Panera Bread — Restaurant in Champaign

DO NOT ORDER A CATERING ORDER FROM THIS LOCATION!!! They are too understaffed to accommodate large orders. Their website allows you to place an order for delivery starting a 7:00am but you will have a DoorDash person call you to tell you that they do not get paid enough to wait for your order even though it was placed through their website 3 weeks in advance. When I called the lady that answered told me I ordered too many sandwiches way too early and she can’t be the only one to make and deliver my orders. I told her that I would just come pick them up myself but would need to be accommodated for. As I proceeded to pick up my order at 7:45 I then had to wait another 45 min for my order. I talked to the team lead Forest and told them I was very dissatisfied with the service when I called and then having to wait even longer. He told me they would give me half off for both of my orders but wouldn’t be able to do it until the next day due to some system situation. I told him I didn’t want him to just tell me that and the next day it doesn’t happen. He assured me that he will be on the clock and will issue the refund. Here it is a week later and no refund I call and speak with Andrew and he took my order numbers down and said he would make sure the refund was issued. 20 minutes later I receive a call back from the Assistant Manager E Waldoch saying Forest doesn’t have authorization to give that amount back and he was just trying to defuse the situation (trying to get me out of the store) and I will not receive the refund of what was told to me he will only honor $100. Mind you I had two orders totaling up to $812.49. E would not allow me to complete anything I was trying to say and was being difficult when I asked for corporates number saying he couldn’t give me personal phone numbers which I didn’t ask for. All I want is to be given what was told that would be given as I’ve spent over $2,400 there in the past 3 weeks. Corporate...

Very disappointed with how I was treated at Panera this morning. My workplace is very close to Panera so my coworkers and I go there ALL the time for coffee, bagels, etc. This morning I ordered a caramel latte (like usual) and it tasted completely different than it normally does. It honestly tasted as if they forgot to add the espresso completely. Which wasn't a big deal - I decided I would just go back and have them remake it. I went to the order counter and asked them if they would remake it for me. The gal behind the counter asked the manager, Mike, if they were able to remake it. Mike then explained to me, very rudely, that a latte doesn't usually have a strong coffee taste because of all of the milk that is in it. Mike said this in a way that made me feel foolish. But being someone who loves coffee (and drinks it more than I like to admit), I am very aware that a latte is mainly made up of milk. Nevertheless, I was not satisfied that I had paid almost $5 for what lasted like warm milk. I told Mike that I get lattes from there all the time and it has never tasted like that. His response was a shoulder shrug like "Oh well, not my problem." After that I just said, "Okay, never mind - it's fine." He THEN offered me to add another shot of espresso, but the damage had already been done. So I threw my drink away and walked out.

I am just very disappointed because my coworkers and I give them a lot of business and the fact that Mike was so rude to me rubbed me the wrong way. I went back and told my coworkers about this incident and we made the decision that we will just start going to Einstein...

Update 4/03/2025. See pic of giant chunk of semi cheese in grilled cheese. Waited at drive thru window for about 10 minutes for an order ahead mobile order even though it said it was ready. Multiple people left the drive thru line because of wait time. Understaffed. Also they forgot the salsa verde sauce. They literally make at least one mistake per order.

Dined in for the first time in about 3 years on 6/15/2023. very dirty location including bathroom and heavy/lingering odor in restaurant by drinks station and trash area. The water was so hot in the woman’s bathroom on 6/15/2023 that it almost burned my hands. Broken hook in women’s bathroom stall. Dirty bathrooms. Even the DOOR to enter woman’s bathroom felt so grimy and dirty that you could tell it’s likely never been wiped or scrubbed down, ever. Paper towels were out. My bread as side for salad didn’t taste fresh it tasted hard/stale. Added avocado to salad and barely received any. Olives on greek salad tasted old/outdated. Friendly staff at this visit, but I’ve gone through the drive thru at this location many times including recently in 2023 and have had incorrect orders many times and many of the staff wear earbuds when working and have attitude problems. I know working in food service isn’t very fun if it’s not your passion, been there done that, but hey a lot of us do things we don’t wanna do and we don’t have to be quite so...