Panera Bread — Restaurant in North Charleston

This was my first ever visit to any Panera Bread location. Got the roasted turkey apple sandwich on cranberry bread after seeing a couple of nice ladies in the dining room and asking them what they were having. It was attractive on the plate. I picked up one half of the sliced sandwich and the bottom of the sandwich was soggy, and juice or sauce or whatever was all over the plate having leaked out of the sandwich. It was very tasty, but extremely messy. I went through about six or so napkins, had to constantly lick sauce off my fingers as I ate it, could not set the sandwich down on the plate in the puddle of sauce, had to be extremely careful not to drip any onto my nice starched white shirt, and had a very difficult time trying to look cool as I ate. I was not impressed with the sweet tea. I am a connoisseur of sweet tea. This, at best, was average tea here. I got the combo. I put my bag of chips in the to go bag that held my niece's order because the sandwich was such a sloppy mess. My brother-in-law and sister both got soup and salad and chips and drinks. My sister ate her sandwich and broccoli and cheese soup, but saved her chips as well. For whatever reason, my brother-in-law took his sandwich apart, removed the onion and tomato, took about two or three bites, ate about half of his corn chowder, ate about three potato chips, and said, "I'm not a Panera person," before walking out and going to sit in the car. As I was eating the second half of my sandwich, I mentioned to my sister that our mom had admired the fact that Panera had given leftover bread to homeless folks back years ago before she died. She told me that they still do, and that they also give bread to churches. I have over 20 years in food service. This commentary is very valuable information, but I realize it won't be used and is an actual waste of my time. Bottom line, my experience at the North Charleston, SC Tanger Outlet location of Panera Bread was much less than favorably impressive. My $10+ combo was definitely not worth the cost. I figure I will do much better taking my business to Steak & Shake for less money or to Firehouse Subs and getting much better value and better service for my money. If given an alternative, I will...

Very rude guy at counter taking my order. I arrived at 8:25 p.m. only to purchase a coffee. The restaurant closes at 9:00 p.m. I was told they had already cleaned up the coffee counter because he wanted to "get out of here early". He said, "I've already poured out the coffee" then continued with, "here, you can have an apple juice". To that I responded with, "I don't want an apple juice, I want a cup of coffee, .......can you brew some since the restaurant doesn't close for another 30 minutes". To that he said, "oh, I don't know, I don't have time because we're getting ready to close"!

What is wrong with these damned deadbeats. Are you kidding me? If I had said that to a customer I would have been fired on the spot. The real irony, these no good, lazy, uneducated, ill-mannered and rude employees think they deserve $15.00 an hour. These deadbeats aren't worth $2.00 an hour. This is the result and product of poor parenting, lack of discipline and work ethic and lastly, EDUCATION!

After the manager came out she apologized for the rude guy and said they are having a lot of trouble with this store and...

Panera Bread...it's in the name...bread. Once a place teaming with pastries galore, well, you see what was available on my last visit. And by last visit, I mean my absolute last visit. So I decided to order food...a simple soup bread bowl and chicken salad. What I received was the smallest bread possible to be used as a bowl and soup, which was decent, that didn't even fill half of it. As for the chicken salad, once I opened the container I was excited to see it full, until I pulled off all of the garnish and was left with only a few table spoons of chicken salad. What was the response of the staff...portion control...it's all about portion control. And when my daughter received an outdated yogurt, we returned it just to have the staff go back to the fridge to retrieve a fresh newly expired one and gave it to my daughter. Definitely not worth the price I paid and most assuredly not worth my time. My experience is just for the International Blvd location in North Charleston...I can't speak on any other...