Panera Bread — Restaurant in Seal Beach

This dining room smells like the Ninja Turtle sewer and the bathroom smells like a cat's cooter! I'm a SIP club member and was very impressed by the interesting building. The outside area was cute from a distance, but once I got closer, the seating was old and torn up. I ordered at the front, a fruit cup with a side of whipped cream, a toasted bagel, one cream cheese ($2.99 cream cheese?!?!) Ludacris, and a small hot beverage. After 5-10 minutes, I went to the counter. The manager was very busy with to-go orders, and there were also two other people working. I asked about my fruit cup and the side of whipped cream. She had a confused look on her face and said to me, "Whipped cream? That isn't normally how our fruit cups come." She also said it is not allowed, but she would do it for me this "one time" !!!! I explained to her that I ordered a side of whipped cream with my fruit cup. She told me it would be out shortly. Another 5 minutes passed by, and still nothing. Waited another 10 minutes, and I ordered it here, and she put everything in plastic to-go containers. that What??!!?? Ok lady!!! I went into the bathroom, and the lighting was out. I was waiting for master splinter himself to crawl out of the drain along with Pennywise the clown. It was very creepy. The bathroom sink faucet looks like something out of a horror movie. It also smelled like a bucket of bass because the sanitary napkin bins were overflowing. Looked like a scene from Vampire Diaries. DRIVE THE EXTRA FEW MILES TO THE NEXT PANERA. DON'T LET THE BUILDING FOOL YOU. THE SMELLS, THE CLEANLINESS, THE MANAGER, THE SERVICE ALL...

It pains me to give this place a negative review. Panera’s are wonderful but 80% of the ones I visit are just run down and remind me of a rotting whale on the beach. The building is unique/cute. The outside seating area is plentiful and clean. But the interior looks dead/dark/dreary. Went in at 3pm on a Saturday. A really bad pungent odor was lingering around the whole dining area. Couldn’t tell if it was mold, sitting water, etc. (I came to the same location a couple weeks later - same awful pungent smell. Though not as strong as initially. If this is a yeast smell from the baking, then I apologize. And readers can ignore this complaint. But if it’s not yeast, there’s a serious mold/sitting water problem somewhere.) There were 8 tables that had finished food/bowls just sitting there for God knows how long. Perhaps this was the cause for the smell? Unsure. But I can’t blame them…there were only 3-4 people working. So perhaps they were understaffed.

The internet was nonexistent. It was beyond bad. Couldn’t even load the Google homepage once connected. Not even heavy traffic. There were 5 customers in the shop. Defeated the whole purpose of coming here to do work.

Cups were not stocked. So you have to wait at the register until a skeleton crew member can come to serve you. Not sure if this is due to the homeless population or general abuse of free drinks. It is Rossmore, so perhaps that’s got something to do with it.

A place that has great potential, but left to neglect. The employees were all friendly and nice though....

We've never been to a Panera Bread before, so nothing to compare this location to, but it was clean, had a one way system (that people were not using) and hand sanitizing stations throughout. The lady at the ordering counter was clearly overwhelmed but was doing her best - wish her mask fit her correctly, but she doesn't touch food, so I guess it's okay?? Would have loved if there was better communication about where you stand to wait for your order - it's tight spaces in the area where they put the bags for order pickup so waiting was a little uncomfortable. Did appreciate they checked the bags to make sure the kitchen got all the right items - having been to lots of places for takeout and coming home to missing items seems to be a thing these days with Covid.

As for the food - so good! Really tasty, good portions even if a little pricey for what's really just a deli.

We had the 2 item combo with French Onion Soup and a BBQ smokehouse chicken sandwich. The bread was soft and delicious and they didn't smother it in sauce, just enough! The side of french bread might seem like too much bread, but just get it, you won't regret it!

Kids had the Mac and Cheese - white cheese yumminess. They are hard to please so the fact they just kept eating until it was all gone means it was great.

Will probably go again but just for bread and Mac n cheese as it's a little pricey for...