Panera Bread — Restaurant in Newport Beach

My friend N.P. was craving Panera's flatbreads, so we headed here for lunch along with her mum when I went to go see them. Located in a large plaza, there's plenty of parking, but not necessarily near the entrance if you're going during a busy time. In case you've never been to a Panera Bread before, you order at the counter and they give you a table number. You display that number at your table and when your food is ready a server will bring it to your table along with utensils. The staff here was quite nice and friendly, so that was good.

I utilised their YOU PICK TWO combo, where you get to select two of the following: Half Pasta, Cup of Soup, Half Sandwich, Half Salad, One Flatbread. I opted for one flatbread and half salad. What they don't mention in the menu is that this combo comes with either a bag of potato chips or a portion of a baguette. I went with the baguette since I miss bread (so good!). BBQ CHICKEN FLATBREAD SANDWICH: Antibiotic-free, smoked, pulled chicken, frizzled onions, mozzarella, smoked gouda, fresh baby spinach and cilantro with BBQ sauce on freshly baked flatbread. -- Sounded so good, but the execution was lacking. There was just one dollop of BBQ sauce in the flatbread, and that was in the very middle bottom of it, so all but two of my bites were BBQ-sauce-less. As if the dry chicken wasn't enough... so this flatbread ended up being super dry for me. STRAWBERRY POPPYSEED & CHICKEN SALAD: All-natural, antibiotic-free chicken, romaine lettuce, fresh strawberries, blueberries, pineapple and mandarin oranges and pecans with fat-free poppyseed dressing. (I got mine without pecans) -- The chicken here was also dry. They just don't cook the chicken well here it seems. But the rest of the salad was good. I appreciated all the fruit in the salad and I really liked the poppyseed dressing. BAGUETTE -- What can I say? Bread is delicious. This baguette was great. Just had to ask for butter, which I thought was weird. Who doesn't like their bread with butter?

NP and her mum both got flatbreads and had the same complaints. NP said their flatbread last time was really good, so the kitchen must just be having an off day. I hope so... giving them the benefit of the doubt raises my 2.5 star...

After over a year of not frequenting this Panera bread, we decided to try it again today. They’re doing much better since we were here last year and ended up walking out because of their irrational enforcement of mask and rules. As long as they continue to be rational I have no problem shopping here. The food was good and the service was fast.

My previous (one star) review from about March 2021):

I came in to place a take-out order (since they are not permitting indoor dining at this time), and was wearing a face mask. According to the cashier the way I was wearing it didn’t meet her satisfaction even though it was fully covering my mouth. In addition there was 6 feet of physical separation as well as a plastic guard between us. I requested that the cashier provide the basis of what she was mandating in the form of some written guidelines. Rather than providing that she went to get the manager and he was not able to provide any guidelines either other than a picture on the front of the store. As a result of this arbitrary decisions of how they want to enforce their mask mandate (which I was in compliance with), I decided to leave and take my business elsewhere. If, in these trying times, businesses are not wanting to accommodate their customers, there are other businesses who will. I ended up going to a different Panera bread that was much more customer friendly and I made my...

We are on holiday in the US after having left a decade ago. We went to Panera out of sheer nostalgia and my husband ordered his college favourite of a cinnamon crunch bagel with honey walnut cream cheese. Everyone knows Panera isn't the healthiest breakfast in town but even so, I was surprised to hear the two staff persons discussing our menu choice. One asked the other if they had ever had the honey walnut cream cheese and the other replied "no it's too sweet". The first person then stated "a cinnamon crunch bagel and honey walnut cream cheese. That's a heart attack on a plate". All this was discussed when we were still in earshot!! Firstly - don't criticise the customers choices. Secondly - don't criticise your employers in front of...