Panera Bread — Restaurant in Brookfield

Brownie: Panera is not exactly a go to dessert spot for me. In fact, I only really go when they send me coupons for free bakery items, which brings us to this brownie review. The official description from Panera is a rich, fudgy, soft chocolate brownie dusted with powdered sugar. The first thing I want to comment on is the brownie's appearance does not match what is pictured on their website/app. Panera advertises it as a brownie with copious amounts of sugar, but only on 1/2 the dessert. My brownie had a light amount of powdered sugar covering the whole thing. Not a big deal (in fact, it probably makes more sense), but not what was expected. On the plus side, the brownie is thick and it does have chocolate chips or chunks imbedded within it. The flavor is closer to dark chocolate, but the powdered sugar nicely balances out the bitter chocolate with its sweetness. Sadly, the brownie is a little dry and leans closer to a cakey texture as opposed to fudgy (which I prefer). It's difficult giving this one a final rating. Compared to the other bakery items offered at Panera and factoring in I got it free with a coupon, I would say it's Doughboy approved. Conversely, I would never pay $3.79 for this, it didn't match the picture on the app/website, and I've had much better brownies, so it's really just okay. My top dessert items from Panera: Chocolate Croissant Blueberry Muffin Cinnamon Crunch...

This place shouldn’t even get 1 star. I’ve had pretty unappetizing experiences, but I let them slide as restaurants can get busy and mistakes happen. No more. Today I ordered an Italian panini. ALL of the meats came smashed together so tightly that they were indistinguishable, placed in the center of stale bread and sealed with stinky burnt cheese.

If I could add pictures, I would share them. Imagine crusty, dry bread, with a centimeter (if that) thick of meats, all a different shades of spoiled brown, mashed together in an eerily perfect circle and placed in the center of the two stale bread slices. Then add some slimy, wilted vegetables stuck to burnt cheese that spread out and over the top piece of bread. And the smell - so bad I chose not to actually eat the sandwich for fear of food poisoning. If I had the time to run back in and complain, I would have, but I’m certain a gift certificate would not rectify the disgusting meal they chose to serve their customers.

Previously, I had a Napa almond chicken sandwich that made me gag - chewy chicken, sour dressing, bread so stale I could assume they had found it under the cooler a month too late.

Subway is better than this restaurant, and I hear they don’t even serve real meat. Please, for the love of god, hire some robots. Your staff is clearly...

I scheduled a client meeting here at 3pm on a busy Packer Sunday, intentionally, knowing that a Panera would not be busy, & 3pm not being a busy mealtime. There were 3 other guests in the restaurant. Every single table I looked at was dirty. The floor was dirty everywhere. The staff was complacent and moved VERY slow, like they didn't have a care in the world. Lids, cups, straws understocked. Every counter & surface dirty. Staff wearing sweatpants. I was embarrassed that I invited guests here. 3pm was more than enough time for staff to have recovered post-lunch rush. There was nobody in line ordering food, but this staff did NOT care what the eating area looked like. In the hour I was there, not one of the 3 employees came out to clean tables (in spite of me mentioning it) or sweep/vacuum, to reset for the impending dinner rush. I wiped down 4 tables near me and picked up garbage off the floor, just to make my immediate area look less dirty for my guests. This was not a "very busy" or "understaffed" problem. This was a "staff doesn't...