Panera Bread

Absolutely horrible and mislabeled food.
On the plus side very courteous, friendly and prompt service and the place was beautifully clean.
I ordered a Thai Garden Chicken Wonton Broth Bowl. First of all everything was raw and cold except for hot broth poured over the raw things. Raw broccoli, raw spinach, raw cabbage. And raw tortellini. Yes, there were no «wontons» in the bowl, but what appeared to be chicken tortellini taken fresh out of the package uncooked, with that shiny no broth touched look on some pieces and definitely raw pasta. If I didn’t believe the chicken in those fresh tortellini packages was pre-​cooked I’d be calling out a food safety issue. But calling tortellini wontons is egregious mislabeling. I sent it back after biting into a completely raw cold pasta tortellini and trying to cut a piece of the rock hard too big raw broccoli piece and splashing hot broth out on my shirt.
The staff was very polite and let me exchange for a «Strawberry, Poppyseed & Chicken» salad. It was actually that plus blueberries, pineapple and walnuts. Fresh yes, good no. First of all it was not tossed so there was a lot of completely undressed leaves as well as other items. The dressing was just on the middle, top. It tasted nothing so much as simple syrup (sugar water) with poppyseed tossed in. No offsetting tartness whatsoever. Not recommendable.
To top it off the iced green tea was sickly sweet. If something that is normally unsweetened has sugar added, there should be a label that it’s sweetened.
So went my lunch.

This is almost a really great place for food, and I want to like it, but is it just too inconsistent. I love the app to order and pick up in 10 minutes, but if I order a bakery item with the meal, sometimes it’s in the bag, sometimes they tell me «well you have to go up to the pastry counter to get that». Sometimes the drink glass is in the bag, sometimes it’s on the napkin dispenser. Sometimes you order extra soba noodles in your salad (and pay extra for it) and its full, and next time it looks like they only put in half. Every order is prepared differently. Doesn’t seem like a big deal, but I never know what it’s going to be like. Next pickup order I will need to open and unwrap everything before I leave, which starts to defeat the purpose of the rapid pick up.

Went to order on a Saturday night at 8 pm, restaurant open but I was told upon entering that they were out of bread. Seriously, no one can go to Safeway across the street to get bread so they can be full service? Soup or salad only, never heard of that happening. Waste of my time to go there.

I had the nicest experience today, and thought i would take the time to write a review and share it.
I walked in and the young woman at the register was immediately friendly, made a good impression, and helped me make an alteration to my meal without the usual attitude I’ve recieved at other Panera locations.
I went to find a booth, and even though there were so many spots that were clean I could have picked, for some reason my eyes gravitated towards a booth that wasn’t clean. A young man working there saw my eyes go for that booth. and immediately offered to clean it and did so quickly and again, without any sort of attitude whatsoever. he then offered to take my pager, so that he could bring my meal to me!
The food was delicious, per usual, and the young man came by again to check up on me, and pick up an empty plate. I also watched as the young woman who was at the register sat down for her break, and was interrupted by a customer who had a question. The young woman didn’t even pause, she helped the customer as though she wasn’t on break, and did so with a good attitude.
I love Panera Bread for the food, but it’s the good customer service that really make it stand out.

So I called and put a catering order in at this store and came the next morning to pick it up. My worst nightmare had came true and they could not find the order and things were not ready to go. I was very concerned because it was for 17 lunches and I had no backup plan!
They manager (I wish I could remember her name!) stepped around and said «Don’t worry, we will fix this… what was on the order?» I explained the order to her and she said «I will get on this right now, do you have 20 minutes?» I said yes, luckily I had given myself some extra time that day. She said great, to have a seat, and asked if she could get me anything while i wait. Then she rallied up troops behind the partition and got them on track to making those meals. 10 minutes later we were done!
Sometimes great customer service isn’t recognized because of mistakes made, but lets face it, mistakes happen. But the way that this store turned it around for me really shows that they care about their customer and are ready and willing to do anything to get it right for them.
I will be back to this location for sure!

Why? Why does this location have to suck…
I like Panera’s. But after waiting 5 minutes at the register while 3 employees chit-​chatted about bread (I honestly have no idea, what else could have been that freakin’ important), someone finally took my order. Soup. Pretty hard to mess that up.
But oh no, might as well be consistent with your suckiness. The soup was awful. I watched a baby drinking milk out of a bottle and momentarily wished he would share with me, that’s how bad the soup is, I’d rather share milk with a baby.
Most Panera’s are pretty good, and the great thing is the food is pretty consistent. This one is a big oh-​hell-​no. Will not be coming back.

Panera at Northgate is a great place to have a business lunch. I use this location to meet people and discuss work and events. The location is consistently clean for the number of people that funnel through. They don’t even mind if you linger with your computer. The manager is nice and offers helpful suggestions for my gluten intolerance. Now, Panera has gluten free cookies.
The cookies are not guaranteed gluten free but the ingredients are not from wheat flour. The cookies are made and formed at a different location but baked in the same ovens as other wheat products.
The menu continues to expand. Quinoa and kales are the features this year and mediterranean salad works well for those who want a quick salad. I think the chicken tastes odd but that’s because it is treated before packaging. It almost tastes as if it has msg or some sort of topical ingredient that makes it less perishable. No matter how many chicken salad I have, no matter what the location, I still taste something odd. But, there are several other items on the menu if you want to steer clear.

The food I really enjoyed so my rating is not for the food. It’s actually for the customer service. The girl that rang us up (a few times that we have gone) really comes off like she has better things to do. I think she should know that she’s allowed to quit if she hates her job so much.

Two words: overpriced mediocrity. The food is edible. Portions are tiny, for the price. Disappointing soggy flavorless half-​sandwich for $ 7.99.

1) Service– they have a couple really good cashiers (friendly and efficient)
2) Cleanliness– floors look like they’re mopped everyday and tables are always clear.
3) Product– food is not anything fancy and they’ve burnt my bagels twice now. When I say burnt I don’t mean toasty; they’re black and taste like paper that caught on fire.
Taking a star away for my visit today. It’s 10am and the lady baking bread is munching on a snack. Not a problem if you’re on a break – but you are on the clock right now, wearing gloves, obviously putting food in your mouth, chewing with your mouth open. The lady who was staring at you while you smacked your lips and enjoyed your food. That was me. I hope you know it’s not sanitary-​but you probably don’t. That’s why I’m writing this review.

First I would like to say, that I like Panera, but the store in North Gate Mall gets very low marks for both efficiency and service. On two separate occasions over the last two weeks, we have ordered lunches for our office. The first was a small order that we didn’t call in ahead of time so maybe that explains the long wait so we thought we would give them a second chance today. We ordered an hour in advance and yet when we showed up at the appointed time we still had to wait for 30 minutes. Not only that but on both trips the place looked like it needed a good sweeping. The seats are worn the tables were not wiped it just looked disheveled. Everyone was polite, but they forgot items from our large order and then when we called to let them know we had to wait for 20 minutes to speak to anyone.
Very disappointing!

Still one star. I don’t know what is wrong with this place. I order soup for rapid pick up, thinking it was a safe bet. Wrong. The single item soup order was wrong. There is no way that actually reading orders genre, I think they just throw random stuff in a bag and hope for the best.

I love panera and am pretty fanatic about it. That’s the only reason this one is getting two stars. I’ve been to many paneras and this one I must say is one of the worst I’ve been to. And I gave this one a few tries because I thought it might’ve been an off day but nope, this one is just plain off. The food was ok this time but here lies the issues:
I agree with some of the previous reviews. It was filthy. Several tables not cleaned up (and we were only one of two people eating in the restaurant). The floor was filthy. I almost felt uncomfortable staying there to eat.
The service was lackluster. We were hardly greeted and the person we ordered from could really care less being there nevermind actually being attentive and taking our order.
I’m really disappointed in this place. The only option for a panera in Marin and its so bad I just can’t go back there again. Don’t waste your time or money.

I’m not sure I can recommend this Panera like I used to. It would appear that the level of service has plummeted over the past few years and the staff is very poorly trained. For starters, the restaurant is totally filthy, with tables piled high with dirty dishes for hours on end. You’ll see the food runners bring dishes out, but you never see them bring anything back. What’s more, I’ve had pretty poor service on more than one occasion in the last month, prompting this review.
I hope the management reads this review and gets things cleaned up ASAP because there are way too few places to get a decent meal in Marin, and I’d hate to see a place I used to enjoy get all run down.
Food: ⁵⁄₁₀
Service: ³⁄₁₀
Price: $
Atmosphere: ⁶⁄₁₀

This is a nice Panera Bread outlet: good service, clean, attractive eating area, nice neighborhood, etc. And I’m impressed with their online to-​go service where your order is waiting for you in a special section by the door.
But overall I was disappointed with my lunch. I wasn’t all that hungry, so I ordered a half Smokehouse Turkey sandwich. Big mistake. I have had half sandwiches at places like Subway, and they still are a hearty meal. But this half was barely there: think half of a small slice of bread, the size of rye bread, say. And not thick either. A child-​sized lunch.
Now had this half sandwich been $ 3.50 or even $ 4.50 I wouldn’t have felt so bad. But this half sandwich was $ 7.00 (OK, $ 6.99).
Panera, you seem to be under the mistaken impression you have morphed into a destination gourmet foodie hangout, with corresponding gourmet pricing. Good luck with that.

***rip-​off alert****
I visited this store and bought 4 bagel packs which includes 13 bagels and 2 tubs of cream cheese for each pack. I buy these all the time for clients etc etc. i get the bill and notice immediately that it cost $ 20 more than what i usually pay. associate says that they are a franchise store and their prices are different. really.. The novato store sells the bagel packs for $ 13.99. the north gate store $ 18.99. $ 5 difference? …seriously.. rip off your consumers pls. Franchise store or not your pricing should be consistent. Your not at the airport where they charge more for everything… geeesh!

I wish I could give 0 stars.
I picked up lunch for myself and two coworkers and nothing about the order was right.
The food as a whole was luke warm and the packaging on everything was falling apart.
I ordered myself a chicken noodle soup and a classic salad with chicken and instead received a cold, smashed children’s grilled cheese. Yum, right?
«At least I have an apple to eat.»
Wrong. The apple was smashed and moldy.
What a miserable lunch.

Ahhhh Panera. The food is so mediocre and it feels like a fast-​food joint no matter how hard they try. The bread they are so «famous» for is doughy and sweet in a white-​bread-​with-​too-​much-​sugar sort of way. They have a variety of salads and sandwiches that’ll do in a pinch — order at the counter, grab a number, take a seat. There’s an outdoor patio (overlooking the parking lot) if you want to dine in. Beware gaggles of gossiping teenage girls in yoga pants. (Ladies: have your mens read this if they don’t want to go to the mall with you. Ahem.)

I love that the food is healthy and that when you choose the «rapid pickup» ordering, they have it ready for you so you can just walk in and pick up your food and be on your way.
However, today’s lunch wasn’t so great. I was halfway into my salad when I noticed a short piece of brown hair on my avocado with a «broken» part of the avocado on one end. See photo.
I have noticed that when I did stop in and waited for my food, the workers prepping the food don’t wear hairnets. I have seen them wear gloves, but talk about unsanitary!!! I’ve put in a complaint on their website, so hopefully management and the franchise owner sees this and the complaint.
Totally gross… makes me not want to eat here anymore. Sigh…

This is a review of a takeaway dinner from Panera Bread in San Rafael.
The restaurant was clean and neat. It is a relatively basic layout with quite a bit of seating.
The staff was friendly. However, they seemed a bit more preoccupied with talking with each other than insuring customers were being addressed.
Asiago Steak Sandwich (Seared steak, smoked cheddar cheese, lettuce, vine-​ripened tomatoes, red onions and creamy horseradish sauce on our freshly baked Asiago Cheese Demi)
Well, first up, I ordered and paid for a whole sandwich. I am not sure if I was accidentally given a half sandwich or if their whole sandwiches are just mysteriously actually very similar to half sandwiches. But, when I got back to my hotel and unwrapped my dinner, it certainly looked like a half sandwich. Then, on what appeared to me to be a half sandwich, there was about half the amount of meat I would expect on a half of a sandwich. Needless to say, I was still hungry.
One other thing, they were out of the bread the sandwich I ordered usually is served on. For me, that wasn’t a big thing. There were other options to choose from and the person taking my order suggested ciabatta. I like ciabatta so I went with it.
The sandwich also came with a small bag of chips.
Receipt (A sandwich): $ 9.78
Overall — At just under $ 10, I certainly would expect a whole sandwich. There was either a mistake with my order or Panera’s idea of a whole sandwich is different from mine. I guess technically speaking any sandwich is a whole sandwich though. Plus, I thought they were very skimpy with the steak. On top of that, the staff wasn’t fully engaged with the customers. I can’t see any reason I would return.