Panera Bread — Restaurant in Warner Robins

I never thought I'd get used to Panera having a drive-thru, this Robins location is very convenient. The employees are younger, so I'll let it fly with 4 stars. They may not know the products well enough. Don't be rude to the kids, they're friendly and do try. My husband's $14 Jersey Mikes sub has $20+ worth of ingredients and you can feel its weight. A $15 lunch should include its condiments, so just ask for more, no issue there. McDonald's won't even give a napkin in WR or Macon without a stare.

With Paneras, people either love them or don't... For fair review, its a bakery cafe not a restaurant. If you love salads, great. Coffees, bagels, the best. Fresh breads, excellent. For those who enjoy Paneras- The classic pecan braid is a flaky twist using the layered pastry dough now. The creamy tomato bisque is just tomato soup by name. (Same soup; Just pay for the cheese.) There's changes I've accepted here, but don't tell me this soup never came with cheese. Its the same cheese with the French Onion. It took me weeks to recall the right cheese, but the helpful lady still offered parmesan. It worked okay for taste, but parmesan stiffens to a lump. Its the other mozzarella for the soup. One teaspoon of vinaigrette for the asian sesame half-salad was too much to accept, so I pulled the car over for more, no big deal. The salad dressing cup was nowhere near half full. The cilantro was in it though. Other locations leave it out. Five stars is a no so far. Its still great food, the best soups, sandwiches, and I love the breads. Its been noticably less glazes, less dressings, and sauces used the last several months. However, the side baguette was surprisingly baked perfect today. I often toss these, but sitting in traffic, I ate the whole thing. It was not hard, nor rubbery after 4pm. Most Paneras are a hit or miss lateday with the baguettes. Like most, I'm not planning to dine inside anywhere for a while, but I can still get the foods I like to eat without dreading...

So, we went to Panera for a breakfast sandwich, on my sandwich I wanted sausage, egg & cheese on ciabatta bread, add bacon and spinach. Once we arrived back home with our order, I realized that the person making my sandwich didn’t think I should have sausage, cheese or spinach and decide it would be in my best interest to have bacon & egg only on ciabatta. Aggravated about people that I’m paying, not being able to follow simple written instructions on an order, and the fact that I was up-charged for the added stuff, I decided to go back to Panera to give them a second chance of reading the order off my receipt and making my sandwich the way I wanted it. As I’m standing there, the employee making the sandwich actually turned and asked if I wanted bacon on it. I replied “make the thing just like it says on the piece of receipt ”.

Guess what....

He couldn’t do it. Once I arrived home, again my sandwich was wrong and instead of ciabatta bread it was on a croissant.

Now it’s a matter of principle and pure ignorance of the employee.

If these restaurants don’t start hiring kids or individuals that can actually follow simple instructions and treat the customers with respect at the drive thru, (which is another problem this morning with Panera) then I will give my business to the one place that has never got it wrong with me....Chick-fil-a.

The Panera manager was very sorry for the situation and she was very respectful, but that doesn’t change the fact that she is responsible for how her employees treat and serve her customers.

Ma’am you need to get control of the situation before these kids ruin your business. It starts by hiring someone that can actually read a order ticket and cares enough that your customers have a good experience. People are tired of spending their money and not getting what they asked for....

My granddaughter and I had dinner tonight at Panera Bread. Thought we would try it. I had a regular salad with added avocado and Romain lettuce . The bread was stale, and salad was wilted and soggy. It was actually unedible. Tasted like a salad that had been left in fridge overnight.Provolone cheese on sandwich was old hard, and unedible. The only thing that tasted fresh was turkey on sandwich. I literally paid 21 dollars to walk in , order, taste, and leave. Beverages were ok, Service was ok. Fast because we used kiosk. Employees were friendly. I will never eat there again, and I will post my experience on facebook. Graddaughter ate half of the sandwich. She commented " we could have made a better sandwich at home and avoided the traffic and skipped getting dressed" , If you are going to serve food that has not sold all day you should offer it at half price. My point being: Come early and get fresh food. Come late and get "leftovers" prepared earlier in the day. Sorry for the long post. If I were the manager, I would invite my customer to come back, serve the same order, and assure the customer it was an unfortunate oversight . Teenaged employees are not concerned about how the food tastes . As my granddaughter stated: "You didn't pay for a smile. You paid...