Panera Bread — Restaurant in Madison

They built new location. While parking lot is easier to get in to than the old locations across the street (Meaning traffic, not getting hit by customers leaving the lot, not actual accessibility), not liking the new store. A couple reasons. 1: Large empty wide open space, makes the restaurant echoey. 2: Dull bluish lighting in the restaurant makes it feel more like a middle school cafeteria than a “cafe” or “bread store”. Lighting also made the food and bakery on display look dull and unappealing. 3: flies all over sampling the bakery, which is kept uncovered on display. They seemed to really enjoy the ?spinach soufflé?. I would not order any kind of bread on display. 4: Need to cross drive-through lane to get in. People driving through the drive through lane don't care if you are in the cross walk or not and nearly get hit every time as they come speeding through. 5: Terrible parking lot setup. 6: Entrance and exit of the parking lot is too steep, need to take it at an angle to avoid bottoming out my (not low clearance) vehicle. 7: Clerk at the register completely clueless. Ordered large ice tea, get handed a small paper cup. I ask, "shouldn't I get a large Plastic Cup". Clerk: "We don't have plastic cups at this location". Really? as I look around at other customers with plastic cups sitting in the caffeteria.... 8: SINGLE clerk at registers more concerned about signing people up for "MyPanera Rewards" than taking the orders of the ~20 people standing in line... (Line from register to the entrance). 8: Attempted Kiosk this visit, however, the Kiosk would not load past the drink selection page. 9: When the outside door is opened by someone entering or leaving, the cafeteria becomes a wind tunnel. All in all, this was a botched move. The old location, while not perfect, was AT LEAST FUNCTIONAL.

While I don't expect anything to be done, just going to voice my frustration. I'm sure they will stay busy enough to stay open, but this is an A+ Demonstration on how to...

Update: Panera corporate doesn't seem to realize there's something seriously wrong at the new store. I see they've responded to every negative review with an offer to make it right, which, in our case, turned out to be a credit for the mixed up meal. We've been back 3 times since:

Visit 1: used the kiosk and picked a standard sandwich with no changes to hopefully get an accurate order. They left off 2 of the items.

Visit 2: Coffee in wrong urns and full of grounds. When we politely informed the manager, she said she just got there so it wasn't her fault. That's her full response.

Visit 3: Today, big sign saying they were out of coffee.

Silver lining: we discovered a nearby indie coffee house as a replacement. Mercies has delicious coffee, friendly staff, and a comfortable space. Bye bye Panera!

We've eaten at Panera weekly for over a decade, but I think it's time to move on.

Let's start with the design of the new East Side Panera. Open and airy looks pretty, but noise echoes and makes it super noisy. Plus cold air whips around the entire dining room every time either of the two doors is opened. This place is going to be unbearable come winter.

Then there's the issue of the broken cappuccino/latte maker, which has been out of commission for MONTHS with no sign of a repair in sight.

Finally, we come to this morning's breakfast fail x3. I ordered scrambled egg and bacon on a sesame bagel. Reviewing the receipt, I realized the counterperson recorded the wrong bagel, and charged me 50 cents extra for her mistake. She refunded me the 50 cents and went back to the kitchen to correct the order. When the order was called, they'd put the sesame bagel on my husband's and given me the wrong bagel and the wrong egg. He asked for a corrected order again. The third time, I finally got the correct bagel but still the wrong egg + they left off the bacon. I gave up and ate it....

The online ordering process went perfectly, however, upon arrival to pick up my order (which should have been ready and waiting on one of the pickup shelves) I noticed several people waiting and looking at their phones with that look of disgust and inpatients. Multiple customers approached the counter to confirm that their orders were being prepared, while others waited patiently and longingly for what we hoped would be a satisfying meal. With clear sightlines over the counter and thru the pickup windows we were all able to watch the kitchen prep workers preparing all of our orders. This was all the evidence we needed to understand why they were so behind in getting the food into our hands and mouths. At times I counted 6 people milling about while 1 or 2 were actually assembling orders and then several of them would disappear from sight leaving just 1 or 2 people doing very slow (not expeditious) prep. After watching this display for 35 minutes beyond my original pickup time my food was placed on the counter without an announcement (previous customers names were announced) lucky for me that I was watching and paying attention to the action (or lack there of) that I saw the name on the bag. I did as many others did, and checked inside the bag to confirm that the order was correct and complete and YES it was! Upon returning home my son and I separated our items and dove in. For the most part the sandwiches were tasty, yet assembled very sloppy. The soup was somewhat bland but satisfied our hunger. The overall experience left much to be desired and my biggest concern was how this location must struggle during peak times as my order was placed on a Saturday evening at 6:30. We will try again and hope for better service and an uptick in...