Panera Bread — Restaurant in Bloomington

I want to share my experience at this establishment this past week. When I entered the restaurant, it appeared they were probably short staffed, as so many other businesses since Covid. However, I want to share a few comments about this establishment.

When I was placing my order, it was clear the gentleman working in this capacity was not in his usual role. In fact, he was the baker, filling in, due to being short staffed. He did an excellent job. He even, when I mentioned I had a food allergy, was immediately on alert and ready to put protocols into place that would protect my health and safety. He was doing an amazing job working in a position that he was not used to performing in, but he was doing it with no complaints, but ready and willing to help all customers with their orders.

As I sat eating my meal and watching the employees scury around, both behind the counter and in the dining area, I could not help but have compassion and appreciation for them. These individuals are showing up to their jobs, working their shifts, having much more responsibility placed upon them than most could probably handle, due to staffing shortages, yet they are all there, ready and willing to do their jobs, go above and beyond what is probably in their "job descriptions", do their best to perform at 110%, and keep that restaurant running so we all can enjoy a meal out.

Many may complain because their order maybe isn't right, perhaps they did not get an order as quickly as they felt they should, but we all need to say a huge "THANK YOU" to these staff members working in this establishment. Everyone should recognize they are running their tails off, are probably beyond stressed due to carrying a work load of what is normally 20 people, with only maybe 10 people to work, are are exhausted to boot!

Let us all show our appreciation to these amazing individuals and thank them for doing such a good job in such trying times. They are to be commended. God bless you all. Thank you to the staff and management at this establishment. Your hard work does not go unnoticed! ...

I have been coming to this location for years and service was always good, but over the past couple of years this location has really gone down hill with inconsistent hours, constant changes in their menu and orders consistently being incorrect. I've kept going to this location because I love Panera and it is really close to my job, so I gave this location a fair chance.

Today, I placed an online order and was given the option for "In Cafe pick up". When I arrived, there was a sign on the door stating that their dining room was closed for the rest of the evening and there was already a long line in drive-thru. When I got up to the speaker, I told the person my name and that I had placed an online order. They told me it was ready and to go ahead and pull around. I thought they meant I was good to pull around to one of their curbside pick up spots for drive-thru.

I sat there for nearly 10 min waiting for my food and I was on my 30min break from work. I tried calling them on the phone twice and no one answered the phone. So, I pulled back around to the drive-thru and they had put a bucket down in the drive-thru lane, marking it CLOSED. I pulled up to the speaker anyway because I needed to get my order, and was told that they were closed for the rest of day. Note, that the time was only 2:45pm... I was also just then informed that they no longer do curbside. So, I told them once again, I had an online order and had to once again wait in line.

By the time I got up to the window my break was pretty much over at this point. So, I asked for a refund. Moral of the story, don't waste your time or money at this location.

Edit: This review was posted 4 months ago and was meant for the BLOOMINGTON location by Double Tree. I must have been so frustrated that I accidentally posted this review to the Normal location by mistake. I can't say if things have improved at the Bloomington location because I will not be going back after too many bad experiences. This last experience was the last...

Stayed at the Doubletree hotel and ordered quite a bit for pick up. This location is confusing in that one day the dining area is open and another day it isn't. On Friday and Saturday morning, manager and cashiers were awesome. Saturday morning they closed dining room and I walked over to pick my order up and was greeted by the sweetest person. She gave me my order and I went back to hotel. Everything was perfect. Saturday evening we order dinner and we go to the door because we are staying in the same parking lot as this place and we are straight up ignored while trying to get someone's attention. I call and after having to go through all the annoying prompts and listen to way too many words, I finally get through just to be hung up on. So my husband is waiting in the drive thru in the dark behind cars. This is not cool. I love you Panera FOOD but this is way unacceptable. As we've now been trying for 25 minutes to get our food. Meanwhile the dining room is packed with a bunch of teenage kids and the doors were locked. At 7:30pm.

Edited: So the following day I had something go terribly wrong with my breakfast order and went full Karen on this restaurant. I called and spoke with manager and he was so kind and apologetic. He righted the wrong and I realized that we are all human and make mistakes (I knew this before today). I am not a part of the cancel culture so I was never going to boycott the restaurant or anything...but sometimes you just need to complain and hope that management cares enough to help fix the issues. In my...