Panera Bread — Restaurant in Asheville

If I could give this Panera Bread negative stars I would. I ordered my food on the app because I was under a time constraint. When I entered the building, there was only one employee visible. She was elbow deep in an oven, so she gets a pass. There was no one behind the counter and no one in the Togo pickup. I heard loud laughter from the back and someone clapping(?). I waited forever for someone to notice me. When Caitlyn FINALLY realized I was there, she handed me my food. I asked for the corporate number and she immediately got an attitude. She walked to the back and apparently told her co-workers that I was complaining. Another girl came out of the back to see me. I waved at her and she immediately ran back to the back of house. The shift manager, John, came out to tell me he didn’t have the corporate number (how convenient). When I told him that I had to wait for someone to acknowledge me, he said they were taking out the trash. It takes EVERY employee in the building to take out the trash? I didn’t see any of them wash their hands! Caitlyn stated that they were just laughing and having a good time (while I was waiting for them to acknowledge my presence). John told her to be quiet as I was explaining what happened. When I arrived to my destination, I realized that I had a completely different order. I ordered a BLT w/ Avocado and a cup of broccoli and cheese soup. My name was on the bag! I received four cups of soup, some kind of flatbread and a salad. My wrong order tells me the employees aren’t paying attention to the orders they are making or bagging. They are giving away lots of product for free because they wanna laugh, have a good time and not acknowledge the people who provide the money for their paychecks.

The restaurant it self, was very dirty. There were food particles on most of the tables in the front. There were a few dirty tables with dishes on them. There was also a fowl odor like truck stop bathroom.

Save yourself some time and hassle and eat somewhere else! There are way too many restaurants in Asheville that would love to have your business. Panera Bread on Hendersonville Road is obviously not...

This is by far the worse Panera I have ever been to. The food is fine but the service is atrocious. On multiple occasions, I have placed the rapid pickup orders from this location to pick up on the way to a business meeting. They repeatedly have not placed the order on the shelf so then I have to wait in line to find out where the order is located which defeats the purpose of the rapid order. This last visit, I again had to wait in line because my order was not where it was supposed to be and the girl working the counter was complete dismissive and told me I had to talk to the catering person. So I wait to talk to the catering person who the girl didn't go get and who was not out front only to find that they do not have my order in catering. I hear the catering person and the front counter girl talking and the girl says, "Oh, yeah, that was a rapid pickup order. I haven't had time to get it ready." Then she walks away to help someone at the counter. At this point, we are 10 minutes past my pickup time. She didn't express the least bit of concern that I had been waiting 10 minutes for a dozen bagels which shouldn't take but a minute or two to throw in a bag since I wasn't even having them sliced or toasted. The manager had to come over to get the order together. He was the only person to express any concern for their failure and it was just a "sorry for your wait." And thanks to the front counter girl, I was late to my appointment. I won't be returning to this Panera. There are places with similar food and way...

We were in Asheville on vacation,we're Panera regulars , this has to be the worst Panera I've ever been in & I've been in plenty across the country.

I knew it was going to be bad when the gal at the counter kept repeating loudly at 10:32am BREAKFAST is over! to nobody in particular; there were 5 of us in the lobby...some groaned. But there were pastries and bagels, coffee so we stayed. wrong move, The cashier had multiple interruptions (missing items on an order, a smoothie unmade & customer waiting)before she actually started our order, when we finally got to it, I asked for a choc chip bagel sliced & toasted, she interrupts me mid ask to say "our toaster has been acting up, (then breathlessly announced) I'm not kidding when I say it almost caught fire this morning!" 😬 I was then looking for candid camera at this point when after I saud you're kidding, she says, "but we have a microwave right here" ARE YOU KIDDING? 😬🥴 microwave a bagels is a new one. At this point I looked at my husband, turned back to her & said enough. She looked hurt. We departed this Panera & another couple followed.

This location had staffing issues as in I only saw 2 ppl working (seemed to be a trend in many places around Asheville, most were able to overcome the challenges as we had great experiences but not here) this looked & felt nothing like the multiple Panera locations we've been to. Beware if you go in. I'd give a zero if...