Panera Bread — Restaurant in Fuquay-Varina

Placed an online delivery order for my family tonight, 07/19/2020. Order was promptly made and delivered. Only problem was there was a missing item from our order. Called the store and spoke to Damien Grady (Manager?). Told him what the issue was and he asked if I was still in the area to come back. I had to explain to him twice that it was an online order. He kept telling me there was nothing he could do, due to it being an online order and suggested that when I come in next time, to just tell "them" I spoke to Damien and I would get a free meal. I asked if they could just make the part of the order that was missing and send that to us. He said "Oh sure, give me just a minute." I thought you just said you couldn't do anything for me... Anyway, he comes back and asks for the delivery drivers phone number, I give him that from the email I got. Says he will be back again. Wait 2-3 minutes more before coming back and telling me he can't get a hold of the guy. Again, tells me unfortunately there is nothing he can do and just to come in another time and they will "hook me up". I told him that's not going to work, can he just have the item delivered by another driver. "Oh sure, give me just a minute." At this point, Damien isn't making me feel like he wants to resolve this issue for me he just wants it and me to go away. He comes back after, I guess putting the order together, and asks me if I would willing to pay an additional $4.xx for the delivery. I said no I will not. He says "let me see what I can do, it's tricky because we use a third party for deliveries." I'm thinking, "the company eats the cost of the additional delivery being that this is y'alls mistake." After that he probably had me on hold for 10+ minutes. I hangup and call back and he says "Sorry I lost you earlier. I had to call the other manager." Again, he tries to just get me to come in some other time and get hooked up on his word and my word. I don't think so bud. My patience is wearing thin at this point and I tell him as much. I ask if he can just refund the item missing from the order and he says he will just cancel my whole order very shortly and tells me to have a good rest of my day and hangs up - while I'm asking him to hold on because I have another question about the refund. Hung up on me! I feel I've been pretty patient up to this point. I call back, speak to him again I ask for his last name, he gives it to me. I ask for the other managers name. He says "there is no other manager." I thought you just said you had to call another manager? Did you lie to me about that?" He said "Oh. That was another manager at another store." I ask him what their name is and he tells me he doesn't feel comfortable giving out that information. "Ok." I say; "What's the name of your general manager?" "Brittney." he says. "And what is Brittney's last name?" I ask him. "I don't know. I just transferred here from another store." I ask him: "What is Brittney's phone number?" He puts me on hold for a little bit, comes back and gives me her number. "Brittney is your general manager and you don't know her last name?" I ask him: "Don't you have a managers/store manual or something where you have names and numbers for your chain of command?" He then tells me he isn't going to answer any more questions and asks if there was anything else he can help me with? Moral of the story here is it took me 3x as long to get the issue resolved than it did to order the food and have it delivered in the first place. I find it hard to believe that the Panera Bread executive team never considered what to do if part of an order is missing with third party delivery and SOL was their answer! Also hard to ignore how apparent it was that this "manager" didn't want to even resolve my issue, I was the one coming up with ways to resolve it. Just completely unprofessional all around. If you ever have an issue at this store, I pray that you don't have to deal...

Cleanliness 1/5. So you get a sense of this place the moment you step into the entrance vestibule and see what looks to be a thousand prior customers hand prints having sneezed, coughed, spit up in their hands and subsequently smeared it across the double glass doors. I had to use my feet to open the doors. Then you get to the first order kiosk and there is brown "mystery liquid" on the screen, coffee? Soda? Someones tobacco chew? Who knows. Staff doesn't care. Cause they're busy playing on their phones behind the counter anyways wondering why they aren't making $20 an hour or touching their faces, noses, wiping their mouths ungloved and then retrieving your food. The floors were sticky so it sounded and felt like I was walking across velcro. Tables had crumbs, used napkins, cup condensation pools or drink spills on 60% of the available tables.

Food 1/5. So I made the biggest mistake of my life ordering a vanilla iced latte. What I actually got was milk-water, no coffee or espresso flavoring even. Not even a fake Hazelnut flavor. I got milk with ice and water mixed and it was called a latte. Bacon Turkey Bravo was drowning in sauce to the point I had to tip my sandwich over and let it drain for 5 minutes into a reddish slimy pool of vinegary-stink they had ppured so much on. Then the bread bowl (they RARELY EVER HAVE) was burnt with globs of sticky black things I had to peel off the bottom. It too smelled like white distilled vinegar. Bleck.

Atmosphere 1/5. Overall, a trash ridden cesspool where 60% of tables were disgusting, employees were not employing hygienic practices and vinegary-stink food far from worth of $20. But hey, don't take my word for it. Look at the other reviews. I guess the owner/managers love bad reviews because this place has been dropping...

Ordered delivery and my broccoli cheese soup was delivered HOT!!! It was awesome and the best I have ever had! Frontera Chicken sandwich also very good! UPDATE 9/24/23 tried Cinnamon Crunch Bagel with ham and egg and it is an AWESOME mash up of sweet and savory.❤️❤️UPDATE 5/29/24 Tried the Chicken Bacon Rancher and it tasted ok but it was VERY salty. UPDATE 8/7/24 The Ciabatta Cheesesteak tasted amazing and seasoned perfectly. Love the garlic aioli!! The Smokehouse BBQ Chicken tasted great but needed more chicken. Strawberry lemonade had a funny taste🧐UPDATE 11/19/24 1/2 French Ciabatta Dipper was delicious.The garlic aioli makes every sandwich awesome. UPDATE 4/23/25 Croque Monsieur Croissant Toast hyped up to be this cheesy flavorful sandwich with caramelized onion and Gruyère spread on buttery croissant toast and it disappointed on all levels. Croissant bread tasted like white bread and there was hardly any cheese. The only savor was the ham which gave it all its flavor! No onion, provolone or Asiago cheeses or Gruyère spread tasted at all. $11.50 was a high price to pay for this hyped up wonderfully advertised sandwich that did not deliver on any level!!! UPDATE 8/6/25 Italian Steak & Mozz tasted amazing! Love the flavor of the steak and the tangy seasoning of the garlic aioli and other spices....