Panera Bread — Restaurant in Thornton Township

Avoid this location. It is the nearest to my workplace but I try to avoid it for plenty of reasons after going there over 100 times (It is sometimes my only somewhat healthy choice for lunch that is also close enough to work) Salads will often be poorly made and contain wilted lettuce or soggy vegetables. Dressing containers only filled to a third-half. Sandwiches are often made by throwing all the ingredients in a box rather than stacking them properly. If I spend $6+ on a bowl of soup, Id like to get a bowl of soup. Not a cup of soup poured in a bowl size container. I often like to have soup and bread only for lunch and half a bowl is too little. If I paid for it, fill up my bowl. Service is slow. Do not attempt the drive thru. you can get stuck in it for 30 minutes with no exaggeration. Cars with large orders are never asked to clear the drive thru and wait in the parking lot for their food to be brought out. Today I waited for 12 minutes to get a coffee. Their was no one ahead of me when I arrived except a p[arty of three who had a hard time making up their minds. After paying and me starting to walk up they decided to change their order so I walked out. Thank you Panera for wasting my time. In my opinion, a well trained cashier should either ask a party that is confused politely to step a side while she attends to the line that formed or at least ask her manager to help her since the restaurant was almost empty. I call the store when I walked out disappointed and asked to speak to the manager. Being a businessman myself, I hate to leave a review and I find reaching out to the establishment more effective. Whoever answered said that they are experiencing a rush and the manager can not talk or take a massage. They recommended I call in an hour. This is not acceptable. If no in charge can address my concern, at least take a note and have the manager call me back. I made it clear to the employee who answered that I was just there and that I am unsatisfied. I said that I would like to discuss my experience with the manager rather than take it to a public forum such as a review site. This encounter shows poor employee training.

I will probably still go to that location since it is close to work and there is no where else to get a salad or soup around here. I had given the cafe 4 stars years ago and changed it to one today. Since the manager was unable to address my encounter, I would have to see better and faster service before I rewrite...

I ordered the Italian full sandwich. They ran out of the bread that they normally make it on, so I chose the focaccia bread.

Because I haven't been to Panera Bread in a very long time, it was like I was a newbie. When I ordered the Focaccia, I assumed it was only one kind. I looked right at it and I only saw one kind. She started spewing out sea salt, asiago and something else... I specifically asked her was it Asiago cheese and she said, "yes". Meaning asiago cheese on my sandwich instead of Asiago focaccia bread. I had no idea she was talking about the different kinds of focaccia bread.

When I went to pick up my order, I was informed that they only had enough Asiago Focaccia for half of my sandwich. They offered to serve the other half on sea salt focaccia. This is when I realized that the cashier in the front was referring to the different kinds of focaccia bread... Both halves of the sandwich tasted good minus the Italian spread.

I ate the sea salt focaccia half first and then I ate the Asiago Focaccia half taking off the Italian spread and adding mayo and it was delicious.

Other than the miscommunication with the bread when I was ordering and the missing bread when they were preparing my food, the service was good. They were polite.

I feel like the back of the restaurant should communicate with the front so that they won't sell items that they are running out of...

I love French onion soup and I've had it in a number of restaurants and canned... I had the French onion soup and it tasted like it had alcohol in it and was more like beef consomme instead of French onion soup. I will never get french onion soup...

The customer service at this location, South Holland, is absolutely terrible! They are rude, unprofessional, and lack training.

After ordering 2 cups of soup with bread, we received our order without bread, butter, or spoons. The young lady at the window returned with a bag with 1 bread and 2 spoons. When informed of the omissions she returned again but this time the bag contained 1 bread but no butter. When again informed of the omission, someone who appeared to be a manager returned angrily stating “we don’t have any more butter! Have a nice day!!” Then she slams the window shut. When asked about the attitude on correcting our order another manager restates that the Store ran out of butter. This is understandable but when We attempted to explain what we wanted, the response did not have to be given with an attitude. Then the gentleman that followed, mimicked the mangers behavior and mumbled something (assumed to be a rude remark) then snidely stated “have a nice day”.

The Homewood location has set my expectations too high, I will go back to them where my hard earned cash is valued! This location is doomed with management leading the...