Panera Bread — Restaurant in Albany

First time at this location, which is my new home location. I just moved here and was looking for something that would be the same as it was back home. That’s what you look for in big chain places, uniformity. It was not the same. About half the options available for purchase in the baked goods, maybe they were making more? But when I was told where to wait for my coffee I just saw people hanging out and talking to each other. It didn’t seem as if anyone was busy there, maybe a symptom of Covid? My friend ordered a black coffee and a cinnamon roll. I ordered a blended cold brew. When he went to fill his coffee they had decaf and dark brew as the only options. We were discussing the merits of their “coffee subscription” and decided if this is the way the coffee bar sits we wouldn’t pay for it here. Sad though, I was happy to pay it at my old home location. When the girl brought us his cinnamon roll she asked if he would be eating it there or to go. When he replied that he intended to eat it when he got home she said “Oh good”. Whether she intended to make us feel unwelcome or not that was pretty disconcerting. We felt very awkward while we sat there and waited for the people hanging out in the back to make the blended cold brew. After a brief wait, I was called up to get my coffee. I picked it up and the gentleman started to walk away. I asked him if I could please get a straw, to which he replied, “didn’t you get one already?”. He then started frantically looking around for straws, left and came back and tossed two straws in my general direction. It looked as if he might have been the only one doing any work, and was frustrated with his coworkers. That was my perception at least (they did have a we’re hiring sign right when you walked in). I’m going to take that into consideration as I know how overworked, stressed and frantic you can feel when your place of employment is understaffed. I’ll give this location another go, and if the service changes I’ll edit this review. 02/28/2021

Edit: two and a half years later…no...

I came here for the first time the other day with a coworker for lunch. I’ve heard that the food is fairly good but Can be a bit spendy, so I wasn’t too worried. My coworker and I took about 10 minutes to look over the menu and finally decide what we want to get. My coworker gets a salad and the cashier informed him that it comes with a side, so we ask what sides it comes with and he tells us a bunch of different things to which my coworker says he will take the fruit cup. I decided I want to get soup and a sandwich. After about 15 minutes our food is brought out to us and I ask the person bringing out our food if this was a whole sandwich or a half a sandwich and she said half. I didn’t specify when I ordered but when I said I wanted this sandwich I assumed it was whole and they didn’t even ask. They also new this was our first time. Also they gave me the wrong soup. So I took that up there and asked why I didn’t get the soup that’s on my receipt. The lady said oh we don’t sell that soup anymore. Do you want a different soup? I just said it’s fine and ate it. After eating we noticed that they charged us $2.18 for the fruit cup that my coworker was told came with his salad. And when he asked they walked off to talk about it and the manager didn’t even acknowledge us or anything. Just handed the money over and walked off. Pretty rude. Over all $27 for a tiny salad and half a sandwich and cup of soup is pretty spendy. Probably won’t...

Food is good depending on what you order. Breakfast sandwiches not the best, soups are good, and salads are good though a little pricey for what you get. Been here twice since it opened. The most recent visit went for breakfast got bagels and coffee. Coffee is good. When we ordered was the bacon souffle we wanted they forgot to put bacon on top so none where available and they ran out of cinnamon rolls. We got bagels and a bear claw instead. Bagels are good. Went to sit down to eat and every table was dirty had food or crumbs on them . We had to clean our table. Took forever to get our food , place was empty and I got up and grabbed our bagels that were just sitting in window. We ordered them toasted they sat there so long they were cold. Forgot the bear claw and other part of our order. We watched as plates were taken off tables but none were wiped off. Three employees were sitting eating or walking around. As we walked out almost all the tables were dirty with food . They doors were disgusting, food was all over one of the glass doors and grease. It was so gross I was dry heaving on my way out food on floors, chairs tables. Not sure if food on door was a piece of lettuce or a booger. Both sets of doors were so dirty didnt want to touch...