Panera Bread — Restaurant in Edinburg

Overrated Overpriced Underwhelming Inefficient

So many words to describe my first and last experience with the new Panera bread..at least the one that just opened. People might say oh give them a break, they just opened up...why? This is a large commercial chain with systems in place already. Would you give a newly opened McDonald's a break if they gave you a bad quality Big Mac after a 1 HOUR wait? Of course not ...

So I went during a busy lunch hour....the place was slammed. The parking is terrible to begin with. You can order at the line, drive thru, on their app, or a kiosk at the entrance. I ordered at the kiosk. I received my order 1 hour later. Seriously...1 hour for a soup and a sandwich?

Let's get this clear...where is the inefficiency coming from? Would you be upset waiting an hour for a salad? Definitely...all the ingredients are already prepared. It's only matter of assembly. They serve cold sandwiches...they only need assembly. They serve soups, which are already cooked/heated. They serve pastries...which are already baked. I could only imagine the items that take the longest are the paninis since they require toasting...but that's it. So someone explain to me the 1 hour wait..

That was first. Their slogan of "waiting is the hardest part" is a joke. I can live with the 1 hour wait IF...the sandwich and soup were worth it. Well check the pic of my sandwich. It was almost falling apart inside the bag. Do they not know how to wrap a sandwich? Subway does better wraps. The bread was hard....the cuts were semi bland. The dressing on the sandwich was barely distinguishable and didn't add any pop or flavor. It only made the bread a little wet...that was it. The bread was so hard that as you bit down into the sandwich, the fillings would just slide out. Such a waste of a sandwich...and more so of my time. 1 hour for this?

On to the soup...I love tomato basil soup, with bread bowls. They charge $9 for this bread bowl... I recommend going to BJs and eating theirs for $11, or at least Panera should go there to see what it should be. One, the soup didn't taste freshly made...maybe just heated? Subway gives you about the same amount for about half the price. The bread was incredibly dense. BJs gives you the top nicely toasted with garlic butter, and it's a delight to dip it into the soup when poured in. This one...I pulled out a ball of bread which had no appeal. I know it's a bread bowl...but it felt like I was just eating soup out of a bowl, made from bread. Other bread bowls I've eaten, you can scoop around inside and dig out morsels of bread drenched in the soup...and it's delicious. Not this one....barely anything to scoop out and the bread itself was incredibly hard to break apart and eat. It felt like it had a shell around the bread...I didn't eat any of the bread bowl itself.

Honestly, even if I had received my order, the food itself was not worth the price, much less the time that I spent waiting for it.

On the bright side...Jersey Mike's is opening right next to it if you want to get a worthwhile sandwich worth your...

11•7•24 7pm The place is alright and a bit overwhelming for the staff. It does get packed, yet I understand that, but if you have a full house, everyone talking at the same time, it is hard to hear them call your name that order is ready. You need an overhead. Mic y'all Another thing is I ordered something they recommended me it was there wasn't the best yet, not the worst, but for the amount of chicken you could use a bit more, it's a bit too flat. For the prices. The broccoli cheese soup is very nice, texture, and creamy. That's good, but the bread they give you with it is quite super hard. It wasn't soft as if the bread was a 3 day old left outside bread kinda hard texture. At least if they served that piece of bread it be good to be warmed up and soft for the soup would compliment it well, in this case you have to soak it and well its cheese soup it dont soak in the bread so you can figure it how how it be. That's what i didn't like. My sandwich was the Chipotle chicken avocado it was meh! To thin of a sandwich for the bread it takes seems as if just smudge the ingredients on the bread like if you get the picture. So i won't order it, and the pieces of chicken in it were a bit too shreaded like for tacos, so it was just there. My husband ordered the new sandwich spicy fiesta chicken, which was alright. And salad was the balsamic chicken green with grains, it was alright he liked it, I wasn't that impressed with it. But it will do. I guess I'll have to take the time to study and read everything on the menu rather than ask an associate what is recommended. Overall was like I said ok presintation was kinda weak, service same weak maybe a different location will be different to this one although was our first time hoping it will be better or give this one another try. It is a bit pricey for the serving portions inside a sandwich, but if you haven't tried, you...

Arrive at a good time. There were not many people inside and 3 cars in the drive thru. Ordered our food and waited. More people came in. We waited some more. Even more people got there, and we were still waiting. People who arrived after us got their food and left. There were now a lot of people inside, and we were still waiting after 30 minutes. The order was 2 sandwiches and 2 soups.

Went to look at the screen that has your name and noticed my name was skipped not once but 4 times. I asked the worker why my name was being skipped and she proceeded to tell me the order of the names we see in the front is not the same as the order they have in the back and that they could not sync the lists. Even though people who got there after me were getting their orders first.

After AN HOUR, we got our cold sandwiches that were wayyyy too small. To top it off, they did not have any more of the soup we ordered AN HOUR AGO, and the soup was cold. Would have thought it be at least warm, but it seems they had it sitting out the whole time I was waiting. 2 half sandwiches, 2 soups and 2 drinks was over $30. I could get some bigger sandwiches, hot soup and better service at subway for much less

Very very, VERY disappointed. It's not a restaurant for us to wait an hour for our food. Even then, restaurants do not take an hour to bring you your food, a full meal at that. Had they told us when we ordered that there was going to be an hour wait, I would have gone next door to Dave's Hot Chicken. Will not be going there ever again. DO...