Panera Bread

I encountered a rude server today at Panera Bread in West Springfield. I ordered a bowl of chicken noodle soup. They gave me a cup. I pointed this out to the server. She said «Bowl?» I showed her my receipt and then she gave me my bowl of soup and told me to take the cup also. I told her I didn’t want it. She said throw it in the trash. I said you throw it in the trash. She said I can’t. I walked out. Needless to say I did not get a free treat!

Horrible service. The person who was my cashier was very rude. While I was paying for the food a little kid just went up to the cashier (who looked like a manager) and told him he didn’t get any water. So instead of finishing my order, he left me without a word for a good two minutes with two bottles of water for the kid. I’m just standing infront of the cashier waiting for my receipt and pager. He just stares at me and basically questioning why I’m still there with his facial expression. I ask for the receipt and he ‘forcefully’ gives it to me and then I ask for the pager and he looks away as he, again, ‘forcefully’ gives it to me. I’m usually very pleased with the food and service with Panera but this one is definitely a bad experience. The green tea has a weird swimming pool taste at the end and the food is not that good compared to my usual Panera experience. It might be because I was so offended by the cashier but I am not coming here again.

This is absolutely the worst Panera out there. The food is good, but after waiting 30 minutes in line to order and another 30 minutes for food just proves a mismanaged staff and system. Avoid if you are actually looking to get your food within an hour. If you are willing to wait, good for you.

I have resigned myself to stop eating at Panera. Ninety percent of the time the meat/​filling in their sandwiches is just lacking. See posted photo. I like their new ordering system but it’s just not worth the money to frequent Panera any more.

Overall 4.5
They have gotten better with the pick/​up orders. I may order twice or more a week.
It’s close to where I live and I can order either from the app or inside the store for my family or catering order for teachers or work-​related mtgs.

What has happened to this location? Especially noticed since they have their new setup, that it has gone down hill. Who runs out of bagels at 9:30 — 10:00? And this isn’t the first time. Very little selection available. With the new kiosk system, they have taken away seating, which can be problematic. I have also noticed that when you order breakfast sandwiches, they are sloppily made. Not a fan of the lady manager either. Doesn’t seem like the employees are very happy there either. Hoping this is not going to be the way Panera continues to operate. Kingstowne Panera is still good and has really nice staff members.

7pm Thursday night no tomato soup. Ok. I will have a panini. No panini bread. What is going on here?

I like Panera Bread but this location is pretty bad. The service is always bad and the temperature of the food is usually off. When I was trying to order my food today the girl taking my order got sidetracked chatting and laughing with a coworker who was walking by about something not even related to work after she called me over to take my order. I thought I’d give her a minute but she still continued chatting so I had to interrupt her to put my order in. I usually love their french bread but the last couple times the bread has been hard and really cold. When I mentioned this to the staff, they told the manager and he told me that the bread is always like this now.

They hustled to get orders out tonight but I will say that the whole pasta order is to much. It should have stayed the pick 2. After u pay $ 12 for it u will try and eat the whole thing, which I did and now feel gross. Maybe someone at panera that makes decisions realize that is was better as a pick 2. No one needs that much pasta plus bread, which 90% will still get bc its amazing and why you go there in the first place.

This Panera is the the dopest, the illest, dare I say… the trillest! The new ordering system is fly as hell! No more touching those gross buzzers… keep your hands clean while you kick back in style in a new seating area and look at a TV screen to see when your order is ready!
I kept my order classic with a half BBQ chicken salad and half a chipotle chicken panini with a side of bread. My home girl kept it classy with a strawberry poppyseed chicken salad. The salad of the summer, some will say. My sister tortured herself with the new power kale salad. Let’s be real… kale is so 2014.
Will I ever go to a Panera Bread without this dope ordering system? Doubt it.

Had a horrible/​traumatic experience dining at Panara Springfield. Was dining outside enjoying our meal when we noticed that the table next to us had a dog eating off their Panara plate (assuming left overs) while also drinking water out a Panara bowl. This totally caught me off guard I was asking myself and the person I was with if this was sanitary. I talked to an employee at this location and also asked for the manager to complain. Not sure if they took any action but I was totally disgusted and felt sick till the next day. I love pets but I’m not sure about eating off the same plate that a dog licked clean even if it was dish washed. This experience has left me with the feeling that i cannot eat at this Panara or any Panara for that fact.

I always have problems with temperature of food at this location. Today I had a Chinese chicken salad and when I got the salad the chicken was still frozen and stuck together. They gave me a new salad and fixed the problem but now I can’t help but wonder about the preparation of their food. I never considered the chicken came frozen in a bag! Might as well make my own salad at home.
Another time I was there I got a Broccoli cheddar soup which came out room temperature. I’ll just go to another location next time.

Confusing counter system if you’ve never been to Panera. Slow to get food. I waited over 30 minutes to get my sandwich because they burnt the first batch. Not sure if I’ll get comped, but we’ll see. However, the workers are polite.

Panera is one of my favorite places to eat. I love the Fuji Apple salad and the broccoli cheddar soup! This location is always busy and the people who work there have always been nice to me. I go Atleast 4 times a week so I’m there often. I am embarrassed of my order most of the time because there are so many modifications. I’ve worked as a waitress since I was 15 so I know how annoying that is so I always apologize profusely because I do feel bad that I am that picky. Last time I came in however I was embarrassed even more so because I heard someone behind the counter make a comment about how annoying my salad is to make. I normally ask for no tomatoes, onions or chicken. Weird I know. But I will continue going here and I love all of the food! That was the only reason I did not give them 5 stars. I do feel bad because I know not is not everyone else’s fault for this and I do appreciate all of your hard work!

This place is good that there is outdoor seating available outside the store but I’ve been noticing customers in this store that would stay for hours and hours not getting ready to leave at all as if this store is their own personal property. Since there are no Paneras near by Springfield, I understand that it may be busy during lunch hours but waiting in line for quite a long time made me sick the other day when I went to this store. Ive heard from my friends that theyve had their orders completely off before and the managers werent friendly at all when they were complaining about it. Some of them dont speak to you in a respectful way even when theyre taking orders as a cashier. My biggest complain is that the store should either set up a way to get orders accurate and faster. I hated waiting for my food when I had just ordered a cup of soup to go. I honestly want to give this store a two star but because of the friendly associates working there I added another star.

Update — 11/​11/​2015:
Extremely rude manager, Carlos.
Girlfriend and I came in for dinner and he was rude off the bat. Using unnecessarily rude hand jestures and obviously disgruntled tone of voice telling us to hurry up and come to the register to order when we had just walked in and were scanning the menu off to the side.
He rang up my girlfriend and was rude all throughout the transaction and left her in the middle to grab water for himself. We had to flag him down twice; once for her receipt and the second time for the pager.
Our food came out pretty slow despite the fact that the restaurant was not very crowded.
My plate came out with the napkin and utensils covered in some kind of chunky fluid that was obviously not on my order. I took it back to the pick up area and asked if they could give me a new set of utensils in which Carlos replied that it was my soup that had spilled and proceeded to «wipe» my dirty utensil with the dirty napkin and throw the utensils back onto my plate.
For sure we will not be returning to this establishment. Or at least until they hire a capable manager who knows how to serve customers without pissing them off.
9÷4÷2014:
Went in around 10am on a Friday morning to a moderately crowded store. The wait time was a good 5 – 10 minutes in line.
When I finally arrived at the register, they were out of half of the things that I ordered.
Out of ingredients for a salad, out of ingredients for a specific type of sandwich and also out of the soup that I had ordered, yet all of these things were still posted on the menu.
The cashier had to come grab me from the table after I ordered to tell me that they were out of something that they had taken the order for.

The Ups: Great healthier choices for eating out. Line moves pretty past. Food prepared quickly.
The Downs: Seating can fill up quickly during lunch and you’d better like the sound of high schooler gibber-​gabber during the school year. Dining area gets cold and drafty during winter.
Panera is my favorite spot for holding a monthly meeting with one of my clients. Laid back and comfortable enough to sit for 1 ½ to 2 hours. I get there around 10:45a to 11a and always find a seat. However, be warned that during the school year, the high schoolers stream in around lunch time. I don’t like to eat heavy lunches so I like getting the «Pick 2». I liked the kale bean soup, winter power salad and oriental chicken salad.

DONT ORDER THE SCONES, unless you plan on throwing them at someone you really hate. But if nourishment/​enjoyment of a pastry is your goal and NOT murder… then PLEASE order something else.
I absolutely love Panera and it’s food. It tastes great, seems fresh, and is a decent value. That is until I decided to walk on the wild side and order a blueberry scone. If you ever imagine what it feels like to sandpaper your tongue, soft palate, and throat, for whatever reason, please try one of their «delectable» scones. My love for Panera made me ignore the awful scones TWICE and I said to myself «third times the charm!» I was wrong.
I will stick to my pick 2 combo because any choice I’ve made in the past have been great. I recommend the Asian Sesame Chicken Salad (surprise suprise… the Asian recommends the Asian salad…) no seriously it’s AWESOME! I’m not bias.
Maybe, and I do mean MAYBE, I will try another scone. I get free stuff with my rewards card all the time so if the blueberry scone gods are willing I will again walk on the wild side. In the event, I enjoy the scone, I solemnly swear to update this review because as I’ve stated I LOVE PANERA and it pains me to write so negatively about an establishment so dear to my heart.
Till we meet again scone…

I really do love the food here, and the restaurant is quite popular — always very crowded. The only reason I didn’t give the place 5 stars is because it is ALWAYS pretty dirty in the dining room. The tables are rarely, if ever, wiped down. They seem to depend on the customers to bus their own tables — which folks for the most part do, but they cannot be expected to wipe the tables down. And napkins aren’t left out for people to at least wipe off the crumbs — you don’t get napkins until you get your meal, and then only a couple. And if you’ve ordered soup, odds are good your napkin is covered with it when you get to a table.
Menu items are EXCELLENT. It’s easy to eat healthy here and I like that the calories are posted. Sandwiches I thought were good choices turned out to be more calories than I thought, while others were better. Same with the soups.
In spite of the general grubbiness of the dining room I try to think that the kitchen is kept better and on days when I am running late for lunch and can get there after some of the crowds have dissipated I very much enjoy the food.

A very good Panera location that has been steadily improving since it opened in May 2010n the West Springfield Center. I’m here at least once or twice a week for bagels or a Pick Two dinner combination. (BBQ Chopped Chicken Salad and Bistro Onion Soup being my favorite Pick Two.)
It can be crowded on weekends. Lines at the service counter are variable, sometimes short, sometimes long. Often the manager will work a register when there is a line and when he does he is friendly to customers. The food comes out in a timely fashion and is consistently good. I like Panera’s choice of iced teas. Among the bagels, I like the Everything and the Sweet Onion Poppyseed (they seem thicker).
While I give this Panera location four stars for the quality of its food, it could do with improvement in the housekeeping department. Tables often have trash under them and have not been wiped and the kitchen area can be noticeably messy.