Panera Bread — Restaurant in Apple Valley

I decided to check out the new location of Panera in Apple Valley for lunch today. I generally use the self ordering tablets but didn't notice any until I saw someone using one near the entrance. To my dismay, there was only one to use. The other stations had their tablets removed. I could see it work if Covid was still an ongoing issue with distance, but it is not. I ended up having to go to the counter and try reading the menus to decide. One downfall for the menus is that the menu pricing and calorie information is too small of print for the distance they are from you. The names on the bagel baskets are too small to read as well. Bad choices in marketing. I work in food service with menus, etc. and this is always a concern that I express to our marketing teams. These decisions have to be made from a guest perspective. I waited for a total of 23 minutes for my salad/ sandwich combination. I thought this was much longer than normal considering it isn't a sit down restaurant with table service. I understand the worker shortage in the industry, but restaurants need to do what some have already implemented and that is to reduce the menu selections. This will speed up service and put less burden on the staff during these hard worker shortages. We have had to do this in our operations, and it has helped a lot. Once the work force is back in full force, they can go back to a full scale menu. My strawberry poppyseed chicken salad was good but I had to question whether there was any chicken in the salad. It was very small pieces that I couldn't even see at first. The bbq chicken sandwich was not very flavorful. The bread was not the same size when placed together. One smaller than the other. Hardly any bbq sauce on it to make it flavorful. There was a nice portion of chicken on it, just not enough sauce to taste the bbq flavor. Overall, it was OK. I would not want to order in the drive-thru during busy times because I'm sure the wait...

As I'm allergic to nuts, chick-peas and garbanzo beans, I became ill on 25Sept'19 after eating part of the Pick 2 choice (turkey chili and turkey/apple/cheese sandwich). I chose from Panera's Apple Valley MN store's visual high menu board behind the counter. The chili had a goodly number of the above offending beans, and the turkey sandwich was served on a grain bread with walnuts. Order taker did not ask what type of bread I preferred; perhaps I was wrong in assuming the bread would not contain nuts. Additionally, the REGULAR chili does not contain garbanzo beans, chick-peas or other type of nuts. Am at a loss to understand why 'chili' of any kind would contain any type of bean other that the usual chili bean, red bean, white bean, or kidney bean. After our meal arrived, I could tell from a few bites - not visually - I'd been afflicted. Mentioned the situation quickly to the manager (no name tag, but she said her name was Danielle). She was moderately understanding, filled out a form on my behalf, and mentioned she'd upstream a few of my suggestions to management. We still like Panera's, and will eat there again. Probably best for me to NOT order from the menu board's small print, but to go to the kiosk; manager Danielle implies ingredients / contents of each item are therein listed. Seems an inconvenience, plus an extra wait, but will do it! We are gift card...

Good food, bad service. The woman working the register rolled her eyes a few times at the customer in front of me and her body language when I approached just showed that she didn't want to be there. Then when waiting for my food the man "checking" the food signed off on the receipt on my plate and just pushed it to the side. I stepped up to look to see what was on the plate, noticed it was what I ordered and it had my name on the ticket so I took it. (I could be wrong, but I thought the point of the guy slouching over the counter signing off on tickets was to make sure the plates had the correct items and to make sure your plate and the product on it looked good before sending it out. My sandwich looked like it was tossed together and thrown on the plate. Good thing it had toothpicks to keep it somewhat secure!) Took a seat, started eating, and a few minutes later the same man that was checking orders came over to me and asked me if I had a "number or anything". I told him that I was given a receipt and he just walked off.

It would be nice if all the Panera restaurants have the same process!!! The one I usually go to and a few others I have visited give you a number,buzzer, or call out your name and they either deliver to your table, call your number, or...