Panera Bread — Restaurant in Pleasant Hills

My family and I arrived at approximately 12:15 PM today to a crowded store. We were told before we ordered that it would be approximately 15 minutes before we would receive our food, due to the business of the store. This was okay with us, as we had some time to work with. After ordering 3 drinks, a flatbread pizza, a strawberry chicken salad, and a macaroni and cheese bread bowl, we were given a pager. We were told we could have a seat and that we would be buzzed when the order is ready. We then found a seat near the cooking station, so we could hear as the orders were being called. After waiting for around 25 minutes, I walked up to the counter to see if the order was ready. Nothing was up yet, and I could not get anyone’s attention to ask on the order status. I sat back down, thinking the order would be up soon. After 20 more minutes with no mention of the food, I decided it was no longer worth the long wait and decided to go to the counter to ask for a refund. As I approached the counter, a very nice cashier helped me out. She then approached her manager for help with the refund, which is where things took a turn. The manager working in the food preparation area swung around and screamed at me “I have been calling your name for 15 minutes!” This shocked me being screamed at, but I also knew this was false. I heard every order being called and buzzers going off for dine-in, but we were never called and the buzzer never buzzed. I then tried to explain that the buzzer never went off, which she then screamed the same statement. She then very sarcastically said my name as if the order was ready. I glanced at the plates and could tell food was removed from these as well. At this point, I yelled back, “You never buzzed me or called me!” She then said to the worker,. “Whatever, I don’t care, give him a damn refund”. I then heard her start saying obscene comments and rude remarks to workers around her. She thought I could not hear her, but she does not know how to whisper! I am absolutely outraged that this vulgar manager is able to work in one of your stores. What happened to catering to the customer? I get that sometimes orders are messed up or things go wrong, but you do not get to blame the customer when that happens! You are the one that messed up! Yelling at me across a restaurant when you made a mistake is insane! I felt bad for the workers there, as they all looked extremely uncomfortable being around her. I am extremely dissatisfied with my experience. Something needs to be done! This manager needs to be fired...

Ordered cinnamon crunch bagel, lightly toasted, not easy to mess that up but, it must be quite some time since they've cleaned their toasting machine because my bagel came out with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, and tasting like an everything bagel. If I wanted an everything bagel, I would have ordered an everything bagel. Then, I got two bowls of broccoli cheddar soup and it was for dinner for my 7 year old and I. Let me tell you, I'm so beyond disgusted by the soup. For how expensive a bowl of soup is at this place, I expect delicious soup and I didn't get anything close to this. It was watery, tasted sour, the broccoli was mush, it was disgusting and gross and just ruined dinner. I had to go get other food for us because it couldn't be eaten. I wasted $20+ on a bagel that didn't taste like what I'd wanted and two bowls of the absolute WORST soup I've ever had. I'm embarrassed for this Panera location. As usual though, I'm more than likely wasting my time and energy writing this because I won't get a response and if I did get a response, it'd be a please accept our sincerest apologies, and that's it. It's just sad that restaurants have no pride in what they serve to their customers anymore. Most likely, I won't return to this location and unfortunately, I'd say I will never return to any Panera but, that's not true; my son's favorite soup is the broccoli cheddar so, we'll be back at some point in the distant future.

Side note--what in the world did they do to their chocolate chipper cookies? They're no longer the little mini chocolate chips they used to have and they're never warm and soft anymore. They're usually close to being burnt, have huge chunks of chocolate, and most disappointing is they're not soft and warm like they used to be. This Pleasant Hills location had the m&m cookies and I do wish I'd taken a picture cause they were so burnt and brown, they didn't look appealing at all. I'd rather go buy Grandma's Cookies in a gas station versus buying the Panera ones.

Overall, Panera has just gotten to be no better than a typical McDonald's or Wendy's. That isn't what I expect when I spend that kind of money for food that's advertised to be much better than what is given.

I included a picture of the bottom of the bagel that has sesame seeds and...

Being a manager myself I can completely understand the stress of managing a team, but almost a year of giving these guys a chance they will no longer be earning my business til corporate gives me some peace of mind. It has gone from anywhere from up to 40 minute waits for rapid pick ups, rapid pick ups won’t be at the shelf, they will be at some random counter in the back, not on any sort of heating table, when you get your food it’s cold and terrible. I’ve had many instances where no silverware is available in my bag, none at the counter and YET AGAIN my food gets cold. Then i finally get to eat my French onion soup, and the croutons will be stale as can be. To the point my entire meal is in edible or I have to sit and waste my tome to pick the croutons out. If you order somthing on the rapid pick up that isn’t available and hasn’t been taken off yet. They won’t call you even though they have my phone number from the application, every time it’s a “sorry we were just about to call you” uhhhhhh yeah sure my rapid pick up was soppused to be done at 8:45 and it’s now 9:30. This place is in desperate need of new management, I would never ever ever try and get someone fired due to my own selfish reasons, if they were to be atleast nice and fix their mistakes this review would of never happened. I’ve had items also clearly not in my bag from my rapid pick ups. I’ve gone lunch breaks completely missed starving because this “fast paced food facility” can never do anything right. A huge majority of there food is premade too even though they advertise it as “fresh” I’ve had two friends that have worked at Panera and even myself was about to hired in as manager at Panera and there should be no reason on how piss poor this operation is running. I am willing to change my review if corporate offers me a gift card for my troubles, if they were to pull my order history they would see how often I truly come. The gift card is to try out and see if this facility can or...