Panera Bread — Restaurant in Littleton

First of all, this review is for the Aspen Grove location only...nothing but good experiences at other locations. My experience tonight was extremely frustrating. I called at 6 p.m. and placed a to go order. The employee did state that it wouldn't be ready for a half hour. I told her that was fine, we wouldn't be there until close to 7 p m. anyway. Arrived at 7 p.m. and there was a long line , 7 or so people ahead of me and 2 cashiers. After 5 minutes of waiting, and now a line of people backed up almost to the front door, one of the cashiers just walked away and started putting trays away and went over to clean up the beverage area! I'm sorry, I understand the cleanliness factor, but when you have a long line of people waiting, that is not the time to tidy up! When I finally got to the cashier, and told her I had a to go order she informed me they were out if a certain type of bread and what did I want instead? I could not believe that my to go order wasn't ready after an hour! So, I waited another 10 minutes for my order...very frustrating. I could tell everyone there waiting was frustrated as well....the food preparers were extremely slow too. So I arrived home and one of the sandwiches was not what I ordered. I ordered a chicken frontega panini sandwich but received something with two different kinds mystery meat, and covered with pickles! It was completely inedible! Needless to say, I will not go to the Aspen Grove...

I visited on November 1, 2018 at 6:53 p.m. This was my first time eating here, and my last.

The restaurant was dirty and I had to clean the table. I ordered broccoli cheddar soup and a Caesar salad. It took over 20 minutes before my food was served. I saw three employees, two young people and one which appeared to be a manager. The employee who prepared my food, Kristen, spent the entire time chatting with the guy preparing sandwiches, neither of which paid full attention to the food they were preparing nor the four customers that stood there and watched.

The guy preparing sandwiches fondled the tomatoes for a good 20 seconds as he focused on looking and talking to Kristen before he finally picked them up and put them on the sandwich. The person who appeared to be the manager participated in the chat as if the four people waiting were inconsequential. They seemed to find humor in the fact "we ran out of bacon."

I also watched Kristen prepare my salad. She put lettuce, cheese and dressing in a bowl but was so engrossed in the conversation with the sandwich guy she didn't mix the salad so below the top layer, the lettuce was dry. The food was not worth the $11.46 price tag.

Based on Yelp reviews from others, this doesn't seem like an isolated incident. I would not come back. You...

This Panera doesn't have a drive thru, yet the staff run the store as if it is one. Every employee in the store seemed confused that there were people there, which is crazy considering this area gets a lot of foot traffic. Put my order in on a computer, but never got a receipt, when my drink was made it was not announced. I was standing right in front of the counter waiting, but my drink was just put on a table behind other employees. Drinks are given at a different spot than food so you have to listen for people from 2 separate areas of a somewhat loud store whisper your name, keep an ear out for any of the names on your receipt. I got a confusing pronunciation of my last name. I hesitated and asked since there is absolutely nothing on the bag or in the bag to differentiate what order is whose. No receipt on or in the bag and the tape on the sandwiches weren't marked. The guy that was "calling out names" said "that's your food" when I asked what order was on the counter.

Toss in that Panera is crazy expensive now and this was just a bad experience. Since when did I need to be a member of a fast food restaurant to get a reasonably priced drink. Hopefully I remember how bad Panera is the next time it...