Panera Bread — Restaurant in Richardson

It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. Just weird. So today, I downloaded the Panera Bread app for the first time, even though I've eaten there many times before. Since today is Tuesday, I decided to order the bagel special with a large cream cheese. I ordered five cinnamon, four blueberries, and four chocolate bagels. While I was waiting for the order to finish, I went to wash my hands. As I was walking out, my phone rang, and it was from Panera. An associate was telling me that they didn't have the cinnamon bagels and asked if I wanted any substitutions. At this point, I was standing behind her, and after we got off the phone, we started talking.

She first offered to trade out the flavor for the same ones, and I agreed because I really wanted the cinnamon ones for my kids. So I told her it's fine. I'll just go ahead and cancel the order. Mind you, at this time, she had offered to give me two cinnamon rolls to replace the five bagels, but they didn't look too good to me, so I declined the cinnamon rolls. Since she saw that I didn't really want the cinnamon rolls or any substitutions and I asked her to cancel my order because they didn't have what I was looking for, she offered to give me the bagels that she had - the chocolate and the blueberry - and she would cancel the order since it wasn't what I originally ordered.

So I went ahead and took the bagels she had, but, as I mentioned, I was mainly buying the bagels for the cinnamon flavor for my kids. So I took the order and walked outside. Shortly after, I received an alert that $6 was refunded to my account, which is less than half of the $12.98 that I paid. I kept walking and thought to myself, 'Why did she tell me she was going to cancel it only to give me half of my money back when I asked to cancel the whole order?' This puts me in a weird situation because I did take some products, so I understand a charge has to be paid, but I would have preferred to get all my money back and just gone somewhere else to get the bagels I wanted that day. It's just a weird situation for me...

I really hate that I have to write a review like this, given that I work only a few blocks from this location. One morning, I stopped by and I saw a growing line of people waiting for their orders. In the interest of time, I then made the decision to only get a bagel. I placed my order and joined the others waiting for their food. People who had ordered before me received their orders. People who ordered after me received their orders, and I'm left standing there, still waiting on my lone bagel. I ask the staff where my order is, and they tell me that "it's coming." 8 minutes pass and when I inquired again, I was told that my order was given to someone else. Not one apology yet. I asked to speak with a manager. 3 minutes pass and the manager comes out and I explain the situation. Did I even get an "I'm sorry about that?" Nope. Did I get a comp on my order? Nope. I got a dismissive, "Oh, I'll talk to them about that." I can understand a morning rush and the pressure on a kitchen to move fast and make mistakes here and there. I can even understand orders getting backed up. What I will not try to understand and excuse is when leadership is in dismissive customer service and when an establishment has made an error and won't...

(ordered via GrubHub)

Way too expensive for what we're used to getting vs. any other sandwich place. I have avoided Panera after an initial lackluster experience. I decided to give them a try again today. Oh my.

Both of our sandwiches looked like they were thrown together in a rush with more "filler" (lettuce, tomato) than actual meat.

I got avocado on mine and it was cut so chunky, it was breaking through the bread, not properly sliced at all, fell out of the sandwich more than anything. What little meat there was was all gathered in one lump in the middle.

Ordered a chicken salad sandwich also, it was as if they just put one spoon/scoop and didn't spread it out. Was also rather "wet", and one of the bread slices out of 4 qtrs was put on "backwards".

Ordered a broccoli cheese soup as well, and it was a little above room temperature. I've had soups delivered all the way from Plano & Dallas that were hotter than what this was.

Bottom like is I've had better looking and better tasting sandwiches at Subway for half the price. Not ordering from Panera again. Would rather drive further on Campbell and get La Madeline or Deli News....