Panera Bread — Restaurant in Washington

American Chain of Bakery Café Fast Casual Restaurants

The Good: Clean, calm, basic dining area that is open and inviting. Friendly and warm staff. Clean and usable bathroom.

The Bad: During one of my half a dozen visits to this location, even with simple orders like a drink, bagel, and fruit, my orders were slow to very slow. I have yet to have my meal quickly prepared and available. About 50% of the tables I have sat at were not clean when I sat down. Like most guests, I have come to accept dirty tables and floors as part of the "fast food" experience. Unfortunately, Panera is not an exception and is ranked alongside McDonald's, Taco Bell, Wendy's, etc., regarding cleanliness. The guest internet connection here is painfully slow. A quick speed test via Ookla showed a very slow internet connection (

We’ve given this Panera a few tries since they opened and after today’s visit, they still don’t have it together. How is it that corporate Panera can spell everything out for these people and somehow it still fails? We were greeted by Stephanie this morning in the drive thru and we ordered their strawberry oatmeal to which she promptly told us “we don’t have strawberries” we were like uhhh ok? Do you have a substitute? She said blueberries were like ok that’s fine. Then we ask about their family breakfast feast to which she replied with an attitude that she didn’t even know what we were talking about. She had to take a moment to learn her companies menu. To make a long story short we waited too long for our sub par overpriced breakfast sandwiches, where you can see in the picture they were slopped together and luke warm with what appears to be a bizarre small looking piece of bacon. My oatmeal was actually great, and lo and behold what do you know was on it? Strawberries! This place just sucks and get a new job if you don’t like...

Pulled into the Panera Bread drive-thru in Washington, UT, expecting soup and bread… not to lock eyes with a lumpy, grinning loaf of bread holding a “WELCOME” sign like he’d been waiting for me personally. He should be locked up in a straight jacket or put back in a Stephen King thriller novel!

His googly eyes followed my truck the entire time, and I swear his doughy smile widened when I ordered a kids menu grilled cheese. Creepy.

Don’t get me wrong, the grilled cheese was molten perfection and the apple slices were crisp enough to make me briefly forget the danger. But every bite felt like the mascot was outside my window, whispering, “You’ll be back…he he he he he he.”

Honestly, I haven’t driven at night since, just in case his yeast powered legs can run faster under the cover of darkness. Panera, please either leash him to a light post or hire him out for Halloween, he looks more like a potato than bread, FYI.

Five stars for the food, negative five for my newfound bread...