Panera Bread — Restaurant in Alabaster

On a road trip from Florida to Tennessee my husband and I stopped here to pick up a bagel for me and a latte for him. I ordered it Togo while he waited in the car. On the menu underneath "Specialty Drinks" there was listed a drink called "Madagascar Vanilla Latte" with the option to get it iced. I asked for that with those exact words. I think the girl that took my order was new and needed help ringing it in, no problem, everyone's gotta learn.

When the drink was called out when it was ready, the barista called out "Vanilla Cold Brew" which is not what I ordered. I asked her if it was a latte, thinking maybe she just called out the wrong name but she said it was a cold brew and I told her I ordered a latte, not a cold brew. But instead of making me a new vanilla latte, she just added a shot of espresso to the cold brew she just made in a larger cup.....a cold brew already has more caffeine than a normal cup of coffee but then to add espresso makes it to be way too much caffeine for 1pm.

I didn't wanna ask her to fix it again but then when I took it to my husband he wanted it fixed. So we went back in and asked her to make him a latte instead of this weird drink we just got. So she made the latte and as we walked out and my husband tasted it, it didn't have vanilla in it. We didn't have time to go back in and fix it because it was supposed to be just a quick stop.

It's not that big a deal but it might be worth explaining that if you make someone a cold brew instead of the latte they asked for, you cannot fix it by just adding espresso. A latte is espresso and milk, not cold brew and cream and a shot...

Horrible experience in the restaurant under the leadership of a manger who identified himself as Chris. All of the self-service tablets had been removed (likely to slow down ordering for an overwhelmed kitchen); our two salads were served without chicken, and the waste receptable was a disgusting, overflowing mess. Guests had to pass by the waste with their just prepared food, and because there was no place to put dirty dishes, some guests had used the drink station area for them. It was disgusting. But not as disgusting as Chris' lack of hygiene. While waiting in the long line to order, we noted that Chris carried a large handful of the "food ready" beepers back to the front counter wearing his food-prep gloves. You can imagine how many dirty hands had touched those beepers. We watched closely to see if he changed his gloves before returning to serve food. He did not change his dirty gloves. Later, we saw Chris go out to his car, again wearing a pair of kitchen gloves, and again we watched to see if he changed his gloves. Again, he did not. As I tried to dispose of our dirty dishes, I spoke to Chris about our missing chicken, the overflowing waste stations, and the glove hygiene problems we observed. When I brought up the glove issued, he denied it and told me to "get out." Chris is both an incompetent manager and a...

Stopped here for lunch while traveling. The lady taking our order was apparently a new employee as she kept thinking our gift card was a reward card- we were okay with that (no big deal), but when our order came up, we realized she had not asked, nor had we thought to say it was take out, not dine in. I still didn't think much of it. I know it's tough on new employees sometimes and she was very friendly. So I told the man who had prepared the order, "I'm sorry, ours needed to be take out." You'd have thought i just asked for my whole order to be changed. He was very clearly irritated that he had to wrap up 2 half sandwiches and put them in a bag- even slammed his hand down, then clanged the plates together after he removed the food, gave me the bag and never said a word. Maybe he was having a bad day, but this is not the way to act in front of customers.

The ladies' restroom needed a good cleaning. The entire atmosphere didn't match up to what I usually experience in a Panera, but it was the man's attitude that made the experience such that I probably wouldn't stop there again. The sandwiches,...