Panera Bread — Restaurant in Apopka

So I'll start by saying that the staff have never been rude to me. Seemingly incompetent at times but never outright rude. That however is really the nicest thing I can say about this Apopka location.

My order is very rarely correct. There is almost always some minor or major thing wrong. Even with this being said, I continue to come back. I honestly must be insane by definition. (Repeating the same action while expecting different results)

I'll list only the bigger issues that stick out and disregard the simple mistakes like giving the wrong drink, not putting pickles with sandwiches, no utensils in the bag, etc... Those little things are expected from time to time. Happens at every drive-thru.

One of my first issues I can remember is going through the drive-thru, placing my order and getting home to find that I was provided with half a sandwich instead of a whole. While this did suck and I was a little upset, I chalked it up to being a mistake and decided to drive back up and have them correct it. Receipt and sandwich in hand, I walked up to the counter. By coincidence I suppose, the first person I spoke with at the counter is actually the person who made my sandwich. I showed him and he said "yes, I apologize, we ran out of the Tomato Basil bread and all that was left was 1 piece so I cut it in half and made you a half instead of the whole." I explained to him how you can't just give someone a half of a sandwich when they paid for a whole. I asked for the manager who agreed with me and gave me a whole sandwich on a different bread type. (The logical solution)

Another issue involved a soup portion. I again made the mistake of going through the drive-thru and then going home without checking everything. I checked my sandwiches but didn't really inspect the soups. I saw 2 in the bag with some napkins and thought nothing of it. When I got home I took everything out of the bags. That is when I realized that one of my soups was in a bowl container even though I ordered a cup portion. Sounds great right? They ran out of cups so they were putting "cup sized portions" in the bowls. Problem is they weren't very good at measuring this. One of my soups was such a small portion that it literally came up roughly 1/2 inch from the bottom of the bowl. Sorry but that's not equal to a cup portion. I mean, it was a Broccoli Cheddar soup and I could almost see the bottom of the bowl through it. There were pieces of broccoli resting on the bottom and still breaking the surface. Aside from this, there were also no baguettes in the bag. I drove back and they provided me with another bowl with a decent portion in it. They said they were out of baguettes.

There was another time when my wife went through the drive-thru, got home and my sandwich wasn't even in the bag. She learned her lesson that day to check the bags as I do. That time we just called up, provided a number off the receipt and they gave us a credit for the sandwich. We didn't feel like driving back up there. It was late.

The last issue that sticks out actually just happened today. My wife went through the drive-thru, got her order for our half sandwiches and when she opened the one that was mine she noticed that it looked really small. She mentioned this to the girl in the drive-thru. The girl agreed that it did look small but didn't offer to do anything about it. My wife asked for another one and the girl's response was simply "Ok. That'll be (insert cost of sandwich here)." Not wanting to argue, my wife just paid for the additional half and left. When she gets home, we compared her half sandwich to mine and it was literally half the size of her half. So we were given a quarter sandwich.

After today I think we may have hit our breaking point with this location. We just like the convenience of how close it is so we have put up with these problems. I think it's just time to cut our losses and eat somewhere else.

Now again, these are just the issues that stick out in my head. We have had several other issues not...

I wonder if the franchise owner or the regional manager has any clue that this locations has the worst rating and reviews among other branches within 35 miles radius of Orlando and that this location is putting a bad name for Panera Bread brand. I love Panera but it is so sad that I live less than a mile from the worst branch of Panera. I spent around $50-100 a week eating in Panera bread on weekly basis because they got healthy choices and food has good taste. So many times disappointed that I do not even know which one to comment about. Pretty much I agree with almost every single negative review - please consider that before spending your money in this location. Coffees alone. Always check the time. This locations doesn’t even change every hour which they are supposed to. Although I see how much the manager and stuff try to make it right they lack management 101. Unfortunately I have to drive to Alta monte Panera Bread location to dine in or take out. I don’t know how long I will be burning my gas just because I love their food. PLEASE CORPORATE OR WHOEVER READS THESE REVIEWS DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS LOCATION THEY NEED CONSTANT TRAINING, BETTER STRUCTURE, and EFFICIENT MANAGEMENT OR WHATEVER ESLE YOU THINK THEY NEED TO KEEP UP WITH OTHER LOCATIONS. I just hate to see such a great food chain having negative impacts because some other branches do not keep up the standards. I really hope these negative reviews from loyal customer will be wake up call and there will be changes soon so we customers can continue enjoying food and service of a...

Can't give 0 stars. This place is terrible, and it has been terrible for years. They're consistently out of items, mess up your order pretty much every time, forget to put items in the bag (i.e. fork, straw etc). I'm not too sure why they even have a drive through when you have to keep going inside. Just today I ordered 2 bagels with 2 cream cheeses and a coke. I had to go back in because there was no knife in the bag, only 1 cream cheese, no straw and it was Diet Coke. How can you mess something up that is so simple? It would be one thing if this was an isolated incident but this is every single time and I frequent this location. Panera prides themselves on having quality food and quality customer service but I can tell you there is a major lack of accountability at this location with the staff. They blame the issues on "new management" but that excuse has been coming for the past 2 years. The managers on duty don't care when you talk to them. If this place didn't carry the Panera name, it would go out of business. If it weren't for the fact that the next closest Panera is 20 minutes from here I would never come back.

Update: 12/1/18 even after a “new manager” every month this place still is terrible. They are out of something EVERY SINGLE TIME and get the orders wrong most of the time. Also be warned that when you write a negative review on google about this Panera, the divisional manager from Panera will start digging in to see who you are. He looked me up on LinkedIn about 24 hours after I posted the...