Panera Bread — Restaurant in North Brunswick Township

NEW REVIEW: Let me say, Panera and especially this location and the Manager Leo deserve some high praise. If you want to see my old review, see below, but overall, I am blown away by how Panera pivoted and redeemed itself quickly and efficiently. Let me explain...

I believe that many people only write reviews if they have had an AMAZING experience, or a BAD experience. I do not always write reviews for the experiences in the middle of these two extremes, but I should do more and plan to do so. That said, I have had many overall positive experiences at this Panera, and so when I had an awful experience last week with the new menu, I took to Google to write the review. Within a few hours I received a call from the manager Leo. He was cordial, honest, and a solid guy who just wants to have customers have a positive experience. He heard me out, understood my frustration, and even offered to make it right. I said that wouldn't be necessary, but he let me know if I wanted to try again, he'd personally take care of it.

Today my wife and I went back and gave it a shot and Leo went above and beyond. We came in, talked for a few minutes, then ordered with Leo helping take care of the meal - and even brought it out to us. The food was fast, fresh, tasted great, and we left feeling pretty darn good. I will say that I stayed away from the new menu items and stuck with my tried-and-true favorites, but my wife a new menu item and she said it was really good. Overall Panera redeemed itself and kudos to Leo and the crew for making it right! We will be back.

OLD REVIEW: My family loves, or should I say, used to love Panera until this trip last night. We had a very long day, and I was looking forward to a simple, clean-eating, healthier meal at Panera like we have had many times before, but Panera messed up with their new changes to the menu. Firstly, my son LOVED the regular turkey avocado sandwich on the old menu. Now the new menu discontinued the fresh turkey and only offers sliced deli turkey which my son wont eat, so we opted for the new chicken avo BLT sandwich for him, which was ok but was overly dressed in mayo-like sauce and a TON of lettuce which he placed in a wet pile and didnt eat. He said the chicken was like the turkey though. I am a big Basil and BLT fan, so I was excited to try the new Basil BLT and it was AWFUL. The tomato bread was weirdly sweet, the sandwich was drenched in aioli and messy, the sandwich had 1 very skinny, tasteless tomato slice, 2 very flabby tasteless bacon slices, and the rest was filled with overdressed wet greens. It was gross and I was super disappointed. I also ordered it with an apple, and took 1 bite of the mealiest, oldest apple I have ever had. I spit it out and ended up eating my wife's chips. I am also sad they removed the half ham sandwich and chicken noodle soup from the value duets. Finally, my wife's corn chowder soup was super thick and gloopy and it just was a bad scene all around. Shame on you Panera for your new menu - it's not good. It used to be our go-to spot for a quick, healthy meal and we all...

At the North Brunswick in North Village Plaza branch, I went to the counter and the cashier had me shouting my order because of her earpiece, she kept saying she couldn't hear me. It was frustrating repeating myself, just as it was to watch her dance while I typed in in my phone number. Then I took a seat and another customer behind my booth is playing a movie with the volume blasted disturbing everyone who was near her. All you heard was an action movie with sounds of what seemed to be children screaming. She had no consideration and I packed up my belongings, while another person left and another party followed me to a different seating area and you could still here the movie blaring. I can't believe no management stepped in to address the woman to lower the volume or suggest maybe she wear headphones. To allow customers to use the Cafe as a movie theater and for no one to approach her was disappointing. Needless to say I will not be returning between unprofessional staff and lack of...

Don't get me wrong. I like the food from Panera. Panera itself is good, but I feel that some of the employees don't seem to pay attention or prioritize their customers. One time I went to this location to get breakfast before work. There was a young lady standing right at the counter very slowly packing pastries, which I may or may not have wanted to order, but instead of taking my orders first, she looked down and continued very slowly. There was no other staff there. It took me at least 30 min in there just to get a few items. Another time I ordered a sandwich and customized to have no chicken in it since I'm a vegetarian. When I opened the sandwich wrap, I saw many chicken strings in the sandwich. I had taken my pre-meal medication, but couldn't eat my lunch because there was chicken in it. That was terrible. Next time if I do order from Panera again, I will have to inspect the food to make sure I can eat it before I take...