Panera Bread — Restaurant in Virginia

The customer service at the Gainesville Panera just got so much better! MEREDITH IS HERE! (Okay, it got better 2 years ago, when she came to this store, but I had not encountered her here in Gainesville until this morning.)

Meredith is a customer service powerhouse that my wife and I encountered at the Centreville Panera years ago. She was our absolute favorite! We ordered for pick up all the time, and Meredith was so responsive. The one time we had the tiniest issue, she was so quick to fix it --sometimes I made mistakes on my order, and she helped with that, quickly, and with a reassuring smile. She is so kind all the time, it feels like she is our close friend.

While my wife was pregnant with our 2nd kiddo, we were going out of town for a trip very early in the morning (technically before the Centreville Panera opened). My wife had a huge craving for Panera breakfast that morning. Meredith took our order and had it ready the moment the store opened--i know, because I was there right at that moment.

Over and over again, our to-go or eat-in orders were ready in record time (honestly, like, ridiculously fast) and she always (always always always) had a kind word or a smile. When Meredith was pregnant, she and my wife swapped pregnancy stories --but we knew she was going to be home for a while with her baby, and we would no longer have access to her amazing kindness. We were SO sad.

And now she's HERE, in Gainesville! The sun is shining, the day is brighter, and the only thing that could make this day better is if gold bars or corvettes fell out of the sky in front of me :-)

One thing I notice about Meredith is that she seems to always be the one to bring the food to your table with a smile. And she is the manager! I always felt like she must have so many more important things to do, but she always always makes time for her customers. It feels like she genuinely wants to be the one to make you smile. If there is an issue, she seems to rush to make it right. I've never heard her get onto a fellow employee when something wasnt perfect- she just fixed it quickly with a smile and an apology, as though she made the mistake herself and took full responsibility for it.

You can't buy this kind of service. Meredith has a passion for her customers, she is kind, she takes responsibility, she goes over and above, she appears to take on even the tiniest jobs that other employees may not want to do, she makes her customers smile every single day.

Come to the Gainesville Panera and experience the legend that is the manager named Meredith-- she will...

Placed my order, took my little buzzer, and sat down to wait. After 20 minutes and no buzzing to tell me my food was ready. I walked to the counter to see if it was sitting there. It was not so I sat back down to patiently wait. Another 20 minutes passed without a buzz so I went over to ask. Lo and behold there was my food, I knew it was mine because it had my name and #46 same as my buzzer on the receipt.. I asked how long it had been sitting there and a muffled voice from behind a mask said "I ivjf5h gnjrfu7 times" I said I am sorry I have no idea what you just said. To which the reply, a little louder this time, was " I called your name a couple of times". I asked why didn't you use the buzzer, to which there was no reply. I asked where my frozen coffee was and the reply was "I put it up there". I asked that another drink please be made and that my now cold food please be remade or reheated. I waited a couple of minutes then reminded the person to please reorder my drink. The cook handed back my bowl of soup from the microwave without my sandwich. The counter person asked where the sandwich was. This apparently irritated the cook who angrily said "you didn't say she wanted that reheated" twice.. At that point I had to give up. The soup although hot now looked unappetizing, it had that film tomato soup gets when it cools and quite a bit of it was stopped over the sides. The grilled Mac and Cheese sandwich looked like a congealed mass on slightly browned, soggy bread. I definitely wasn't interested in a microwaved grilled sandwich and I wasn't sending anything back for the angry cook to spit on so I went to the cashier and asked to see a manager. The manager could not be bothered to talk to me so the cashier asked what I wanted. I asked for my money back and handed the tray of food plus the drink that had just arrived back and left. I have been to Panera more than once and believe they try not present unappetizing food. I understand they may not have enough people so I was very patiemt, I waited 40 minutes. The least they could do was provided decemt service and the quality of food Panera charges a...

Food sub par. Worst grilled cheese ever, how does one ruin a grilled cheese?? Staff: most just didn't care. The cashier was nice. The rest of the staff was just so put off by everything. DIRTY, every single table DIRTY!! Just Gross!! All of the floors covered in food. Gross!!! Just Gross!!!! Chairs were not tucked into the table and dirty, just sloppy sloppy sloppy. Manager stated we train our staff to push the crumbs from the tables to the floor and we don't vacuum or clean the floors until after closing. Because we have a issue with the noise. So there is more of an issue with noise over cleanliness! How about a broom and dust pan, no noise there! Keep it clean! So if you go during the last two hours of the night you will be sitting in trash and I mean trash! Napkins, chunks of food, whatever... I'm sorry one would think that management would tell the staff to pick up the large pieces of trash off the floor but no! I stated my concerns with the manager and it was as if I was annoying her. I then called corporate and stated my concerns. I was told "Thank you and Merry Christmas". We will tell the manager there, district manager, and regional manager ... Merry Christmas?? That's it. No here is a coupon or let me give you back part of your money...nothing. Bye Bye. Next time I will just stick to chick fil a for fast food. Much cleaner, nicer, and all around better than this store. If this store looks this bad where I can see it what does it look like where I can't! And management is the issue here! Training staff to keep a dirty restaurant, Wow just mind blowing! I'm sorry it isn't that hard to turn a keep a clean dining area. At the time I was there, tons of staff, not busy but so much filth!...