Panera Bread — Restaurant in Raleigh

SLOW SLOW SLOW and....recently discovered they're UNSANITARY. First, ordering Rapid Pick Up is pointless!! I shouldn't have to wait 30 minutes for a simple bagel with cream cheese after ordering rapid pick up that says my order would be ready in 5 minutes, but doesn't text me until 20 minutes later that it's ready, only to go inside the Cafe to grab my food and still having to wait another 10 minutes for the person who signs off on rapid orders, to move it from the food counter to the rapid pick up shelf. Fast forward in the same week...once again ordered rapid pick, but this time I added a muffin to my bagel with cream cheese. Surprisingly, I get a text within 2 minutes that my order is ready. I don't get there until 7 minutes later to once again see that my order is not on the rapid pick up shelf, but still sitting on the food counter. I grabbed my order, check it, and...my bagel is COLD. They never bothered to toast and slice it....makes sense why it was ready so quickly than usual. I walk up to the cashier and let them know it's supposed to be a sliced toasted bagel. I even pulled it out of the bag with my BARE HANDS to show the cashier. He then proceeds to ask me for the bagel. I thought OK, since food taken back from the customers are tossed out in the trash. Nope, not this time...he takes the bagel, walks it over to the slicer/toaster machine, asks the manager who was standing there (a black lady with fluffy hair), what is he supposed to do with the bagel. She then proceeds to slice it, and run it through the toaster. The cashier then comes back and asks me for the bag so he can put the bagel back it in. W....T....F!!! You don't even know if I picked my nose before I touched the bagel. But worse, with Covid spreading rampid (among other diseases), that was THE MOST unsanitary thing I've seen in my history of purchasing food from Panera. The company may claim to pride themselves on their food being clean but, uh uh, their advertising of that "so-called promise", is just that...an advertisement! DISGUSTING!! NEVER will I be buying anything from this location, or possibly ANY Panera Bread again! ...

Panera has recently switched to using third-party delivery drivers (DoorDash) instead of their in-house drivers.

Since the switch, I've ordered from here 3 times. The first time, items were missing from the order, and the other two times the order flat out never arrived.

Today, I never received my order and had to play phone tag between Panera and DoorDash just to figure out what happened to my food. Panera's "new protocol" is to tell customers to call DoorDash, but because the order is placed on Panera's website, DoorDash does not have any information to match the order to my account.

After 45 minutes of some of the most frustrating customer service calls of my life, the manager of this location refunded the entire order.

I used to order from here constantly. Never again.

Save yourself the frustration and do not order delivery from...

Lively atmosphere with plenty of seating (upstairs and ground floor) and various charging outlets. The coffee is always hot and, in my opinion, is consistently of one of the better qualities compared to the nearby Glenwood, NH, or Capital locations.

Service is usually good, but come evening time it can be difficult to get the attention of staffers hanging out in the back - but hey 🤷‍♀️ at least it's a fun place to work and everyone is always friendly and respectful so it's really not a big deal. My only real grievance is when I need to be in and out fast but my sip club cub order ahead is not at RPU and I have to wait to get someone's attention amidst a food rush for a cup I ordered ahead.

Food quality is consistently great and the managers have always helped correct any (minor) order issues I've rarely...