Panera Bread

Needed a quick option for dinner and walked in with a little trepidation around 5:30 on a Thursday night, half expecting the astronomical wait times that seem to be common lately.

The place was fairly empty and the counter deserted. They clearly want you to use the kiosks. However, since we had a gift card, we chose to order at the counter. The cashier argued with me about my rewards phone number; turns out she had indeed entered it incorrectly. Then she had to keep checking with the food preparer (yes, one lone guy) to see if what we ordered was available. This has become common at Panera in recent times.

We waited 20 minutes for a warm bowl, a flatbread, and a sandwich. This was actually much better than the 45+ minute wait times I've grown accustomed to. I then checked my receipt and thought there had been a mistake because there was only $14 and change left on a $50 gift card!? Yep, the above mentioned meal came to over $34!

I don't normally review national chains, but my last three experiences with this nearby Panera have been below my expectations. My son is a fan of their grilled cheese and tomato soup and it's one of his most common takeout requests. He always gets chips as his side. Our last 3 experiences, oldest to most recent, are as follows

1. They put some sort of horseradish condiment (which we didn't order) on his grilled cheese. We didn't discover this until we got home. It was inedible to me, let alone to an elementary aged kid. I called and asked them to make another one and have it ready because we were in a hurry. They asked me on the phone to provide information to verify that I had been there, further delaying things. When we arrived, the sandwich was not made. After they made it, the person working on it accidentally dropped it and had to make a new one. This was all a significant inconvenience to us given what else we had going on that day. No one ever apologized or offered us anything for our inconvenience.

2. My son who normally gets a whole grilled cheese asked for a half. I made sure to ask that it would be half of a normal whole. It was not. It was on a different style of bread that was not the equivalent of half a whole. We didn't discover this until we got home.

3. They ran out of chips, which is the only side my son is interested in. The other options are bread or an apple, and we have both of those at home. It seems like they could plan better so that they don't run out of chips. But if they do, they should give you more options since they are not giving you what you want. They could deduct the cost of the chips. They could offer more options like a dessert. I would even prefer a voucher for chips to bread or an apple.

I will be limiting my visits to this Panera Bread and I do not recommend it.

$14.91 and it's very skimpy. The broccolli seemed like it was old and not fresh. I am not going to buy this again. A lot of times that I have gone to Panera bread they don't have all of the ingredients or the bread. It's gone downhill.

Awful service. Went to the drive through yesterday. I tried to order a warm bowl and was told they couldn't fill my order in drive through but I could come in and order it to go. How does that make any sense? I ordered the same thing two days prior.

The last time I went inside the tables were dirty, garbage was spilling over the trash receptacle. I waited 5 minutes before someone took my order. I'm done. Terrible.

Many choices for lunch and not so many healthy ones ,but Panera brings to their table fresh and healthier options ,even having drive thru service .
The place is pretty nice inside and offers free Wi-Fi to all guests ,so bring as many devices you need to.
They have pizza Flatbread, salads , bagels and more. You have one menu option to Pick 2 . That is half a sandwich and soup or salad. You can mix & match any of their great choices . The mac and cheese is very creamy and decedent I have tried that at another location .
Today I went with a full bowl of Broccoli n Cheese soup and a full sized tuna sandwich. I chose white bread inside of the roll it usually has . Overflowing with tuna,tomato, lettuce and red onion, yumm! It comes with kettle chips or apple, I chose the chips
The soup was pretty big with lots of Broccoli and slim pieces of carrots throughout. Nice and hot and very filling .

I would like to change my review and add a star . I really appreciate it that they wanted my opinion on what was going well and what needs improvement for that location. I was happy to find out that the management wanted to contact me .You have to appreciate the good customer service!!

I had the WORST experience at this Panera Bread and it only got worse when I got home. I went through the drive through and ordered a broccoli cheddar soup with a green smoothie. When I got to the window, the young lady was extremely RUDE. She swiftly asked me for the money as I was in the process of opening my wallet and then had the audacity to put her finger up to tell me to hold down when I asked her to punch in my number so I could earn rewards. I gave her the number & she asked me to repeat it three times even though I'm certain she heard me. I decided to take the high road and just pull off after getting my food.

When I got home, I sat down and began eating. As I reached the end of my soup, I took a spoon and began choking. I quickly pulled out what I thought was broccoli and it was a PIECE OF PLASTIC. I was mortified. The negligence of the staff to the point where I almost swallowed plastic is despicable. I will absolutely be contacting the store and corporate.

I recently started coming to Panera on a daily basis after I signed up for their Coffee subscription. It's a two minute detour from my house, on my way to work, which is very convenient for me. With the subscription I am able to get unlimited coffee any size and any flavor. The subscription does have some limitations and I am unable to add a shot of French vanilla to my coffee with the subscription. Now after I get my coffee I have to manually add a shot of French vanilla in my car. I haven't used the order in store option due to Covid, I have only used the mobile order feature. The mobile order is a very simple process and easy to navigate. The one thing that I have been struggling with his the inconsistency of my order when I do curbside pick up. I always order a large, but I am given a medium coffee due to the store not having large coffee cups. Sometimes I get a notification that my coffee is ready to be picked up, but when I walk into the store to pick up my order I don't see my coffee. I didn't have to talk to an employee to get my order. The last time I was there they had ran out of most of their coffees, so I had to settle for the only coffee they had available. The one thing I did notice was that they did not have napkins. An employee told me that napkins are only given when you order a meal and not a drink. I will continue to come back as I do like their coffee overall.

I placed a catering order last week for today to be delivered between 11:15 - 11:30. We received a call letting us know that our order would be delivered about twenty minutes late. Which was completely understandable. The call came in early enough for us to prepare and make the employees in the meeting aware that lunch would be late. Twenty minutes turned into an hour. I tried calling the Newington Panera multiple times, no answer. The hours between 11 AM & 2 PM are the busiest, so we're told on the recording..which is fine. However, when there is a catering order with an issue how does the manager know if the phone isn't being answered? Is there truly not one person in the building that is able to answer the phone to help with any issues? Apparently, the manager doesn't care all that much. After calling so many times someone finally answered the phone on the eighth time and put me on hold to wait for the manager who never picked up the phone. Needless to say, the food was eventually delivered at 12:38 pm in Berlin at the Eversource building where it didn't belong. My office is in Rocky Hill with direct instructions of address and suite number and where to be delivered.

Cashier was friendly Mac and cheese sandwich was delicious but my chicken soup was a bit on the salty side. All in all great experience