Panera Bread — Restaurant in Indianapolis

No. Panera. Just a no. Many things went on in one visit that ensured I'll stick with McAllister or the like rather than return here. The booth tables were not cleaned. Not just one or two. FIVE. The order board was not in use. I'm not a fan of the hard baguettes they insist on serving sandwiches on, so I asked, more than once, if I could change the bread. The counter person even got the woman manager over, who also said, "No, we're not allowed to". What? It's bread. Of course I said so. Of course, again, I said more than once, the baguette was hard, and would be even more so when toasted! My friend who was eating out with me as well, ordered the tuna salad, naked, and explained to the girl with the blank look on her face, it meant off the bread! My friend wanted the bread, a softer Asiago, mind you, on the side. We had a plan. She wanted her tuna naked, I wanted her bread to put my sandwich on! Seemed simple. They knew nothing of the bread swap we plotted, since it is apparently not allowed, but could that even go smoothly in that store? Not at all. Apparently they swam in uncharted waters with that tuna and it was over their heads. They got that wrong, too. A simple tuna salad order. The other sandwich by the way, the pepperoni-mozzerella, was terrible. Awful. I would never recommend. Fortunately, never again.

When I'm making a trip to the counter for a box, there is a nice older gentleman waiting, whom I was behind, at the order counter, looking around confused. I asked him if he'd been helped. No. Of course not. I'd seen him there a few minutes. I told him I would get him someone. As I walked toward their inside pickup window, three of them disappear to the back. I call out, EXCUSE ME, and one slowly returns. I told her a customer has been waiting quite awhile down by the register, and I needed my to go box. She finally went down and took his order while the others still stayed in the back.

Worst customer service, worst meal ever. Not sure how other locations operate and food quality is, but if this is any indication, this place should just...

Update July 12, '22... GM Notified several times the past few weeks about dirty urinal, empty sanitizer stations and empty napkins. Apparently doesn't care. Still dirty and still empty. Food and coffee are good. Restaurant is dirty. Management is apathetic. Only two team members ever care about cleanliness here. *Drive to Plainfield! That one is Clean, Friendly, Happy, Well-Run... :-) Update June 22, '22... Manager Destiny was upbeat, friendly, professional, and encouraging other workers. Someone was in the dining room cleaning. People looked like they were actually being quite productive and the place was much cleaner. There were no unnecessary lines at the registers. Coffee and food were good. But on a Tuesday afternoon they were already sold out of so many food products. Are they really sold out or just unorganized? I was told a certain type of bagel was not available. But there were racks and racks of bagels and bread behind her waiting to be put out. And it was very slow, it's not like there was a rush.

The place is filthy. During the couple of hours I was there, one manager, with dark hair, in a yellow shirt, came out and cleaned two or three tables. No one else did a damned thing. But he "cleaned" those couple of tables with a dry rag. It was not wet and there was no disinfectant. There's no way he could actually clean the table. You need a wet rag, some sort of cleaner or soap, and you have to clean the rag in between. All he did was brush crumbs onto the seats and then only wipe off a few of the seats. Crumbs, grease, food, spills...all left on the table and the other seats. It was embarrassing. No wonder the younger people who work there have no idea how to clean anything, because he doesn't have a freaking clue himself. And he only pretended to clean the same two or three tables two or three times - so 95% of them stayed filthy. The floor is also filthy. He had plenty of time to come out to the cooler in front of the counter and grab drinks for himself over and over, but no time to actually clean anything or teach anyone else to...

I want to like Panera but my past few experiences at the location in Avon Indiana have me feeling like they are on a permanent downward trajectory. When we first walked in we were greated by a disembodied voice from the back who never emerged from where ever they were. We had to use 2 different self service kiosks before we found one that worked. After placing our order and giving our name (there were no pager disks available) we found a seat and waited to be notified. 20 minutes passed before we walked back up to the counter and found our food and drinks sitting there. Our order consisted of 2 bagel breakfast sandwiches and 2 coffees. Both our sandwiches were cool, not even warm enough to melt the cheese on them. You might think this was from natural cooling on the counter.... but the top bagel was the warmest part of the sandwich and the bottom of the bagel was a temp consistent of having just been pulled out of the fridge. Food reviews aside, addressing the general condition of the building.... cleanliness is not a virtue this staff holds. The flooring that is tiled was sticky, tables were in disarray, dirty, and shuffled as if they had just had just finished a rush (except it wad 8am) . The walls were splattered with food particles that had been layered with time, creating a stucco pattern that would make anyone concerned if this was a reflection of the conditions of the kitchen. Overall... with all the options to get a decent breakfast in Avon Indiana, this will not be a place I return to...