Panera Bread

I have been a huge fan of Panera for a long time, especially enjoying the pick two combo for lunch, but after today, don’t know if I will patronize their Crestview Hills location or establishment again. I had to order a «rush» breakfast for a business meeting and when I arrived had the worst experience with the rudest person named Susie. She wasn’t waiting on me, but had knowledge of my order and clearly had an attitude and animosity toward me! She refused to make eye contact, talked around me to the gentleman who was assisting me and slung my order out of her way. Panera, if you want my business again, ensure your employees are well trained in customer service!!! And for goodness sake, remove Susie from the «front line»!

I LOVE this Panera for breakfast. The staff is friendly and my food is always perfect. I eat breakfast here 3 – 4 days a week. They are consistently great! I must also note that my order always contains a substitution. The breakfast sandwiches are amazing! I also like the oatmeal with granola topping. This is a busy location, but they will work quickly. I rarely have to wait long.

Slow and backed up then register problems that didn’t send my order but upon realization both managers were apologetic and gave me a larger combo.

Lara was the name of the girl who took our order. She was friendly and nice. The rest of the staff seemed fun-​loving as well. Food was as ordered and everything tasted great. Perhaps a bit on the slow side, but this is Panera we are talking about (not fast food!).

This location is slow and unorganized. The line is usually long, order taking is inefficient and inaccurate. Food quality is ok assuming they got your order right. Overall, seems to be a poorly managed operation with inadequately trained employees.

*** No longer a good value for Pick 2 Meals ***
I have been a fan of Panera in the past for it’s good quality food at what I considered a fair price. Previously I would order a «Pick Two» for half-&-half salad & soup or sandwich & soup. The price seemed reasonable. However, they’ve since updated their pricing strategy to have individual prices for «half sizes» on every soup, salad and sandwich, to where the cost increase is significant for most menu items. When I could have had lunch for maybe $ 9.00 including a beverage before, the same items are now $ 13 – 15.00. That’s completely out of line for half sized portions. From now on, when I’m looking for a half-&-half, I’ll head to McAlisters Deli instead.

I’d been to this location a couple of times and their food to me was ok. Everyone seems to rave about their broccoli cheddar soup, so I tried it. Quite frankly, what I make at home is much better. I think they are way overpriced for the quality of the food.
But, the nail in the coffin for me for this location is the fact that the last time I was there I ordered a soup and sandwich combo. A quarter way through my lunch I took a bite of my sandwich and got a nice long hair. Totally, grossed me out to where I had to run to the restroom. I did inform the management and they offered to make me a new lunch, but at this point, food was the last think I wanted, especially Panera.
I left and will never go back.

For my first time ever really here I enjoyed it. It was a busy Sunday afternoon and we received our food quite fast. I ordered something on there «off menu». The power steak lettuce wrap. The steak was cooked quite nicely for a chain/​fastfood/​restaurant. It was automatically cooked to a med well, which I was worried about because I don’t like my meat well done. Nice surprise. But making a wrap is quite difficult especially with the pesto sauce glazed on top. Just ate the meat and left the lettuce behind.
It’s a good place for a quick bite and ordering something light and healthy. It’s a nice option outside of the typical quick pace/​grab a bite to eat restaurant.

I love the frontega chicken. it takes me back to high school days… i like the upscale more lad back atmoshere compared to more casual eateries. the fireplace is always a popular place to sit. i like the mac n cheese too but its a little expensve.

yeah they are overpriced
but the sandwiches are good and so is the soup.
its also a great place to meet up with people.

Up until last weekend I had only ever had bagels from this place. They do have really good bagels, but I’m not a bagel freak or anything so I never found the time to go there on my own. Then last Saturday night, a group of people from my church wanted to go & I joined them.
I was shocked to see how many things are actually on their menu. There are a lot of different kind of soups, salads, & sandwiches.
I ended up going with a combo that was only 6.99 for a cup of soup, (which their cup of soup is a lot bigger than some other places cup I might add) a salad, and a piece of bread. I chose the potato soup and the Cesar salad. You can also add like an extra dollar to the price to get a specialty salad, and/​or an extra dollar for a sweet.
The soup was good, but I’m pretty picky about my potato soup so I can’t say it was great. The Cesar salad was just okay. It’s hard to mess up a salad, but I’ve had better. Overall though the price is worth the food & I’ll definitely come back at some time to try their other soups & paninis. My friend had their broccoli soup which she said was really good so I’ll have to try that next time.

Met a potential client here. Wow, it was packed, which tells me a lot about a place.
I tried the Low-​fat Strawberry Smoothie with Ginseng — Awesome! Yes I tried the low-​fat since I’m trying to watch what I eat, but I think I gained a pound smelling all those scones, cookies, and most delicious sweets.
And one more great thing about our visit, our «potential client» turned into «Client».

I know a lot of people don’t like Panera because it is… *gasp* a CHAIN.
But Panera will always have a special place in my heart, especially this particular Panera. I have been going to this location since it opened… back when the Crestview Hills Town Center was actually the Crestview Hills Mall, which was a barren wasteland plus Dillards.
I used to go to Panera every single day after classes at Thomas More College to study and get something to eat. They have free wifi (yay!!) so that was a huge draw. I kept coming back because around the time I would be there — 2 or 3pm until 5 or 6pm — the environment was quiet and relaxing. Plus they play classical music which is nice.
The food is, overall, pretty good. You can’t really go wrong with soup… unless you order the Chicken Noodle, which I think is their most boring, least delicious soup (gummy wide noodles and suspicious looking chicken, anyone?). Their best soup is definitely Creamy Tomato. The best salad is BBQ Chopped Chicken, with the Fuji Apple Chicken Salad coming up as a close second. Their best lunch sandwich is the Frontega Chicken. And the best breakfast sandwich is the Breakfast Power Sandwich.
Now that I’m out of college, I don’t go to Panera nearly as much as I once did. I still hit it up every couple weeks, though. It always is good. This particular location was recently renovated, which it desperately needed. Although they didn’t renovate the bathroom (the women’s one anyway) which was kind of stupid. Word to the wise — use the larger stall because if you use the smaller one, there is a giant gap on the right side of the stall where you can perfectly see into the stall.
This Panera does not have a community room, but it would be okay for a smallish group.
So, yes, it’s a chain but it’s a good chain. And if you have to pick a chain, you might as well pick a good one, right?

The power breakfast sandwich!

There isn’t anything particular regarding this Panara. It has a good selection of pastries, salads and sandwiches. I like grabbing a quick parfait or smoothie. Service can be kind of slow so be ready to wait in line for a bit.

Good food but always crowded and a bit pricey, still its nice that a lot of the salads and meats are organic. Great pastries too. Live the breast cancer awareness bagels they do in October, which benefits the Susan g komen foundation.

Hey I like Panera! I know its a chain but they do a good job of welcoming you in, making you comfortable and feeding you right! I love that their new menu has calorie information on it, just one more way they invite me in I guess. If you are in a hurry and need healthy food on the go or you just want to sit and read and drink coffee, this is the place for you.
This particular Panera is always very fast when they are busy or slow and they are always very friendly. No complaints and lots of compliments from me.

I love Panera Bread, and we frequent this site often. The salads always look and taste so fresh, and they usually add a new one or two salads every season. The chicken noodle soup is tasty too.
The restaurant is starting to appear like it needs a remodel, though. I would love to see a new one open up close by to replace this one.
Prices are very reasonable.

This place is pretty ok. Great bread. ok beverages. I don’t really like their lunch options. Free WiFi situation is great but if you want an outlet you’re much better off going to sbux in the same complex. There’s hardly any place to plug your computer into. Incidentally this is NOT true about the Panera off of Houston that is only about 5 minutes away. It’s always less crowded and has better working spaces.

This used to be my Friday go-​to for lunch, but then I guess I got a little tired of it. It’s usually crowded, but if you get there soon after 11 a.m. you’re ok.
I like their tomato soup and several of their salads and sandwiches. I especially like the pick two combos (soup/​half sandwich/​half salad). I also like the baked egg souffles they serve for breakfast. However, I finally checked out the calories and fat grams online and now I feel guilty if I order many of my old favorites.