Panera Bread — Restaurant in Whitemarsh Township

UPDATED REVIEW (March 2024): Over the past 6+ months, each visit has improved. They seem to have better leadership and more friendly staff. Some of the regular folks that work the food prep area are so much improved from visits 1 to 2 years ago.

I am very hopeful these improvements remain. If leadership is reading this, keep up the efforts. And for the staff that goes out of the way to smile and interact warming with the customers, keep up the great work!

From Late 2022/Early 2023: I don't visit Panera much anymore and that's primarily because this location is so bad. At least half the time on prior visits, they were out of the French baguette that goes with their many salads. Seriously, BREAD is in the name, you really shouldn't run out.

I stopped in for the first time in months, hoping it got better. I used the kiosk (since there was no one at the counter and honestly, it's more convenient). I finished my order, swiped my credit card and then the screen went to nothing - I clicked the back arrow and then it read "communicating with card reader". I waited, looked for a text since I enabled alerts, nothing. Finally went to the order counter. Must have been 10 people working and no one acknowledged me. Finally, the supervisor sent a new untrained employee. I explained what happened, he asked my name then went back to the supervisor. Not the first time their "technology" didn't work. Those kiosks are junk. So of course, they had no record of my order, so now I have to track my credit card transaction.

She told me to have the staff take my order, to which I asked, can you look up my information since all my past orders are on file? Nope. Can't do that. So, I left and went to Couch Tomato and got an amazingly fresh salad sourced with many local ingredients.

Moral of the story, I should have gone to the local spot first and skipped Panera like I have for many months now.

I've been a customer for almost 20 years - LONG before they became part of a huge corporation that cares about profits not people. The food is still pretty good but the service is average at best and more often just mediocre, sometimes rude. The menu has got ridiculously large - does anyone know why Friendly's failed? They branched out into too many different menu items for one. Keep to the core, do it exceptionally well and...

I ordered a Steak and white cheddar. My favorite thing here. I come here to study. They have cut back on portion size, big time. So, I still pay the same amount, but now get less. Also I would like to mention that at times, when ordering this, I would get a fist full of onions and little meat... I order a steak sandwich not a onion sandwich... Now this time the steak was hard and chewy like rubber... I don"t know if they change management to a guy trying to hedge his own profits buy selling over price food and decreased portion size. If you knew what it was like here a few years ago, to see how it is now is pitiful. But hey if you cool with paying that much for tiny sandwich, you clearly have money to burn. A restaurant should have you leave feeling satisfied, not ripped off.

I can also mention that countless times I've tried the chicken frontega sandwich... there has been stale bread, cheese not melted, chicken cold, no veggies, burnt, little to no chicken... and more...

My friend likes to order the goddess green salad at panera breads... this one would forget certain ingredients from time to times such as bacon, pickle onion, and avocados ... heaven forbid she actually customizes it...

And they have also forgotten to toast her a bagel once, when she ordered a toasted cut bagel...

People start speaking them up, if you don't call there bad performances nothing will change. And all the stuff I've mention have happen when they were and weren't busy. But bad service is bad service and is unacceptable at this price, or any price for...

On our way to Peddlers Village we stopped by here for a quick lunch (mainly because we needed an outdoor dining option since we had our golden retriever puppy with us). Not sure why the low rating for this place, I was quite pleased with my experience. This is the first Panera I have been in that has the self service registers which I took full advantage of, very user friendly and it gives you the chance to peruse all your options without feeling the pressure of a cashier waiting for your order while a line of people builds behind you. Once you place your order and grab your cup you wait to receive a text that it is ready for pick up. Both of our meals were great, hubby loved the spicy chicken sandwich and the broccoli cheddar soup is always loaded with veggies. I got the Pick 2 as well - a Smokehouse BBQ Chicken Sandwich and Thai Chicken soup. The sandwich was great, loaded with chicken and red onions per my request but the soup was lacking - no chicken or much of anything besides broth, should have went with my go to which is Creamy Chicken and Rice. I also like that this location has all the to go containers in the pick up area so you don't have to ask the people behind the counter. I did notice a nice fireplace area inside which I would take advantage of if in the area again. Clean inside and outside but it would be awesome if they had outdoor and outdoor heater or 2 going in the colder months. Lots of parking in the strip mall but it did seem to get...