Panera Bread

Panera is convenient but I have to say thats pretty much it. Their delivery service for work orders is excellent. They are always punctual and my orders are always prepared correctly. Unfortunately I am not a fan of the actual dine in restaurant. This particular location always has sticky tables and the workers are not the friendliest. Salads are good and my favorite was the seasonal arugula salad and the squash soup. Panera is aight… I think that service can be much better. Their foods are simple and is a great place to grab a bite when your not feeling fancy. I usually don’t order tuna or chicken salad from anywhere but I really like their napa chicken salad.

Way too pricey for just a half a sandwich & small cup of soup. The menu was confusing. The food was kind of bland. The service wasn’t very good & took forever to get our food and it wasn’t even very busy.

I had the broccoli cheese bread bowl and my wife had soup and sandwich. Although my soup was good, the bread bowl was so rubbery, I almost couldn’t eat it. My wife’s soup was bland, and the turkey sandwich was a joke. They boasted about thick cut carving board style turkey. It was near wafer sliced similar to the pre packaged crap you buy at the store. The wheat bread was dry and crumbly, like when it is not quite stale but getting there, and was obviously sandwich bread from a bag, not made there. To top it off, very little mayo, and old, wilted lettuce. Yum, yum

I keep ordering bread from this location but it appears that they just can’t be consistent. I know it comes in frozen so it should be the same as the location on Fairmont Parkway in Pasadena but it isn’t. Sometimes the bread tastes stale (it’s made fresh every day); other times the holes are so big that I can’t use it for sandwiches (either large or small loaf). So I just give up and order it from Pasadena.
As for the food, it is also inconsistent. And service… very poor. There can be only 1 person in line ahead of you and plenty of people standing around in the back and it still will take you 20min to get a loaf of bread sliced (takes that long when no one is in line also).
My daughter wanted to try the food again so we stopped a couple of weeks ago. Nothing has changed as the man sitting next to us took 1 bite of soup and ate ¼ of his sandwich and walked out. His expression said it all, and even my laid back easygoing daughter thought it was a waste of money (apple was damaged and brown).

Ladybug on the lettuce of the sandwich– so not washing veggies well evidently. They were gracious about exchanging but definitely grossed me out as what else are they not doing or neglecting?

I work close so I come here often for lunch and let me just say that the food is GOOD! I always opt to go through the drive through where the service is fast and convenient. The only complaint I would have is that it is a little pricey but I guess you’re paying for the quality.

Favorite place to have lunch. Everything on the menu is delicious. Can’t beat that!!!

This is a piss-​poor Panera location. They either mess up your order, have an extremely long wait, or simply dont have what you want. For instance, right now, its 9:34 AM on a Sunday & they have no more soufflés. Im also quite sure that what I did order will be f’ed up.

Typical Panera Bread atmosphere and food. That isn’t a bad thing. I ate at this location for the first time today. The Thai salad was delicious and the chipotle chicken sand which was tasty. I ordered a bag of bagels for the week and the lady was very kind as I waffled back and forth on the flavors. The staff was very polite and attentive. I don’t have any comments on the internet speed. I go to restaurants for food and not to sit around doing my homework or other nonsense. My house is for that. Each generation is different though. I’m glad Panera is in Baytown.

Great atmosphere!

This is my second visit while there is not a huge flow of customers coming in.
I ordered a drink but they somehow forgot about me after 5 min of waiting… I went up to the counter to ask about it, and about 3 min later someone came. The team member that brought my drink to my table said «I’m sorry about that,» but it’s a subpar service recovery… which needs work.
My first visit was last week on a Thursday; i ordered a strawberry poppy with grilled chicken, sliced apples, and a drink. I came around 3pm while the dinner folks didnt arrive until about 4:30pm. It got packed quick.
My experience on my first visit was average. The salad was delicious but left me wanting — it seemed meager for the price of about $ 12 — needs at least 4 oz more of salad and strawberries. The apples appeared a bit «mealy» eg: mushy, bruised. Next time I won’t ask for sliced apples.
The fountain drink was free refills so that was worth it, I guess.
Once the families came for dinner time, it was hard for the folks to find seating (lots of groups came from some sort of event). I was lucky I had a little place where I could do my reading/​studying.
As for the knowledge of the staff: this was the most annoying — the manager ought to train the staff on their products. When someone asks for a recommendation, they should be EAGER to help and not say «Oh I don’t know… they’re all good…» with a lackadaisical attitude and not giving eye contact.
I’ve also tested this on a simple question: what’s a good espresso drink you recommend that’s iced?
I had the same response from a different team member who was working the kiosk.
Nevertheless, the drink was a very good Frozen Caramel — blended well so I wasn’t drinking chunks of ice.
I’ve been to Panera in NJ and New York City — it’s much much much busier than the one I visited in Baytown. I even remember when Panera had the Honeydew Green Tea drinks, which were awesome. The portions were very good in the East Coast that I usually ended up saving my salad for when I got home, especially when I did a You-​Pick-​Two or had a half soup/​salad with bread on the side.
Customer service is the key to having folks come back AND knowledge of your goods.
I probably won’t come here for a while until the staff are more experienced. I’ll do an addendum in the future.
This place is best for [small] families and for those who could care less of the novice team members and those working the food prep at the back — and I’m not being condescending — the manager needs to train their team with what Panera is about.
It’s supposed to be cozy and warm and inviting. right now, it could use some work.
Oh yeah, their Internet speed is about 1.6 Mbps down and 0.68 Mbps upload speed using speedtest. I averaged both during their peak and trough hours. Not worth it for doing work or even reading.
Again, I am very familiar of Panera restaurants… this one is a bit of a downer and could use a lot of help.

Meh, it’s a Panera. The interior design at the front where you wait in line is a nightmare. It was a madhouse of people in a big herd like they didn’t know where to form the line. All of the staff I encountered were very friendly.
Panera is kind of pricey for what you get. I paid $ 15 and some change for a panini, a medium drink, and a soup bread bowl. I ordered the Smokehouse Turkey Panini which I only ate half of because it wasn’t very good. It was greasy on one side, had a very skimpy amount of bacon on it (I’m talking crumbles, not even a strip), and was pretty small for almost $ 8. The taste was not impressive at all. Basically it’s a grilled turkey sandwich, supposedly with bacon on it. I also ordered a bread bowl of the baked potato soup, which was good, but a small amount of soup for what you pay for it.
It wasn’t horrible, but I probably won’t be eating here again.