Panera Bread — Restaurant in Castle Rock

I have eaten at probably thousands of restaurants in nearly 20 countries. I have had my fair share of poor customer service. But never before has a restaurant employee accused me of trying to steal half a sandwich. Until I visited Panera of Castle Rock.

I went through the drive-thru a week or two ago and ordered a "whole" Modern Caprese sandwich. Upon unwrapping the sandwich, it turned out to only be half a sandwich. Not a big issue, right? I simply pulled back into the drive-thru and explained what had happened. The young man on the speaker apologized and said to pull forward and they would give me the other half of the sandwich at the window.

Great. I pull forward to the window.

Suddenly, an officious young woman whips open the drive-thru window. "Sir!" she boldly exclaims as she thrusts half a sandwich directly toward my nose. "We rang this up wrong and you only paid for half a sandwich. We'll give you a whole sandwich this time but next time you need to pay for it."

Stunned by this contrast between the reassuring young man on the speaker and the contentious expostulator now looming from the window, I reach for my receipt and point out that I had, in fact, paid for a "whole" Modern Caprese sandwich.

See? The whole $9.99. The receipt proves that I am, indeed, entitled to receive a whole sandwich. I am not, I explain, trying to bamboozle Panera out of an additional half a sandwich worth approximately three dollars.

"Oh, my bad!" she snaps, and then disappears back through the window like a prairie dog diving into its hole at the cry of a falcon. She closes the window with a SLAM. And then I hear--although muffled through the double-pane drive-thru glass--"OH MY GOD" and a burst of laughter.

I drive away and mechanically consume my whole Modern Caprese sandwich, its tasteful Old-World combination of parmesan, arugula, and smoked tomato confit somewhat tainted by what I went through to obtain it.

Keep it classy, Panera of Castle Rock....

Update: I really don't like leaving bad reviews but this location can't seem to get their act together!

8.8.23 Decided to give it another shot. My sandwich was supposed to be a Chipotle Chicken Avocado Melt which, according to the description is: Smoked, pulled chicken raised without antibiotics, smoked Gouda, fresh avocado and cilantro, zesty sweet Peppadew™ peppers and chipotle sauce on Black Pepper Focaccia. They were out of Focaccia so I got Ciabatta instead... however, again missing ingredients (cheese), chicken lumped in the middle of the sandwich, and brown avocado.

If you can go in and inspect what they are giving you before you walk out it may be ok, (I did this a week ago and I had to have them fix a couple things but they were minor...) if they see your face they seem to care a little but for delivery is pretty much guaranteed you're going to get subpar food.

7.23 I can't believe I paid $17 for a sandwich! It was supposed to be a Toasted Frontega Chicken. Which includes pulled smoked chicken, mozzarella, salt & pepper, red onion, basil, Chipotle sauce & tomato. I asked for no tomato. I got chicken lumped in the middle of the sandwich, less that 1/2 teaspoon of Chipotle sauce, and 3 half moons of red onion and NO mozzarella. Oh, and not toasted. So pretty much lumps of chicken and bread. I was able to make it decent by adding avocado, mayo, and lettuce I had on hand. It has been a while since we ordered here because the quality had gone down so badly. I think it will be a long time...

I am a frequent Panera customer and this was by far the worst experience I have ever had. We arrived at 7:15pm and had placed our order by 7:20 (closes at 8). We were handed our order in an unrequested to-go bag at 7:30. We asked for plates and utensils and were told that it was restaurant policy not to give these within a certain time period before close. This was escalated to a manager who refused to give us utensils or plates. (I figured maybe this was to give staff time to do dishes, but a number of nearby tables had dirty dishes sitting on them throughout the course of our meal). I was given a paper bag to eat soup in a bread bowl over.

I had ordered my bread bowl with baguette and instead of the baguette, they had placed a couple slices of leftover bread in the bag from earlier in the day. They apparently had decided to stop baking their baguettes earlier in the evening and did not mention this when filling the order. One of the staff members was loudly complaining about orders behind the assembly counter the entire time we were eating - clearly audible in the seating area. I went to the counter to get desert at 7:45pm and was told all bakery items had already been sent off for donation. I understand that this was all likely because the employees wanted to go home, but we felt very unwelcome (and we were out the door 15 minutes before closing - no one had to stay late on...