Panera Bread — Restaurant in Leesburg

We live right down the road from this Panera. We've been through the drive-thru and it's been terrible before, but never been in. We decided to go in and give it another shot. So glad we did, because we will never ever buy food from this Panera again. The store was not even that busy. There were probably 20 people in there, but nothing overwhelming. I should mention, the majority of those 20 people had their food already. Only one family of five that was ahead of us was waiting on their food. No cars in the drive-thru. They had 10 to 15 people working, far more than they actually needed. Lots of people doing nothing. All we ordered was a cookie, a coconut macaron, a coffee, and a chocolate milk. It took over 30 minutes. We went to wash our hands while we were waiting and the bathrooms were filthy. Not like filthy just because there were a lot of people that day, but filthy from neglect. Toilet paper everywhere, dirt and mold everywhere. Zero hot water from the tap no matter how long you let it run. When I paid attention when we walked back out in the dining room there was trash and fills everywhere around all of the trash cans and everywhere on the floor and along the corners where the floor meets the walls. On top of waiting so long for our food, I watched a group of foreign tourists walk in and order food and never wash their hands and when they came to get their food from the pickup they brought a couple of things back. One of the girls who was preparing food grabbed everything they just sat down with her hands that were gloved and touched everything right where they had been touching and put it to the side and then proceeded to touch sandwiches and food with those same hands that she just had touched something that someone with unwashed hands had been holding. This happened several times. When we finally got our cookie and macaron they were rock hard and stale. And my latte tasted like the cheap instant stir in lattes that you can buy from the supermarket that you just mix in with water and have very little caffeine. Gave one star because we did get our food finally and at least the guy that was handling the coffee and cookies wasn't touching food that had been returned by customers and handled by them without changing gloves. But never again. Literally never again. Was so embarrassed that we had foreign tourists coming in and this was their example of an American restaurant. We used to live right next to a Panera before we moved here and the difference is night and day. Now I know why our food has been like it was through the drive-thru. The health inspector needs to be visiting the store and handing out violations. If you care about your health, do not eat here. Again, not even hot water to the bathrooms. No matter how long he let them run. People standing around literally talking and shooting the breeze and doing nothing and not even attending to the trash on the floor or in the bathrooms. Touching things that customers took back to seats and then brought back and not changing gloves and then still handling food....

The staff is great with service dogs, I was very pleasantly surprised.

I came here for dinner last night with my mom and my service dog in training (SDIT). I was nervous to bring my dog in because not everyone knows how to treat SDs and SDITs but the staff was great and it was obvious they've been trained on how to interact with SDs and handlers.

The cashier didn't acknowledge my dog at all while he took my order, he went about it like business as usual. (If you're not familiar with SDs, it's important for bystanders to ignore a service dog to make sure no one distracts the dog from its job, unless it is alerting to a handler's medical emergency; it is especially important to not distract a service dog in training).

After my mom and I finished eating and my dog was sitting on the floor next to my table, a second employee very calmly and politely approached our table and asked if my dog would like a pup cup. He didn't look at my dog, talk to him, or ask to pet him (which is how you're supposed to act around working dogs). I was so touched by how thoughtful the staff were. When that same employee brought my dog a pup cup and a bowl of water, he placed both bowls on the floor next to my table/in front of my dog and he didn't touch, look at, or talk to my dog. He was so kind while also being respectful of my dog.

As I said before, I was nervous to bring my SDIT to dinner with me because I have had people distract my dog, touch him, call attention to him, and even try to walk off with him. But the staff here treated it like it was no big deal, instead of calling attention to it, putting me on the spot, or treating me different than any other customer. They also respected my dog's space, status, and job, and made it a pleasant experience for him. It was nice that during his public access training, he was respected and rewarded for behaving like he was supposed to.

Five stars for having compassionate staff who are respectful of...

Horrendous service. I received a delivery order and noticed I had an item missing so I called. The manager who answered the phone refused to listen to me and kept talking over me telling me they didn't have the soup that I ordered. I don't mind that they were out but you can't just leave a whole item from an order. I got no phone call to ask about switching it out or anything. Conveniently he did come back and find out they did have the soup but at that point I'd been treated so rudely I didn't want it. I have never been treated so rudely. I just wanted my order completed since I paid for it. Go down the street, there is a better Panera with better service.

Update July 2020: Yet another delivery order that was inaccurate. I ordered a couple sandwiches and a couple bakery items for a breakfast at my home, it's been months since my last order so I decided to give them another try. One of the sandwiches was missing ingredients. I have yet to have a complete and accurate order from...