Panera Bread

Store manager Teresa is the most helpful person I’ve encountered! I spent over an hour trying to put in an online catering order without success. The chat rep couldn’t help me so I called customer service and after being on hold for 30 minutes with them they told me they couldn’t help either. I called the store directly and Teresa was an angel! She was patient and helpful as I placed my order for 40 people. She assured me that she would take care of everything, apologized that I was having such a hard time and told be to rest assure because I was good to go. Thank you thank you Teresa! You made a world of difference in my ordering experience. You’re the best!

Came in for a quick to-​go order.
Staff here were attentive. It’s been awhile since I’ve eaten at Panera so my cashier gave me a rundown of the menu. Not required but much appreciated because I didn’t feel rushed –which I am so glad about because I’m hella indecisive.
I got the turkey and caramelized onion and kale panini with a BBQ chicken salad ‘Pick 2′ combo with an apple.
The wait area was sorta cramped because there were 3 people before me. There was a staff member there handing out orders and giving more info to customers as they picked up their order. Dang Panera, go ahead!
Overall I will come here again because my food tasted good and they provided great customer service. The reason why I gave 3 stars, is because 4 stars would mean I’m a fan (which I’m not) and 2 stars is for (meh, I’ve experienced better) which doesn’t cut it.
There’s a decent amount of seating and metered front end parking to the side of the building.

The land of Panera. From the moment you walk in your eyes immediately goes towards the bakery goods. After you drag yourself away from drooling over the cinnamon crunch cake, you begin to look at the menu and begin to process exactly what you want. The only downside to this location is the long wait times. It can turn a person from happy to grumpy in minutes.

In all of my beautiful years on this Earth I had never visited a Panera Bread locale. I’d heard much about the spot, but never actually gave it much thought.
Recently I had to visit Silver Spring for a doctor’s appointment and my GPS informed that there was a Starbucks close by. Well long story short I couldn’t find the Starbucks, but in my effort to save time I pulled into this venue. Honestly even after perusing the menu I wasn’t impressed, but knew I needed something to put in my stomach. I ended up ordering the Turkey and Spinach breakfast sandwich with added avocados and a Super Berry Smoothie. The Smoothie was really delicious… the sandwich was meh. I could barely taste the said avocados. Tragic.
Definitely not a place I’d try again unless in a bind as I was before.

The last time I dropped by the downtown Panera, I ordered mac and cheese and a tuna salad sandwich. Something just didn’t settle well with the tuna sandwich and I ended up getting food poisoning (not fun). The cashier also forgot to hand me a cookie and cinnamon roll that I had order along side too. So I had to go back to her and ask for it. She did however tell me about the rewards card so that was nice.

How can you ever go wrong with Panera?
Even in the worst case scenario, the food is above average (and healthy for the most part).
Customer service was great, service was quick! This particular spot is pretty spacey though it does get very packed, particularly around lunch time.
It’s very conveniently located around the AFI theater in Silver Spring and very close to all the shopping scene.

Panera Bread is usually always the same with the consistency regarding their food no matter which location you go to, which is pretty good. Sometimes the baguettes are a little stale, other times flaky soft. This particular time I decided to write a review in regards to their service and the cashier who attended to me.
I was waiting to be called up, line not that long at all, but the cashier, T’Yanna, I noticed did all she could to avoid eye contact with me. So I walked up to her, saying hello first, to which she replied a forced ‘hi’ back with her eyes rolling to the side. I ordered my usual food, pick-​2 ham and swiss with a chicken noodle soup and another bowl of soup as well. I realized I made a mistake with how I phrased the order and promptly apologized to which she snapped with digust, «ugh. God.». She took my payment and told me my order number and I left not before she gave me a look of disdain.
I don’t expect every person to smile at me, because I get it, sometimes were not in the best of moods but we all have our own problems and I didn’t do anything to cause you yours. I expect professionalism because I’ve worked customer service for many years myself, and I know for a fact that the first thing a customer does not want to see before getting their food, is an ‘onion’ someone that makes you want to cry.
Tl;Dr: Food is good, would come back again except for rude cashier with personal problems.

I’ve been in love with their Power Kale Chicken Caesar Salad, but now their Cobblestone muffins?!? Sigh, yes please! :)

I don’t know Panera… If I find a huge, HAIR laying ON MY PICKLE what else should I be worried about? And who’s the Passive aggressive, angry toddler mangling my sandwich together?

This review is for their catering, specifically at breakfast time. For the past two days I’ve ordered breakfast catering for my office of 15. I placed our order three days in advance and confirmed them with the manager, Sarah. We were even sent invoices, so I know that the orders were put into the system.
That being said, when it was time for the orders to be delivered Amilcar, the manager on duty, saw no reason to get our orders to us on time or in an orderly fashion. Both days our food came about a half hour late, in a disheveled manner and missing an item or two. He also mentioned he was «doing us a favor» by delivering it, so we needed to wait. Mind you we paid a $ 15 delivery fee each day, and the office is only a 5 minute walk away. Our office has been turned off to this Panera location completely.

A Panera is a Panera, I suppose. But this place could use a good deep clean. There was griminess everywhere. Lots of dead flies along the wall panels. Also, if there is such a species as «Starbucks hobo» the «Panera hobo» would give them a run for their money. Seeing the sights here will make it hard to keep down that ice coffee.

I LOVE panera. I wish I could eat here everyday. They make me smile. What else? It’s fresh. The green tea is light and puts a kick in my step. The green smoothie is power – the carrot cake cupcakes are succulent. If you want your life to feel better, if you had a hard day – go to panera. A nice server will greet you and add some sunshine to your day.

Panera Bread in the downtown Silver Spring area –was– a place I frequented multiple times a week due to the convenience of the location and I have not had any bad experiences when it comes to the food. The atmosphere is always right for getting work done as most of the tables are occupied with customers having meetings, catching up on school work over coffee, finishing up planning for the upcoming workweek, etc.
I never have had any issues, let alone been spoken to unprofessionally by any of the staff until today which left me very offended and uncomfortable as a Panera patron.
Approached by the General Manager, Amilcar Aleman, while sitting in a window seat table by myself, proceeded to explain to me that «Panera bread was not a bus stop, and if I planned on catching the bus this was not the place to wait for it, and make a run for the door once the bus comes.»
WHAT?!
Immediately uncomfortable.
Now whatever was going through Mr. Aleman’s mind to even say something like that to me completely caught me off guard considering 1) I was not «catching the bus» because I live within walking distance of this location 2) I clearly was in the middle of work as my moleskin, pen, and book were resting on the table– obviously planning my big EXIT for the front door! 3) Why did he feel that was an appropriate comment to make, not just to me, but in general to any customer.
After receiving false contact information for the District Manager, Garth, smirking as he gave me an arbitrary phone number, I contacted another branch (Wheaton) to see if this was standard procedure. Of course, the answer was no and they were extremely apologetic on behalf of Mr. Aleman who continued to pretend that he did not need to address me, walking off during conversation. An associate working the register also apologized on behalf of Mr. Aleman, which shouldn’t have to take place either considering he’s the General Manager.
I can only hope that the District Manager, Garth, handles this situation, and that other customers who might not be voicing occurrences as stated above, know that it is not okay! My first and hopefully last bad experience with Panera Bread.

Staff is always so nice and it’s kept clean.
Never really have to wait to order and to get my food. And the food tastes as expected and well.
Sometimes I’ll indulge myself and my husband with cheese Danish which is delicious. Only thing is that they should advocate for their customers to get like 30 minute parking in front of their store rather than that 1 hour ²⁴⁄₇ metered parking.

I’m a Panera frequent diner card holder because I often go for the bear claw and the cream of broccoli/​broccoli & cheese soup. Of course I don’t eat these together… I think the broccoli soup is very good, not too cheesy or creamy but enough.
The bear claw is for people who love croissants and almonds. High in calories so eat half now, and half in a few hours after walking a lot… or you can be like me and eat the whole thing and then walk it off the rest of the day.
Salads are fresh and so are the sandwiches. Have not been disappointed yet with what I’ve eaten there so far. It’s a good place to get relatively healthy (depends on what you choose) food when you don’t have much time.

I love the bread bowl soup there. Salad is ok but too much for lunch. I didn’t expect to be crowded like that — waited for more than 20 minutes.
One more thing, the rotten apple in the pick two choice ruined my lunch.
Anyway, I will still visit panera for the health food and soup.

I’ve actually never ordered a meal here, but I stop in fairly regularly for a fruit cup, bagel, baguette, or a coffee and the staff is always very friendly.
Their baguettes and bagels are always fresh and delicious!

I pass this location every other week on the way to my hair done, so on this particular Saturday, I decided to stop in and get some breakfast. I do not like the parking lot however. I came in from Colesville Road and had to make a U turn to get to the location as well as go around the block on my way out. Its a little convoluted, but I have it now.
Upon entry I was immediately greeted by a nice young woman who took our order. My daughter wanted a grilled cheese and I ordered a sausage, egg and cheese on croissant. My food was delicious. My child is a sucker for a grilled cheese, so her opinion is invalid to me. Either way, this location is awesome. Just very difficult to get in and out of.

Panera is usually the safe choice: great quality food, freshly baked bread and a wide variety of choices for every kind of hunger imaginable. It’s fast food, but it’s good fast food. And as far Panera goes the food lives up to the expectations: reliable and fairly tasty. I’ll spare the detailed description most are fairly familiar with Panera.
The issue I had came down to service. Panera had fairly light traffic and was fairly empty when we arrived. While looking over the menu staff kept asking if we were ready to order. Normally, not a problem. I like good customer service, and told them «We need a minute while we look over the menu.» Yet every 10 – 15 seconds, the cashiers kept repeating that they could take our order. We’d tell them we’re still looking over the menu and will let them know when we’re ready. And once again, 10 – 15 seconds later, they’d ask again. After the third time this became slightly aggravating. After the fourth, I started to wonder why we were being rushed to order, ESPECIALLY since we were the only people there. We weren’t even in line!
Unlike most Panera this one does not ask for your name or issue an order pager to let you know your food is ready. You get a number on the bottom of your receipt, and go wait in line. Easy enough. Panera is usually swift at getting orders out even when crowded. After 10 minutes, I was starting to wonder where our food was. I saw an order that looked like ours, but I wasn’t sure (I’d never gotten a breakfast Power sandwich before). Our number was never called though. After several minutes, I finally asked what our order status was. Oh, it’s the food that’s been sitting on the counter for 5 minutes? If I’d have known I’d have grabbed the food, but I’m not the kind to make assumptions that something is mine. The other people waiting with me heard the number called either.
Overall, the problem came down to service and communication. Other people in my group (Matt G.) experienced the exact same problem. Not a terrible Panera, but oddly frustrating.

I’ve been to Panera Bread a million times (mostly ones in NJ), and while most are fairly consistent — this one has some fairly big flaws.
I was in town for a concert this past weekend, and before making the long drive back to NJ, my group decided to grab a quick brunch at Panera, since it was around 10AM. I’m not going to go into décor or atmosphere here — this is a fairly typical Panera — slightly overpriced food in a kinda-​deli setting. No, the problem I had was with the utter breakdown of the service at this location.
First off, the place wasn’t all that mobbed. We’re talking a moderate brunch crowd here, with no lines at the register. My friends ordered breakfast foods, I decided to go for my usual «pick 2» and got a soup with a sandwich, figuring it’s not a complicated order. This location is unlike others I’ve been at, in that they didn’t give me a buzzer or even ask for my name, instead going with «your number is #» on the receipt. I paid, walked over to the pickup counter, and that’s when the waiting began. I kept thinking my order was ready, since the kitchen kept shouting numbers out to each other, leading to confusion at the pickup counter since they weren’t using the name system. It took well about 15 minutes for my order to come out, with people who came in long after me getting theirs first.
The sandwich and soup were as expected at Panera — decent but never thrilling. However, when it takes ~15 minutes for an order at what it essentially an «upscale fast food» restaurant, it’s kind of inexcusable in my book. I wouldn’t come back to this location, personally.