Panera Bread — Restaurant in Town of New Hartford

Quick tip: Your therapy dog in-training, or even a fully trained therapy dog, does not have public access. The ONLY assistance animals with public access are service dogs. After my friends (one with a service dog in-training) visited your Panera location, they were shocked to discover that only had your manager allowed a therapy dog in-training inside the dining location, but also apparently gave the "ok" for the dog to be on the seat. When informed about the laws, the person who owned the dog promptly dismissed FEDERAL and STATE law by saying that "it's okay, I just ask and they let me in." It doesn't matter. Your therapy dog, your ESA, whatever it may be, is NOT a service dog. YOU are a part of the problem, and by smugly informing those around you that you just "ask and they're okay with it" is not only blatant denial of federal law and also BREAKING federal law, but also puts a very bad name for highly trained service dogs who go through years of training to help their handlers who have a DISABILITY. Your dog on the bench next to you, or jumping on people, or trying to eat their food - or god forbid has people or dog reactivity or aggression - reinforces the idea that anyone can bring any Fido any where they want and puts the namesake of true service dogs at risk, let alone if it were a dog who could put the actual public or a real service dog at risk. There are laws in place to protect service dogs and their handlers, and pretending like it's okay to break them because your dog is special or you simply feel you deserve special treatment is absolutely disgusting. If the manager says it's "OK" for your therapy dog in-training to be there, then the manager is simply enabling you in breaking the law. It's that simple. Images include the vest that this particular dog was wearing, and an infographic depicting the differences between ESAs, Service Dogs, and...

My mom and I went here for lunch just a couple days ago and the experience was terrible. While the cashier who took our order was very friendly and patient with my mom who did not know what she wanted beforehand, the rest of the experience was far less pleasant. We had both ordered the same thing: Broccoli and Cheddar Soup in a Bread Bowl, a Half Chicken Caesar Salad, and an Apple as our side of choice with her getting a fountain drink and mine pairing with a bottled water. When our buzzer went off, I went to receive our order and before even touching anything, I knew they had messed it up. One soup was not in a bread bowl, but I did not think it was too big a deal. I chose to let them know they had messed it up, expecting them to correct it, and they just gave me an un-hollowed bread bowl roll. So I went back to my seat without a fuss, gave my mother the one already in the correct bowl and went to wash my hands before dealing with the bread bowl for myself without any further complaints on my part. Upon my return, my mother had brought us back plastic spoons as she had to return the ones they had given us. They still had food on them and had clearly not been washed. This was both disgusting and unsettling considering Covid-19 is still around regardless of things opening up. The staff was being very careless. I have never had much of an issue when eating at this location, however as it stands now, I would not recommend eating at this establishment as they are currently not taking food preparation or proper cleaning precautions...

We are a school district and do purchase order with Panera quite often. We had a terrible experience and unprofessional service from Panera for our last order which was two days ego. One of our staff had ordered scrambled egg and they happen to send him bacon. This staff had a extreme restrictions for eating bacon and he had a bite of his food without checking it and knowing it was bacon. He thought he received what he ordered which was scrambled egg. After the bite, he had a terrible issue and suffered a lot. I felt terrible to be a part of this suffering and I called Panera to talk to a manager, she listened to me and didn’t really care much. I took the lunch box, printed the purchase order and order confirmation email from Panera and went to their location. The manager lady came out and listened carefully, asked us what she cam do for that. I told her to send an apology email to our staff and myself and train her staff better. She promised she would send this apology email but it has been 2 days and nothing came yet. I am going tell this story to all people around me and will not continue our business with them. Terrible experience and not satisfied with problem solving. At least an apology email would make us feel a little better, but they even didn’t do...