Panera Bread — Restaurant in Union

The food is good, but the service is horrible! Went here for breakfast on a Saturday morning. There was a line and when we finally placed our order the woman at the register did not know the menu. I ordered their avocado, egg white, spinach and cheese breakfast sandwich, but somehow she mumbled something about checking to see if they have chicken and left the register. I don’t know where she got chicken. Anyway, when she returned I reiterated my order and she left the register again and returned to say they have that. While waiting for our food my brother was looking for sugar for his coffee. By this time there were no employees around to ask. The lady at the register disappeared. So we looked in the cabinets and found sugar. A heavy set employee came and scolded us by telling us, “you guys can’t just go looking through there.” We explained there wasn’t any sugar, she then said we should ask someone, but we told her there was no one to ask. She had no response. Anyway, I went to the pick up counter to get a knife to cut my breakfast sandwich. The same employee who scolded us was leaning on the counter blocking the utensils. She was busy texting on her phone. I said excuse me and she turned and stared at me. I let her know I needed a knife. Instead of moving right away or passing me one or even apologizing for blocking the area she just stared at me and said okay sarcastically and made a face, like I was bothering her. I don’t know who the manager is, but he or she needs to get their staff some training on how to run the place and interact with customers. As much as I like the food it seems Panera is lacking on quality service. I already stopped going to the one in Short Hills because the terrible service there. I thought this location would be better since it’s newer, but they’re all the same. They need to hire people that care about their work, train them properly on their menu items, and basic...

My Family & I usually love Panera Bread. We don’t go often because they are pretty pricey now. We’ve lived close to the Vermella for about a year and half now. This is our 2nd time going to this location. The first time, spend about $80+. They didn’t pack the soup correctly. So by the time my husband went to pick up food - It fell through the bag by the time he made it home, so half our food was pretty much wasted. Also, got a Tuna sandwich which was mainly bread and no Tuna. Haven’t been back in maybe 5 or 6 months. Today, was craving for some Panera, so we tried again. Spend over $100 this time. Same thing, the sandwiches are SO SMALL and barely any filling. It’s mainly bread! Also, got a salad with the order. They gave two very small dressing containers that was not even half filled! As you can see in picture, the dressing was not even close to covering a fourth of the salad. I ended up just adding my own dressing too it. First time getting the green smoothie and it had a bunch of ice chunks in them. This is the worst Panera we’ve ever been too. Also got 3 Strawberry Banana smoothies, and one of them barely had any banana in it (while I was there, I heard someone asking if that was the last banana), so they basically ran out. Could’ve just substituted drink honestly. Only good thing from the meal was the soup and Mac & cheese which is pre-made before hand and just sits in a warmer. Basically anything that is made to order (sandwiches, smoothies & salad), is just terrible! I’d rather drive 30 mins to a different location, that’s how bad this place is. The workers are all young kids who look like they don’t like or care about their job. I’m sure when they make their own meals, it definitely doesn’t...

Unfortunately, each time we order from here, they are always out of key ingredients for menu listings -- IF the options exist at all, this includes tomatoes, spinach, cheeses, breads, lettuces, corn salsa (for Baja Chxn Salad), and more. No discount is applied to the meal cost for a consumer who did not opt out of an ingredient, but, could not get it because not in stock. And you cannot move forward with the order UNLESS you 'remove' the out of stock ingredient. A catch 22 on the app, because they don't acknowledge it's not by choice. The wait for your meal even if ordered online way ahead has run us anywhere from 40+ min (yesterday) to as long as over an hour (last visit) once arriving onsite to the store. Items are missing when turned over in the stapled bag. We stop through here on our way home from visits to the Benedictine Motherhouse monthly. Last month's visit, we were almost on the Garden State Parkway before realizing a multiple sandwiches, etc were missing (but, we were exasperated and just wanted to get back on the road after waiting over an hour to get our food). My niece who was still waiting there (now about 90min) for her meal, updated the management who offered to refund us for the meal/missing foods. She was assured it would be applied. It was never refunded. After three bad experiences after three different months, we will not be going back. We still tipped, we remained patient and polite, even tried to be understanding, but, we just cannot go there anymore. I always hate writing non-positive reviews. But, while there each time, I realize we are not the only ones experiencing this. And I am hoping this gets the store what/who it needs to help it turn around and...