Panera Bread — Restaurant in Eau Claire

tl;dr: this location seems to struggle with their online system, I'd avoid ordering via app or web if possible. Double check the accuracy of your order when you recieve it. The food quality is typical Panera and management mostly makes up for poor line level customer service.

I really wanted to give this place five stars. Yesterday I placed an order and went to pick it up, wasn't ready. Waited another ten minutes, occasionally checking the box, only to realize on the third check that there was a small piece of receipt paper with my name on it that I must not have seen... Probably because it was a tiny piece of receipt paper laid flat on the shelf. It says to come to the register, so I do - apparently they were out of the type of bagel I ordered and "the system wouldn't let" them mark it out of stock. Okay. I tried to mention how I ended up waiting a total of twenty minutes and maybe they should write the name bigger, tape it the shelf, something but the cashier didn't understand why I was saying anything and just repeated the thing about the bagel.

I get home, realize that an item is missing from my order and decide, everybody makes mistakes, I'll call them. The manager Rachel was sympathetic and immediately offered compensation for my missing item - she is the reason this place scrapes out with four stars. If only the employees under her could learn how to apologize instead of making excuses.

Because the following morning I give them another shot, thinking it was probably just busy the day before. Yet I ended up waiting a good ten minutes (knowing to check the shelf for tiny receipt paper), before just going to the register to ask about my order. It was literally just a bagel (gotta love them free bagels). The woman at the counter asked me if I maybe placed my order for a later time - yet she knew exactly what I ordered when I mentioned it so it obviously came through just fine. I apparently should have screenshotted my order so she could have seen it said "as soon as possible" because when you go back to your recent orders it doesn't show the time it was placed or requested pickup time. I finally got my bagel (no apology for the wait or mixup, just implicated blame that I somehow I ordered incorrectly), and left thinking that I'm glad I'm leaving the area so I can go back to my normal, totally great, painless Panera...

I don’t usually leave bad reviews or reviews at all, but because of the way I was treated and the multiple times that it has happened I have to. This just happened too many times for the same order. I have my transaction go back 8 times that I’ve ordered this same sandwich(Bacon, egg&cheese on brioche w/over easy egg), and 5 out of the 8 times my egg was completely over cooked and dry. I use rapid pick up and sometimes when I get there my food hasn’t even come out yet, I use rapid pick up because I don’t have time to sit and eat. I am always on my way to work or in a rush, so I’m very thankful that Panera has rapid pick up. My order had been done wrong so many times that I decided to leave a message on the special instructions “Please make sure egg is not over cooked”, I had arrived home already and had to drive back to Panera bread because my egg was completely over cooked again. I asked for a manager and I explained what had happened, she happily returned my money for today’s sandwich. I asked her about all the other times that I couldn’t bring my sandwich back and had gone hungry or had to waste more money on buying more food. She offered me a coupon for a pick 2. I showed her a picture of my sandwich before this one to prove that I’m not just making it up, I asked if there was anything else done for all those times that it had caused an inconvenience to me. It was not my fault that it wasn’t don’t right in the first place. She then looked at me and said “Its fine I’ll just take it out of my pocket then” she opened the register and handed me cash for the one that I showed her proof of. She turned around and took both the coupon and the bag with the sandwich, she threw the sandwich in the garbage and just walked to the back. I’ve worked in the food industry for many years, and I understand that sometimes mistakes are made. The manager just made me feel worse for going in there and standing up for the fact that I’ve wasted my money So many times. This wasn’t even the first time I’ve been in there talking to a manager for the same reason, I was in there the second time it had happened. I’m very disappointed in the way that someone would have the title of a manager, and all they do is treat a customer who had already paid and wasted her money like they are an...

The sandwich I ordered had the least amount meat I’ve ever seen on a sandwich. It literally had less than one full slice of thin meat in it with a soaked piece of lettuce. Oh, but it had horseradish on it! Two thick, and what I’d call gross over thick pieces of bread, with virtually ZERO in between but yep it had horseradish on it was what I got. They gave us both very small portions of soup as well. My wife kindly asked the girl behind the counter for more soup and the girl hymned & hawed as if the request was a big deal so my wife said that’s ok never mind then. Later a person walked by and asked us if everything was good and my wife told her about the soup and how the portion size was small. She asked us if we wanted another bowl of soup. Not being waster’s we said no we’re not interested in that but if we can have some added that would be great. What happen next was amazing. The woman came back with two little tiny small cups filled up about a third of the way. We looked at each other and couldn’t believe what we had just seen. Yep more insult by probably the manager herself. Her statement was like, if you feel shorted at Panera Bread don’t dare say so again.

The kicker with all of this is we were allowed to pay $67 for this poor food and service. Yep, at good old Panera Bread you get to get up and go get your over priced very poor food, they don’t bring it to you.

Suffice to say, we will never go back there again. There’s a reason they call the place Panera bread. It’s 90 to 95% bread and the bread itself has ZERO flavor. Poor food which is way over priced, will it survive. With inflation only about to get much much higher I believe that the Panera Bread’s of the world will soon...