Panera Bread — Restaurant in Tempe

Ah, Panera Bread, the place where you can spend a small fortune to experience the thrill of ordering one thing and receiving something entirely different. I recently had the pleasure of paying $27 for two sandwiches—both of which were seemingly assembled by someone playing a game of "how many ways can we mess this up?"

First, I requested ciabatta bread and received... something else. I’m not sure what it was, but I’m hoping it won’t send me into an allergic spiral. I ordered turkey, bacon, avocado, and greens but instead got tomatoes and mayonnaise—two items I specifically did not ask for. Speaking of bacon, Panera graciously charged me $4.00 for two whole pieces of it. I assume they were harvested from a rare, endangered species of pig.

The second sandwich? Oh, it was a masterpiece of disappointment. Two thin slices of turkey so delicate you could read a newspaper through them, no tomatoes (which were actually ordered), and a whisper of mayonnaise that looked like the sandwich maker just waved the jar in its general direction.

So if you enjoy paying premium prices for an elaborate game of “Guess What You’re Gonna Get,” by all means, visit the Guadalupe & McClintock location. Just make sure to bring a sense of adventure and maybe a...

First I’ll say that I love Panera and am a regular customer. I hesitated for awhile to leave a bad review of this location because I do love getting Panera when I need some comfort food & since moving, this is the closest location to where I live, however it’s really badly managed. They are often out of items, items that they bake in store, items like cookies, particularly chocolate chip cookies & brownies. No other Panera I regularly go to runs out of things as often as this location does. And they run out at non-busy times, times when other Panera would have plenty of an item like chocolate chip cookies, or brownies because it’s not the lunch or dinner rush, ie it’s a time period when they should’ve restocked that stuff from lunch to get ready for dinner. But 9 times out of 10, they run out. Sometimes they just give you the wrong stuff as well, or maybe they were out, but didn’t bother to tell you & just give you an alternate item. The only good thing is corporate customer service is always nice & will give you a coupon when you complain. The problem though is, this location never changes...

Came here on Sunday 10/15/23 with several others for lunch. I ordered the Broccoli and Cheddar soup in a bread bowl; a sesame seed bagel - toasted - with cream cheese; and their cheese & Cherry danish wheel to share with our table. My order was called, and as I sat to enjoy my soup, while very good, there didn’t seem to be a lot compared to others who ordered different soups in regular bowls. I asked what their portion sizes are, and was told one cup. I had seven spoonfuls of soup with bread. That doesn’t sound like it was a cup. The bagel 🥯 was good And the danishes were okay. My tab was, with a fountain drink, over $23. A few odd things to note: several customers did not clean up after themselves; the bus service was tardy as many plates and bowls piled up by the refuse 🗑️; and my soup & bread bowl came with another piece of bread. I would have traded that piece of bread...