Panera Bread — Restaurant in Garfield Township

Sandwiches were great. Process for picking up my online order was difficult. Went to the counter in main foyer area directly adjacent to the order pickup parking spaces to report I was there to pick up my order. Counter person acted confused about my question. I explained that I ordered online and was there to pick up the order. Still a confused look. I then asked where I could pick up my order. Response was that I had to go to another window for order pickup. I found the window labeled "Order Pickup" and reported my name and that I was there to pick up my order. Person could not find my food. Person asked for my name again which I repeated and spelled. Still confusion. Person asked if I was a delivery person or an individual customer. I replied with the latter. Person then said I had to go to another window. I did and found the bag with my food. I went back to the pickup window to politely report that I had never been to that Panera, so I didn't know their process. I suggested that they post instructions for pickup on the Panera ordering site. The person patiently and professionally reported that Panera has one ordering web site that services all Panera franchises, but every franchise does things differently. Finally the simple solution! Standardize the process across all franchises and post the standardized process on the ordering site. Some noticeable directional signage in the store would also be an...

I was excited to see that a Panera had come to Petoskey Michigan as I go to one downstate regularly for coffee. This was a horrible experience at this Petoskey one. I ordered a medium decaf at 11:33. two cars were ahead of me. After waiting 20 minutes I shut my car off to stop burning gas! Finally at 12 noon I got my coffee. She gave me my change of .30 for my $3.70 coffee. As the server passed me my $3.70 medium coffee and I went to move to put it in my cupholder the lid popped open and trashed me, my clothing and console of my car, ran down my hand … luckily after waiting that long or because coffee had cream in it it didn’t burn me. I yelled and said the lid wasn’t in tight and handed to the dumbfounded server, dripping coffee now on my door and inside door window. She was shocked, took the coffee and closed the serving window. Never an apology. Waited several more minutes and then she started handing me the coffee replacement instructing ME how to hold the coffee correctly as I took it to place in my cupholder. No apologies; no comped charge. As I started my drive home the second cup did same thing as after several minutes I went to lift cup and the lid popped off again! After thinking the lid was securely on it continued to drip coffee down my shirt so I waited until I got home to even attempt again. The cup rim was deformed and wouldn’t let lid stay sealed at all. I won’t go to this shop...

Alright, my husband and I have been sick for five days. I really did not feel like cooking. I went through the Arby’s drive through— they were closed. So then I chose Panera because I was hungry and impatient.

A few things wrong with this scenario: 1.) the drive through takes forever. 2.) apparently when you ask for a bread bowl (and they’re out), they don’t understand that you wanted some kind of bread in the bag. If I’m going to pay $9.00 for some soup, I’m sopping up all the soup with some over priced/hard bread!!! 2.) if you order a flat bread pizza, and they’re out of boxes, then they’ll recommend that you go In, order it in the restaurant, and take it home. (That doesn’t fix the box issue, and that also defeats the purpose of going through the drive-thru)

My last and final issue:

I did 2 of the pick two meals. The first was a half turkey bacon bravo, and some broccoli cheddar soup (cup). The second was a steak and white cheddar half sandwich with the turkey chili (cup). I also got a small cup of the Mac and cheese for my daughter.

$43.00 was my total. I know to some people this doesn’t sound like a crazy total. But here’s the thing, 2 half’s are a whole. So one whole sandwich. 2 cups is a bowl, so one bowl, and one cup of Mac and cheese was $43.00!! WOW.

But: It was tasty. All of us ate, and it was sufficient enough to fill us for...