Panera Bread — Restaurant in Ankeny

Normally I love Panera. The food is good and usually the service is fine. But we decided to order food in the store and online from the Ankeny, IA Panera yesterday and it was not a good experience. I went inside with a friend and ordered food, waited a fairly long time, but not too bad. We took our food outside to eat. I was not given the chips with my order, so my friend asked for them when her food was ready. Both of our bags of chips were open on the back of the bag. While we were eating I ordered food online for my husband and had planned on taking it to him when we had finished our food so that his food would still be hot. I did not see an estimated time for the food to be done until AFTER payment. I was surprised and a little confused because the time said it would take more than 2 hours until my food was ready. I went in the store multiple times to ask about my order and was told once that it shouldn’t take that long and after about the 7th time of checking to see if it had been made, I asked to speak with the manager. He was pleasant, but did not explain why an online order would take 2 hours to make when his store had maybe 10 customers in it total, no one inside waiting for food and one car in the drive thru. He did not stop working to speak with me and while I understand being busy and/or short staffed.....I find it hard to believe that they were so busy that it would take them 2 hours to make an order of a flatbread pizza, 2 hard boiled eggs, and a chocolate chipper cookie. The manager offered to move the order ahead and I of course said yes, but honestly feel like I was the one inconveniencing him. (At this point I had patiently waited over an hour already) We had a 2 hour drive ahead of us and had wanted to leave earlier. This put us behind schedule and had I known that it would take that long, I would not have ordered online. Our stores in Waterloo and Cedar Falls have excellent online service and I have never waited more than 15 minutes....even during their busiest times. I can only assume that the Ankeny store is understaffed and management is struggling to run the store efficiently. I have worked in food service and understand how crazy it can get when you are busy. This store was not busy. I would hate to see what the wait times are for in person ordering when this store has more than 10 people in line. Just be aware that if you are ordering online hoping to save time by picking up food from this store instead of going inside to order....that you might be waiting not minutes, but hours for your food. I would pass and visit another business if we are ever passing through...

2 strikes THIS month @ messed up orders, missing meat/other ingredients. I withheld comment the first time because they gave me a $5 gift certificate to let them try again after remaking my food when I got back but it happened again today when I used that gift certificate and I didn't know my food was wrong until I was all the way home and empty-handed essentially for the meal I had just purchased and planned on eating... 9 mon. later UPDATE: went back today and ordered the WHOLE almond chicken salad sandwich for a picnic to go, from drive-thru. Got all the way out to my location and it was so skimpy on the chicken salad there was almost none on one half of the sandwich and the other half... I had to look for it buried inside all the lettuce. Nothing like what I've had in the past or at other locations and nothing like the photo. There was maybe two tablespoons of chicken salad on the entire full order which was over $8 after tax. Idk if they are being skimpy to pinch pennies or if it's lazy employees not taking any time to do their job right and make food correctly much less any quality control. This was a new store just a couple of years ago and besides ordering the broccoli and cheddar soup which in my understanding comes Frozen from corporate and should be pretty hard to mess up I have yet to get any of the fresh food or sandwiches...

Was in drive-thru last week and it took about 20 minutes, and that is not an exaggeration. It was literally just me and the car in front of me. As I'm waiting the manager tells the lady in the car in front of me that things are taking too long and they refund her the money she had paid. So when it's my turn I'm expecting something similar, but they charge me full price. Not a free drink, not a free cookie, not even a sorry or any explanation (guess since im a dude and not a cute girl i don't get the same benefit?). And for the third time this summer they forgot my sliced tomatoes on my grilled cheese sandwich. Let me be clear I don't normally expect free stuff for bad service, but the girl in front of me got comped. It was a 20 minute wait and you can't escape their drive-thru (i guess i could have backed out all the way, but it's a long drive-thru...