Panera Bread — Restaurant in Columbus

Absolutely terrible customer service, cleanliness, and overall experience.

I ordered a bowl of soup and waited nearly 45 minutes due to their new kiosk system with supposedly “Rapid Pick Up”. It was anything but rapid.

One of the employees was standing outside vaping the entire time me and the other guests waited.

Not a single word was spoken from employees, just annoyed pissed off faces and loud bangs in the back.

Floors were incredibly sticky, drink centers were soaking wet, and the lighting is dim.

Seems like they try to have a nice futuristic system but have terrible management and employees who can’t operate efficiently or professionally.

If I could leave 0 stars, I would.

UPDATE: After 45 minutes I have been told that they do not have chicken noodle soup. So I just wasted 45 minutes waiting on a soup that said it was available at the kiosk just to be told they don’t...

I don't know why ingredient supply and food freshness continues to be an issue, but this location has struggled with both for a long time now. I've been forgiving because of larger supply chain issues, but area competitors (both local and chain deli's) are not struggling with these issues anymore lately. It's not uncommon to find more than half of their menu either totally out of stock or have ingredients out of stock for WEEKS at a time. The last couple of salads have had sad, wilted, yellow lettuce and looked a day away from tossing in the trash. I finally have reached the point that I can no longer keep giving more chances to turn things around, it's clear the management just does not care about making sure there is fresh and plentiful inventory. Given the high prices, too, clearly that money is not going towards having consistent, fresh, high quality...

Absolutely terrible experience that completely ruined my day.

I ordered a simple egg and cheese croissant, but was given one with bacon. I don’t eat meat, so I went back and politely asked for the correct order. One of the staff members took it, ripped the bacon off, and gave me back the same croissant with bacon pieces still on it. To top it off, she didn’t even hand it to me — she tossed it into the bag with a rude attitude.

I had to go back a third time, and another staff member gave me a replacement — but it was a burnt croissant.

This kind of service is unacceptable. The food was handled carelessly, the attitude was disrespectful, and I had to waste my time going back and forth just to get something I didn’t even enjoy. It genuinely ruined my morning and put me in a bad mood for the rest of the day.

I expected much better...