Panera Bread — Restaurant in West Des Moines

My wife and I are on a long road trip and stopped here for breakfast. The drive through was closed (why?), so we went in and had to wait for a few minutes. Not because it was busy, there just wasn't anyone at the counter working.

It's wild what $20 gets you a Panera. 2 yogurts and 2 bagels. No drinks. Apparently you also have to toast your own bagels now, but yes let me go right ahead and choose a tip amount on the credit card machine. Icing on the cake, the toaster they have you use burns the bottom of the bagels and doesn't toast the top side. All 4 slots did it. We followed the directions on the toaster. Maybe we should have called the help desk number that was on the toaster (I'm not joking here, it actually had this lol)

While I was using the toaster, another customer attempted to get coffee beside me. Unfortunately it was out.... at 8AM it was out of coffee.

Oh and if you can't tell in the picture, one yogurt has less than half of what the other one has. So did we get extra? What if we ordered just one? Would we get the pathetic amount? That doesn't seem fair.

Panera, why am I spending $20 to toast my own stuff, get crappy service, bus my own garbage, then be expected to tip your staff? Why is the drive through closed? Maybe don't advertise you have a drive through if you are not going to prioritize having it open.

Be better. Maybe ask Starbucks or Einstein Bagels how to...

I've always been a fan of this Panera, so this review didn't start about the quality of food. They have always gotten my husband's and my order right and done quickly. However, today, when I ordered online for the rapid pickup and decided to change things up from my constant soup/salad, and do a salad/sandwich without bread, things didn't go so well. I did request no bread in the online customization and instead have it lettuce-wrapped. Which has never been a problem anywhere else I've gone. The gluten-free thing is very common and restaurants are easily able to do this, and without insulting you, in my experience. I got there to pick up my order a few minutes early tonight and heard 3 employees talking about me and my 'weird' order. Making fun of me for ordering it lettuce-wrapped and saying it was probably a "low carb" thing and talking about how it was so annoying, and "Pesto for the salad?!" Yes. Pesto. It usually comes in a little container for salad. Shouldn't be a big deal to swap it for the normal dressing. Not everyone who doesn't want bread is afraid of the carbs. Some are gluten-sensitive and it makes our stomachs hurt. Not a fan of this Panera anymore. The employees need to learn to...

I visit this location frequently…. At least until now. Sparse crowd this morning and only 1 person in front of me who ordered the same thing (Oatmeal). I placed my order at 9:09. The customer in front of me received their order promptly…. So I waited near the receiving counter. After 10 minutes of waiting, I decided to sit down. I had been the first in queue for quite awhile. There were 3 girls in the food prep area, enjoying themselves having lots of laughs. After waiting 14 minutes, I approached the prep counter and asked if there was an oatmeal order pending - the girl responded, “we’re working on it now”. The moment I approached the counter, the girls dispersed and the jovial good time ended…. Finally, my oatmeal came out at 9:27. 18 minutes for a cup of oatmeal!? The hot chocolate I ordered sat on the counter for a good 10 minutes - it was luke warm by the time I got it. If it were a busy breakfast rush hour, I would understand. However, there were only a handful of customers in the store, but I waited for nearly 15 minutes after being first up in the queue. I’m not sure where management was during this time, but certainly not monitoring the “happy time” in the...