Panera Bread — Restaurant in Ann Arbor

The food is pretty good, but it's way overpriced; they seem to be charging extra for the nebulous and, honestly, kind of pretentious idea that the food is "as it should be." This is just a slightly nicer fast food place, but they act like it's something more.

The one exception is the bread. While they've de-emphasized it recently, they do have "Bread" in the name, and it shows. Their baked goods are the only things that justify their prices with quality.

While I can't speak for the chain as a whole, I visit this location regularly because, while I'm not a huge fan, it's one of the few locations everyone in my family can tolerate, so my parents often take us out here, and as long as I'm not paying, the food is good.

However, the service leaves something to be desired. No matter the person working the register, ordering always seems to take forever; this appears to be a UI issue with the machine, so I wouldn't expect it to be different at other locations.

Also, they seem to have a really hard time handling specific requests. I can't tell you the number of times I've explicitly asked for a spoon with my mac 'n' cheese only to be given a fork, or requested butter with my baguette but received none. These are small things, but when they happen consistantly, they can be frustrating, especially when they had to temporarily close dine-in due to the pandemic and you couldn't just go up and grab...

Ordered delivery from #Panera online to my workplace. I paid for the order online with my credit card. When the order arrived, I received a text that my order was here. I left my office to retrieve my food, and give the driver a tip. The driver left my food unattended on the counter, with NO RECEIPT and was gone. The next day, I checked my bank account and discovered a discrepancy in the amount charged to my card from Panera. The driver decided to FORGE MY SIGNATURE to STEAL what SHE FELT SHE DESERVED AS A TIP! I immediately contacted Panera and spoke to Brett the manager on duty. He brushed me off and told me to call 1-800-panera-bread (which turned out to be the number for a survey!) I called back to speak To Brett, who then directed me to contact his boss, Nicole, whom BTW, I have YET to hear from! It was clear to me that I was being SPUN! After several futile attempts to resolve this matter through management, my next call was to the police. I informed them of the situation and that I wanted to press charges. As far as I know, this person is still working for #Panera, making deliveries, forging signatures and stealing money from customers! Be careful and watch your statements closely or you could be their next victim! Shame on...

I ordered a baker’s dozen bagels ahead of time using the Panera App. When I arrived to pick them up, my name was on the list of “orders being made” on the board near the pickup area. My name then went away and did not appear on the “ready” side. After about 10 minutes (20 minutes after my scheduled pickup time) I still hadn’t heard anything, so I asked the employee at the counter. She then informed me that they did not have the bagels to complete my order but that she could replace them with pastries. I said I was not interested in pastries and she got the manager. The manager told me that I had “not placed the order with enough notice” and I let him know that I ordered a full day in advanced. He then said it was a mistake by an employee and that they had bagged up my order earlier but accidentally gave it to another customer who ordered bagels. He said all he could do was refund my order and give me the 4 bagels he had left. Not only did I not have the bagels I needed for the event I was hosting, the team let me waste 20 minutes of my day when they knew before that that they didn’t have what they needed to complete my order. There was no respect for my time or attempt to work...