Panera Bread — Restaurant in Athens-Clarke County Unified Government

This location was a discombobulated mess from the moment we arrived. Attempted to use touchscreens which told us they were out of stock on items we could clearly see a dozen or more of behind the register. Then, the order would keep refusing to go through, telling us there was an unseen error that needed to be corrected. Finally gave up & went to a register. Ordered at the register where each person's meal had at least one component of which they were out of (mostly breads like sourdough). Oh, but it gets worse from there. The order we requested as to-go at the register comes out plated. We say something. Staff snaps at customer that we should have said something before we stood watching her make the order (as if we KNEW it was our order she was prepping). Even the rudeness of staff might have been easily brushed aside, except for then each and every meal ordered was as if they trying to stretch the ingredients because the restaurant was out of the main item. Chicken salad & tuna were spread so thin, it was as if they were a condiment on the sandwich rather than the featured ingredient. Veggie sandwich was more like a bowl of hummus with bread and a few veggies to dip rather than relegated to the level of condiment as it normally would be (true story, I've ordered this sandwich for YEARS & tonight was the 1st time I could say I was actually aware hummus was part of the sandwich). In fact, there was so much hummus & spread so thickly, it was hard to determine if it was in the sandwich or used as frosting. And, this wasn't a matter of stretched too thin staff. I counted at least half a dozen team members which seems more than enough for an evening shift at this particular chain. I won't lie and say I'll NEVER be back, but suffice it to say I'm going to consider other options first & put a lot of time between now and...

Love the soups and most sandwiches...when they are actually in stock. It seems most days by 6:30pm or so they are all out of the French baguettes that come as a side, and w/o that the soups aren't half as good. I do understand they make the bread daily, which is the reason it's so good, but if you're consistently running out hours prior to closing time then maybe it's time to re-run the numbers and maybe make more. Yesterday they were completely out of Broccoli Cheddar Soup and one of their other seasonal soups before 5:30 - and they close at 9. Disappointing.

I place my orders online for pickup about 90% of the time. And 98% of those times my order has items missing, sometimes it's a side of bread or chips or apple, but the majority of the time it's a component of one of the items I've ordered, namely the family order of French onion soup they will forget the cheese and/or croutons. The order of soup itself has gotten so expensive, but on top of that, I pay extra to have extra cheese & extra croutons, so it's really really frustrating to not have those. I try to check the bag but when you order a lot those small items are hard to check for without getting everything out of the bag, and since I'm usually with my little boy that's just not something I want to have to do, which is why I order...

Panera Bread was always my favorite place for a quick and delicious lunch. However, the quality of the food at this location has definitely gone downhill in the last few years. What used to be a restaurant that I could rely on for fresh ingredients has resorted to using rotten lettuce and extremely overripe avocado that was carelessly slopped in my mom’s salad. Not only that, but the bacon on my mom’s sandwich was raw and inedible. Also, both of our salads had the putrid taste of lettuce that was on the verge of being expired. I also had the Modern Caprese Sandwich which came cold and tasted really disgusting to the point where I had to spit it out. The only reason I have continued to come back here is for the bakery which has always been phenomenal when they do have bakery items in stock. However, they often run out of their bagels, brownies, cookies, etc. by noon which does not make any sense. After my last visit, I was so disappointed and do not plan on coming back. It is such a shame that this restaurant throws quality out the window and instead serves food that just...