Panera Bread — Restaurant in Dubuque

On occasion when I'm in Dubuque, IA, I'll stop and buy some of Panera Bread's Cinnamon Crunch Bagels & flavored cream cheese.

Last night I made a purchase around 5 pm @ their drive-thru.

I ordered 6 bagels. With the cream cheese included, my order total was $12.74.

While ordering, the employee asked ME if I would like the bagels "sliced?" I responded, "Sure, why not."

So early this morning I went to enjoy one of the bagels I purchased, and it was absolutely awful. Tasted like cardboard. Completely dried out & inedible. They had just been thrown in a plastic bag and put in a paper bag.

I made a call today to the restaurant, and asked to talk to the manager. I kindly explained my situation to him, and asked for my money to be refunded. The "manager" was rude and condescending.

He said NO, that it was "my fault for having the bagels sliced, that they dry out really fast."

I said "What, you can't be serious? I never personally requested for them to be sliced. She asked ME if I wanted them sliced. And also, why wouldn't she automatically say, "Just so you know, the bagels WILL dry out faster if we slice them?"

His response? "How are we supposed to know when you're going to be consuming them?

I said "That's NOT the point at all, sir. So you're telling me, I should "assume" any purchased bagels from your establishment WILL NOT be fresh 12 hrs after I buy them? What?"

He then said "He would give me some different bagels, but I WAS NOT getting my money back."

I explained to the manager that I only come to Dub once a month, since I'm out-of-state. I told him that I'd prefer reimbursement, as I probably will never frequent this restaurant again.

He said that wasn't going to happen.

I told him to keep the offer of different bagels, and that I would just WRITE A REVIEW of the business & incident, instead.

The manager NEVER once stated his name during the whole conversation, nor apologized for giving me old, stale product.

I've owned & operated 3 of my own businesses over the years. I would have never let one of my employees treat or talk to someone like this, especially a MANAGER.

I wanted to let others know what my experience was like at Panera Bread @ 3243 Kennedy Cir, Dubuque, IA 52002, and hope you are treated fairly &...

The food itself deserves 5 stars. We got there around 630pm on October 24th, Maddison took our order and I am more then understanding of kids being kids but this girl was so rude she was complaining about not going on break yet while taking our order and she’s been there since 5..... one and a half hours when I was 16 I would work doubles with no breaks (no that’s not legal but my previous employer didn’t care). When told that they were out of something she goes “we are out of everything everyone should just....” and mumbled something under her breath. Never have I ever had such negative service. And to top it off when we got our bag to go it had broccli cheddar soup all over the front and he still handed it to us, we took it due to us being in a hurry but this is redicilous! I hope this manager talks to their staff about proper restaurant etiquette even if it’s some what of a...

Had a soup bread bowl. Food was good. A bit pricey. Also had an apple and a bag of chips. A little disappointed that the apple was not offered cut up or with some kind of healthy dip (even plain old honey would be nice). Also that the chips were basically no different than what I can buy at a gas station. Why not have an option for freshly made chips? The layout is a bit weird. After ordering I am supposed to walk to a spot where the counter is now a six foot wall. There is a small section of this wall that is an elevated counter where I am supposed to pick up my order. I like to watch the workers preparing food, it's part of the fun. Unfortunately that wall blocks any view and the partition along my right side makes me feel a bit claustrophobic. What should be an enjoyable experience, (passing through a restaurant to my table) feels more like walking...