Panera Bread

Quality decline alert. At one time this was a great Panera. Not so much lately. We order salads from them every couple weeks, online & to be picked up. They always got it right. Four weeks ago, they screwed up the order, leaving some items off, the lettuce was wilted, the chicken shredded in tiny pieces (Chicken Cobb & Apple Chicken Salad.) We called and were told sorry, but thats the way the chicken comes now. We didn’t believe that since we have always thought Panera represented good quality. Manager did refund what we had charged, which was nice. So we tried the same salads at a Panera in Maine while on a trip. Terrific. Last night, we ordered from the Dublin Panera again. Apple salad had no apple chips, which was strange because the apple chips are the main feature of this salad. When I called, I was told, sorry, they were out of apple chips — but they would be in tomorrow. They had my phone number so they could have called and suggested that I order something else. They did not. Getting part of your salad on Monday & then going back for the rest of it on Tuesday is not real appealing. The Chicken Cobb was even worse — the tomatoes looked like someone had sat on them, the lettuce was wilted, there was very little romaine, and long hard stems from the lettuce were in the mix. I can’t imagine anybody eating that salad. Oh, and the chicken was shredded again. So we took the salads back, got a refund and went someplace else for dinner. Manager (Kathleen) didn’t really seem to care and said that most people really were not bothered by the lack of apple chips on the apple chicken salad. I’ll bet. Duh. How about leaving the noodles out of chicken noodle soup? Or the turkey off the turkey sandwich? Something is seriously wrong with this Panera. Quality is way, way down, and management doesn’t seem to care. To the corporation’s credit — I also talked to the 800 number, they listened to the problems, seemed to understand, didn’t make dumb excuses, and said they would look into the matter. I hope they do but I would avoid this Panera until it gets fixed.

For the most part, this Panera’s is usually pretty good. They have polite staff, the food comes fast and they’re usually well stocked. I have also never had a rude encounter at this location. They also have a nice, fenced in seating with flowers and umbrellas where you can sit if it is nice and warm outside. The only downside is that it is usually crowded on sundays.

The last few times I have been at this location I have had the absolute worst service! Clearly they are surprised to have customers since no one is available to wait on you. Once is understandable. The third time is ridiculous.

Decent enough food when they get it right. I’ve been here countless times and I think they’ve only gotten my order right once. Is it that hard to give someone the right sandwich? Nice staff. Don’t bother with a phone-​in order. It won’t be ready even if you arrive later than anticipated.

This location is ALWAYS out of cookies when I walk in — doesn’t seem to matter what time of day! That said, I do like the table service technology they’ve got going. When your sciatica is bad and you have to stand by the pick up window or sit down and wait and then get up again, it’s a nice touch. And yes, I’m a little lazy. Have the frosted cookies next time, and maybe I’ll change to 4.5 stars

I’ve been visiting this Panera Bread location once every couple weeks pretty much since they opened (my office is right down the street). Over the years its gone from good to marginal to what I would now consider pretty bad.
The people that I’ve interacted with are all pretty nice and seem to generally want to do a good job however the gap between trying to do a good job and actually delivering on that promise seems to be fairly wide.
What I expect from a sandwich at Panera is fairly minimal: fresh bread, fresh meat, fresh lettuce & onions all stacked together in a relatively concentric manner. What I typically get is marginal bread, wilted lettuce and meat that is neither unfolded from it obvious state of storage nor placed on the bread with any concern for creating what most people know as a sandwich. I know this sounds trivial but I like my sandwich to be mostly homogeneous in terms of the distribution of ingredients. in other words I don’t like biting into one half and getting nothing but bread and lettuce and the other half containing 80% of the sandwiches meat. Doesn’t seem like much to ask from a place whose specialty is sandwiches but alas this is a lofty goal for the obviously rushed employee who slaps together the sandwiches here with such apparent disregard for the common law definition of a sandwich.
Now I’m one who generally rolls with the punches and won’t let the small things get in the way of enjoying life so when my sandwich looks like it was assembled by a toddler I just take it apart and put to back together correctly, fanning out the compressed stack of meat and redistributing the ingredients as they should have been in the first place. This extra step alone would not have been enough to cause me to give only two stars or even warrant a review for that matter as I’m a pretty busy guy. On this fateful day I received a sandwich with lettuce that was well past its prime and actually coated in a lovely black slimy substance I can only describe as mold-​like. Unfortunately I did not discover this until I had already taken a bite and undoubtedly consumed some of the aforementioned grossness. Needless to say I was a little upset but I just kept calm and politely notified the manager as to the situation. She apologized and immediately removed this sacrilege from my table and promptly returned with a replacement sandwich. And while the new sandwich was not nearly as disgusting as the other one it was quite apparent that the same source of lettuce was just picked through to find the slightly less rotten pieces to be used for my new sandwich. The new lettuce while thankfully not covered in strange black foreign matter was still badly wilted and beyond what I would ever consider acceptable. So I picked it off and ate what was left of the sandwich and decided I will never return to this Panera again and most likely any other location.
For me it’s quite simple; three things stacked together in a nice neat pile and some minimal quality assurance on the ingredients I’m being fed. That’s all I ask for from a sandwich shop. Clearly in my numerous visits to this Panera the desire to get the orders done quickly has taken priority over any form of quality and I don’t patronize places that don’t care about quality.

Did a 22 mile bike ride with my boyfriend Saturday am and wanted to stop for a snack on the way home. Very very poor experience. Arrived minutes before the 10 am rush — very fortunate for us. Yasmin waited on us. Below is a list of our direct experiences and feedback for all who dare wind up at her part of the counter:
1. I’m sure Panera asks their associates to welcome and smile at their patrons. It was a sunny Saturday am. We received neither from Yasmin. Lighten up — smile and you’ll quickly discover this will leverage you to be kind to others as you are kind to yourself by starting this from the inside.
2. Our order was accurate — thank you. While I recognize it may not always be fun working in service please understand, accept and acknowledge it’s not just what you do but how you do it. How you process orders do count.
3. We are Panera Loyalty Card members. Yasmin didn’t ask us if we were nor did she offer for us to sign up. Upon sharing we are members and when we asked if she could access us via phone number Yasmin rolled her eyes and you would have thought we woke her from a nap. Ironically, two weeks earlier I registered to be a Loyalty member from the Westerville S State street location based on how the opportunity was served up. Perhaps Yasmin should shadow Westerville to see what success looks like when partnering with a customer.
4. No one in line behind us was treated with respect from Yasmin. No smiles — no greeting. We acknowledge a point for consistency.
5. My boyfriend ran back in quickly for a small cup of ice and there were two other associates who both eagerly helped him with professionalism and smiles. The most ironic part of this experience overall? The screaming sign by Yasmin’s register «Now hiring enthusiastic and high energy associates!» If one doesn’t laugh you may just cry. Ironic.
Look carefully at my reviews. I am careful, balanced and very factual. I give props when they are due and most definitely share when experiences are poor.
****** Update 8/​28/​13******* Please review and consider the following:
In the spirit of being fair only to Panera and Joe/​the GM who called me on Monday — - they did their due diligence and contacted me re: my feedback on their own personal survey results. Joe was extremely professional, empathetic, considerate and kind in his follow up while he listened to my story. Panera did fix us right and have worked with us to return again. Thanks for your outreach and your professionalism, Joe. Greatly appreciated and we will return.
***** Update 9/​15/​13***** Please review and consider going back to the basics:
Went to collect on our complimentary meals today. Showed up at 1 pm. Admittedly, it was busy. Thankfully a manager took my order though as i walked up to her she was yawning. Nice touch. Before ordering I advised her of what Joe shared with me on ⁸⁄₂₆ and she told me he no longer works there. Nicer touch. She tried to back me into only comping what we had previously ordered on ⁸⁄₂₄ and nowhere did she pull me name out of a book to confirm our experience as Joe had explained on the ⁸⁄₂₆ follow up phone call. When I told her we had an awful experience on a crazy day in August she replied, «And you come to us on another crazy day…» OUCH. Way to go Panera @ Perimeter Loop. You are by far the lousiest functioning location in the Panera family. When she processed our two salads and ice teas I got no ticket and said, «listen for your name.» So I did and our food was good. Though the line cook supervisor was as equally as disinterested in his role — looks like they have issues with their leadership teams as the runners to the dine-​in customers seem to be OK.
Stick with Westerville, Bethel Rd and Easton. Something is not working in Dublin. That’s only 2 known turnover associates in less than 30 days; no question there are maybe more?
Thanks for comping our meals as promised. That I appreciated and valued.

Panera has me either way you look at it. If there is one nearby, I am there. I recently stopped in this Panera location on my way from a doctors appt at Dublin Methodist Hospital. I had a few minutes to spare and I stopped in for my usual bagel and coffee. The place was busy for a weekday morning with a variety of people there. When I finally recieved my bagel and coffee, both were very fresh and yummy. Great place and location for this store!

3-​Star rating will keep any fan of Panera Bread returning. The question is will it bring in a new customer who is «just passing through»,… maybe staying at a nearby Dublin hotel? A-​OK is the best I can do and that’s solely based on staff. Panera’s soup are tasty (get ‘em in a bowl because those bread bowls are a rip-​off in this Unilocaler’s opinion). The soups I’ve had seem fresh and hot. But why not give some other options instead of… BREAD? The Mac & Cheese is pretty unique as you get mini pasta shells in gooey white cheddar cheese. I’m a salt ‘n pepper guy so the M&C gains character with every shake. Staff? The staff always seems to be mulit-​tasking which takes away from the ordering experience. They grab stuff before your done ordering… talk to other staff while you’re ordering… it kinda goes on and on. I’ve had it happen just today (Leap Day) and it was at 2PM — not normally a rush hour. I am a fan of the Panera wild blueberry scone as well as the asiago bagel (on days when the baker puts cheesy+cheesy in them). And while I’ve never had their bear claws… HOLY HUNK OF SUGAR, Batman. Those things look killer good. Oh,… I like their coffee selections. Too many people surfing the web in this location… its become common place everywhere though so no biggie.

Pretty much like any other panera. Service was good, the food was delish. The bearclaws were the best that I’ve gotten from a panera. Perfect texture and melt in your mouth flaky. So good.
Pretty standard, but with many chain resturaunts, the service is usually very similar.

I’m not sure if they hate me or burn everyone’s bagel. Happened twice last week. I assume bc I get it to go and then use my own cream cheese they’re out to get me. I’m killing their profit margins and I must be punished.

This is my favorite «fast food» place on the weekends. The ½ soup ½ sandwich is a pretty good deal. Most of the time, I opt for the broccoli cheddar. Mmmmm…
(Auto-​deduction of 1 star for being a big conglomerate restaurant unless ridiculously amazing.)

That’ll be enough of that then, Panera. I’ve given you several chances to clean up your act service-​wise, and you’ve failed miserably. I beg you to please hire people who are capable of pushing buttons on a cash register and getting me a muffin and a coffee. This doesn’t seem too difficult of a request.
Case in point — last Sunday, I stroll in and chick says «Can I help the next person?»
I walk up to the counter and start placing my order: «yeah, could I get a…»
*Rude interruption #1*
«HOLD ON!» Then turning away from me, «Suzie, how do I get this stupid thing off of catering mode?»
Suzie then comes over, pushes a couple buttons.
«OK, you said you wanted a what?»
«Um, I’d like a cranberry muffin and a…»
*Rude interruption #2*
«SUZIE!!! Can you do me a huge favor and pick a cranberry muffin out of the case there?!?»
She turns back to me.
«OK, that was a cranberry muffin and a what?»
«Um, a cranberry muffin and a large coffee.»
Several inexplicable button-​pushes (seriously, what could you possibly be pushing 400 times for a two-​item order???) and annoyed sighs later, chick spits out my total without even looking up from the register.
This has been my experience pretty much every time. Plus, the food is overpriced and I don’t really like their breakfast items. The only things of which I am a fan and will maybe, maybe bring me back are the Bacon Turkey Bravo sandwich (but I’m not even sure if it’s still on the menu) and the chicken and wild rice soup.
Get your shit together, Panera on Perimeter.

They have vegan soup. 5 stars. That is all.

I am not a big fan of Panera. I would take a baked good from Mozarts, Piece of Cake, or any other northmarket stall over the bread and cake offerings at Panera anyday.
When I do go to Panera I generally opt for a soup and salad combo. I really do like their salads, the portions are big, and the greens are fresh. The soups vary depending on the special. I’ve had a pretty decent tomato on occasion.
I often find myself at this location since they have a large ‘community’ room in the back so it is a good place to hold a working lunch or late meeting for work or any meet up with a large group. You can even reserve it in advance for a little privacy.
So Panera gets a star for the big green salads and the big free room in the back.