Panera Bread — Restaurant in North Carolina

This place has been downhill for so long I don’t think it will ever get better.

Years ago after Panera moved to its new location beside of Outback, we gave it another chance. It was great for a few years. Everyone in the family loved it! Never had a bad meal or a problem. However, the past 2-3 years this location has just turned messy and gross. Lettuce is always soggy and brown, the sandwiches are haphazardly thrown together, the dining area is always dirty and cross contamination is everywhere! This place is far too expensive for what you get quality wise! Save your money and go anywhere else!

My family went to this Panera on Saturday 3/02/24. We paid $70 for the worse meal we have had in months! The chicken strings off of the Chipotle Chicken Avocado Melt were littered everywhere and they were all over everyone’s meal! It was really gross! It looked like red spotted parasites inside of our sandwiches! The employee who made the sandwiches must not have changed their gloves because my vegetarian sandwich had the chicken shreds all over the inside. I ordered the Mediterranean Vegetarian sandwich to avoid issues like this! I’ve been a vegetarian since I was a young child and I hate being a bother but I don’t want to eat meat. I’ve found that it’s easier and safer to just order the vegetarian option instead of asking for anything custom, but not this time! Why can they not change the gloves out? Why can’t they keep the veggies separate from the meat? If they can’t, then they need to take any listed Vegetarian item off of the menu!

Even without the chicken littered all over the sandwhich, my lettuce was brown, there was a giant mound of purple onions on the sandwich (like half of the onion was on my sandwich) and the hummus was barely there! I had even asked for extra hummus which they charged me for! I will say the tomatoes looked like they were ok at least but I didn’t try them. My daughter’s Turkey/Mayo kids sandwich on White bread had the same red spotted stringy strands of Chipotle Chickens on it!!! On a kids sandwich! Needless to say, she had to deconstruct her sandwich and pluck the slimy chicken shreds out of her sandwich which left a spicy residue. Plus, it looked gross! You know how kids are. So guess what? She couldn’t eat her sandwich either!

The Chipotle Chicken Avocado Melt itself was terrible. The chicken was gross and slimy (according to fiancée who will eat just about anything because he hates to waste food!), lettuce was brown and soggy, it only had two tiny shavings of an avocado (one for each sandwich half) and it was drenched in Mayo! He had asked for light Mayo! Mayo was pouring out of the sandwich. Between the traveling strings of Chipotle Chicken and the flood of Mayonnaise, his sandwich was an absolute soggy disaster! It truly looked like old chicken salad mix made from a can of undrained shredded chicken tossed in a bucket of Mayo and left in the fridge for a week without stirring. When I say it was gross, I’ve seen cat food that looks better!

I truly hate that Panera is so horrible now because it used to be a family favorite. The only reason we went back on Saturday is because we were celebrating my daughter’s birthday and that’s where she wanted to go. We told her to choose, we told her she could pick anywhere, and she chose Panera! When we got back to the car she told us she never wanted to go to Panera ever again! $70 for rotting, nasty food no one could eat is a disgrace! I normally don’t call and complain but I think I’m going to this time! It was...

I never write public reviews - in fact, I think that this may be my first - but this experience warranted one.

We will never eat at this location again. I am in disbelief at how poorly managed it is for a corporate chain with a reputation to uphold. When we arrived this afternoon, there was a note on the door saying that the dining room was closed, so we would have to eat on the patio. When we asked why the dining room was closed, all we were told was, "A bunch of people walked out yesterday or something." Not really sure why that would be (unless there is some sort of an infestation, which could be quite plausible considering how poorly this location is taken care of). We ordered our food, came outside to find a table and the setting was disgusting. There was food residue all over most of the tables. Finally we found one bearable enough to sit at, and I went inside to wait for the food. After 15+ minutes of waiting (not sure why it took so long as there were not that many people waiting) they yelled out our order name and tossed the food onto the counter in a paper bag. My husband ordered a chicken soup bread bowl and the soup was placed in the middle of the bag on its side. By the time I took it out (literally right outside of the building) it had spilled all over the rest of the food. We were not given plates, so I went back in to ask for a plate so my husband did not need to eat his bread bowl directly on the table, and they refused to give me one. I then asked if there was anything that they could give me just so he had something to place his bread bowl on and the staff member said, "No we don't." I eventually ended up having to virtually beg them for a piece of parchment paper, which another staff member had to give me because the one I'd been speaking to was virtually ignoring me. I had asked them for some almond milk as well, which I was never given because the staff member was too busy telling someone loudly through his headset that they should, "Leave Panera." The coffee was room temperature and very acidic tasting. It smelled like trash outside. It was literally the worst experience we have ever had at...

Ever since they opened the new location they have been painfully, painfully slow. I've still come here a few times because I like the atmosphere/seating and it's a nice enough place to sit and work for awhile. Plus, I'm generally a very patient person and I understand that new place = new set-up = some kinks to work out. I assumed they would get faster once the whole grand opening thing was over with. But nope...been a month and a half now and the five or so time's I've come, it's been a twenty plus minute wait for food every time.

This last time was the last I could put up with before writing a poor review (something I almost NEVER do). I ordered a mocha and a yogurt from the kiosk. I've done this before, and every time, both the yogurt and espresso drink have been put on the bar for pickup, pager rings, I go get it. Simple enough. This time, I waited almost thirty minutes. Went up to the bar several times, was never asked what I was waiting for. My pager never rang. Finally, I asked (I would have asked sooner, but TONS of people were waiting and asking already, so I figured they were just behind again, and like I said--I'm usually patient).

The employee then informs me that I was supposed to have picked up my yogurt at the front, and they had supposedly called my number out twenty minutes ago. So my coffee had been sitting on the corner of the bar getting stone cold while I tried to be patient...and then I was rudely dismissed and not even apologized to. And again, my pager never rang. And if they called my number, it wasn't more than once and it wasn't loud, because I was attentively listening and watching for it.

It's a real shame because Panera has good food and I enjoy using it as my office away from home...it's not unusual for me to spend an embarrassing amount of money here when I'm on a deadline and need to eat while working. But this will be my last trip to this particular Panera. I can only be so patient.

Also, their espresso drinks aren't particularly good even when they're hot. It definitely...