Panera Bread

Love Panera!!! Never a problem with an order and employees are always courteous. LOVE the soups but have recently discovered the amazing Mac and cheese!!! Coming locally soon and will be there much more!!! However this particular location (we usually frequent Port Jeff or Lake Grove) seems to be SO busy and every time we go there the wait is long for service and food.

I mean… I don’t know. this location lay out bothers me. The prices bother me. the fact I wasn’t able to get Asiago bread on the side like the other Paneras bothered me.
This location just rubs me the wrong way.

This place used to get 5 stars!
After the last price increase, and smaller sized portions & drinks,
it is now down to 2 stars. Deli around the corner has better food
For less!

This is my go to healthy lunch spot near my office. I love the rapid pick up, makes it so convenient if I am just grabbing lunch to bring back or meeting someone here. The line at lunch is a hit or miss. Sometimes its 10 people deep, other times its out the door so rapid pick up is a must for me. I usually get the different salads which are always fresh and a good portion size that fills me up. Love Panera especially this location!

Very busy location so try to avoid the busy lunch times. Very friendly staff, Never been disappointed with a visit.
Broccoli and cheddar soup is amazing and they do have a lot of healthier options.
Been on a Panera breakfast kick lately and haven’t been let down yet, a breakfast sandwich and a cappuccino is a perfect way to start the day!

Iced green tea is awesome. Although i do think this chain is a bit overrated, you need to order the right things and make it work for you.
get the Iced green tea but, stay away from their chipotle chicken sandwich I hate the fake smoky taste.
Most everything they serve has the same, hickory/​smoke/​crap flavor… if that’s your thing, by all means, dig in.
Now, getting down to the specifics, at the core of this place is a manager named (let’s say «Judy.» «Judy» doesn’t care about you, your food, your comfort, or your satisfaction. Judy doesn’t like what she does. Not only that, Judy isn’t friendly, nor does she pretend to be or do any of the above… Judy is in the wrong line of work, and Judy deserves to be unemployed, and not compensated. The deficiencies of ill management run down to the lower level grouchy grunts, screwing up orders, spilling drinks, and simply forgetting to serve you.
I went in today to order a sandwich, a simple task to some… this all went down hill the moment I stepped up to the register, placing my order a minute later than my girlfriend; I order a mozzarella panini but, wanted to add chicken (which I have done a half a million times before) for some reason this was confusing, and a big problem. apparently a «no-​no» but she could put some on the side… gee thanks would ya?
So, anyway, the girl comes back, drops my green tea, and I am left waiting… WAITING as my girlfriend finishes what she has ordered and they have simply NOT made my sandwich. OK so I ask the fella what’s up. and what happens? JUDY asks the kid, what my problem is… MY PROBLEM? my problem is I havent gotten my order in the last 20 minutes, my drink is dripping from my foot, and you are an ugly, rude, incapable manager, and an awful excuse of a human being, THAT’S my problem… The most sorry person in the whole matter was the girl who couldn’t speak but two words English and could tell I was more than upset… so she gave me an extra piece of bread… thank you.
in conclusion, if JUDY is there… I will never be.
Oh, the sandwich was cold, on hard and tasteless bread, and the entire restaurant was a filthy mess.
Slowest panera I’ve been to but close to work. Gotta be there at the right time and hope this bad experience doesn’t always happen (it doesn’t)

Now I’m going to start this off by saying I love Panera Bread, but just not this particular one. I work nearby so I ordered you pick two with rapid pick up. My food was ready even before they said it would be which is great. The problem starts when I got back to work to eat my food.
We can start with the sandwich. It was so sloppy, had a half of a tomato on it and one slice of turkey and I live for the sauce they put on it, it’s my favorite part, open it up to see its the wrong sauce and a lot of it all dripping down the sides of it. So that’s the sandwich
Next, the bread I got on the side for my soup (which was the only good part) the bread was burnt and hard I couldn’t even rip it apart lol, and I believe it’s called panera bread for a reason.
Needless to say I will not go to that one again. I’ll stick to the one near the smith haven mall.

Three words: «Fix the WiFi». I like to eat here but don’t plan on using a laptop or iPhone. The cell reception in the area is terrible and the WiFi is painfully slow and unreliable.

Honestly I like Panera. However I don’t necessarily believe it is a good value for the dollar. The salads a fresh but often tiny. For example I had the Asian chicken salad and it was probably a half a cup of salad in my bowl. I’m not a heavyweight and I left that place starving today. I believe the soups are really good for example the garden pesto is chock full of vegetables and low in calories which is a good thing and it fills you up.
My son had the classic grilled cheese. We had to add ham and that was an extra two dollars. 8 bucks for a sandwich that he ate in two bites really? That was pathetic.
So the long and short of it. Can you have a really is one of the few options for fresh food and good salads. However, you need to be prepared to separate yourself from a good deal of your $. It’s a shame that eating healthy has to cost so much.

Panera Bread! Need I say more? They do it right. This location is busy especially at lunch time but they move you quickly. Love their sandwich and soup combo. Great salads too. A new Panera is opening 7÷6÷15 just 5 miles up the road in Patchogue next to Noodles. Check it out.

This place needs to be more careful with orders. I was in a rush this morning and didn’t check the bag. they had forgotten my chips and bread.

Mac and cheese, Mediterranean veggie sandwich, broccoli cheese soup, tomato basil soup, orange scone quiche! It doesn’t matter what it is it will be awesome, even the loaves of bread! But what ever you do, do NOT pass up the green iced tea! Best thing ever weather it is hot out or cold it’s amazing! Love it!

Overall good food. Place is usually very busy. When in season, they have the best lobster roll around.

Forgot to make my breakfast yesterday so I had to stop somewhere to start my metabolism. I ducked into Panera Bread to check and see if they had anything that was somewhat WW friendly.
I choose Mediterranean Egg Whites on Ciabatta. It had egg whites, a thick slice of Vermont white cheddar, roasted tomatoes, fresh spinach and basil pesto on baked Ciabatta bread.
Not a terrible choice on paper, but in reality it was 11 pluspoints. There was so much basil pesto on it, which was totally unecessary, because everything else on it was so flavorful. May sound silly to you, but I would rather have a less caloric breakfast and spend my points on more frivolous eats.
However, service was outstanding!

Very disappointed in the new autumn squash soup. It was advertised w pepitas and they didn’t come w any. Also the soup is overly sweet, had to add a ton of salt & pepper. So not worth the money they charge.

I went to this Panera Bread on Saturday and had dinner with my wife. After dinner we thought it would be nice to have an Danish. We went to the counted to pick something out, and I was shocked to see the food was covered with flies. It was disgusting, I could only in think about the food we just had.
I sent a letter to the Panera office and received a reply that this unit is a franchised unit and they did not heave control of it, but they would forward my comments to the owners.
So if you think you are eating at Panera think again.

Panera is not bad for a chain restaurant. The food always seems pretty fresh and the breads, save one time, are always amazing.
I tend to frequent it because it is right next to where I work and it offers some healthier alternatives than most of the other quick-​stop lunch places around.
I do think that they’re a bit overpriced though.
I usually get a combo meal, my favorite being the chopped chicken Cobb salad and the Sonoma chicken stew.
I think I am also addicted to their iced green tea and in the mornings, the chai tea latte.
I do have a couple of bad things to note about this particular location. The service in the morning (morning for me is around 7 am or nearly 8 am… I’m usually running late for work) when the place is pretty quiet is soooooo poor. The staff seems bothered that you came in no matter how friendly you may be to them. Once I literally had my breakfast sandwich to-​go bag thrown at me from one of the cooks behind the counter who was too busy to even look at me in case she break the conversation she was having with her co-​worker. Needless to say, I stopped coming in for breakfast. As can be see by the amount of Starbucks check-​ins I have made.
I do enjoy the Panera Rewards program though. A nice free bagel (though you have to pay for the cream cheese) or coffee drink/​tea/​smoothie here and there and free pastry on your birthday, is schweet!
Gotta love the little things, right?

An update…
It seems the prices are a little higher but the food is still excellent, very fresh. The U-​pick-​two salad seemed smaller to me, but there was still plenty of food. Maybe it’s because ingredients are getting more expensive.
I love the Sesame Chicken salad and Chicken Fontega Panini. Both items have lots of flavor and are a real treat for lunch!
I will return!

This was my first visit to Panera Bread and I thought it was very good in a casual way. I liked the highlighted specials and new items, plus the service was very good.
I will have to return again in the future, but I found this as a much better alternative to the local fast food places.

Lunch and stuff.
I haven’t really been a big fan of Panera — mostly because the one in New Hyde Park seemed sketchy to me. That being said, I was bored and looking for something on the lighter side for lunch and took a shot at Panera again.
This location does a BANGING lunch business. There was a line about 10 deep and I was going to pass on waiting but it seemed to be moving quickly– they had 3 registers going — so I hung in there. I was able to place my order relatively quickly and had my lunch and was off to eat in a few minutes.
I went with a BBQ Chicken salad and it was the perfect size for lunch — toss in a nice piece of bread and you cannot go wrong. It hit the spot and after getting back to work, I looked over their menu online and was surprised to see a lot of interesting choices. I will definitely try them again.
Madhouse parking lot in front– be prepared to walk.