Panera Bread — Restaurant in Billerica

Rude and unprofessional staff.

Had an issue where a staff member was cleaning the bathroom but no signs were up, my friend went in to try and use it but was yelled at to get out by the cleaning lady. After he came out we stood and waited and eventually she yelled over to say the bathroom was ready.

My friend had suggested to get a sign to clear up the confusion of not knowing when the bathroom was being cleaned. She said that the mop and the bucket sitting in the hallway between both bathrooms was enough. After my friend headed inside the bathroom she began murmuring under her breath. My sister then stepped in and said it was confusing and the lady rudely said she still thought it was enough and it was fine. After this she let 2 girls go into the bathrooms she was supposedly cleaning and had no problem.

Later on after we got our food she began cleaning the tables in the area we sat at, which wasn't a problem. The chemcials were unpleasent to smell while we were eating but that was disregarded. Then she used chairs to box off both of the sides of our section and left which ultimately was strange considering they didn't close for another hour and a half. This could also be considered a safety hazard / fire hazard.

At this point we were already fed up and my Sister decided to ask for a manager. She was laughed at and asked "Why" by the cooking staff and didn't get to talk to a manager for 2 minutes. Eventually he came over and my sister explained the situation. He said that he wanted to make sure the cleaning lady felt safe and he said that she felt "Trapped" with my sisters boyfriend inside the MENS bathroom. Going back to the original topic, having a sign up could prevent this. Regarding the chairs and us being boxed in the manager said that it's something she did every night, which I could understand if they were closing at the time. Another argument he made was that nobody is normally sitting in that section at that time. He asked my sister if she'd like a free pastry for compensation and she declined.

After this the cleaning lady came back up to our section and told us it was nothing against my sister and that she does this every night. She apologized and we cleaned up our table and headed out. This was very unprofessional on the staff and made the environment feel hostile. This was our first time coming to this Panera and it's safe to say we will not be...

Bread bowl with cheddar had very little soup. For ~$9 you get a chunk of bread and enough soup to use as maybe a spread on half the bread.

The side of more bread that comes with it was similar to airplane bread. Semi stale but edible and generally flavorless. Why bother having it if one consumes 100% of the soup using the bread torn out to make a bowl.

Basically they tear it out shallow so they don't need to fill it up. Last time we went here it was the same thing.

The amount of Mac and cheese for kids is about 3/4 of a laddle. An adult woild have 4 or 5 tablespoons.

Odd pricing as well. They have "family" quantities of Mac and cheese. When you compare calories which indicates the volume you get, they charge more for larger orders. How does this make any sense?

From there website today.... 960 calories for $10.19 (.0106 per cal) 1930 calories for $24.19 (.0125 per cal)

That's 17% more money per cal.

I might sound like I'm nitpicking here but I spend extra for quality everywhere I go without thinking about it. Here, I just feel like things aren't fair.

I don't know. Maybe they're...

I'd give them a 0 star, but I'll be a little bit nice. My wife bought 4 of the $50 gift card packets (5 $10 gift cards in each). One of the packets with it's 5 cards worked fine. The others haven't. I went into the NB location and showed them the cards and the credit card receipt. I was told..."Sorry, you've waited to long to get back to us on this." (by both the store manager and someone claiming to be the district manager...might have been, no idea). They were both smiling and almost laughing when they told me this. They even told me had I come in earlier in time they would have handled it. So apparently their support and gift cards have a time limit. They told me to call customer service. Customer service told me I have to deal with the store since it was their fault. So...we're out over $100 so far. Worst run place I've ever seen...and yes, the service is...