Panera Bread — Restaurant in Cedar Rapids

Eating here can be a mixed bag. My wife often wants to come here and so we do. It would seldom, if ever, be my first choice. Or tenth. Or one-hundredth. Sometimes you get great service. Sometimes the service is almost non-existent. (Yesterday, for example, we stood in a line at the register for over five minutes as workers wandered around, not one coming to ring up customers).

We had to settle for sitting at a dirty table yesterday. About a third of the tables were taken when we got there, so there were plenty open. However, every one of them was covered in crumbs and other spilled food. This is not always the case, but has happened more than once. I went and found some napkins (one dispenser was empty) and brushed off the table, but it still wasn't clean. While we ate, two workers did come through and clean some tables, so it's not like it's never done. Just not often enough.

The food is where I get the most frustrated. It's inconsistent. When Panera is at the top of their game, most of the food is really good. I usually like the Philly cheesesteak sandwiches. Yesterday's was pathetic. To call it an onion sandwich would be more appropriate. I do love onions and they were good, but I struggled to find steak or cheese on the sandwich. I also had the French onion soup, which lacked onion or cheese. The broth was all right and there were a lot of croutons, but seems strange to call it an onion soup when there were so few onions in it. Again, though, I've had this dish before and it's been very good.

Also, when you do the pick two and get half a sandwich, the size varies to the point of being ridiculous. At times it's close to being a full sandwich. Other times, it's only a few bites. Yesterday's was about what I'd expect for a half sandwich, so they got...

Edited to add- I went back today and the staff was very helpful and patient with my special needs brother.

So the food is typical panera food that you can get at any Panera Bread. However the staff here is mainly what I'm always running into an issue with. I went in to get something to eat after a long flight, waited 10 minutes for the guy working the counter to take 1 order in front the guy at the counter seemed to be having an issue getting the order correct. Then without saying a word just walked off, no one came up to replace him, other staff ignored us when I tried to say excuse me. It's not the first time I've had a bad interaction with the staff there, I do try to be patient as I've worked in food service but there is definitely a limit. I'm sure they're under staffed and stressed it's just hard to deal with...

Came in at 6:45 and ordered pick 2 BBQ Mac and Cheese and cuband sandwich. When the order was ready the Cuban was cold and the Mac and cheese was like soup. Took the Mac and cheese back and the cook tried to tell me it was melted cheese. When I said "No this is water the pasta wasn't drained." He responded that's because he had to put it in the microwave. The manager? Told me it was because this late at night they don't drop as much. I told her I paid the same amount as the people who came in earlier in the day. They did make me another half of the Cuban sandwich to make up for it, but this is the second time this has happened at this location. I could understand if I walked in 5 minutes before close but we were in over an hour this time and two hours the last time this happened. Won't be back to this location....