Panera Bread — Restaurant in Pasadena

I'm really bummed about the experience my wife I had. I personally hadn't been to a Panera Bread since 2013, I was looking forward to seeing how they've expanded and what new options were being offered. At first glance it looked like they've added several new menu items. The focus was on the pizza and sandwiches. They had other offerings such as salads, soups, baked goods and drinks. Since everything looked good my wife and I decided to treat ourselves and order a variety of things to share together.

The restaurant was very clean, the atmosphere was very pleasant. There was a variety of seating from tables to booths and more private areas to sit if you wanted to be away.

Once we ordered the servers were quick to get us our pastries. The food came out much faster than I had expected it to. I kind of felt like Gordon in Kitchen Nightmares with the speed. My wife was totally disappointed by the French onion soup, it had giant clumps of soggy bread, very little cheese. Overall the flavor was bland, not enough seasoning and balance between the onion and cheese. The salad was the highlight for her, though that too was not evenly coated with dressing.

My cheddar broccoli Mac was good, though it too was bland. The pasta was severely overcooked and limp. What surprised me though was the incredibly small portion size. It was barely one cup of Mac. The bread bowl had the room for more, so I'm not sure why the portion sizes were so low. Next off for me was the baguette southwest sandwich. It was plenty good, the only complaint was there was hardly any meat and the bread was hard. Definitely disappointed. My sweet treat was the cinnamon roll. It was dry as Palm Springs. I would have preferred one that at least had the moisture from the Houston humidity. Spongy doughy goodness is what one expects from a breakfast pastry.

The real kicker aside from leaving underwhelmed from the food was the rampant food poisoning I experienced. I was up for a solid three hours with my stomach all messed up from Panera. It's been a very long time since food poisoning rendered me out of service for hours. So needless to say I doubt I'll be back. Unacceptable to eat something that causes a fire sale, a mass exodus of biblical proportion. It's a shame really because I wanted this to be so much more than it was. Sadly Panera showed me why it's been so long since I last visited and why I stayed away...

So I love the food here despite the employees knowledge on the menu. The last few times I would ask questions to the girl taking my order at the front, and each time the could not answer my questions. One time the girl told me "I really don't know so just read the menu", instead of just asking someone else. I'm in the industry so I completely understand if someone was in training or what not but that did not seem to be the case since no trainer was present. Despite that I still love thw food! Until yesterday, I will no longer be a customer there! I was calling over and over trying to see what soups were on the menu for the day, and no one would pick up! I was trying to order my soup ahead of time because I'm sick I'm sick and have them drop it out to me and my Uber... since no one was picking up, I anticipated it to be really busy or something when I came in. It was dead In there!!! 2 girls were sitting down at the front, employees just standing around and one girl at the registered with one elderly couple. I asked if their phones were not working and she said she didn't hear anything. So I called while waiting and it rang loudly to were you could hear it throughout the restaurant! So I asked for a manager and Fred came to me and could not even make eye contact with me! I asked who was supposed to answer and he said "they are" I said they who? You couldn't answer or make sure of someone to do so? He was at a lost foe words. Extremely poor management skills. So I had to pay extra for my ride waiting and for my soup while I'm sick. For some reason the elderly couple in front of me had their own issues as well and I heard them say they will never be back. Worst experience I have had. Seems yall need a...

I made an order for delivery to Panera Bread on Fairmont in Pasadena on 12/5/16 for a you pick 2 and an extra bowl of soup. After over an hour later and not receiving the soup, I called Panera bread and asked why I hadn't received my food. I was put on hold for a while and finally someone came on the phone letting me know that the order automatically was set to rapid pickup due to the address being out of range, I never received a phone call letting me know about the switch. I let the girl on the phone know that we order Panera bread weekly and have had it delivered to us every time, without any problems. She said there was nothing she could do. I asked if they could just charge the delivery fee and send the driver over with the food since it was already made, she declined. She said I could put in the order again and they would refund the money in the next several business days and pay again today for the food order to be delivered. I told her it did not make any sense to do that because there was still no guarantee that the order wouldn't go to rapid pickup and charge me again. I told her I wasn't interested in being charged double if there wasn't a guarantee that I would get my food that I already ordered. She replied with “do you want the food or not?!” The employee was extremely rude and unprofessional. When I asked to speak with a supervisor she said “I am the manager”, so then I asked her name in which she replied with “Mrs. Brown, they will know who I am.” She represented the company poorly with a sour attitude and lost business with a customer that visits that...