Panera Bread — Restaurant in Columbus

NOTE: PLEASE ALSO READ MY FOLLOW-UP BELOW

My father had had an allergic reaction after eating a salad at the New Albany Panera location. (The reaction kicked in minutes after arriving home.) He ended up in the hospital. I live out of state and called New Albany to obtain a list of salad ingredients. I explained that my father was hospitalized and asked for assistance.

The manager seemed to be put off because I could not come in and look at the list. She put me on hold. When she returned to the phone, this New Albany manager advised me that she was new and that I should call back the next day to speak with their General Manager.

Let's see... hospitalized father and the originating location would not provide assistance.

Chad, a manager the Gahanna location assisted me. He took the time to read me the ingredients list even though he was certainly busy. He even faxed me a list, which I was then able to fax my family to give to hospital doctors.

If you are able to, I highly recommend visiting the Gahanna location.

FOLLOW-UP: I believe in fairness when it comes to reviews and to offer positive feedback when warranted. I was contacted by Alex, General Manager of the New Albany, OH Panera. He profusely apologized for what transpired and said he would use this happening as a training opportunity for staff (not just this manager).

This is a sign of a very good General Manager. The apology was greatly appreciated. Alex was genuinely concerned about the welfare of my father and even offered to reach out to my parents directly. This by itself would make him a good General Manager.

What makes Alex a very good General Manager was his desire to train staff so that there will not be a repeat episode. Addressing the issue with the one manager would have little impact on restaurant service. Elevating it to the attention of staff and managers provides them with an example of unacceptable behavior and provides them with clear direction for...

I just left a minute ago, waited 30 minutes for my food, the pepperoni melt, they didn't call names for all the finished orders and there was a bag plopped on the counter with no label, sticker or anything saying what order it was and like most normal people, one doesn't want to grab and man handle someone else's food. After I approach a woman in a pink shirt wearing a headset asking her about it, she quickly looks in the bag and says "here it is" and before I can say anything about no one said names so I didn't know. She goes "it's fine" and walks off. I then look in the bag, the sandwich is barely wrapped closed with no sticker on it and I randomly have someone else's soup that I didn't pay for. So I gave the soup to another guy working and saying that I didn't order this. When I get in the car I look at this pepperoni mozzarella melt and there is almost NO mozzarella on it. Like I'm not even exaggerating. I basically have a warm baguette with pepperoni on it and that's it. I had to pry a few pepperoni's off to check to see if there were actually ANY bit of mozzarella on this thing. That's how bad this way. For how much Panera costs for a seemingly quicker meal, this bothers me. And I typically just go with the flow since I know how it is to work food service and when it gets busy. I was giving this location more leeway since I think it has a drive through and that has to be stressful but this? I mean...

Ordered online for rapid pickup. It was not rapid. I sat by the rapid pickup area for 20 minutes after it was supposed to be ready. Then finally, someone behind the counter asked if i was waiting for something.. I said I ordered online, and the girl was like, " oh, well your order's been over here for awhile..." as she laughed and pointed to a bag that had been sitting up on the counter where the prep station is. It wasnt at the rapid pickup area, and it took someone way to long to let me know. I guess the girl was too busy to put my order where it was supposed to go- and I guess she was too busy to ask one of the other 20 employees working to help. Before I left, I asked her if everything was in there and she said yes.. I knew I shouldve checked but instead, took my chances... When I got home, my $9 sandwich wasnt there. Before I left to return to get it, I checked the other food. Everything was cold, and poorly made. When I got back to Panera, I told them they forgot my sandwich. There was no apology from anyone- and instead of offering to make it fresh, I heard a guy in the back say, " oh yeah, I wonder why this was sitting here for awhile." Then the girl brought me this rolled up trashy looking thing and just said, " here it is." I was so fed up that I just left. Terrible food, terrible hospitality, and terrible...