Panera Bread

Never have I ever been greeted in a restaurant by a cashier scratching her armpit underneath her polo… that is, until I visited this Panera location. I went to grab a coffee and was immediately distracted by Monique– a cashier with (clearly) itchy pits. After the under-​the-​shirt pit scratch, she proceeded to touch plates, silverware, even a bagel! Gross! I asked to speak with the manager, and as we discussed the situation, we caught Monique in the act once again! Seems like common sense that itching sweaty body areas wouldn’t be acceptable in food service, but maybe I expected too much of Monique. The manager was very nice and understanding and spoke with the employee about the issue (and said she’s incurred similar problems with her before!). Also, all 4 coffee dispensers were empty when we went to fill up our cups. Overall, not the best experience.

A great place to get health soups, salads and sandwiches! Tried the soup in a bowl-​light bread with a crisp and shiny crust filled with New England Clam Chowder! It was delicious!! Very busy when I arrived but only had to wait 5 minutes or so to pick up my take out order. Staff are so helpful if you have diet restrictions and quickly respond to your questions.

I actually only downloaded this app for this purpose. I am so disgusted and amazed. I went in to order my food, the employee taking my order is sticking her fingers IN HER MOUTH — i am still praying she didnt touch my food. So i order even though her fingers are still in contact with her tongue. And i order a blueberry bagel, cookie and drink, what i order every time, she asks me if want it toasted whatever, and says ok thats 1.29. now im taken aback, i asked for all 3? SHE DIDNT EVEN PAY ATTENTION TO MY WHOLE ORDER, then basically throws my cup at my doesnt look when she grabs my money and misses it, then goes off and basically is dancing by the bagels and asks if i want cream cheese (no) gives it to me anyways, forgets my cookies, gives me a bagel in a bag even though i said it was for here and then hands my my cookie, smiles and walks away, without ever giving me my change and then questions me if i got it, like i was lying.
Worst employee ever. I would fire her, because i know i would never get away with that behavior. Complete imbecile.
Im not coming back. This is ridiculous. Especially after reading this mortifying review, disgusting.
Was at this location yesterday and had a horrible experience. We were waited on by Fatima or fahtima however that girl spelled her name, she started off just ok not friendly. Then she got a nasty attitude because she didn’t understand my simple order. After we finished ordering she walked over to the other employee Melissa and they stared at me and snickered. Fatima walked away and the other girl Melissa continued to stare at me rolling her eyes coming near me to give me nasty looks like she wanted to do something. I asked her if she has an attitude, she got nasty with me saying «girl bye» etc. I told her to get her manager Sheyenne. The manager and her came out laughing like this was all a joke. The manager just looked at me snickering what is the problem, I told her the problem she defended her employees and did not listen to what I said just finally said I will talk to them and laughed and said «Have a good day.» These ppl were so nasty immature disrespectful. The employees and the manager. First time I have had a problem at this place they all need to be fired!

Was at this location yesterday and had a horrible experience. We were waited on by Fatima or fahtima however that girl spelled her name, she started off just ok not friendly. Then she got a nasty attitude because she didn’t understand my simple order. After we finished ordering she walked over to the other employee Melissa and they stared at me and snickered. Fatima walked away and the other girl Melissa continued to stare at me rolling her eyes coming near me to give me nasty looks like she wanted to do something. I asked her if she has an attitude, she got nasty with me saying «girl bye» etc. I told her to get her manager Sheyenne. The manager and her came out laughing like this was all a joke. The manager just looked at me snickering what is the problem, I told her the problem she defended her employees and did not listen to what I said just finally said I will talk to them and laughed and said «Have a good day.» These ppl were so nasty immature disrespectful. The employees and the manager. First time I have had a problem at this place they all need to be fired!

What can i say the best the best and the best, in pastrys an bagels, however you are in the USA same quality !
I like it

I just finished eating my food I ordered and couldn’t be more disappointed. First off, I got a ½ bravo and ½ caesar salad for the pick 2 option… First off, they don’t have ranch for the salads. Weird. I ordered it to go and stood by the counter to get my food. 10 minutes later and the 6 different groups after me all got their food and I’m still waiting. Eventually they discovered they put the Togo order in a name that’s not even close to mine and it’s been sitting there. I got home and ate my food. So many problems. First off, the croutons were soooooo soggy!!! I ended up giving them to my dog who couldn’t even chew them. Second, my PANINI wasn’t even grilled. Gross. Personally, I don’t want cold bacon on a sandwich.
All in all, I will not be returning. All I wanted was a nice clean healthier meal and it wasn’t even worth it. Let alone worth the $ 10 I spent on it.
Do not recommend, will not return.

What a horrible experience, never again will I visit this panera again! I ordered my food on the app «grab and go» at 12:30pm, we were told 10 minutes from the app that our food would be ready, we arrived at the store at 1:15pm and the girl behind the counter said they didn’t have our order, she checked in the computer and said for some reason our order didn’t cross over. She said I will start your order, which was a pick 2, a sandwich and salad, 3 people came in behind us and all 3 people received there orders before we did! I was not happy, so as I stood there the manager finally asked what are you waiting for? So I told her and she handed me my order, nothing was done to compensate me for the inconvenience, i thought I would be able to order and pick up my order quickly before having to go to work! My quick lunch turned into almost an hour long ordeal! Then we get home and I open up my chicken salad sandwich and it looks like they put 2 tablespoons on it, this place is so screwy! Hire some people who know what they are doing! I will be spreading the word around not to eat here because I was highly upset!

Good food but the dissonant music drove me away.

Positives:
— Good location, in the lower part of an office and medical building. Really convenient if you are downtown working, doing errands or visiting a doctor in the building.
— There is some free parking in the back (but see also Negatives)
— Lots of comfortable seating inside, but also enough people ordering for takeout that you can get a table pretty easily.
— Variety (usually) of sandwiches, soup, pasta and salads, also a nice big bakery assortment and good coffee. The soup is good. Many of the choices are also pretty healthy, and even the un-​healthy food at Panera is better than stuffing yourself with, say, giant greasy grilled cheese at the place across the street.
— It stays open fairly late for a chain restaurant in this area of town (9-​ish).
Negatives:
— It’s a chain, in an area that has a lot of non-​chain options.
— This is a Panera issue generally and not with the specific location, but it’s really annoying how the menu changes radically every season. You get to like something and it totally disappears from the menu and is replaced by something you’re not too keen on. Recently I swore off going there for several months after they ditched the pork sandwich I liked in favor of offering three flatbread sandwiches that were all chicken. I don’t love chicken that much that I want to have an all-​chicken menu, thanks.
— As other have mentioned, the wait staff and the food prep are really spotty and it seems like the manager needs to step in a lot to tell people how to make basic stuff that shouldn’t require special instructions. On several occasions I’ve ordered a particular side (potato chips or bread) and gotten the wrong one, or else they were out of bread and decided to just throw the chips in. They also are not good at calling or beeping you when your order is ready, you need to hover around the counter or your food will sit up there long enough to get cold.
— The «free parking» lot is often all parked up, which isn’t surprising as it’s not totally dedicated to Panera, so several times I had to use street parking and feed the meter. (Walking or biking was not an option since my lunch companion was disabled so we had to drive.)
I’m still giving it three stars because I’ve eaten in worse places, and worse Panera bread locations, but it doesn’t get me that excited.

Sugar! The lemonade tastes like it was made from a Kool-​Aid packet. Definitely not fresh squeezed.

Reviewing a chain restaurant? Darn right I am. And I’m not one to complain about big box restos, but there was just something about the lackluster service (and fruit flies) that really bothered me here.
Food: same old stuff. Good, healthy-​ish options and reliable for the most part.
Parking: Love the 1hr free parking option for that building!
Service: Noooooooooope. I understand the need to hire high school and college students on spring break, but I would vet out some of the bad apples a little better if I were them. The gal who took are order was great. But then a bunch of stuff happened that irked me:
1) We got our cups and went over to the fountain area. This tall, large male employee came out of the back and then basically stood over my boyfriend, his son and I while we filled our cups – WAY too close for comfort. Then he made our little one feel so rushed and uncomfortable that he didn’t even want to get a drink. So he turned around to let the employee go – and the guy didn’t even say anything. He just ran our little guy over to fill up his cup. Once he was done – he then stalked me while I was trying to find a lid and straw. If your manager isn’t going to say it, I will. We are customers. Guests. You are an employee. I shouldn’t see you hanging around the soda fountain rushing paying customers out of the way while you’re on the clock. You wait until there isn’t a line and then help yourself when the paying customers are done. This is a common sense thing. I don’t invite guests over for dinner and then rush them to get my food first. Makes no sense. But you’re also a man! You’re rusing a child and a woman to help yourself? Your answer when our little one turned around to tell you to go ahead should have been, «Oh – I’m sorry young man. Please go ahead. I can wait.» But there was just a crappy look and no manners. I’m sure your 17 year old existence is full of lots of angst, but you might have better luck in life using borderline human-​nature-​manners and common sense.
2) While this whole drink thing was going down, an entire table of managers and employees were sitting at a table right next to us witnessing this. No one said a thing.
3) Also while this was all going down, a young female employee comes rushing out, interrupts the manager meeting and so the whole area can hear, loudly describes how she microwaved the icing for the pastries but can’t figure out how to pour it on. She then tells everyone how she put her finger in it to test the temp and burned her finger. Ooook. That’s gross. And why can you not pull a single manager aside to ask her to help you in the back? Did you need to broadcast your seedy behaviors? Note to self: I’m never ordering pastries with icing from this location – I’d rather not have random, unclean fingers temp testing my food.
4) Fruit flies.
Again, our food was good – no problem there, but the service needs some help. Big time.

Typical for most Paneras. This visit I had the broccoli cheddar with a ham sandwich. You can ask to have it on a different type of bread, too. It was good, but I always think Panera is overpriced. Dark roast coffee was meh.

I eat at Panera pretty often as I work nearby (and sometimes I’m too lazy to walk the extra block to the other restaurants). (the first step is to admit your laziness)
For a long time I thought Panera was overpriced, but have come to like it enough that the price points don’t bother me so much. The portions are always sizable but not ridiculously big. I think the quality of the food is decent. Nothing is fried here and there’s ton of good tasting, healthy, fast menu items.
Menu winners (for me): sausage, egg and cheese ciabatta breakfast sandwich, turkey and avocado BLT, mac and cheese, tomato and fresh mozzarella panini, and chicken cobb salad.
Menu losers (for me): classic grilled cheese, pasta with basil pesto (arrived in an enormous pool of olive oil/​grease that unsuccessfully tried to mop up with napkins — was really gross)
They added a fontina grilled cheese to the menu recently that is incredibly rich but delicious. I’d have a hard time eating a full sandwich without having to call my therapist because of the guilt over the amount of fat I ingested and feeling gross from the amount of cheese. A half with a small salad is perfect.
I recently had the chicken sorrentino pasta which consists of ravioli, light amount of tomato sauce, fresh spinach, and smoked chicken and some parmesan, I think. It was really, really fantastic. One of the best items I’ve had there. Not too heavy and had LOTS of flavor.
My problem with Panera is consistency with food preparation. With the exception of soup or mac and cheese, each time I get something it’s different than the time before. For example: I’ve ordered the tomato mozz panini most often. I’ve seen basil on the sandwich about 25% of the time I’ve ordered it. The pesto will either be slathered on super heavy or almost non-​existent. Sometimes there’s a TON of sun-​dried tomatoes and one or two sad tiny slices of regular tomatoes, and same with the fresh mozz. They need to get that shit together, man.
At this location, there’s tons of seating. You have the option of metered street parking or using a garage behind the building. I believe that they’ll waive the fee for 1 hour of parking when you present your Panera receipt. They also have tables outside near the Detroit Ave. entrance. Lots of large windows in this space and lots of good people watching. Many interesting folks creepin around this area at any given time.
The place is always clean. The staff at the registers are friendly and polite. Out of fifty orders, I’d estimate there’s been one mistake on an order.
The coffee is kept fresh and tastes good. The other coffee drinks (chai, latte, etc.) are not good.
Most importantly: They keep the chocolate chip cookies on a warming tray so they’re always warm as if they’re fresh out of the oven. «Thanks a lot, Panera! I curse thee» I yell when I get off my scale each morning. Your damn cookies are too good and I can’t stop with the cookies. I wish your oven/​cookie warmer would break for a few months so I can have a reprieve. (or maybe you can put me on cookie probation or something? Let me know, thanks.)

lol I ordered a café latte and the guy consulted a flipbook on how to make it and then gave me a cup of hot milk
Normally Panera is fine. I’ve been to it in California and Florida, and it’s very decent (I’d give them four stars – this review is for the Lakewood Panera only). But whaaaat is going on at this location? It’s staffed by teenage zombies who don’t know how to make coffee (REALLY? DO YOU THINK BY STEAMING MILK IT TURNS TO COFFEE OR SOMETHING? CAN YOU WALK ON WATER, TOO?). They also gave me a to-​go order when I told them I was eating in. And didn’t inform me that I could add a desserty type thing to my order. How dare you fail to inform me of my desserty-​type-​thing rights!
But their wifi is working well enough for me to leave this review, so, you know. Star there.

Chain food with homemade bread. Today’s pick 2 was cream of chicken &rice soup and smoked ham & Swiss.
Good part — the soup was really good. I would rather see more chickie (especially at this price) but lots of flavor and rice. The soup is served about 200 degrees, so plan on eating sandwich first. Seriously ten minutes later, the soup is still too hot to eat.
Average part– ham & Swiss on rye without rye. The country white bread not much flavor. Of course, you could really taste the smoke flavor in the ham this way. They did pile on lots of onions, maters, and lettuce. But a little disappointing. Again, for $ 6.99 and no drink, this should be best soup and half sandwich possible.
Service was excellent and for heavy lunch crowd time waiting wasn’t bad. Decent lunch stop.

I normally LOVE Panera. I always stick with my usual — half Italian combo sandwich and half Caesar salad. This time, the bottom of my roll was half covered in caked on flour. Like it wasn’t cooked all the way or something. How can I trust this place when they can’t get their core product (bread) down.

Panera is Panera is Panera which it comes to the food. Not that I’m complaining, I love it and is why I go there so much!
But as far as this Panera goes, the location is great and the staff is friendly. Very large, lots of light, and comfortable.
Parking is a little tricky, but there is a small garage available for Parking behind the Panera on St. Charles.

Very nice example of how a chain restaurant SHOULD be. Wonderful building and atmosphere, different than all the «greasy spoon» joints in lakewood.
Fresh and different breakfast food as well.
The only improvement would be a price cut. I wouldn’t go here to buy bread (blackbird or breadsmith on the west end), but for a quick breakfast or sandwich for lunch, it’s great!

Just had the soufflé. Frikkin incredible. How can a chain staffed by hapless undergrads turn out such a heavenly food item? I’m no expert in the field of French egg dishes, but i doubt i’ll ever eat one much better for that price. Now, it may even be from a frozen food service if i know my chains. But i don’t care. It made my day. The coffee is not that great though. Can’t wait to sit out front come the nice weather.

Murray pretty much summed it all up in his review. Not only does the exterior fit in wonderfully with the streetscape, but the interior is really pleasant and interesting. There are several little nooks and crannies to discover and sit to either eat and run or stay and work at your computer (as I am doing now). I love how many windows there are to people watch! Nice job Panera and Lakewood!