Panera Bread — Restaurant in Columbus

So… last night my Mom and I ordered dinner from Panera Bread to celebrate her recovering from outpatient survey (she’s doing great, don’t worry!). The order came quickly and everything that was there was perfect, but we were missing the 1/2 grilled cheese sandwich we’d ordered as part of her Pick 2. No problem at all, of course, (anyone who would dare jump down someone else’s throat when they were providing a service if there was a tiny error has obviously never made a slight mistake in their life, or had a colleague make one while they were on shift with them 😡). With a quickness, I called our wonderful Panera people and had a solution quickly and gracefully from Kailey on the phone - I swung by to pick up the sandwich (we live all of 7 minutes away, so no prob!). To my delight, it was a full sandwich they gave us and Kailey and her shift manager Gracelyn were so genuinely friendly and welcoming providing it. Then Gracelyn went above and beyond - she offered us a free pastry, and I have a weakness for Panera’s wonderful pecan braids (literally about to tuck into one right now! ☺️). She then offered us a ✨second✨ one, so one of each tasty for both of us for brunch this Sunday morning. I was so happy with their approach, their friendliness and the true kindness they showed us and was reminded yet again of just how wonderful both our local Panera is, and, even more, how truly, deeply ✨awesome✨ our local young folk in our beloved hometown are (I’m a Teaching Assistant at Columbus North, so I see this everyday, it’s not just “hometown pride”). So thank you Kailey, Gracelyn and Alexei (shift manager today). You are all lovely people, make us proud of where we’re from and remind us why we are customers...

I was a little confused the first couple times I visited this location. The Panera Breads that I usually patron bring your food to your table. You don't have to go up to the counter to pick it up. I believe another lady was having an issue with picking her food up at the counter. She was upset that her buzzer was going off, and her food was not ready. Which was probably just an issue they were dealing with that day. I usually get the Maceroni and Cheese, the Turkey Bacon Bravo, and a Baguette. This is probably just a difference in locations, but every time I've been to this location the bread is hard. I'm assuming it is slightly different cooking styles. It was not bad. It just did not meet my usual expectations. The sandwich makers here seem to be held to lesser standards than what I'm used to. It's probably just locational. The set up at this location is nice. It is a little crowded, but all Panera Breads are. I had a issue getting ahold of anyone on duty over the phone. I called at about 11am concerning an online pick up order I had palced. I understand busy periods, but it sounded like someone had answered the phone, did not say anything, and hung up. I was going to ask if I could push back my pick up time, because a personal issue popped up. Unfortunately, I could not reach anyone and picked up my food about an hour late. It was cold, but I just heated it up in the microwave. I'm pretty sure that's how they cook it anyways, since it comes prepackaged at the restaurant. It was more inconvenient and annoying than anything. I am glad they are in this area. There is not much around. Overall, I love Panera, just this location has been a problem for me a couple times. I also might just be...

It’s been years since I’ve gone to Panera due to being disappointed in quality of the food and experience.

Unfortunately my trip reaffirmed this. I arrived at 5:30 PM (the restaurant closes at 9pm) on 11/1/24 and the restaurant was out of multiple food items, had about 10 pastries left, 2 bagels, and the baguettes for meals were out. When notified of this the customer service was mediocre at best. I’m not sure if the limited food was due to supply issues or not, but it was not relayed or apologized that the food was not available. For the price of the food I was hoping for a better experience.

Tables were not clean as well as the floor. Large crumbs all over the tables and floor as other customers have reported and pictured.

I did give 2 stars for food instead of 1 because the food (on what was available ) did come out hot and tasty.

Disappointed as I really wanted to give the company another try, but there are areas for...