stand near the food pickup counter to wait for him to have a free moment so I could explain the problem. Instead, he told her and the other employee to «make it right» if they could, because he was busy — he didn’t know that I was standing right there, as he hadn’t seen who made the complaint. The girl who forgot the cream cheese in the first place then yelled over the counter to me what I wanted to talk to him about, so I replied «about this».
The manager then saw that I was the one wanting to talk to him, and said he didn’t have time to talk to me unless I talked to him *over* the food pickup counter. I then explained how I thought what the girl had done — basically implying that their customers are scammers in the customers’ earshot — was pretty inappropriate, while she and the other employee stood not even five feet away, hovering at the drinks station and ignoring the customers waiting in line so they could see what I was going to say about them.
The manager tried to shut me up by offering me bakery items several times, but I explained that I wasn’t trying to get anything free, I just wanted them to be trained, or have it explained to them, that you don’t talk shit about your customers. Honestly, the manager didn’t seem to care *at all* about the whole thing, which is why I called corporate. Corporate, meanwhile, seemed to care, but they told me that I’d receive a call back in 24 – 48 hours which was totally untrue, as here we are nearly a week later and no such call has occurred.
Where does that leave us? One star, Bread Co. You get one star. If this is how greatly you mishandle what should’ve been a simple task (check my receipt, get managerial permission, give me the cream cheese, I leave), I can’t imagine what kind of food safety problems you might have… after all, your attitude shows that you clearly don’t care.
Previous edit and original review below
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EDIT 10/​17/​2013 (the day after my visit): I called Panera Corporate and they listened to my story and said they will be forwarding it to both the general and district managers, who are supposed to follow up with me after they do their own checking-​up.
I’ll revisit this review after they contact me.
Original review follows
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Given how awful the customer-​service was today, I would give 0 stars were I able to.
I’ll be talking to corporate tomorrow, and depending on how that goes, I might edit this up to a two star rating. Maybe, maybe, a three.
Suffice it to say for now that overhearing one of your employees insulting me, and then having a manager not willing to talk to me where that employee can’t eavesdrop — as in, all he needed to do was move from talking over the counter to near one of the tables, rather than having the conversation within 5 feet of the employee in question — did not endear this bakery-​café to me.
Seriously. It’s as if at each step, the employees of this café decided to be shittier and shittier at their jobs. If I sound mad, it’s because I am. Management does not mean offering free bakery items as a result of your employee’s fuck-​up. I don’t want free things. I want you not to suck!

The best parking is behind the building, which isn’t too bad. Once you are inside the place opens up nicely. There is definitely more room here then other Bread Co’s you’ll go to. The food is rather pricey, but hey it’s Bread Co. I do like the variety of foods they have as well. Just be careful because on you pick two meals they upcharge you for specialty items they have. And if you’re concerned about calories definitely make sure you look at the menu because it’s not as healthy as you’d think.

Food is always good and the drinks are delicious. What more can be said about Panera? It’s simple and reasonable. I do love having a my panera card because I get free stuff from time to time; and I love free stuff!

St Louis Bread Co always has great food. Free wifi is nice too. This location could stand to have better parking. Peak hours can mean driving around for 10 minutes waiting for an open spot. I don’t know that this location has tables for larger groups.

This place is your typical Panera Bread that we have all over the country. That’s certainly not a bad thing. I love how they still keep the original name here in the STL area. I had a bacon and cheese soufflé, which was as good as I expected.