Panera Bread

Drive thru was unbelievably slow today with a line full of cars, so I went inside to place my order for to go. It wasn’t so busy around this time of hour. But my food did take quite a long time. They have the rapid pick up area with your name in your screen indicating when your food order is ready. They are really clean inside and have a good selections of soup, salads and options in the bakery. I got my Cobb salad And a summer corn chowder.
My order came and now i am returning my Cobb salad back to them because the avocados were hard as a rock. They served me unripe avocado with my salad and they forgot to add the bacon to the salad. Seriously, you can’t miss my bacon!
Good thing I was still in the area to return my food and get my refund back. My lunch really sucked though. Since I barely ate enough. Wish they would’ve saved me the trouble. I do expect a little more from them because they aren’t a fast food establishment like McDonald’s. On the order screen it was only a customer and I who was waiting for our food to be ready. I was not in a big rush and neither did I go through the drive thru were they expect to have a speedy drive time.
I hope they also fix the parking situation in front of the store. It’s really crammed and they have a one way in and out of the area in such a narrow parking parameter.
Hopefully things will improve and I can give them another chance to make it up to me.

Ordered the Bacon Turkey Bravo and it arrived without the bacon. I told the server and she said just throw it away and they would replace it. I told her that’s ridiculous and wasteful. I asked them to just give me the bacon and I will put it on my sandwich myself. They agreed and said they would bring it out. 10 minutes later bacon hasn’t arrived and my daughters have already finished their meals. I went back to the cashier and she was able to get me my bacon.

This location stays busy, but they are not slack. The drive-​thru gets them in and out and orders so far have been right on par. .. no mistakes. The inside is clean from ordering to dining. They are extremely accommodating and friendly enough. The few times I have been here my soup was piping hot like I like it.

This visit was ok, nothing spectacular. The chicken soup bread bowl was mighty disappointing as I’ve had it before and this time the amount of soup was very much lacking.
Next time I will skip the chocolate chip muffin top because this time it was dry and not tasty.
An employee came around and made sure tables were cleaned dishes didn’t over flow the pan by the trash.
The ambiance was nice, quiet and worth another visit just with an entirely different meal.

This Panera location has to be the slowest place on earth… And yes, they always get your order wrong after you have waited and waited in that dreadful hellish drive thru. Drive thrus are supposed to be convenient, not complicated and dangerous.

I love Panera… always find what I want any time of the day but now it’s this great Caffe Late for this rainy day! Enjoy

So I always take advantage of their baker’s dozen of bagels deal on Tuesdays because it’s only $ 6.99! Even better, this location has a drive through! I made sure that I had all 13 bagels in mind before pulling up, just to avoid confusion and a long wait, etc. When I pulled up to the window, my bagels were ready! WHAT?! I was super excited. All thirteen, sliced, plus a tub of their amazing hazelnut spread. I was so happy … until I realized that ALL of my bagels are ROCK HARD!!! I have never had this problem with the Town Center or Greenbrier location. In fact, the bagels are still good about a week later. So what’s up, Kempsville?! These cannot be fresh at all, I could play hockey with these bagels. Not a good look at all. I’ll stick with Town Center!

Every time I come to this Panera location, they always mess up my order. I would order a Chicken Cobb salad with no avocado, but I would still get avocado in my salad. I also switched out the gorgonzola cheese for asiago parmesan. It’s like they put the whole bottle of cheese in my salad. It’s way too much cheese. Also about month ago, I ordered a panini and I didn’t know that the chicken was undercooked until I bit into it. So I bite into my panini and then spit it out because the chicken was mushy. I took it back and showed it to them. The guy kept apologizing and then told me that I could get a bagel (lol that’s it, only a bagel HAHA), but instead, I chose the asiago bagel, cream cheese, and a cookie all for free. This place is kind of unorganized. The Panera on Lynnhaven is much better than this location.

Place is ok. Food is same. Parking lot is pretty small, need to be careful navigating around the drive thru folks

Came to the drive through after work to grab a quick dinner before an evening meeting. First of all, the parking lot is horrendously laid out. It’s an accident waiting to happen and I saw almost 3 take place in the 20 minutes I spent in the drive through. But that’s hardly my gripe.
I order my food and am given my total. For a half a quinoa salad (with no meat) and black bean soup (again no meat) it’s going to be $ 9.61. I haven’t been to Panera in a while, so I was a bit startled by the price. $ 10 for a small salad and soup? Ugh. Okay. The only saving grace was that I had a gift card to use up.
So I get up to the window to pay and give the cashier my gift card, one my mom purchased online. It takes her a few seconds to even realize it’s a valid gift card. Then she puts it in and tells me my new total $ 2.00 something. I give her my debit card and she tells me that my card has been declined. I have a moment of panic as I know that I have plenty of money in my account. I hand over my credit card and check my bank account. Phew, no hack all my money is still in my account. The cashier tries running my credit card about 10 times and then tells me she’s going to get the manager because the card isn’t going through and now the gift card isn’t either.
The manager comes through and the two whisper to each other behind the glass window. Finally the manager opens the window and tells me that the gift card reflects a balance of $ 7 but is saying «frozen» when she tries to run it. So with that said, she can’t accept it at this time and that I can call the 1 – 800 number on the back of the gift card so «they can figure out what’s happening.» Then she proceeds to tell me that their kiosks and registers have been giving them issues accepting gift cards so «maybe the problems are related…» Uh, yeah. You think?
I mean complete lack of customer service…
Needless to say, I will call the 1 – 800 number and I will complain about this experience but I will not be eating at this panera again anytime soon.

I ordered the lentil bowl and a bowl of soup. It took a few minutes, nothing major. And you gave me 3 sides and 3 pastries because I waited. The manager herself walked my food out to me and apologized profusely. And then let me know that the pastries were nut free, in case I had food allergies. You guys are amazing. Thank you.

Update!
Still worst Panera (maybe even restaurant) I have ever been to.
Hadn’t been back after multiple terrible experiences. Went back after about 9 months and it’s gotten even worst.
First, there was no spot for us to sit down because every empty table was dirty. There was no employee near so I asked the guy preparing the food if there was someone available to wipe them off, he seemed very annoyed. I obviously was not asking him to do it, but simply to relay the message.
Second, I always order extra croutons with my soup. They didn’t tell us they were completely out until after we waited 20mins for our food (it was only one soup and half salad!) I then preceded to ask for an extra baguette since there weren’t croutons. Again he seemed super annoyed that I’d even ask, although I do think he probably should have offered instead of me having to.
And lastly, as we were refilling our drinks we overheard the same guy behind the counter complaining to his coworkers about me asking for the tables to be wiped down. «I know right? I’m working back here and they’re asking me to wipe tables down.» The other person, «I know, these people are dumb.»
Needless to say, I will never be returning here and I’ll be sure to spread the word.

Today will make it the 2^nd time I’ve ordered a chicken salad only to drive all the way home to find NO chicken. 1^st time it was a BBQ chicken salad which ended up being just lettuce topped with a lot of BBQ but no chicken. This time it was the Ancient Grain, Arugula, and Chicken salad… complete with lettuce and grains but no chicken. I was happy when they opened this location because it’s more convenient but in the future I’ll resume driving out my way to the Greenbrier location as they don’t have issues filling orders. I see a below reviewer has the same complaint so obviously these aren’t just isolated incidents.

As far as corporate restaurants go I would say Panera is the one I frequent the most. I am a total bread whore! I love their bread. They also have the only chicken noodle soup i will eat besides my own home made. Its very similar to mine. My go to is the soup and Chicken Ceasar pick two, or the Turkey Bacon Bravo on the most delicious sliced Tomato Basil bread you will have in your life! Its so soft and the crust has a sweet addition to it almost like brown sugar that sets it off!
This is my go to lunch spot in a pinch, even though its a tad pricey in my opinion.

Ok it totally can’t be just me thinking that Panera’s prices have totally skyrocketed!
Don’t get me wrong, the food is still good. The pastries, still great.
The prices though, no way.
So today, my mom & I came for lunch. We were in shock when they gave us the total. So you know the pick 2 lunch (soup/​sandwich) is advertised as $ 7 something. Well, we ordered two pick 2 lunches, drinks and a pastry each (because if you get a pick 2 lunch meal, a pastry that is worth almost $ 3 each, goes down to .99), and my mom got a box of day old scones. Guess what the total was. $ 35 and some change!!! What?! That’s what we said. I asked her to please break down why it costs that much. The girl said that since my mom chose a new Stew or whatever, those don’t come in small bowls, it’s a full sized bowl, so it’s about $ 3 more. Still doesn’t make sense. So my mom said just to remove her meal because it’s not worth it. We ended up sharing my pick 2 meal (she ate half of my Italian sandwich) and I ate the other half and my broc and cheese soup.
Don’t get me wrong, the food is still good, just so not worth that amount of money. I could name so many places where $ 35 could get us more food and a higher quality of food!
The two stars for this Panera are for the location and looks of the place, because it’s still new.
But based on today’s experience, we will only be returning for pastries. No more meals here!

The last couple of visits have allowed the Greenbrier location to shame this one. Service was so slow. Very slow, I’ve received multiple incorrect orders, empty tea carafes and I witnessed a very poor service practice.
A woman approached the pick up counter and a food prep person barehanded a dinner roll to her. No plate. Not even a napkin. Just odd.
Step it up, Panera.

If you’ve been to one Panera, you’ve been to all the Paneras. This one is quite new, having only opened in the last couple of weeks. That said, the crew working the register was very good getting orders taken and getting the line moving quickly. The crew in the kitchen, maybe not as much.
During the slower hours, the register folks will slice and toast your bagel. In the busy lunch hours, they don’t do this and you get a pager to come back and pick it up when it’s ready.

I was really excited to find out that a Panera was opening down the street from my house!
Obviously, the menu isn’t different from other Panera Bread restaurants, but I think what sets this place apart is how big it is. There is a lot of indoor as well as outdoor seating.
The only thing that I don’t particularly like about the restaurant is the location. The entrance into the parking lot is tight because it is shared with the shopping center and leads directly into the drive-​through.

Sometimes with chains such as this, if you have been to one you have been to them all. This particular location is a cut above the rest. First, what stuck out to me was that the dining area was pretty big and spacious. It had more than enough space for a group of friends to have lunch or a study session, a booth for a more intimate conversation and outdoor seating with plenty of umbrellas. Secondly, the service was top notch. Each associate there who made eye contact with me gave a greeting and asked if I needed anything. Thirdly, service was quick and on the money, I didn’t have to wait long for my meal. Lastly, what impressed me the most from this visit was when my friend ordered a sandwich he didn’t like. He told an associate and they not allowed him to keep the sandwich (that of which he took home for his wife and I got the chance to sample – score!), but they gave him a new sandwich with no additional charge.
So this Panera Bread definitely ranks at the top with others in the area. I had a great experience and will definitely visit this one again.

My family and I are fans of Panera. Whether it be a family breakfast trip or me spending some time getting some work done, Panera is just a place we have always enjoyed. So, we were excited to see this new location being built since it’s very close to our house. I stopped in this morning and they are now officially open!
I am not sure how to review a Panera other than the staff and location itself, particularly since the menu is the same everywhere. On the morning I stopped in, the staff was very friendly and the location was bright, clean and quite nice. It’s brand new, after all. They do have a patio area in which to sit if you find yourself there on a nice day. So, if you are a fan of Panera and are in the Kempsville area, get over and check this place out.