Panera Bread
reviews and complaints

I usually have lunch at Panera located at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago when I am at the facility for doctor appointments, labs or tests. Their lunches are very good.

Today, 8/24/23 at about 9:30 am, I had a taste for an Asiago bagel so I went to my local Park Ridge, IL Panera on Northwest Highway. The bagel dough tasted like white bread or a roll I could buy at my local Jewel store, for a lot less than a bagel.

This is false advertising. It did not taste like a bagel or I am sure was not cooked like a bagel.

I would like a refund. I will also look for a real bagel next time I want a bagel.

Eileen Kelly

[protected]@sbcglobal.net

My receipt will show I also bought a $20 gift card for a friend.

I am writing to express my disappointment with my recent order (order #[protected]) on August 11, 2023. I ordered an asiago cheese bagel with sausage and scrambled egg, but the bagel was missing from my order. The receipt indicated the asiago cheese bagel was unavailable, but no effort was made to substitute it or inform me.

To compound my frustration, I was charged the full price despite not receiving my complete order. As a loyal customer, I expected better service and communication.

I request a prompt resolution by:

1. Refunding the missing bagel's cost or the complete payment.

2. Improving order fulfillment and communication processes.

3. Providing assurance of better service in the future.

I never received my order. I contacted Panera and they informed me that Door Dash picked up the order. Anytime the delivery driver picks up the order, I always receive a text that it was picked up and I can track the order. That day I never received a text. After 10 minutes had past, I contact Panera a second time and they informed me that I needed to contact Door dash, I called door dash and they said I was not in the system for an order to be picked up so I called Panera a third time to inform them of what they said so Panera put me on hold so that they could call Door Dash to find out the issue. I then decided to go to Dunkin Donuts because our clients were already in the office. After being on hold for 20 minutes, I hung up and called Panera a 4th time and asked for the manager and she told me she was the her and was rude to me telling me she was still on hold with Door Dash. I then told her to cancel my order. She said fine, and that I would receive an email that it was cancelled. I called Panera two hrs later to let them know that I did not receive my cancellation email and she said it takes by the end of the day. End of the day came and I did not receive an email cancelling my order. I contact Customer Service to complain: [protected], the admin informed me that they have my info and the person who handles complaints would call me to give me a status. I called Customer Service again next day to inform them that I didn't get a call back, Admin stated that they person handling this has my order number and amount I paid and she would reimburse me within 7-10 business days and I still have not received my reimbursement or even an apology for this. I have used your business many times but after this nightmare but I can honestly say that your business practice is not up to standards and after speaking with the admin, she stated that others have complained about the same issue. If this continue your sales will be declining if they haven't already. Also, ORDER SUMMARY: #[protected], I didn't receive my muffins and didn't realize it until I was trying to resolve Order #: [protected]. And ORDER SUMMARY: #[protected], I received my all my bagels flat as a pancake. I called to complain and she apologized and told me she would send me a voucher. I never received the voucher. I have been very disappointed with how you have handled your business practice.

Seriously, Panera Bread? I was so looking forward to my large Greek salad today! When I began eating it, I noticed something odd. There was NO lettuce! How do you have a salad with no lettuce? I ain’t what I could and weighed the lettuce STALKS that remained in my bowl. It was 103 g. I’m just one left. Wondering who got all the lettuce? When you noticed your number of sales going down, you’ll find that you’re not training your people or managing your quality because I’m not buying another salad from you.

Terrie Collins

Today my husband and I went to Panera Bread as we normally do when we are going to run several errands before it gets too hot. The chocolate croissant was horrible. The change to the sticks of chocolate is a far sight short of when your company took a croissant, sliced it, and put creamy chocolate within. The regular croissant was so over baked it was almost impossible to eat. In fact, the exterior was peeled off because it was so tough and either end was so over baked, they could not be eaten.

The pecan braid was stale. Unbelievably stale to the point it couldn't be eaten. The only salvation was the café latte were good. Almost $27 for throwing food away is not my idea of a good breakfast at Panera Bread. I doubt we will go back to the one on Battlefield in Springfield, MO, but I also doubt we'll make the additional mileage trips to the other ones for quite a while. I hope you can get back to the fabulous food we could always count on at Panera.

~Karen Fields

I ordered a Turkey avocado BLT sandwich, I noticed a piece of bacon on the wrapper it was raw, I opened up my sandwich and all the bacon was raw, I took a picture of the bacon on my cell phone and threw out the sandwich. I tried to call the manager of the schereville Indiana location a few times but did not get a hold of anyone. I am sending this compliant on a desktop computer I will send the picture to you if needed. I can be reached by email michelle.[protected]@gmail.com

I bought a $15 gift card for Panara. When I went to use it, the numbers have been rubbed a lot from carrying it. They said they cannot take it, and there's no way to check the balance, which is the full price because I have never used it. Why are your numbers rubbing off of your cards? I have not had this happen to any of my other gift cards that I have bought.

I visited the Panera Bread located at 8235 Agora Parkway, Suite 115, Live Oak, TX, 78233 at approximately 1:30 pm today. The order process seemed disorganized, resulting in slow processing of customers. The line grew while we were waiting to be served.

While waiting for our order, I had to use the women's restroom. It was disgusting. Toilet was gross. Trash on the floor. No paper towels to dry hands. I was astonished at the state of the restroom! In addition, tables had not been wiped down after customers ate and chair seats were torn. With the cost of sandwich purchases and the advertised quality of your foods, I expected better than a "McDonald's" setting inside your restaurant.

I have visited many Panera Bread restaurants around the country, and chose to go to this one today because of my previous experiences at other restaurants. I was totally astonished at the condition of this restaurant. I only hope the handling of food products is not anything like the condition of the bathroom and tables.

Hi. On 07/17/23 I got a bowl of tomato soup, a greek salad and wanted to try the apple cranberry lemonade. I LOVE Panera because it's always so fresh and never lets me down. Today it let me down. My salad was filled of soft, wilted lettuce, soft and wilted onions, browning on the edge of lettuce, tomatoes too hard to even enjoy and the drink was entirely way too sweet of syrup. I did not finish either. I will be back, but this was a huge disappointment.

Ordered to go yesterday. When my daughter picked it up she was told they were OUT OF BREAD!,,, How is that possible..? She saw fresh,loaves of bread behind the counter. She was told “ They are for tomorrow”. My sandwich was on some kind of panini bread…?. Not acceptable! If your name isPanera Bread there should be bread for sandwiches, Date. 6/30/23 afternoon

She was extremely rude for no reason. I had asked to have no chicken in my sandwich when ordered and they had put chicken which is fine but she kept refusing to remake it. She left in the middle of our conversation and another employee had to come instead where he actually politely responded saying they would remake it. When coming back to pick up my food she just glared at me. I asked for my chips since they came with the meal and she slammed them on the plate. I said thank you and she scoffed. She was incredibly rude for no reason.

I was told the cashier position wasn't working because of a racist statement made by a customer to me because I was black. The manager and district manager were there and took the customer's side. I was racially profiled in the building because I was the only black woman working in the store, Manage of the store didn't help because she was racist as well when the man was yelling and cursing me out about an order he was confused about the pick two. The cashier's training was not clear and the manager blame me for not understanding the register. She had an attitude because she had to explain the changing of the summer meals. The manager use another worker in the store to explain and the pre-line worker was racist as well. I was the only black woman in the store went the majority of the customers were black in the store. Most customers want free food if their gift cards was empty and the manager wouldn't give them a free cookie. When the district manager was there she would be angry when I ask her a question. I believe I was racially profiled to be harassed by private complaints and an unhappy manager who had a problem helping me understand the process of working there.

Went to Panera Bread around 7PM, with high expectations from their menu photos. What I got was less then half what the picture advertised. I went back to the counter to ask if the portions were correct and they did nothing. When i was returning to my table my wife saw the person I talked to shook his head as in disgust. This is the first and last time I will ever step in a Panera Bread restaurant. What a disappointment! What bad customer service.

We went to Panera Bread on East Main St in Spartanburg SC and they were out of a lot of food. We ordered grilled cheese and a bowl of tomato soup. They did not have the bread for the sandwich and the bread you get with the soup. They made our sandwiches with something that looked like a bun. I like to put the baguette in my soup but they were out. I thought we will have croutons but they were out. They were no pastries on the racks. The people behind us left without ordering and I wish we did too.

Went to Panera Bread for breakfast on a Saturday morning. I was really craving their sausage, egg, cheese, and brioche sandwich, so we drove for 25 minutes to get there. However, when we arrived at 9:30, we were told that they were out of brioche. I was disappointed, but I decided to order a cinnamon crunch bagel with cream cheese instead. I watched the employee select my bagel and told her to toast and slice it when she asked me.

When I went to pick up my order at the counter, there was only my husband's sandwich. I had to ask twice about the bagel, and finally, I was told that I had to go up front again. There was no explanation. When I went up front, I was told that they only had one bagel left, and they put it in another order. They didn't apologize or ask if I wanted anything else. I was really disappointed.

I decided to go up front again to let them know that this wasn't okay and to request a refund on my bagel. I explained to another employee that their service was going downhill. I received no apologies, wasn't offered any compensation, and nothing! The employee asked me, "Well, what do you want?" I just said that I wanted a refund. If you have to ask for anything else when it's not offered, to me, it's just not worth it.

I got my refund, but when I returned to my table and looked at the receipt, I had still been charged for the cream cheese that I never got. I was thoroughly and completely disappointed. If you want an efficient, enjoyable, top-notch customer service-focused experience, avoid Panera. It's so sad to see this one, which used to be our favorite, fall so far so fast.

Hey Panera Bread,

I gotta say, I was pretty disappointed with my recent visit to your joint. My family and I were expecting some top-notch grub, but instead, we got a whole lot of letdown.

First off, the prices were way too high. I could have gone to Cheesecake Factory for just a few extra bucks. And let me tell you, the food we got wasn't worth the dough we shelled out.

To make matters worse, we had to spend over five minutes at the register just to get our order right. My kid didn't even get his apple juice, and my water was nowhere to be found. Plus, his sandwich had onions on it, even though we specifically said no onions. This kind of mix-up seems to happen all the time, especially when we hit up the drive-thru. It's not cool for a place like yours to be so careless.

And don't even get me started on the bathroom situation. My son had to wash his hands, but the restroom was straight-up nasty. It smelled like pee, and we had to bolt out of there as fast as we could. That's not just gross, it's downright unsanitary.

Look, we only came to your spot because we wanted some healthier options. But with prices like yours and service like this, it's getting harder and harder to justify. You gotta step up your game if you want to keep customers coming back.

So, please, take this seriously. Fix the problems we've pointed out, and make sure future diners don't have to deal with the same issues we did.

Sincerely,
Andy

I was really excited to treat my family to some delicious food from Panera Bread tonight. Unfortunately, I recently had a medical procedure and wasn't able to cook for them myself. So, I had a friend pick up our food order for us. When the food arrived, I was disappointed to find that five items were missing from our order, even though we were charged for them. I called the restaurant twice and spoke to two different employees, but they both put me on hold for a long time and then hung up on me before I could speak to a manager. I paid almost $60 for our meal, but we weren't able to make sandwiches for dinner or for my kids' school lunches the next day. Needless to say, my family was really disappointed.

To make matters worse, instead of the focaccia bread and French baguettes that I ordered, Panera threw in three small bags of chips. Two of my children had to eat something else because they didn't like the bread options that were offered. I decided to drive to the restaurant to see what was going on. When I got there, the manager on duty was a short African American woman who looked to be around 25-30 years old. Unfortunately, she was very rude to me the entire time. I explained the situation to her and asked for a refund for the items that I paid for but didn't receive. She offered me two bread options as replacements, but I told her that my children wouldn't eat them. She didn't seem to care and insisted that those were the only options available. When I asked for a refund again, she took my receipt and walked away with an attitude, muttering something under her breath. She didn't apologize once and didn't thank me for coming in to resolve the mix-up.

Overall, I was extremely disappointed with my experience at Panera Bread. I paid a lot of money for food that I didn't receive, and the manager on duty was incredibly rude and unhelpful. I don't think I'll be going back there again anytime soon. I'm giving them one star for their poor customer service and lack of concern for their customers.

I visited the Panera Bread location at 1009 University Blvd in Suffolk, VA. I placed my order at 5pm on February 2, 2022, and the pick-up time was 7:15pm. I've also included a picture of the half-made salad that I received for $13. It looked like it was rushed and not worth the price.

Order #

I went to the Panera Bread store on Bethel Rd at 7AM. The man working there greeted me and asked for my order right away. I wanted a dozen bagels to go, but he seemed to have trouble with my order. He put some bagels on the counter that I didn't ask for, and then started slicing a few of the bagels I did order. I told him he didn't have to slice them, but he kept going. Then, he started putting together another order that wasn't mine and placed some bagels on a pan on another counter. I was confused, but didn't say anything.

He kept looking at his computer screen and then back to grabbing bagels. As he was slicing bagels, I noticed he was adding other bagels that weren't in my order and slicing them too. I didn't understand what was going on. He wasn't focused on my order, and it seemed like he was more interested in taking care of other customers. He even asked the guy in line behind me what he wanted to order, and started getting his order before finishing mine. I was getting frustrated.

Finally, he started putting my bagel order in bags, but he still wasn't finished. He asked the guy behind me for his order, and I couldn't believe it. I told him that he needed to finish my order before taking care of anyone else. He wasn't apologetic at all, and it made me feel like my order wasn't important to him. He bagged my order, but before he even handed it to me, he asked the guy behind me for his order again. I was so angry.

This experience was totally inappropriate. I could have been in and out of the store in two minutes if he had just focused on my order. Instead, I had to wait for him to put together several other orders, including pick-up orders, before he could finish with mine. He was rude and unapologetic, and it made me feel like my business wasn't important to Panera Bread. If this is how they want to do business, with terrible employees and terrible customer service, I won't be going back.

I recently placed an order for 3 packages of Panera Small Scones for a Ministry Ladies Retreat through their website. I made sure to order 3 days in advance to ensure that my order would be ready on time. I received a confirmation that my order was ready half an hour before I arrived at the store. However, when I got there, the employee waiting on me informed me that my order was not ready yet.

To my surprise, she only found one packet of the mini scones and asked if she could replace them with larger scones. I agreed, and she put 4 scones in the bag. I was expecting 10 scones in each of the three packets I ordered, but I didn't want to cause any trouble, so I let it slide. She then went to the back to locate more scones and came back with a large brown bag. I thanked her and went out to my car.

When I opened the bag, I found that it only contained the one bag of mini scones and 4 regular size scones. I was disappointed and frustrated, so I went back into the store. However, the store was very busy, and the young lady who served me was busy helping other customers. When I finally got her attention, I asked her how she could deceive me by giving me less than half of what I ordered and sending me off like she had taken care of me. She apologized and continued helping other customers.

Feeling frustrated and ignored, I walked around the store to see if I could find anything to replace what I ordered. Unfortunately, they had very little left in their display, except for bagels, which I did not want. I finally picked up the last box of pastries, even though I didn't really want them. When I returned to the cash register, the young lady was still busy helping other customers, and the store was crazy busy. I stood there for a couple of minutes, feeling like they didn't care about the way I had been treated.

Finally, another employee walked by, and I stopped him to explain the situation. I asked if I could walk out with the box of pastries, and he said yes. I left feeling extremely disappointed with the service I received. Not only did I not get what I ordered online, but Panera Bread did not offer a refund, apology, or any form of kindness in customer service. This experience was extremely sad and frustrating.

Overall, I would not recommend this particular Panera Bread location on Main Street in Cartersville, Georgia. The service was poor, and the employees seemed too busy to care about their customers. I hope that Panera Bread can improve their customer service in the future to prevent situations like this from happening again.

I gotta say, I was pretty disappointed with my experience at Panera Bread. I ordered a big ol' lunch for delivery on their website, but when it arrived, my soup was missing. I paid extra for delivery, so I was pretty upset that my order was messed up. When I called the cafe to try and sort things out, I talked to a guy named Peyton who was just plain rude. He talked over me and didn't seem to care that my order was wrong. He even told me that if I wanted my soup, I had to come pick it up myself! Can you believe that? I called back a few times, but he just kept hanging up on me.

I eventually called customer service, and while they were a bit nicer, they still didn't really seem to care about my problem. They told me that it was my responsibility to make sure my order was correct, even though I paid for delivery. When I asked for the manager's contact info, they didn't even know who that was!

Honestly, I'm pretty upset about the whole thing. I work for a big company, and this order was for a meeting with some important executives. They were all in the room when I was on the phone with Peyton, and they were just as shocked as I was at how poorly I was treated. They actually asked me to send them an email with my review so they could share it with their distribution list of thousands of people.

I really think you should think twice before spending your money at this particular Panera Bread location. They clearly don't care about their customers, and they let people like Peyton represent them. Who knows if you'll even get the food you paid for, even if you pay extra for delivery. It's just not worth it, in my opinion.