Panera Bread — Restaurant in Baton Rouge

As a regular customer of Panera Bread in Baton Rouge, I am compelled to address a deeply alarming experience that raises serious health concerns. During my recent visit for weekly bagels, I discovered the cream cheese provided was not just expired, but a shocking 20 days past its expiration date. This egregious oversight in food safety standards is not only unprofessional but poses a significant health risk to customers.

The taste of the bagel was noticeably off, leading me to inspect the cream cheese and uncover the expired date. Such negligence at a well-known establishment like Panera Bread is deeply troubling and unacceptable. The situation was further exacerbated by the store management's response. Upon reporting this critical food safety issue, the manager's solution was to offer another expired cream cheese, revealing that the entire refrigerator stock was expired.

This response is not only inadequate but also demonstrates a concerning lack of competence and professionalism in handling such serious issues. It's not merely about replacing an expired item; it's about the potential health risks and the need for immediate, corrective action.

I am currently feeling unwell and will be consulting a doctor, which underscores the severity of this situation. This incident at Panera Bread not only breaches basic food safety protocols but also raises substantial legal concerns under food safety and consumer protection laws. The fact that an entire refrigerator was stocked with expired food indicates a systemic problem that could have severe legal implications.

I urge Panera Bread to take immediate action to rectify these issues, starting with comprehensive staff retraining and stringent checks on their food products. Ensuring the freshness and safety of food served is a fundamental responsibility, and customers' health and safety should never be compromised. This incident should serve as a wake-up call for the management at the Baton Rouge location to uphold the standards expected of a reputed food...

It's been a while since I ate in the store at this location and I was not impressed at all. The food was good and the dining area seemed nice, but the service and bathrooms were seriously lacking. When we arrived, I took my five year old to the bathroom where my stall had no cover on the toilet paper holder and one large roll was lying on the floor (since there was nothing to hold it on the dispenser). Then when we tried to wash our hands, we found that the soap dispenser wasn't working and you had to dip your hand in the top of it (which my son couldn't even reach) where the lid had been broken off to get soap out.

Then we went up front to order. It wasn't immediately apparent that no one was working the front (at 12:20 on a Monday) and we had to order at the kiosk after waiting for someone thinking we would be waited on. The people behind me had the same confusion. After placing my order, the screen said to grab a pager to let me know when my order was ready. There were none. It then said I should go ahead and get my drinks, but there were no cups. I went to the area where food was coming out and asked about it, but they said they couldn't see my order on the screen yet and wouldn't give me any cups until they did. We sat down and waited for our order to come out about 12 minutes after the order was placed (kid's sandwich and a soup in a bread bowl).

The food was good and that was the only reason they got two stars instead of one, but that only...

Edit: The quality of this Panera has gone down drastically since my last review over a year back. They don't follow customizations properly, they make mistakes all the time. When you call in to complaint their manager misbehaves with you. The amount of chicken has gone down drastically over the last few months. This is not a good establishment anymore and they are just out there to make money. I am never going there again and advice others to find alternative Panera outlets.

My original review over an year back:

This is a decent Panera outlet and you can get the standard Panera quality guaranteed. Food is made with care and they maintain the delivery/pickup window time quiet well. The only thing I would warn folks is that they seem to frequently change staff including management folks. This often brings in inexperienced employees and those that take shortcuts while packaging food. So order accuracy and consistency is a hit an miss here. Check you order everytime you pick something up for accuracy and completion as you might well find that modification you requested is not there or your side got skipped! Repeated complaints seem to only fix this for a few weeks as next month there is a totally new team and it's back to the same service. Hope they get better as I am a regular customer here and expect...