Panera Bread — Restaurant in Florence

This place is extremely expensive for a sandwich and soup/fast food establishment. I can somewhat justify the price since the food is a step above typical fast food in terms of quality. However, service is another story. We went in recently to find out the french onion soup had been discontinued. My girlfriend wasnt rude when we found out, she was just surprised and disappointed, since she loved that soup. So we politely placed a different order. Meanwhile while we were waiting for our food, the 17-18 year old looking girl that took our order was mocking my girlfriend because of her surprise at not having the product. She was doing it without knowing we could hear her. We didn't complain to the manager, since kids will be kids, but it was extremely rude and unprofessional.

My second issue with this place is the availability of their food. If you go there past 7pm, you can ge guaranteed they'll be out of a vast majority of selections. Certain ingredients to make sandwiches, certain breads, certain desserts and pastries... they're sold out of numerous things constantly. I would understand if it were one or two items, and only occasionally, but it's not. Its every time we go there. I'm sure this is because the food is made up daily and they're trying to save money by not wasting anything, but when you're constantly running out of food for customers this is a sign you're not making enough. Good customer service would be ensuring that enough food is made to serve, not that enough food is made to save you money.

TL;DR - food is decent, service is mediocre, price is too high and there is a good chance they wont have what you want if you...

Over-rated and way over-priced! We ordered 2 "Pick Two" meals for dinner, delivered, this evening.

1. A new Pepperoni Melt sandwich and a 1/2 chicken Caesar Salad
2. Warm Bowl chicken teriyaki and a small mac-n-cheese Both came with a free baguette as a side item.

Pepperoni Melt: 12" baguette, 12 thin slices of pepperoni, 1 mozzarella slice (1/8" thick) cut up and spaced among the minimal pepperoni slices, 2 thin sliced tomatoes, and a few shredds of lettuce. The baguette was 2 days old, very hard to bite into, and the same width of the 1.5" meat slices. Not toasted because I knew that'd make a bagette imposible to eat. It was anyway. Warm Bowl: Didn't even reach the top of the bowl it came in, totaling 1.5 cups of food that looked like it sat there all day, and didn't have much flavor. Small Mac-n-Cheese: about 1/2 cup serving for $7.99. My husband said, "It was just ok, but I won't eat there again." Ceasar Salad: The chicken was so dry, it soaked up most of the dressing instantly. It actually was the best part of the meal, of course it's pretty hard to screw up a salad. Side Baguette: 3" in length and so hard I couldn't get the bread knife through it.

In conclusion, Panera is way over priced with below expected serving sizes for the $50 price charged.

Also, PANERA BREAD DOES NOT DELIVER, THEY USE DOORDASH TO PICK UP AND DELIVER...

Unfortunately, our recent experience at Panera Bread was extremely disappointing. We had high hopes for a celebratory birthday meal, but were met with several significant issues:

Stale Food: The bread, despite our request for freshly baked options, was incredibly hard and stale. While some of the other items were acceptable (likely due to being pre-made in a factory and reheated), the overall quality of our food was far below our expectations.

Poor Service: Our server exhibited a clear lack of enthusiasm and appeared very unhappy. Their audible (very loud actually) sigh after taking our order was both unprofessional and unsettling. While we understand that everyone has bad days, this behavior was very unacceptable and created an extremely unpleasant dining experience.

Unsanitary Conditions: The restaurant itself appeared undermaintained, with noticeable dirt and dust in various areas, particularly in hard-to-reach spots. This raised concerns about hygiene and potential pest issues.

This experience, unfortunately, mirrors several previous disappointments we've encountered at various Panera locations. Due to the consistent issues with food quality, service, and cleanliness, we will no longer be patronizing this or any other Panera Bread locations. We strongly advise others to spend their hard earned money...