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Category: Sandwiches [Edit]
Neighborhood: SOMAMon-Fri. 6:00 a.m. - 9:30 p.m.
Sat-Sun. 7:00 a.m. - 9:30 p.m.
"5 stars for deliciousness. 5 stars for free delivery. 5 stars for NEVER screwing up an order - easily my favorite sandwich shop in the city.…" read more »
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I eat here pretty regularly because I live close by. They actually make the best chai tea latté I've found in SOMA (surprising, I know).
The food can get old, but there is a big menu that is updated relatively regularly to keep thing interesting.
My favorite sandwiches lately are the Napa Almond Chicken Salad sandwich and the Sierra Turkey. They make pretty good pastries and the breakfast sandwiches are tasty, too.
The food is pretty good, service is friendly, the place is convenient and always clean: 3 stars.
The souffle and cinnamon crunch bagels: 4 and a half stars, craveworthy. Sometimes I go here just to get a souffle.
Pastries: 3 stars. Not as bad as starbucks but not as good as The Sentinel.
There are not many vegetarian items: 1 star. Only 1 vegetarian sandwich, and no way to special order other items to be veg. This reason alone makes me not want to come here.
Coffee: 1 star.
I don't mean to be rude, but for the same price you can get something better. Better coffee at Philz, better sandwiches as Durso.
After finishing visiting different vendors at a trade show at the Moscone Center, I felt I was done and was ready to head back home. Although I did a lot a walking that day, I was still pretty full from lunch at Little Joe's, and with the pleasant weather, I thought it would be a nice walk to the Caltrain Station on 4th and King St.
As I was approaching the station, nature was calling, I realized that I needed to find a restroom. I could use the one at the station, but I saw something more appealing across the street car tracks on King St.
I can last another 100 yards, so I crossed King St., and entered into the Panera Bread store. I was greeted by the cashier. Feeling guilty knowing I was just going to use the bathroom, I browsed passed the pastry display then made my way to the bathroom.
After I was done, I resumed browsing the pastries. Although I was still full from lunch, I could resist getting a little something for my train ride back down the Peninsula. I ended up buying two cookies, each individually wrapped in cellophane. One was chocolate chip, the other was toffee crunch.
Glad I bought them! Nice, sweet ride back home for the Sugah Daddy.
Great place to work / study / what ever your vice is.
And while you do it you can get some good food.
Free internet.
Lots of outlets.
No grinding of blenders in the background.
Pretty mellow music.
Panera is close to my house, and they have a great chicken cobb salad and other sandwiches. I enjoy this, or a bowl of soup, on a regular basis.
For morning nosh, they have a cinnamon crunch bagel that is to die for. Top that with some cream cheese and freshly brewed coffee and I'm ready for the day.
I also like the fact they have free wi-fi, so I can sit and do some work periodically, without being in the office or home.
The staff is friendly, and the prices are fairly OK.
As far a chains go, I am happy with Panera. Their Power Breakfast sandwich is very good, the seating area clean and tidy, and they have free WiFi. I'm not crazy about their coffee or other foods, but I do end up there often, due to the aforementioned sandwich.
I really like this place to hang out and the free wifi is nice. But I had a terrible experience last week with an employee who essentially yelled at me for taking my plate back up to the counter and not leaving it at the trash can. I could have just left the plate on my table and not taken the trouble to go to the front! They need to fire him.
It's Panera Bread, what do you expect? Consistency, cleanliness, and a good work environment. Though it closes at 9:30, which is too early for me.
The parking here after 6 is easy to come by, especially going south on 4th or north on 3rd. Watch out for baseball games though. South-bay commuter? Then you already know of this place.
If they started serving wine and there was a live jazz band or quartet then it'd get a well-deserved 5 stars!
I love Panera. I briefly had the pleasure of living in the building where Panera is located and it was the best two weeks of my life - j/k. Anyway, Panera never disappoints. In the mornings, I like to get their Four Cheese and Spinach & Bacon Souffles and for lunch and dinner, I like their tortilla soup and Turkey Artichoke Paninis.
This location is great because it's right on the corner of Fourth & King. You can sit at the corner and watch the muni trains come & go and decide at the last minute if you want to run half way across the street to take the N or T.
Love eating at Panera and felt the need to give some props to my neighborhood location. This place is still pretty new and spacious. They have free w-fi which is great (limited to one hour during the day). Good location, though parking can be rough, but the street behind it sometimes has spots.
Fantastic comfort food - I love the Chicken Dijon sandwich or French Onion or Broccoli Cheddar Soup! If you're not eating at Panera, you are missing the boat!
BEWARE OF THIS PLACE! It's addicting and you'd want to come back again and again! You get that BAAAAANG for your buck. C'mon, free wifi, food is D-E-licious, comfy places to sit, a wall socket in every friggin booth for your laptop, customer service will ROCK YOUR WORLD, and all this for under $10?! I'm afraid all that I've said is true. Oh, don't get me started on the souffles, cheese pastry, and cinnamon crunch bagels sample sliced!
Trust me, I'm a fat kid, I know my pastries and this is the place to be!
No matter when I walk in here, Panera Bread never fails to put out sample slices of their bagels. I always get a few pieces, order, get a few more pieces, then wait for my food. Oh and not to mention get some more on the way out. It's so tasty and what Asian American can honestly pass up samples?? Puh-leeaasee! haha
Taking off a star for really salty soups. That's all. Movin' on...
When you order a sandwich, you have the choice of getting a small apple, a bag of chips, and something else I forget on the side. I always opt for the bag of chips because it tastes good with beer and yes, I always come in here before a Giants game. Salty chips + beer = goodness.
I almost ALWAYS order their SMOKEHOUSE TURKEY hot panini: Smoked turkey breast, smoked bacon, smoked cheddar & sun-dried tomato ale mustard grilled hot on our Artisan Three Cheese bread. And the amazing thing is, I don't substitute anything in this sandwich. I almost always take things out and add other things but this sandwich is DELICIOUS as is.
Two thumbs up to Panera Bread!
Starting out with 3 stars because of that odd Denny's feel. Future visits may fix that. The souffle was indeed tasty and the cappuccino was done well. Great spot to hang out, and they can handle a group.
Writing this review as I'm chewing on an apple at Panera. I've been cursed with being a life long study bee so here are my Study-in-the-City thoughts:
Positives:
1) well lit and open late (until 9:30p.m.)
2) excellent service:
-friendly (they treat you as though there IS a tip line in the credit card slip. yay for vagueness behind not tipping...is it you? is it the slip? who knows?),
-impressively competent (they clear plates like ninjas - turn around and your neighbor's messy plate is gone) and
-no stares (you can sit for hours w/o pressure to reorder)
3) plenty of electrical outlets
4) free internet
5) almost all their sandwiches are yummy (order 1/2 sandwich and 1/2 salad to get the most bang for the buck)
Negatives:
1) weak coffee; and
2) windows everywhere means good lighting but brrr cold for a weak sauce like me
Neutral:
Parking: no parking during ball games; but free parking on Sundays and after 6p.m.
More like 2.5 stars. The only thing I'm really impressed with at Panera is their service. You're always greeted with a friendly smile and "Hello" as you walk in the door and you never have to wait very long order your food. Once you've ordered, you have your number, and you've found a table you better believe your food's being delivered by the time you take your seat. You can't argue with effeciency.
The food is mediocre but it's fast and pretty inexpensive.
I used to love the fact that they had fresh baked bread to sample as you walked in the door...until I saw someone sneeze right on to the bread that was sitting out (he didn't even cover his mouth)!! Gross.
what more could i ask for to walk to panera at 7 am for breakfast? they're open extremely early every single morning.
their spinach and artichoke egg souffle is the perfect portion in the morning. if you're a meat lover, you can try the turkey sausage egg souffle.
on a cold day, their chicken and wild rice soup is great which you can order bread or an apple on the side with it.
You really can't go wrong with Panera. They always have the right thing to satisfy my hunger cravings. I've been going to Panera since I was living on the East Coast, and then I went all throughout college when it was called St. Louis Bread Co. in Missouri, and now I am thrilled to have one right across the street. The you pick 2 deal with soups, salads and sandwiches make great lunches and dinners. I enjoy reading the newspaper or doing a crossword in those two big chairs by the floor to ceiling windows - so much light!
Good location. Good food, especially for the price. Big, with lots of tables, none of that Ritual-esque layout with tiny tables with tiny, uncomfortable seats.
Why can they not get the WiFi right? Seriously, there's maybe 15 or 20 people here now as I type this, and the WiFi is slow as a dog. Every other cafe, including those without an enterprise system, have figured out how to make shared access work. This WiFi is consistently slow and unreliable. And I'm not talking about too slow to stream content, I mean gmail and facebook and yelp take thirty seconds to load. I don't understand it.
Every other coffee shop has figured this out, and they don't have the backing of a corporation. And this hasn't happened just once -- this has been happening multiple times, with different laptops, over the past year that I've been coming here regularly.
I don't understand what's so hard about getting this right. Ya'll have an IT department that runs this for hundreds of stores in similar markets, with similar performance requirements.
I appreciate the WiFi, but it's barely functional for checking email.
The speedtest shows 250 kbs. 1998 called and wants its ISDN speeds back.
DEFINATELY THE HIT FOR MY AMERICAN FIX!!!
After driving around Millbrae trying to find the Panera bread, i turned around and went to the SF Panera Bread spot near the stadium. Parking is horrible! As I passed Panera everyone and their mama inside had a dang laptop and i wondered to myself is this the Mission Bay library? ha.
I walked in and it was super quiet, everyone on their laptops (must be free wireless), i ordered the soup and half a sandwhich for less then $10 bucks.
* Chicken Noodle Soup - its okay. why was my noodles very overcooked and saggy. it was still good but i prefer no soggy noodles.
* Italian Combo Sandwhich - its was good. filling. but i wish they put the condiment inside my sandwhich instead of me going to the condiment section myself (its not a cafe feeling, more like a cafeteria feeling).
- service, good. they clean the tables fast, the food gets delivered to you, and they are very attentative to your needs.
- ambiance, i felt like it was a cafe on a university campus.
- prices, definately affordable. no complaints!
- taste, pretty good for the price you pay.
Will i be back? duh!!!!
Until the next review...
In a neighborhood that is now teeming with delis, a Safeway, a Whole Foods, coffee shops, restaurants, taco trucks and more, Panera is a refreshing change.
1. It's nice to be able to sit down and eat inside and read a book, catch up with friends or just stare out at the world through the glass facade out front. Or, just get it to go and find one of the many benches along side Mission Creek and soak up the sun and the view.
2. They are all about sandwiches and salads and some soups. Food is fresh and arrives quickly... sometimes, a bit too quickly for my comfort.
3. Their neat deal is the half sandwich with a small soup of your choice for something like $7 which makes for a good lunch.
4. Staff are friendly and place is clean and their turnaround is pretty quick.
5. I tend to come here when I get tired of the other places and just want to sit down for some peace and quiet or chat with a co-worker.
6. Why the 3 stars then? The food is A-OK especially when I compare it to Specialty's a few doors down.
But the pros outweigh the cons at Panera and so, if you're looking for a quick lunch in a sit down setting, check them out.
It is the year 2000. It is the distant future.* Feels that way at least because I'm Yelping in real time from my g-phone. Wow, the future types really slowly using only its thumbs...
It also feels like the distant future because I'm eating at Panera, which makes me feel like I've aged and become my dad. Back in Wisconsin Panera is a bigger chain. My dad makes a daily morning pilgrimage there to enjoy his senior discount on coffee, have some fresh bread, and flirt with the young girls behind the counter.
And I can see what he likes about this place. It's clean and bright with plenty of seating and offers free wi-fi. There's a wide selection of soups, sammies and salads. My 1/2 tortilla chicken soup and 1/2 roast turkey and bacon panini hit the spot with a nice, spicey kick. I also like that you can pick fruit instead of chips as a free sides option. And wow speedy delivery, my food arrived minutes after sitting down.
My one gripe would be line and menu placement. Maybe I'm beginning to need bi-focals like my dad, but you can't easily read the menu from the line until you're at the cashier - which moves quickly due to the numerous folks working there.
*ala Flight of the Conchords
3.5 * stars
I came in at 9:15am this morning and they had out their bagel samples in large chunks. I didn't have any, but I am sure they are good. I mostly come here because the overall package of this place is great.
1. This place is very clean, well-maintained, good architecture environment, and lets in plenty of natural sunlight.
2. The food is good and reasonably priced.
3. Free Wi-Fi.
However, while the internet is pretty much open outside of the busy hours of 11:30am and 2pm, the internet starts to be cut into 30 minute increments between the busy hours. This is fair enough though from a business perspective to keep people from hogging tables all day when other customers are looking for a place to sit.
The place is big enough where it's never really crowded, which is nice. As for food, I've never been disappointed though I also don't expect anything spectacular. Don't get me wrong though...the food is great and they way they serve it is pretty much restaurant style. I very much enjoy their soups, including their Brocolli & Cheddar soup and sandwiches...and recommend the "You Pick 2" which pretty much includes a half sandwich and bowl of soup for just a bit more than $8 (including tax).
This place to me is on the very high end of four stars. I only give five stars to super favorites (else the don't mean much otherwise).
I had my first Panera Bread experience yesterday.
I believe it to be a mother/son management team, which I thought was cute, but that's just me.
It was our first visit yesterday, and we got tons of suggestions from the manager and she even had to ask her son which sandwich he recommended, which we actually ended up getting. (It was the Italian Club one).
You get your choice of a baguette, apple, or chips. I didn't feel like an apple or chips, so I got the baguette, and when it came with my sandwich it was nice and warm, and perfect.
The sandwich was bigger then I thought it'd be, but it was still on the pricey side. I think for 2 of us for lunch we paid about $24, but that's because my husband got the mango smoothie, to which he gives 2 thumbs up.
There is free Wi-fi, which is nice, and is something that will probably bring me back sooner rather then later. Plus it's in a real nice location, and there is plenty of seating.
All in all I give the food 3 stars, and the extra star is for the friendly and wonderful customer service. There is a good chance I will go back in the near future.
Awesome cinammon raisin bread, egg souffles, apple tarts and salads.
And the service is impeccable.
Service is incredibly fast, but a little bit overpriced. Nice little getaway when you just want to sit and read the Wall Street Journal (I grab theirs and then return it neatly to the stack).
Panera has become my boyfriend and I's Monday morning ritual. It's reasonably priced, has delicious not to mention totally fresh food and excellent customer service.
OK, promise not tell anyone, but I was late to work on Wednesday. You see, I had to pick up a package at FedEx Home Delivery warehouse in South San Francisco. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but the warehouse has the business hours of a lazy private practice doctor who plans to retire within the next 2 years: the warehouse is only open 8 am to 4 pm. So I drove to South City first thing in the morning, and then drove back to the office. I took the King St. Exit off I-280, and decided to stop for breakfast at Panera Bread. I was late anyway, so why not?
I found FREE parking on Berry Street, directly behind Panera. Score! I never get to park there, because parking on Berry Street is a big "no-no" during Giants games, i.e., during the only times I find myself in the area.
Even in the city chock full of bakeries, coffee shops, boulangeries and patisseries, there's still a time and place for Panera Bread. Sometimes you don't want the ambiance, the pretentiousness or the $6 scones. Sometimes you just want to sit in a cheap Ikea-style chair at a cheap Ikea-style table, drink your coffee and enjoy free wi-fi. This particular Panera Bread location offers great people watching: the Caltrain crowd, the Embarcadero crowd, the China Basin crowd blend in together, creating the ultimate in San Francisco people watching.
I ordered a toasted sesame bagel ($0.99) with cream cheese ($1.39). A bit pricey for an ounce of generic cream cheese, don't you think? I also got the cobblestone pastry (muffin made out of cinnamon raisin bread with icing on top). The bagel was fine, but the cobblestone just didn't do it for me. The chunks of apple inside made it taste sour, and the icing made it too sweet. It also was NOT freshly baked. I ate less than half of it, which is a good thing, too: the whole cobblestone has 650 calories and 62 grams of sugar!!!) The coffee was weak and just not that good.
On the positive side, the employees were upbeat and super-nice.
If I lived in the area, I'd probably come here to get some work done and people watch, not to eat cobblestone pastries.
Damn Panera anyway. With their addictive chipotle chicken sandwiches.
If it wasn't for those, I wouldn't rush back. The food is expensive: when you are paying $7.50 for a sandwich (that admittedly includes chips or an apple),why not include a drink? That would constitute real value.
Still, I do need the chipotle fix every now and again so I'll be back.
This place produces me mixed feelings. It has good and bad things and you have to know which one is which. Let's see, here is your guide:
- The bread: Great! Go for it.
- The sandwiches. Ok. Nothing that great.
- The coffe. No, no, no. Go to Pheels (next block on 4th Street).
- The Jazz music that no matter what is always playing there. Horrible. Plainly horrible. I do like jazz, but the music that they have here is just brainwashing... always order to go. ;-)
I'm removing one star because they no longer serve the 'crispani' pizza that I loved.
Great service, comfortable atmosphere, free wifi. The food is good and reasonably priced.
Order at the counter, sit down and they bring it out to you.
Great location right by the Caltrain station.
I am stoked about Panera being in San Francisco. I know its a chain, but it has a special place in my heart. When I was in school back in Madison, WI, Panera was one of the places we would drive to when hung over to get breakfast. Sounds lame, I know, but it was Wisconsin. I know its a chain, and chains are never cool, but this places is a lot better than most chains.
I love their breakfast sandwiches. There soups are also pretty good, they have a pretty good Cheddar/Broccoli soup if i remember correctly. Also the Asian chicken salad is pretty solid.
This place may not be the best breakfast or sandwich place in San Francisco, but if you are in the neighborhood and looking for something quick and not outrageously priced, Panera is a lot better than say McDonald's.
I'm upping my star quality for you Panera.
I must say, they really win you on the service, and not all Panera's are the same, let's get that straight, but Soma you are top notch with your customer service. These people take their jobs seriously, greet you at the door, are helpful and most of all THEY CARE ABOUT YOU.
Though I don't think the food is stellar, it's good if you eat meat. If not, the tomato soup has gotten much better and I get it in the bread bowl and it's really good.
They also have fantastic baked goods. Cookies and Pastries, delicious.
great staff. spacious place. mediocre food.
I've given Panera 3 tries this past week. This seems to…
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I love this place. Too bad it's way out of my way to go there. Everytime I miss CalTrain I come here and use their wi-fi and eat something tasty.
This Panera Bread location is $1 more expensive than the rest of the Bay Area locations. Why is that? It bothers me.
With 20g of saturated fat, Panera's spinach bacon egg souffle has 100% of your daily value of artery-clogging deliciousness. It's the perfect reward for dragging your ass out of bed.
And their egg and cheese bagel, while not the bacon and egg ciabatta I ordered, was top-notch. I could taste the grill. In a good way.
My left arm hurts.*
*From an impending heart attack, not from dragging my fat ass out of bed, Wilhelm.
A typical Panera bread, just a nicer location. Staff is friendly and the seating areas are clean. I ordered the Asian Chicken salad and it was larger than I expected, lots of chicken...but the texture was a little rubbery, bleh. Also, the pecan roll looked great, but disappointed also as it was drryyyyyyy!!!!!
I guess this place is ok for a quick bite to eat. I probably won't go back unless I'm desperate, starving, on that corner and all other restaurants are closed.
You can't ever go wrong with Panera. They are everywhere in the midwest so I'm happy to have one here at my new home. yum yum.
This place is great. The staff is always super nice, and I feel bad when they actually come and deliver my toasted bagel to me. But wow, SERVICE!
I love their cinnamon whatever bagel with some cream cheese and a regular coffee. Their coffee is SO good. I love the toasty sweetness of their bagels with the hit of cream cheese after the bagel has started to dissolve away in your mouth... then another HIT of strong coffee to wash it down. Sweet, melt, cheese, melt, coffee, melt... Da-rool, da-rool, da-rool.
I was here 5x a week for a month straight and I never got sick of it. It started me off for my day and I looked forward to it a lot. Speaking of which... I MISS IT SOOOO MUCH!!!
I came here for breakfast and time just to read and relax. I had one of their breakfast sandwhiches. An egg and cheese sandwhich with some tea. I didn't care for that sandwhich, if I would probably give it only a star. It was very filling. The egg like artificial and the cheese had not much flavor.
However, the place is very clean, service very friendly and have some unique types of tea that you get to select. Free wi fi and nice table you can sit by yourself or with others to relax or have a good conversation.
There know for their breads, which I have to try next time.
I put up with Panera. It's not cheap. The sandwiches are not fresh. The baked goods are stale by lunchtime.
But yeah, the service is fast. Free wi-fi, plenty of outlets, and no one hassles you. Free refills, or at least no one seems to mind. And the "turkey...artichoke... something" panini is a pretty good option.
The interior is depressing, but not so depressing that you can't spend a good 2-3 hours in there working.
It's worth bringing your laptop, not your significant other.
I'm a huge fan of the cream of chicken and rice soup! Worth walking the one mile from my apartment JUST so I can have it in a bread bowl (Yah I could take muni... but walking is good). Yumm.
The location is pretty nice, right by caltrain. The interior is clean and there is always pretty good seating. I like the fast and friendly service so an extra star for that.
I have never had any of their bagels or anything here before- nor have I had breakfast here.. hmm
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Millbrae, CA
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