Panera Bread — Restaurant in Pasadena

This is one of the better Panera locations that I’ve been to across the Los Angeles and Orange County areas. Why? The short version: it’s clean here, has massive indoor space (38 indoor & 7 outdoor tables), the consistency/accuracy of food, management actually caring about how the store looks, as well as the timeliness of the orders coming out. Management and crew do an exceptionally good job here.

A bit more detailed review. The most important factor to me: cleanliness. There are no strange/lingering odors. There is no trash/animal hair/crumbs/debris on the floor. It looks like it gets vacuumed every day or every other day at least. And they wipe down the tables on a regular interval throughout the day. I can’t tell you how many Paneras I go to and the carpets/floors are just filthy. It looks like you could catch something just by picking up your pencil off of the floor in those other places.

The next most important factor for me is the ability to get a table regardless of the time of day. Even though sqft of this Panera isn’t crazy huge, they designed the layout of the seating area well. There are at least 38 indoor tables, 12 of which are cozy booth style, 1 of which is a large group/family style table that seats at least 12 people, approx 4-6 small group tables (seats 4 people, so you can really spread out), and the rest are individual/small tables. Plenty of options to. They have about 7 small tables outside.

The other factors I mentioned above are not a big deal for me as I don’t mind waiting to get my food and I’m not picky when it comes to mistakes. But from what I notice, orders get completed in a timely manner and I rarely see or hear complaints from p-offed people. As you can tell, I spend a lot of time here studying and notice things.

I wish they would just close later (like 9:30/10pm). The place is consistently filled with people well up until the last minute of closing. But they are nice and let people finish their meals. Labor costs and the increased chances of homeless people loitering later in the night - are most likely the reasons why they cannot close later. But if they wanted to, and advertised later hours, they would become a hot spot. The only study/dining spot in Pasadena that would be open after 9PM (that is both safe and offers quality food options). This area generally has some homeless people wandering around, but the store is away from the main street so they could potentially avoid that same issue that plagues most Starbucks cafes here. All in all, they do a...

There are plenty of seats available, free Wifi, and a nice seating area outside. For sweets they have cookies, cupcakes, sweet rolls, cinnamon crumb coffee cake, brownies, scones, artisan pastries, and muffins etc. They also have a Soup Schedule, depending on the day, they serve different soups. My usual order is the "You Pick 2", you get to combine two items, 1/2 pasta, cup of Soup, 1/2 Sandwich and/or 1/2 Salad. My favorite is the Fuji Apple Chicken Salad. My second pick is soup, I've tried the following, Creamy Tomato, Garden Vegetable, French Onion, and New England Clam Chowder.

Drinks I tried the Low-Fat B Green Power smoothie. It is a mixture of fruits and vegetables purees, juices, concentrates, and a whole banana. The detailed ingredients states it has pineapple puree, kale, celery, cucumber juice concentrate, and lemon juice, etc. The smoothie was bland, I couldn't distinguish the flavors of the fruits.

Food I really like the Fuji Apple Chicken Salad. The salad consist of chicken that is all natural and antibiotic-free, field greens, tomatoes, red onions, romaine, pecans, gorgonzola, apple chips and mixed with white balsamic apple vinaigrette. I love the tangy and sweet flavor for the salad dressing! When Panera Bread was still new they use to put real apple slices but now they serve it with apple chips. Now for the soups, the Creamy Tomato is too thick, they didn't serve it like this before, French Onion is salty and the New England Clam Chowder was watery but it had a lot of clams. From all the soups, my choice would be the Creamy Tomato or Garden Vegetable.

Highlight ~The Fuji Apple Chicken Salad and dressing. ~Order your food using the kiosk or mobile phone

Rating 3.5 Stars for the Fuji Apple Salad and 2 Stars for the soups.

Tip The You Pick 2 comes with a choice of Baguette, a bag of Chips or Apple. When I order it, the cashier most of the time automatically gives the Baguette. If you are going to order the You Pick 2, make sure to indicate what you want; I prefer Apple.

Notes ~Indoor and Outdoor...

Wow things have definitely gone downhill at Panera. I used to go all the time to the one in Glendale and I happened to be in the area so decided to stop by for a quick meal.

Now there are self- ordering kiosks you can use in the front if you don't want to deal with humans (which I did appreciate). I ordered my classic Fuji Apple Salad with a half sandwich and waited.

I went to the beverage station- there was no ice and all of the iced teas were empty. Turns out we had to ask someone in the front for ice....and of course there was no one to be found. Some girl who worked in the back eventually came out coughing, and sadly I had to ask her for ice which she went to the back to get. Why not just restock the machine? strange.

They also eventually refilled the iced tea after I asked but that also took an additional 10 minutes. Please keep in mind it was insanely hot that day, like over 90 degrees so it would have been nice if the staff kept the beverages and ice fully stocked for paying customers.

Finally I got my food and I had asked for my dressing on the side when I ordered because I don't like overdressed salads, I asked the kid working at that station and he said it's there. I told him well I don't think so- so he sticks his gloved finger into my salad and rummages around- and says oh yeah we forgot. Um gross and yeah don't be rude. I later saw him with the same gloved hand touching the microwave or whatever contraption in the back. I see why people get ill from eating out....

This really made me realize, perhaps I should go back to not going to Panera anymore. I still ate my food because I paid for it and hoped for the best, but definitely will not be returning. Please train your staff properly and get the place spruced up-...