Panera Bread — Restaurant in Indianapolis

This is easily the worst Panera I've been to. We live a bit closer to the trader's point location so we normally go there (and love it) but were in the area today so we came here. My girlfriend works near here so she has been here before and warned me that this one wasn't as good but it's been a while since she came to this one so went anyway. I assumed a panara is a panara so they can't be that different... I was wrong. First the kiosk. The customization ability wasn't working. The only ingredients that it allowed you to customize were the ingredients that already on the sandwich (so no adding things that are not normally on the item) That doesn't seem like that big of a deal and it honestly isn't but still annoying! There was no employee anywhere near the ordering area so I just didn't customize it past the things that are normally included. I got the you pick two with Mac and cheese and the BBQ chicken flatbread (what I was trying to customize). The food was bad. Like seriously not normal Panera quality. That is my usual meal from Panera and it's pretty much always fantastic. The Mac was undercooked (the noodles were hard) and the cheese was very liquidy, almost watery (my gf said that this is how it was in the past as well), and the whole thing wasn't even that warm. On top of this they gave me very little. It's a small bowl already (for the you pick two), but they only filled the bowl a third of the way up. I'd say about 5 plastic spoons full (plastic because they gave neither of us spoons [two forks each] and only had plastic silverware available). Then the flatbread. The customization I was able to do was extra mozzarella (for an increased fee), light BBQ, extra cilantro. What I got was... Not this. For the mozzarella I didn't get the extra I paid for I actually got less (there was one small glob on the side) the BBQ wasn't light it was full and it was only put along the fold of the flatbread so it was super bbq-y in one spot and then dry as hell on the rest of it. There wasn't extra cilantro either, there was no cilantro. There was also no gouda or onion crisps. The stuff that was correct wasn't much better though. The chicken was dry, chewy, and tasted really off. The flatbread was really dry, and the spinach was crazy bitter. The sourdough was way tougherthan normal, almost stale tasting, but better than my gf's who got a piece that was about inch and a half long.

Not really sure how a Panera dish could be this rough. Our guess is either equipment or staff. I want to believe this was an outlier but there was just SO much wrong and with my GF's history here it sounds like this is the norm. I don't normally give critical reviews like this (seriously look through my review history), but this experience was so bad for a franchise that is so consistently good... I felt...

UPDATE Finally. on 11/27/18. I got a resolution from my order on 11/9/18. I called the store 12 times. I exchanged a number of emails with a representative. Finally today I called the 855 number and got someone to issue a gift card, rather than a refund, for at least the full value of my order. I am happy with the resolution, but I am still extremely frustrated that it took this much of my time, and that so many people treated me with such horrible customer service. Shout out to Billy in the call center for doing a great job, and literally nobody else. On 11/9/18 I ordered a whole baguette and some mac and cheese. It took over an hour to get my order. When it finally arrived I got a small cup of mac and cheese that was lukewarm and no bread at all, just a bag with the mac and cheese. I told the driver the order was wrong and that I had spent my entire lunch waiting for it to get there, and that I couldn’t wait for him to bring me the correct food. I suggest he refund the cost of the bread, and he suggested they comp the entire order instead. He calls the store in front of me and says half my order was missing and can we comp the meal, says okay thanks and hangs up the phone. He told me I’d see a refund in a few days. I gave it a week and still hadn’t seen the refund, so I’ve been calling the store a couple times a day since then. Tonight, 11/20/18 at 7:30 pm is the first time I’ve gotten anyone to answer. The person who answered did not give me her name even though I asked 3 times, and when I told her why I was calling suddenly a man was saying hello to me. He would not give me his name either. I told him the situation. He said, what’s you’re name? I told him. He said, hang on. He came back literally ten seconds later and said, okay I can see your refund has been processed but it can take 2-3 business days. So I said, that’s fine but this happened on the 9th??? And he goes, oh. Well. My manager will have to call you tomorrow. I said, what’s their name? He said, Ariel.

And he disconnects the call!! He didn’t verify any of my contact info or ask me a best time to be called or anything. Panera is way too expensive for customer service to be this terrible. I’m so frustrated and disappointed. I paid almost $15 for a tiny cup of mac and cheese that was cold and wasted my whole lunch break waiting on it, just to be ignored and treated so rudely. Hopefully someone really does contact me because I’ll definitely be escalating this if not. All I wanted was the dumb $4 for the bread back! Why’s it gotta...

Stay away, or leave your wives and daughters at home.

I went into this location today for lunch with my wife and son. We ordered our food and took our seats. Everything tasted great but my bread was a bit stale; I could not chew the sandwich at all. So my wife took my plate to the counter and showed them.

It was then, that the visit became very unprofessional. The man behind the counter, "Chris" by name, got a major attitude with my wife rolling his eyes and saying we only have 2 settings on the toaster. She explained that parts of the sandwich were not as tough but that there was a large portion of it that was clearly too hard. He threw a slice of bread on the counter and said "all of our bread is tough." She asked him if he could please remake the sandwich and cook the bread for less time. He said no. So then she suggested that he could heat it in the microwave instead. So he started throwing dishes and sandwiches around, rolling his eyes again, but finally did heat a new sandwich in the oven which he then tossed at her. When she returned to the table her jaw was on the ground. Clearly shocked at the way she had been treated.

Chris was not wearing a name badge so after our meal she approached the store manager to ask for his name, so that we could report the incident. Instead of offering the name and asking if everything was ok with our visit (as any professional would do), the manager told her his name and smiled asking if she wanted his number. "You want his number? I can arrange that." Sexual harassment from The Store Manager? And, while she was clearly with her family. How is that in any way, shape, or form acceptable?

Finally, she went out to sit on the patio for a bit. And an older gentleman who had been talking with the store manager, who seemed to be a manager as well but was also not wearing a name badge and was dressed in semi-casual attire, walked out then. As he passed her he said, "Chris said Hi," in an attempt to be funny,

This was not funny. These people obviously feel that they can get away with anything. I'm very sorry I chose to eat at Panera Bread today. I don't think it will happen again. This problem is obviously something that starts at the top and they all believe will not cause risk to their jobs.

I wonder if filling a charge of sexual harassment would change...