Panera Bread — Restaurant in Abilene

It's official that this place has the worst and slowest drive through in the country. Out of all the drive thrus in all the states I have been to, this is by far the worst. I have never experienced anything like this except for one time at Taco Casa. 20-30% of the time no one comes on to take your order at all. I have had to call the store several times to let someone know I was in the drive through. Current employees are nice and friendly. However, not being able to rely on getting service at the drive through is unacceptable. I've provided feedback a few times. The sip club is the only reason I still visit this location. It's not like this at other Paneras. May 2024, most recent bad experience I have decided to cancel my sip club membership. After letting the store and even customer care know of the issues in the drive up, it's still bad. BK, Wendy's, Starbucks, Taco Bell, they greet you right away, but this Panera cannot figure it out. I read several Google reviews of many people having the same experience, yet nothing is done about it. Yesterday, no one greeted me. I was not in a hurry so I thought I would wait a couple minutes since there was a car at the window. Minutes had gone by, and by this time I turned my car off. I have had to do this several times because it always takes abnormally long in the drive through. The car at the window left and still no one greeted me. I saw nobody when I looked in. I knocked on the window. A newer employee came to the window. She confirmed the drive thru was not closed. I let her know I had been sitting in my car for a long time. She said, "it's ok." I'm done with this store. I asked customer service for a prorated refund of my yearly sip club membership that I renewed in February. I'm not putting myself through this nor would I want to waste anymore gas sitting in their drive thru until Feb 2025. It even took 15 mins just to get a drink and a bagel here once, and I was the only one in the drive through until another car showed up behind me. Inside is hit and 70% miss. Very seldom would I find someone at the register to get me a cup. June 2024 unable to get a prorated refund on my yearlong membership. Drive through issue still continues, but I notice that there is always someone at the...

I love Panera. I worked at Panera in high school. I always have lots of grace for them because I know how hard it can be on a busy day. But today my mom and I visited the one in Abilene. We were the only two customers and there were four employees, including a manager. I’ve been through the drive through lots of times since the dining room has been closed for so long and had mostly good experiences. But going in was a different experience. It was beautiful inside and so clean. But it truly felt like they didn’t want us in there. The soda machine was turned off. We ordered breakfast a few minutes before 10:30 when they stop serving it and after we had paid and sat down the cashier came and told us that they weren’t serving breakfast because they’d “thrown away the eggs” and so we had to go get a refund. We ordered again. The buzzer went off for my mom’s food and she went to the window where everyone just stared at her like they didn’t know what she wanted. She asked for her food and they gave her the soufflé she ordered, but it was cold. I ordered a cold brew with almond milk. They gave me a latte with whipped cream. I had to walk them through the entire process of getting me a bagel and toasting it. I straight up asked the manager if they didn’t want us there and she just turned around, walked away and went and hid in her office. It was bizarre. We cleared our dishes and left a tip and wish the miserable folks at Panera all the best. I hope they can find some happiness and satisfaction in their jobs at some point. It’s just too bad because the breakfast options here...

Sat in the drive-thru for 45 minutes without moving a single inch. By the time I finally got completely through the line I had sat there for approx. 70 minutes. Was trapped my the medians and couldn’t back out do to carts behind. So I called to see what the hold up was and the young lady seemed unconcerned and like what do you want me to do about it. It’s like there is no sense of urgency or pride at all. No quality control whatsoever. So I’m thinking at least my food will be right and taste good and i will let it go. But no that is not the case here. None of the breads were correct for the sandwiches ordered. I mean who messes up a grilled cheese sandwich. The grilled cheese wasn’t grilled, it was put in an oven and they used very small oat type bread, not panini style bread as it should have been. So I paid like $7.39 for this. The complimentary baguette bread they give with the order wasn’t baked correctly, hollow and raw. No pickle with the sandwiches. I asked 3 times for Extra sweetened lemonade and asked to have my order repeated back. I do feel like the order was messed up intentionally because I called. The food is expensive and overrated. The 2 girls working drive-thru kept opening the window and looking out like oh there’s more cars. This thing is broken, all a show. The only thing broken here is the employee lack of urgency and...