Panera Bread — Restaurant in La Verne

Updated review--April/May 2023. Continual improvements in overall service and customer service ups ratings to 5 stars.

A little background... the Panera Bread Sierra turkey sandwich is awesome. It was my most ordered sandwich that I would take for lunch/dinner 2 or 3 times a week from 2006-2010. Thats a lot of Sierra turkey sandwiches. And I never got tired of them either. The one thing I would change is adding a second bag of chips and I'd get a couple of double chocolate chip cookies as my dessert.

The sandwich itself was slicked turkey, foccacia bread, red onions, arugula and chipotle mayonnaise. There were dill pickle quarters served on the side. That combination made for a very tasty sandwich.

Fast forward to early 2023 and we made our usual trip to Panera. Looking at all the treats while in line broght back a lot of memories. So once ready to order, I asked the Panera employee how long she'd been employed by there, and if she was familiar with the Sierra turkey sandwich. She had been employed there for many years and was very familiar with that sandwich. She even said a close version of it was still available. I was shocked and excited all at the same time. So you can imagine what I did :). I ordered my typical Sierra turkey sandwich, two bags of chips and a couple of chocolate chip cookies. After my first bite, I realized how much I appreciated the combination of ingredients. The sandwich and chips were awesome and took me back to 2006 when I first started ordering this magnificent combo.

Soo... If you still have a taste for the Sierra turkey sandwich, you can still get it. I believe they referred to it as an "off menu item". You will not be disappointed.

Back on to the LA Verne location, service definitely has been improving. So much so that we are starting to visit here on a regular basis. On our latest visits, employees have been pleasant and helpful. So thats a positive to see things improving and remain at that level.

I can safely recommend Panera as a spot with great food and steadily improving service. A solid 5 star location and experience.

Previous review

I want to give Panera a solid five stars because it use to be one of my favorite sandwich spots. I've been a regular at many of the different stores and always enjoyed the food and service. That was years ago and fast forward to today(2021). I've been coming to this location for a couple of years. Sadly, not once have I been impressed by the service.

For starters, I'm not liking the new menu and the supposed health-conscious food items. Many of the best items have since disappeared and the meat portions have been reduced to what can he described as minimum.

My favorites use to be the Sierra turkey sandwich and the various jumbo sized cookies and sweets. Only some of the previous cookie items are still on the menu.

Anyway, this location is Laverne has an issue with accuracy and it takes forever to make an order via the app and subsequent in store pick up. In other words, by design or just personal behavior, the workers here are slow.

This could unfortunately be our last time visiting this location simply because it takes forever for your order to made. Our last visit a few days ago was just shy of 45 minutes. Totally unacceptable for a non sit down restaurant.

Since the pandemic, Panera has instituted a kiosk so there is no face to face contact with the workers. In store orders and payments are done via the kiosk. Its not the most user friendly machine, about as non user friendly as their mobile app.

I will rate this location one more time before calling it quits.

As it stands, due to the lengthy time for the order to be processed and the dwindling menu items, I can only rate it a...

Used to live next to this location for years, was shocked at change upon visit. Food is okay, charge way too much for what you get, food options are extremely low. Staff are eh, imagine this is just a means to an end for most working here. Menu has changed, feels like they got rid of half the stuff. Seems like you have to use the kiosks. Food quality barely seems to meet the price. Plenty of dedicated parking. Entrance, parking, kiosks, restrooms and seating are all accessible.

So imagine a nice mall, with a lot of stores, plenty of customers, strong signs that it will be open for the next 5 years. Now you come back 5 years later and half the stores are closed, the mall looks dated, like the carpet, walls, tables and chairs need a refresh but there is no budget for that. This is what I see here, if all Paneras are in this shape the brand goes bankrupt in under 3 years. Best guess everyone was working from home at this location and they didn't buy a thing while...

Went in placed order and looked for a clean table to wait for my order. Not one clean table was available. Dirty tables everywhere and the ones that were held clear due to covid were unavailable. My order was ready and all I heard was someone calling my name from the back. Then I realized that was my que to go get my own food. I had to pick up the order which was for my husband and myself, it was very heavy for me I was always accustomed to this place having servers to accommodate patrons. The staff were all too busy and not aware of the importance of extending acknowledgement and courtesy to patrons. The food was good, however, if the management doesn’t get their workers in tune to public relations they will be losing the possibility of a very lucrative...