Panera Bread — Restaurant in Glen Ellyn

How disappointing. I used to love Panera, stopping by to get a bagel with cream cheese and coffee was a regular part of my eating out rotation. I think that's changing now. I saw a staff member with a shirt that said something about a "new era" of Panera, more like end of an era. Their menu has taken a nose dive. How does a place known for their baked goods cut out popular bagels (like my mom who loves sesame, they don't make that anymore apparently) and cut back to 2 cream cheese flavors? I had my Asiago bagel with butter because they don't have chive and onion any more, and it was really disappointing. Certainly not worth the calories. My dad usually gets the cranberry muffin, they said they didn't have that either. The manager who was taking our order was disinterested and unhelpful too, at least pretend to care. Oh, and they cut back their hot tea to 3 kinds- I would get the mango, peach, or, earl grey, but they're all gone now too. Actually, the whole menu has had a lot of changes, but I'm not even touching on that here (I do know they cut smoothie flavors, my friend was upset with that choice). To top it off they now have a coffee machine that grinds a cups worth of beans at a time. Cute idea, but there are 2 machines and they take a lot longer than pouring a cup from their carafes. The poor guy behind me waited several minutes for a refill because everyone ahead was trying to figure out the machine. You can get a half cup, or "leave room for cream" but no more warming up a cup, or adding a little to balance your cream to coffee ratios. I assume they are trying to get rid of the excess coffee that is thrown out, but I'd hate to see the 2 coffee stations in the morning. It would be a disaster (plus all the people would already be grumpy because you get plain or honey walnut cream cheese and limited bagels). I won't be wasting time here, so I guess this is my last revision to the review. It's sad, meeting my parents for Panera before work on Fridays was part of our routine. I guess we will be headed...

Within the last few months this location has went from a 4 star to barely a 1 star. I'm nearly here every week multiple times a week ordering the same item. Bacon egg and cheese with egg white on a croissant and cinnamon crunch latte. I'm not a coffee drinker. The very first time I had the cinnamon crunch latte it was amazing and something I wanted to start my morning with regularly. These past few weeks however my drink has been too watery or burnt tasting to include this morning. I always ask if they have a regular croissant for the breading on my breakfast sandwich & they always confirm they do. Yet somehow they always give ciabatta bread or regular eggs instead of the requested croissant and egg white. This includes my order today 10.27.21 where the young lady actually repeated egg white scrambled 3x yet when I open the sandwich upon reaching my destination, find yellow eggs. at 645a. I spoke with the manager last week concerning the lack of quality and her first question was, "what do you want me to do?" Then she stated she will look into it and send a breakfast card in the mail, which I've yet to receive. I'm tired if calling to complain as it's not effective. Definitely not a good start to mornings when your order is continuously wrong. Place people on the morning shift who actually are woke and attentive and care enough about customer satisfaction to consider every order with care. In this neighborhood at this location, it's just not getting any better, which is a reflection on management as well, it starts...

UPDATE: on 12/13 today, had a terrible experience with one of the workers. She was very rude and condescending towards me when I voiced my frustration of having to wait 15 minutes in a drive thru to get coffee because the cafe was once AGAIN CLOSED. Would not listen to my concern like any good worker would do. She was EXTREMELY RUDE!!!! This is NOT the way you treat a paying customer. On average I spend money on coffee with my subscription and at least once a week I have spent over $14 on my dinners from Panera, which is A LOT for one person. This employee should be ashamed of herself with the way she treats customers and I hope that someone from upper management or corporation talks to her about the tone and disrespect she has towards PAYING customers!! I will also call the customer service number and report this. TERRIBLE. Within the last month they have decided to close down ALL indoor dining. I signed for the $8.99 a month coffee deal. Unfortunately now I have to wait 20 minutes in a drive thru to get this coffee. I have seen dozens upon dozens of customers try to enter the dining area, only to see that it is closed and have a very disgusted look on their face in seeing that they now can only go through the drive thru to get their food. Absolutely TERRIBLE. I asked the manager about possibly opening up the dinning area for coffee drinkers to use the kiosk to get their coffee. He was very RUDE and short with me and blew off my request...