Panera Bread — Restaurant in Raleigh

8:15PM- pull up to the drive through & sit for about 3-4 mins with no acknowledgement. While driving around the Panera I saw no one standing or sitting in the dining room but double checked google to see if they were still open at this time. Google still verifies that it is open until 9pm. Even a sticker at the drive through verifies it’s open until 9PM. At this point I figure employees may be getting ready to close to get ready to leave exactly at 9 & probably cleaning. Cool. No issues, I used to work in fast food and in the drive through as well so I completely understand. I also would get frustrated too when people show up an hour or less before closing. So I pull into a parking spot instead to go inside to order. Except…. The first set of doors are unlocked, then the next set of doors behind that are blocked off by 4 chairs. So I turn around & go back to my car at this point. By this time, a white car I noticed when I rounded Panera had an employee with the headset on & she is walking back inside to work. I see another car round the Panera and proceed to the drive through & follow behind to give it another chance. The car in front of me sits & I have my window rolled down to see if I could hear if they would acknowledge them… They didn’t. So I pull up after they drive off to try ONE last time & no response. I understand food places are short with staff on top of having shortages on food items but this Panera’s management should just close down the last hour since their staff is just riding the clock sitting in the parking lot. If I were at LEAST acknowledged & told they were having issues/out of things/a sign was posted that they were closing early I wouldn’t be as frustrated. I would expect this from maybe Burger King, cookout or McDonald’s...

I would strongly recommend against ordering in advance from this Panera location. I ordered two loaves of bread for a Christmas gathering several days in advance via online ordering, as I was not able to reach this location by telephone in my 4 attempts. Upon arrival at the designated time of pickup, and after waiting 10 minutes in the drive through, I was told that they were unable to find my order. I promptly showed them the order confirmation in my email. The employee responded that my order had been lost and that they didn’t have the items in stock for my order. They asked me to wait in the parking lot for a manager. I kindly let the employee know that I had a baby in the car, and would need a quick resolution, as she’s only a few months old and needs to eat frequently. After waiting 30 minutes in the parking lot, the manager came out with one of two of the loaves of bread I ordered. I asked if another store could deliver the second loaf, and he responded that he did not have the personnel to make a delivery. I offered several other solutions, all of which he denied the ability to make happen due to lack of personnel. After 10 minutes of chatter and no resolution or refund, I left and went to find another loaf of bread at another Panera location. Round trip, I had to drive 45 minutes for my additional loaf. And thankfully after a 10 minute call with the corporate office, was refunded for one of the loaves of bread. All in all, I strongly suggest you save yourself hours of time and order from a different Panera location if ordering bread or...

The food was fine, it's always fine. But we tried to use curbside pickup at lunchtime. It was chaos. There were so many cars in the lot and so many more trying to navigate the drive-thru that pulling into one of the designated curbside pickup parking spots was (actually) impossible. We had to wait 15 minutes after turning into the establishment's drive just to be able to get our car where it needed to be. This location is not laid out well for both a drive thru and curbside pickup service and I can't help but wonder if people wouldn't be ultimately less dissatisfied if curbside pickup were to be discontinued here. Once we did get to an appropriate parking place and we got our food (delivered hastily by a harried and clearly overtaxed employee) it was another whole adventure trying to back out of our spot (because we were blocked by the plethora of cars in the drive-thru line...all of which had been waiting for quite a while and were therefore manned by irritated, hungry, and impatient drivers who were unwilling to have their progress hindered, even if only for a few moments,) followed by a death-defying foray around the building in order to reach the only exit -- which is also the only entrance.

We will not visit this location again between 1130A and 130P on the weekdays, and we probably will never visit at all on a weekend. Lunch for 2 of us (without beverages!) came to $39, and getting in and out for the quick, safe curbside pickup service...