Panera Bread — Restaurant in Ross Township

Spacious interior, very clean, and very helpful staff, as well as quick service. Some quirks of the design and a situation that, honestly is not the fault of the staff, brings down its overall rating though.

This particular restaurant rates rather low however for the obnoxious parking lot layout which ends up wrapping the drive-through line into entry traffic and blocks many customers from being able to back out. Likewise, there are an absolutely egregious amount of flags in the parking lot. Patriotism is one thing, but outside of memorials and government buildings, there is simply no need for nigh on 20 or more flags. If they are there for a reason, it is not clearly marked or advertised. Similarly, the building is in an absolutely pedestrian/bike antagonistic location. Straight uphill, uni-direction exits and entrances to the plaza, and single turn capabilities are not functional.

To top this off, on a sunny day with a heat index warning of 105, while traveling between states, the restaurant would not allow my SO and myself to bring our medium size cat, in carrier, into the air conditioned interior area (where it would have been contained in its carrier). We were told that it was against health code in Indiana, which is not completely true: the Retail Food Establishment Sanitation Requirements (410 IAC 7-24-436) Sec. 436 "Prohibiting animals" subsection (b) states that, "Live animals may be allowed if the contamination of food, clean equipment, utensils, linens, and unwrapped single-service and single-use articles cannot result ..." (this section then lists further subsections with examples, but not exhaustive examples). If you have pets, and it is hot out, do not expect this location to be sympathetic.

The food was typical St. Louis Bread Company (Panera), so good and less guilt inducing in many cases than other fast food...

Update: we came here the next morning for breakfast. We were in a hurry to get on the road and went through the drive-thru. I ordered oatmeal and was told they didn't have any. Since we weren't familiar with the full menu and didn't want to sit in the drive through gaping at it, we decided to come in. The cashier, Bryan, took my order. I asked for the egg white sandwich on the flatbread. Then said that it was too bad they were out of oatmeal. He replied that he didn't think that they were and the manager overheard the conversation. She said no. We have plenty of oatmeal. I informed her that the drive-thru told me that they were out. She was clearly annoyed and said she would set them straight and I changed my order to oatmeal. I'm just hoping that the kitchen staff didn't do something to the oatmeal out of retaliation. There was no wait and the restaurant only had three other tables. There was one package for DoorDash and none in the order pickup area. Despite this, the kitchen was very slow with the orders. The staff did not work together as well as last night's staff did. Bryan was entertaining and made a lightheaeted quip about my southern accent, which I thought was cute. I didn't catch the manager's name, but she was quick to rectify a problem. The night shift staff, Bryan, and this manager are the only reason I didn't give this place one star. I really don't appreciate being lied to. And... I was in a hurry. The lie cost us time we needed to be on the road.

original review: Loved the cucumber 🥒 tomato 🍅 basil salad 🥗 And my Mediterranean sandwich 🥪 tasted fresh. I was a little bummed that they were out of the autumn squash soup 🍲 but it was late in the day. Clean restaurant and fast service. We use the kiosk so we didn't really have to interact with the personnel. I like that they will text you when...

Edit: I have visited this location multiple times since this review was posted and I did the same exact thing that the manager I mentioned in this review and did not get into any issues. I do not think this manager works here anymore either. Raised this to a 4 star.

To be honest, i don't expect any staff members to read this but this is primarily in regards to the Owner or one of the managers. I had visited this location with the intention of getting work done. I use the Schererville Panera Bread constantly to use as a quiet place to work for more then 4 hours as a Student and someone doing paid work. While I was waiting for tasks on my laptop to finish I was watching some videos (As I normally do to balance my work) and the Manager came up to me asking me to put my foot down (it was crossed on the chair I was sitting on). In a confused tone, I complied baffled as to why he would ask this.I was due to go into surgery in less then a week and I did it to make me more comfortable. Not wanting to escalate the situation I did not say anything. However, this experience made me start be more observant of what was going around me and I quickly found myself uncomfortable of the environment. Not sure if the Manager would take offense to me having music playing on my headphones and it being a bit audible or me using a coffee table to use my mouse. There were many other thoughts and potential scenarios that made me feel uncomfortable just from that interaction with the Manager. It puzzles me why he would think its a problem, I was not hogging the seat, I was not damaging the chair, all I was doing was putting my leg on my other leg with the shoe touching my other leg. Seeing as I only go to Panera Bread for productivity I will not be going back to this Panera again, nor will any of...