Panera Bread — Restaurant in Sarasota

Any and all of my reviews speak for themselves in that I focus on always take the time to review the good experiences. So often reviewers focus on venting their frustrations and negative experiences, I do not normally do negative unless it's a safety issue or a manager is not available at the time of my visit to personally inform. [End of disclaimer] I've been to this location many times in the past, pre & post covid (since that's "a thing" now)... but last night was quite the experience from the point of entry where I was met with a sign asking for my patience in service due to staffing, ok so I shrug that off as I believe we are all aware this is the norm now. I enter and have no wait at all in placing my order, but this is truly where the downhill spiral started.. First menu choice; "we are out of that" 2nd choice, ever famous broccoli cheese soup; ok but we are out of the bread it normally comes with.. Me: 🤔 that's ok dont need the carbs and I have bread on my sandwich. Drinks, yes please. I'm handed cups and sent off to the drink machine where there is a sign "out of ice, see staff for ice". Ok so way not just give me the cups with ice instead of sending me away to a machine we know is out of order. I wait for staff to become available to get ice and am made to feel as though I've inconvenienced them (I'm not a sensitive person by any stretch). Return to the dispenser only to discover that All the carbonated drinks are flat! The carbonation needs to be replaced, I'm told by staff they dont know how. Me: so why offer it at the register as an option if we all know the entire machine is out of service? Enter the dining room of disaster where I overhear one staff member who's on dinner break and herself cant find a clean place to sit, now explaining to another staff that they are way overdue to clean the area and should be doing this routinely and not at the closing time as she disclosed was her plan. Me: I'm trying to figure out dimension of Panera I've entered as this is Not the place I had come to know as my local go-to location. My name is called, I retrieve my food only to discover the utensils are sticky, so I search out another staff to request plastic ware and return to my table that has obviously not been cleaned or sanitized (new covid process for all food service facilities). Lastly.. as the staff member that's obviously has been forced to clean passes by with a squirt bottle and used and reused rag.. I ask where the napkins are to which I'm sharply told "we are out of napkins, there are none!" Me: I go to the restroom to investigate if there are paper towels available.. as I return to the dining area I share my findings with another couple also searching for napkins. By now, my soup and sandwich barly warm, I ask for a to-go box for my sandwich and am offered a tiny lil desert box as "it's the only thing we have left, but should fit". And that's the adventure I received after working at 🏥 110% capacity for a 12 hour shift, and craving some Panera Soup. All for 29plus $. Dear Manager/Owner... please get our neighborhood Panera back...

The female manager working this evening needs to find a new job. I placed a large order online and arrived at the time the app said it would be ready for pickup. I waited 20 minutes past my pickup time for my food, checked my order and 3 of 4 sandwiches were wrong. I explained to the woman at the front counter that one sandwich was only a half and missing the bacon, another was missing bacon, and the third was missing the onion I ordered. She wrote it all down and I asked to speak with a manager. She said she was the manager. I expressed my disappointment that 3 sandwiches were wrong. She said all I can say is that we are short staffed. I replied that I understand that, which was why I waited over 20 minutes past my pickup time without a word because that was obvious. She asked my name, told me she was refunding my entire order. She said I'm sorry but we're just short staffed. I said again, I understand but getting the orders correct should be prioritized over speed. I waited over an additional 20 plus minutes for them to remake the three sandwiches. Two were still wrong. I had to get a cup of onion and mustard to put on the sandwiches at home. This resulted in my waiting over 50 minutes past the time my order was supposed to be picked up. While I was waiting on the onion and sauce, the female manager was behind the counter and audibly said she was about to go down the road because she's sick of this place. It's not what you say, it's how you say it. A sincere apology and saying she'd speak with the staff about accuracy over speed would have gone a long way. The male manager and the rest of the staff were friendly despite the issues and the additional orders that came in while my food was being remade. It will likely be a while before I go back to Panera, I just hope it's a...

Me and my husband went over to Panera to have breakfast on our break. We both had never had their breakfast sandwiches before. walking over we were debating on going to McDonald's. But we decided to go to Panera instead my husband ordered a bacon egg cheese on an everything bagel and I ordered a egg white avocado sandwich on whole wheat bread. When I got my food and got to the table I went to bite into my breakfast sandwichand the egg white was so crunchy that I went up and asked if they could just replace the egg they didn't have to replace the whole sandwich the girl pulled the egg off the sandwich and started picking through the egg trying to get the brown stuff off and put it back on my sandwich. She said that was the best she could do because all the egg whites look like that. I get back to the table I take a bite out of it and it is still so crunchy. At that point I lost my appetite. So I took it over to the bakery side where this wonderful young man was and asked if I could speak with a manager he told me absolutely was there anything he could do to help me. I said they replaced the egg but it was the same issue I had with the first sandwich they made me and that I just wanted something different. Not only did he refund me my money but asked me if he could replace it with anything else for no charge. I told him I would take an everything bagel toasted with butter and I would be happy with that I had to get back to work. As I'm standing there waiting for my bagel everyone in the kitchen area is staring at me and talking about me in Spanish. I will never go there again it's a waste of money and it shows that there staff have no pride in there work. Wish I would of got the young man's name that did have pride in his job we need more people like that in the...