Panera Bread — Restaurant in San Diego

Definitely not my first choice if I were to look for a Panera Bread to do work on my laptop for several hours. You might see reviews that give great ratings because of their Panera Bread traditions, so their overall review is skewed. My review here is based on THIS particular Panera Bread, not just their expected traditions.

PANERA BREAD TRADITIONS: Like all Panera Breads, it's expected when they just finish baking bread, all employees yell out "Hot Bread!" That's a given, not a reason to give them another star. LOL. Another habit they do here (as expected in a Panera Bread) is FREE refills. Not a reason to give a star.

PARKING: Depending on when you go, parking is very competitive. Panera sits in a shopping plaza that is pretty popular... with other restaurants and places to shop. You can either get lucky with parking in the area in front of Panera's entrance, or park far and just walk it. Oh, and even though this is along Balboa Avenue, be sure nothing valuable is in sight in your vehicle, and you lock your doors before leaving. This is close enough to the Clairemont Mesa area, so always err on the side of caution when parking anywhere here.

EMPLOYEES/CLEANLINESS: Employees are friendly here. Accommodating enough. There was that one time I have to note here though.... When ordering a muffie, (this muffie looked good with the powdered sugar sprinkled on top). . . The girl I ordered from placed it in those little to-go baggies, and she SHOOK it. All of the sugar was gone from the top! :( I dejectedly took the bag as she handed it to me, and asked for a plate. She gave me the MEANEST look when handing it to me. I ended up sprinkling the powdered sugar on the muffle, but it wasn't the same. :( :( Le sigh. Anyway, during the slow hours, I've noticed some tables being left unclean, and it takes an employee a long time to realize they have to wipe down the tables. Each time I went, I had to grab a couple of napkins, wet it in the restroom, and wipe it down myself. Why not just move to a table beside it that's already been cleaned? Because....

LAYOUT/ELECTRIC OUTLETS: There are only a few select tables that have electric outlets here. Depending on how lucky you are, the BEST place I like to work is the first table you see inside. Right when you walk through the entrance, you see a wall in front of you. On the other side of this wall is my table of choice. Wide table, enough chairs to get comfortable when working with my husband on laptops, and outlets right beside us. Other outlets require a stretch in order to plug in, which is unfortunate. Ugh. Just once, I'd LOVE to see a Panera that has outlets in convenient places. During busy times, this place can get VERY crowded and loud, so I bring earphones to tune the noise out. The only downside with my table is that stupid window on the wall that separates the table from the main entrance. Little kids peek through that all of the time, and even though it's the cutest thing.... it's SOOOO ANNOYING. I always make a mental note to bring a blanket or an extra hoodie so I can cover the window, but always forget.

WIFI ACCESS: Not that great here. And for some reason, it only happens in this location but.... I always use my personal (Verizon) mobile hotspot instead of using their Wifi. But each time I do, it jams my signal, so my hotspot is inconsistent all of the time. Very spotty. Other Panera Bread locations, I've NEVER had this as an issue. Just here. So disappointing.

DEMOGRAPHICS: I've noticed the majority of people who come here are either middle-aged and meeting with long-time friends for a chat, or a young family with kids (there's a Target nearby, and other shopping stores in the same plaza, so this is expected). If the kids aren't well behaved, they're running around the narrow walkways and screaming, making it somewhat challenging to get to the restrooms at times.

RESTROOMS: Clean enough. Not locked, so I imagine non-customers are allowed to walk in and use the restrooms as well. I can't remember if there was a sign that said...

Okay, this might be the worst review up to date. I was on my way to this location using maps to get me there. Then it stopped working. After many attempts, I decided to call the store to ask for help. The young man who answered the phone said his opening to answering the phone, and I asked for directions to his location. I shared my location at the time (going SB 163/54). so he could let me know what direction to go. He proceeded to tell me that he didn't know where I was at. He then asked a co-worker, who didn't know either. So I asked for crossroads, and he didn't know what I meant. So I asked for the name of a nearby street, he again asked a coworker, and again they didn't know either. But the co-worker mentioned to him to ask me if I knew where Vons or Target were (I could hear her next to him) , he asked me and I responded that it had been so long since I had been in the area I wouldn't know, that I appreciated any help he could give me. By this time, he was getting frustrated and responded with; "Ma'am I have no idea where you are." I responded with, "I understand and was hoping a street name might help me when I stopped and asked someone for help." He was frustrated and told me he can't help me. I asked for the manager. He put me on hold. Meanwhile, I found a Target close by an In&Out place. I asked a young man coming out of the store (he was starting to gather carts) if he knew of a Panara place nearby. He said no. 7+ minutes went by, and the young man came back to the phone to tell me his manager couldn't help me and he wasn't coming to the phone. So I said, "Okay, I just want to be sure I understand correctly. You couldn't help me. You asked your co-worker, and they couldn't help. You went to get your manager at my request, and he said he couldn't help and he wasn't coming to the phone?. Do I understand this correctly?" He said yes. I responded with, "That's horrible customer service." Well, I can't help you he said. "Well, that says a lot about management and the team, doesn't it? I'm going to let corporate know how I was treated." And this kid said to me, "Go ahead. Do what you have to do." AND HUNG UP!!! Make no mistake. I understand that my GPS going out was in no way their fault or their concern. This is about CUSTOMER SERVICE, and they DON'T HAVE ANY!!! Eventually, I found the location and went inside to meet up with my friend. The only reason this place got 1-star is because there was a gentleman who came in very friendly and asked about available outlets for his laptop. He sat at the table next to me, introduced himself, shook my hand, and said my name is __. Then, he went about his business. I do realize that not all locations are this way, but I will say that THIS LOCATION is one to AVOID!!! DON'T BOTHER GOING HERE!!! There are plenty of other places you ould go and I'm sure you have a good chance at much better customer service. I'll be happy to share a follow-up review...

I would like to give a shout out that staff were friendly and happy to be helpful, first. We used a self serve order placement kiosk. It was weird at the end, after paying because we didn’t receive a receipt. There were the little reservation beeper things that light up when your order is ready but none of them were offered or used for our order for some reason. We didn’t see anyone else but one person using one of them. We had to ask if our order actually went through. It did. The wait was not long. The seating area was a little messy. Things had not been cleaned up. Don’t know if someone must’ve left right before we sat down but it was a little unorganized. Not terrible. Not disgusting or too off putting. We had indicated on our order that we would like utensils but they did not come in our bag and I had to go ask for some. They were quick to grab them. The food was great! I had a spicy chicken sandwich and my partner had something with avocado in it. We both enjoyed them. We are just very healthy eaters and found the bread to be excessive. Ordered a vanilla latte. We are not used to too much sweetness and use milk alternatives mostly. We added almond milk. We didn’t think to ask for less sweetness in our drink and were not pleased with how sweet it was but the caffeine was welcomed. I guess the majority of people prefer things to be on the sweeter side anyways so our more developed palettes would be set up to be sorely disappointed by the majority of most food options in mainstream food service businesses. We had a gift card for Panera that needed to be used. Probably wouldn’t have thought to eat anywhere with less than organic fair trade options and less sugar, salt, fat, calories, msg, food coloring… etc. however, if we had a gift card and were in the area again I would return. I just wouldn’t spend my own money and go out of my way to eat there necessarily. If it was a choice between some other options, we would highly consider this...