Panera Bread — Restaurant in Denver

We came in to the Ulster location at 7:05 PM and they were open until 8pm. I immediately notice that they are putting everything away. A small pretentious young girl greeted us at the register. We came in for some of the vegetable soup we saw online for our sick vegetarian daughter. They didn’t have the soup we saw online but the menu board showed a different one. When we asked for that, she maintains her smug smile and informs us that they are out of it. We question how that can be and she further informs us that they are out of bread as well. So it seems that management is poor at this location for either 1. allowing this employee to push people away because she wants to get everything put away so she can get out of there for whatever plans she has or 2. for not planning well enough to serve guests. My money is on the former. I worked at a place like this when I was young and I can tell you that in the year I worked there we NEVER ran out of soup. It would be one thing if we had come in 10-15 minutes before closing but nearly an hour? My advice to anyone planning to visit a Panera, don’t go if it is an hour before closing.

Update: I neglected to mention that my wife and daughter saw what looked like soup in some of the storage containers they were filling and they say they saw bread in bins...

Unfortunately, I've had a couple of poor service experiences and just finally have reached the end of my rope. The employees are nice for the most part (except for the surly tall guy) and the food is pretty good, but the second something goes wrong or the staff gets too busy, the entire place falls apart. I've gone in lunch rushes and waited for what seemed like an extraordinary amount of time for a quick service restaurant. So I started ordering online, which works most of the time. But there have been times when they forget to put the food out on the shelf, and I have to remind them. This last visit was a nightmare. My food was supposed to be ready at noon. However, the computer monitors went down, and the staff had no idea what to do. Just as I went to the receiving counter to show my order, the lady announced, "JUST SHOW US YOUR RECEIPTS!" That's when all hell broke loose, and about 25 angry customers rushed forward, completely blocking me out. I gave up, as I have a job I had to get back to. Of course, Panera is incapable of refunding my money when I contacted them. ("We'll contact the franchise owner.") It's only $6, but it's just frustrating. And the worst part? It was just a bowl of soup and a bag of chips. Not exactly asking them to...

Avoid Panera Bread for delivery; our experience was dreadful. In a previous order, they not only failed to deliver our order but also abruptly closed the store without notice. This time, our attempt to order soup and bread for a sick neighbor turned into a fiasco. Lacking the soup’s accompanying bread, the web site suggested apples as an bread alternative. Opting for a separate order of a whole sourdough loaf seemed like a straightforward solution, but the surprise came when when our neighbor called to say thanks for the apples and some money in a bag.

Upon inquiry, Panera admitted to being completely out of bread, and their response left much to be desired. The person on the phone seemed oddly proud of their “cash in the bag solution,” emphasizing delivering the apples as if it were a triumph. No effort was made to provide alternatives or apologize for the inconvenience. Instead, they nonchalantly claimed that putting money in the bag usually works just fine. Overall, a disappointing service experience.

Well, I suppose they did manage to include “bread” in the...