Panera Bread — Restaurant in Town of Islip

We all know when we order McDonalds that the food will never look like the picture. When you go to Panera, the expensive price structure means you expect what you order to look like the photo, or better. Over the last two weeks, I had the Broccoli/Cheddar Soup, the Chicken Noodle Soup and the Greek Salad/Tomato Soup combo. Broccoli/Cheddar Soup: the picture shows a nice full bowl with chunks of broccoli. What I got was a half full bowl of soup that had NO chunks of broccoli and was extremely salty. Chicken Noodle Soup: again, the pictures show chunks of chicken in a full bowl. What I received was a half full bowl of soup that had 3 small pieces of chicken. Greek Salad/Tomato Soup Combo: the picture was pretty accurate. The salad is very good. The soup, well, if you like traditional tomato soup, this is not for you. It tastes just like marinara sauce. I tend to like it, however, once it was so thick I had to go to the coffee/tea bar and add hot water. The other 2 times it was a soup consistency. I have had 3 kinds of sandwiches and toasted bagels. The sandwiches look NOTHING like the photos - no exceptions. The oy thing that looks just like the photo is the toasted bagel. Panera is going...

Tou guys ever wonder why there is always a Panera Bread right next to or at least very close to a chipotle. I always thought that it was because they were owned by the same company. Well it actually turns out that its because chipotle sees panera as their biggest competitor since they both serve semi fast healthy food. So in order to try and get Panera ri make less money and drive them out, they are near them to try and steal their customers. Which seems odd. But ever since the chipotle opened near here I've gone less and less to Panera so I guess their plan worked. The interesting this is that this has caused Panera to change what they sell to tey and enter a different market so now they are more like a cafe who specializes in coffee and treats, but you can also get so alright food. This has caused the quality and quantity of the food to delince in the Hope's of changing what the are know for............ now my review-good food and nice soups not as good as chipotle but not that bad. It's still a good place to go eat with friends after work or in...

I have to give credit where credit is due. Over the past week or two this Panera has been trying to make things a whole lot better. The Greek Salad I had was phenomenal. The cafe was very clean and the beverage centers were well stocked and had napkins!! As always, the staff here is phenomenal and nice. Mike, who runs the counter early mornings to mid-afternoon is the nicest person I experience on a daily basis. Always nice, ready to take my order and polite. He pitches in EVERYWHERE during slow times. He wipes tables, sweeps, stocks the supplies; mornings are indeed a good start thanks to Mike. And, let me not forget the serenade you can sometimes here when the woman behind the food counter and the manager sing a song together! Ha, ha. It's true! And, they have great voices. No...