Panera Bread — Restaurant in Columbus

I tried the new Panera in Midland on 5/17 around 1030am. As a decades long Panera lover I have been anticipating their opening so close my home and was excited to give it a try. Unfortunately, the experience was lackluster at best. We chose to order at the kiosk as no representative was behind the counter. The only crew member I could see in the front of house was cleaning the coffee machines and letting customers know the night shift forgot to do so. After placing our order we sat down and waited. And waited. And waited some more. During this time I asked the employee cleaning the coffee maker how I could get the drinks we ordered. The employee was friendly enough but let me know “they” did not want them interacting with the customers so much but he would bring our drink cups to us. Which he did but, how odd? While we waited I watched another employee show up and take over the register. Every time a customer came in and stood in front of the register she would say briskly “do you want to order something?” And then looked annoyed if they chose to not use the kiosk and she had to actually earn a paycheck by pushing buttons. Mind you many of these customers were paying in cash and so clearly a kiosk would not have worked for them. During this time I filled our drinks and observed the other four or so customers sitting around looking confused and irritated. After waiting approximately twenty minutes for a sandwich and soup in the zero-ambiance (unless their ambiance goal is unfriendly sterility) we bussed our own table and left without any acknowledgment from the singular crew member that was unengaged at the register. The hilarity of a tip jar in that business model did not go unnoticed. I’ll be sticking to the Macon Road Panera for my Panera cravings! Worth the extra ten...

If you want to have okay food made available to you with minimal human interaction then this place might for you. My wife and I went there for breakfast today and ordered from the kiosk (because there really didn't seem to be any other option, but OK so far... lots of places are moving to this approach). I got a sandwich and a coffee. A sign says that after ordering you can go to the counter and get your cup and get your coffee from the self-service machines (sensing a theme). The problem was that nobody was around to give me my coffee cup. We saw a couple of people preparing food (primarily for the drive-thru but occasionally placing someone's order on the shelf without ever saying a word), but nobody even glanced in our direction. I had no way to get a cup without speaking up to get someone's attention -- and I got the distinct impression that doing so would not go over well. So we waited for our food for ~15 minutes. I could have been sipping my coffee the entire time, but alas... no cup.

Our food finally was placed on the pick-up shelf and someone said our last name out loud (human interaction!). My food (bacon egg and cheese sandwich) was just okay... kinda tasteless. My wife liked her food (a soufflé).

If the goal is a sterile-feeling place to pick up mediocre food with minimal-to-no human interaction and no customer service, then this store is perfect. That's not what I want, so I doubt I will be back. Too bad, too. I think I'm not a fan of this approach to...

Tried the new Panera in Midland... Ordinarily Panera is one of my favorite places to go, hadn't been in a while but I was craving a chicken caesar salad which I used to get like three times a week. I am really disappointed with Panera... The salad is so small as you can see below, definitely not worth $12 and the bag of chips is even smaller... For a regular drink, chicken Caesar salad and side of chips... $19. I know prices are going up but that's crazy, I remember getting large filling salads from Panera that required two dressings and sometimes three lol. The salad tasted good, the cafe is nice and new with outdoor seating, all the staff was very friendly. It did take a little bit long to get my food even though there was not many people in there but that's expected with a new opening. I really do like Panera but again the price for what I actually got was very...