Panera Bread — Restaurant in Buffalo Grove

Absolutely terrible experience. We were in town for a dance tournament, knowing the area could be busy we placed the order on our app ahead of time around 8:30am for a 10:30am pick up. We were not receiving any update notifications on our food which was surprising as Panera is usually good at this with their other locations. We arrived at 10:28 in the drive thru and we were told they were busy and it would be a few minutes. We didn't even get a chance to tell them we were there for a "pickup"...after several minutes passed they came back and we were able to then tell them we had a pickup. We were asked to pull forward. We then proceeded to sit in the drive thru for 30 minutes....We would have left but couldn't as there was a car in front and behind us. I wish I was exaggerating, it was 11am by the time we got to the window. There was only 1 car in front of us the entire time so they were waiting as well. When I finally was at the window, the cashier apologized for the wait. I acknowledged his comment and asked how we would be compensated for the extremely long wait, and his response.... "I can get you a treat"???? I said: what, a treat? His response, yes, a cookie. At that point I was shocked and asked to speak to a manager. The manager wasn't any better. I said I understand things happen and businesses get busy. I also said good business practice would be to make the situation right. I honestly wasn't looking for much after the disrespectful response and still waiting to receive our order while now arguing I said I would like to receive 50% off my order which was around $50. She said she couldn't do. How can the manager not discount the order seemed more like she just didn't want to. She said that she would look into it and would call me later to provide a refund. She asked for my name and number. I provided my name, number and email... 3 weeks have passed and I'm still waiting for a...

12/3/21- UPDATE - so we can never order for delivery without them forgetting at least 1 thing and also giving us something (or multiple things) wrong. We literally always expect things to go wrong with Panera. Don’t know how they have 4 stars, maybe we are just the only unlucky ones each time…. Not only do they forget something or give us something wrong they can never fix it, they just give a voucher and the person who’s lunch they forgot has to just deal with no food. My food came this time and not gonna lie it was delicious, but my coworker did not receive her sandwich and her broccoli cheddar soup came as broccoli Mac and cheese, so she had to pour her Mac and cheese into her bread bowl……. I am not certain if we will order again, just disappointed :(

This goes for mostly my own opinion, not the office that I order with (although they have had several issues with past orders) but every time we order there’s something missing or wrong.

They forgot my dressing and added avocado to my salad this time, they forgot my boss’s bread bowl and just gave him a soup bowl.

My order from last time, they gave me a Caesar salad with a light dusting (few morsels) of cheese, less than halfway filled dressing cup.

The time before that I ordered a salad and added avocado and it came with the peel still on it, and again less than half of a small cup of dressing. My co-workers bread bowl was uncut so she had to dig out the hole, and my other coworker ordered a cup of tomato soup and they literally gave her a CUP OF MARINARA.

Door dash or whoever delivers for them is always great, totally not related to this review.

I understand mistakes and small errors, hence why I haven’t called every time I was cheated my salad dressing, because I manage a restaurant as my other job, but this is saddening and doesn’t make me wanna order again and not even get what I ordered...

I will never go to this Panera again. We literally sat for 30 minutes behind two cars. Just ordered a frozen coffee and the first car sat for over 25 minutes until the next car was able to pull up. Handed the people in front of us their stuff as soon as they pulled up. When we pulled up they gave me a half melted frozen cold brew. Obviously my drink was waiting for me for 30 minutes as well. One would assume they would tell that first car to pull up and wait for their huge order but NO they decided our car and the second car needed to wait as well for their way to big for a drive through order. When we pulled up I asked the girl what happened why did it so long and she immediately gave me a stink face and gave me an attitude about how they’re busy. Manager had the same attitude problem. We pulled away and that’s when we took a sip and the thing was back to complete liquid form not frozen anymore. I wound up going inside which btw which I would have seen before we pulled in was completely empty and the person working inside was very kind. Then I got to talk to Maria the manager again who was condescending, rude, and lacked any and all people skills. She was trying to argue With me and telling me she wasn’t trying to argue. I’ve worked in the food industry so I show people respect until I don’t see it in return. She’s clearly not cut out for her position because of how poorly the store and drive thru are being ran. Matt the manager I tried getting ahold of you but when that didn’t happen I decided to leave my experience...