Panera Bread — Restaurant in Norwalk

OK, let me preface this by saying it's not about the Chips

So I don't go there often and the last time I was actually here was probably over a year ago. But I took my 83 yr old mother to shop at Walmart and she wanted soup in a bread bowl.

So I order the soups 2 in bread bowls and a bottle of water. Last time I was there you would get chips for each soup so when they gave me the soups with only one bag of chips I asked for the other bag thinking they just forgot to put it on the plate.

The girl behind the counter proceeds to hand me the bag and say you only get one bag of chips per order. So I say oh ok then you can take the chips back no big deal however, she insist I take the bag of chips and follows it with well you purchased 2 bowls so you only get one bag, just so you know in the future... so I say.. oh is there a special going on or something?

Now I asked the question because I wanted to be clear so that next time I order I could figure out how to order so that everyone whose eating get's their chips because if not my mother will spend 90% of the time worried that no everyone got the same thing. (It's a 1940's starvation life mentality that she can't let go of). So Cool no big deal if it's just one bag but if I ordered a special inadvertently then next time I'll know that I need to order a different way.

However, the response I got was.. YOU HAVE A GOOD DAY MAMA and she basically turned away from me while rolling her eyes.

OK, so it took every cell of my being and the fact that I had my mother with me not to rip this kid a new one. The temptation to say.. HEY! Nice Customer Service! HOWEVER, I'm asking you a question so that the next time I'm forced to come into this God Forsaken *$&% Hole I can order correctly so that the old lady whose sitting in a chair waiting for her meal doesn't get upset over the fact that she thinks our fat behinds are dying of starvation!

The customer service at this Panera's needs to be upped by 100% not to mention the fact that 99.9% of the time they get your order wrong. Unfortunately, for my mom there will not be any future repeat trips to this place. I can deal with them getting the order wrong but unless they are paying my bills or keeping me in the fashion I would like to be kept they better reel in their snot attitudes.

So that is the nail on the Panera...

My children and I were moving out of the home I raised them in for 10 years, son 16 years old at the time and a daughter 14 years old. We drove 18 miles north in a packed suv in the pouring rain, also with us was our extended furry family members, a 13 year old black & white cat, a 4 year old 6lb.Yorkie and a 4 year old 6lb. Chihuahua. We drove that far to stay in Extended Stay America because that was the closest nicest cleanest hotel that accepted pets. It was December 11th 2019 and the weather was so cold and wet you felt it to your bones especially having to unpack our suitcases, x-box of course, an extra tv for the gaming system, our own pillows, a large covered king of kings litter box and everything else that a mom snd two teenagers would need for a week until our new place was ready for us to move in, it was being painted and a few things to do on the punch list. The three of us just threw ourselves on the beds exhausted, wet, cold and starving ! There was a pop up card on the desk showing what restaurants were close by with photos of their food. We all were like ooooowwww that hot bowl of chicken noodle soup in a thick bread bowl looked amazing !!! We went crazy and ordered a bunch of food from the amazing photos they had and just praying that the food tasted as good as it all looked… The only sounds that were heard when we started eating were mmm mmm mmm this is AMAZING as the three of us all got the chicken noodle soup bread bowls, grilled cheese sandwiches, big fluffy cinnamon raisin glazed buns !!! That delicious hot soup warmed us right up and we all said that that was the BEST way to eat chicken noodle soup and the grilled cheeses were made on almost like a thicker than regular bread Italian bread that was drenched but not to much butter from edge to edge and grilled to a golden brown ! We had to wait a little while to indulge into those amazing soft fresh glazed cinnamon raisin buns but we had no problem getting it all down and feeling so warm, cozy and full to watch a movie and pass out !! We ABSOLUTELY RECOMMEND PANERA BREAD ANY DAY OF THE WEEK IN ANY SEASON...

The food was great, but the service was really slow. They didn't have a cashier for about 5-7 min. We placed an order at the self-kiosk because we didn't see anyone or anyone say something to us. In my opinion, they need to work at the customer service if they are busy, I totally can understand, but we were confused waiting for a cashier, we could use that time to order, then I ordered an apple juice, a sandwich, chips and a soup. Everything except my juice was on the tray, so I asked at the pick-up area, and they didn't know about my apple juice. They told me to go at the front with the cashier, she didn't know because again, I placed my order at the kiosk, she asked for my last name when I didn't give them my last name. Then, after giving her my name and last name, I explained to her that I was just missing an apple juice. She checked again with the pick-up area, and finally, she said, "Oh yeah, it's right there next to the cookies." It's ridiculous. I spent that long just for an...