Panera Bread — Restaurant in Shepherdsville

Made a stop here on a Sunday while heading home from a weekend trip. We're usually fans of Panera (for well over 20 years) and thought it'd be great place for lunch but Panera doesn't delight us the way it used to so it's fallen to a 2nd or 3rd option when choosing where to dine.

Once inside we got in line to order with a person. (Panera's push to kiosk ordering? Not a fan. I'll never embrace it.) I think our order taker was new because someone had to show her where the food item I ordered was located on the register. I generally order the same thing every time and it's an "off menu" item, but still available.

After ordering and going to get our drinks we saw a sign that the ice machine was down. Strange, but it happens. Iced tea isn't iced tea without ice, so that wasn't appealing to me. Likewise any of the fountain drinks, since it's the ice that cools the beverage and helps maintain carbonation. That leaves whatever-temperature-the-drink-comes-out-at. Bummer, because I LOVE Panera's iced tea.

I don't know if there an event or a convention or just an unreasonable gathering of kids, but there were A LOT of kids on this visit. An annoyingly large number of kids.

Food delivery was kind of lengthy, made even worse by all. the. kids. My sandwich was good, but not awesome, and my room temperature tea (-ice) wasn't winning any awards. It wasn't until I went up to get a drink refill that I saw the young lady behind the counter get someone some ice from a little refrigerator behind the counter. We weren't offered the ice when we ordered so I kinda stood there in amazement, but at least we were able to get some for our refills.

Kind of a lackluster visit, to be honest. The staff was fine and kept the moving. The dining room was surprisingly clean, given how busy they were. This visit was an "as we were passing by" selection. We may try again if we end up in the area...

I would give zero starts if possible for this Panera in Shepherdsville. Worse service ever. For the past 2 years, every single order we placed for drive-thru pick up had items missing in our food or the customized instructions were not followed. They do not even bother to inform you about the issues when give your order at the window. You pay full price for food missing ingredients, as an example my Chicken Frontega sandwich one time missing the cheese, the other time missing the basil, ultimately the Chicken Avocado melt missing The Avocado! Just Unbelievable! You get a text message and email when your order is ready, but when you get to the window it is not ready. They ask you to park on the curbside spot and say they will bring it to you when ready, but all they do it to leave you there waiting until you have to go inside. When you finally go inside to get some information at the kitchen window, all those employees including the manager ignore you. Will ever come back to this...

The two young ladies in the drive thru almost brought me to tears with their great care and customer service. I had just come out of an 1.5 hour traffic jam as a result of a automobile accident and I had my four small dogs in the car with me. We were all anxious and overwhelmed. When we reached the drive thru I could hear the smile in the girls voices. Next, after approaching the window the ladies saw the dogs and immediately gave me dog treats and a whipped cream snack for my dogs. Next, my service was fast , with tons of smiles. Once I opened my bag, I had all type of extra goodies in my bag with a smiley face drawn on each of my bags! This absolutely turned a frustrating situation into the most warm and happy time of me and my fur babies! Job well done, this is better than the chic fil a customer service experience! You ladies Rock! The time was about 8:24pm on Monday...