Panera Bread

The food here tastes fine, can’t complain, but it feels gross eating in here. There’s stuff all over the walls and I couldn’t help but notice while eating. This then made me start thinking of how clean the dishes were

I don’t know why the rate is so low?! Waiters are always nice and friendly, food is better then in other locations, very cosy! I eat here every day, broccoli Cheddar soup is delicious and if you take you pick2, chose soup and a half of salad — it would be enough food for two people and you will pay less then $ 15!
Love Panera.
Special thanks to manager for taking care of clients.

awesome location! everything is very modern and the whole place is really clean. great customer service from everyone and the food was great.

This goes for all locations of Panera Bread. I am allergic to red pepper, grrey, and white
pepper. There are so few choices for me and when friends choose to go, I sit there having to make a choice to eat something else instead of what they have chosen. Pepper in everything except water ! I go to Paula’s instead where if I call two hours ahead, I get to
eat whatever is on the menu for day. Honest !!

Great food and great service! I ordered a strawberry banana shake and a cookie but the ran out of bananas. I switched it for a mango shake and they employees were so cool they gave me 2 extra cookies! Chain restaurants are tricky because they know they’ll get foot traffic but great customer service is rare these days. I am now a loyal customer!

Ordered the first time online, picked up my order we decided to stay to eat. Was a good thing because we ordered a bread bowl soup and when we filled it the tiny to go container they give you barely filled the bowl half way. When I took it back to the lady fulfilling the orders, she seemed instated that we stayed and noticed how little they have for a $ 6 soup. It Was equivalent to about a half cup. She told the girl to put more soup in it. She put 2 more laddles off soup in it and it was almost full. I told her this was unacceptable because it was a to go order. The employees all seem like you are bothering them if you approach them. Won’t be returning to this location. Panera should follow up on all the complaints from this location.

They always mess up my order and I get charged to much for my food. The workers don’t know the menu half the time and have to look up if things are on the menu for the day

I have gone back many more times since my first review. The problem of red/​pink beef was mostly eliminated once I started ordering online for pickup and customizing my order. I always say well done beef, no red or pink.
The problems I have recently encountered have mainly to do with pickup. They have a parking spot specifically for online orders called rapid pickup. You are supposed to run in and run out.
Every single time I go to pick up my order, a car is parked in the rapid pickup spot, and I find out is has been parked there for eons! We have to drive around like nuts trying to find another space in the crowded lot just to run in and run out.
I told the staff what was happening, and they didn’t care. They already realize that people are parking there and going in and ordering full meals to eat at the table. There is nothing they can do about it, people don’t obey the sign.
What is the point of having a spot for online pickup orders if everybody else is using it? May as well get rid of it. Perhaps adding some kind of fine to the sign would help?
The other problems are rude employees. You come in for pickup and many times nobody will acknowledge you, they’ll just look right at you and don’t ask why you are standing there or anything. They couldn’t possibly care less.
Sometimes you’ll order online and arrive at the location to find out that they were out of the bread you had selected. This is a problem when sometimes I order the sandwich specifically for a certain bread.
Perhaps it wouldn’t be a problem if they didn’t go ahead and get all the ingredients together and then spring the news on you when you show up. If I opt for a refund instead of another type of bread, all the meat they cooked and toppings will have to be thrown out.
Why are they cooking the stuff knowing something I specified is missing? They have my phone number… they should call it. I hate to see everything go in the trash, so I just pick something else and be mad.

Food is always fresh when I come Sunday but today Friday it says it opens at 5:30 am and it’s 5:40 and they haven’t open the doors.

I always come here to study. Hours are great. Ambiance is great. Food is good. Nice people. What i would like them to improve is the music. I dont know what music they play! Not diverse at all. It gets boring. Food wise it will be awesome if they have more paleo… I know its panera BREAD so lots off carbs in there but wouldn’t hurt if they have more protein and good fat (avocado almonds coconut bacon etc) on their menu

I I do not understand bad Reviews. This is just another panera which is just as good as any other. If you wanna be treated like a movie star go to hollywood

God, the service sucks. The boy that took my order seemed bothered when we walked through the door at 9:30. Short answer and attitude. Terrible.

ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A FIFTH GRADER…
It’s time to update my review. I was in this area not very long ago for a meeting, and decided to stop by for a sandwich. I ordered the chicken Chipotle sandwich minus bacon. The cheese was sharp cheddar which I like. However, the cheese was not melted properly. The bottom of the bread was soggy (I got it to go/​carry out, so it was placed in a box). They need to use wax paper or something else to prevent the bottom of the bread from becoming soggy and moist. With that said, they didn’t ask me what side I wanted with my sandwich, so I had to TELL them what side I wanted. An apple, please (not a bag of chips)! How difficult can it be to ask a simple question to a customer? What side would you like with that (repeat this 10 times everyday before you go to work). Memorize it, dammit. Well, you know the show «Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?» Apparently, these employees are not smarter than a Third Grader!
The lady at the cash register was cordial, smiled and took our order promptly. I appreciated that she was polite, professional and enthusiastic with a smile on her face. Thank you! She was a ‘mature’ lady, so maybe this is the reason she was so great at taking orders and getting the order correct. She provided very nice customer service, so I rate her with 5-​stars. I can see that this PB has a 2-​star rating, which certainly doesn’t surprise me. Perhaps it is time for them to hire a New Manager who actually cares and isn’t lazy.
Yeah, I don’t eat a lot of junk, such as, cookies, cakes, pastries, ice cream, bagels etc, so I don’t go here for a sugar fix. I like their soups, salads and sandwiches. Hey, Panera Bread, the proper word is actually Panino (not Panini which is actually the plural). I am giving them 2-​stars because the bottom of my Panino was soggy while the top was nice and crispy as it should be. I am giving them 2-​stars since they still don’t ask «what side would you like with your meal?» This is a very simple question to ask customers. Yet, time and time again, it doesn’t happen. There have been some improvement in how organized and clean the restaurant is kept now. I don’t see any more fruit flies in the pastry area. They receive 4-​stars for organization/​cleanliness.
I do not have a Panera Bread card nor do I want one. To be honest, I don’t care about getting a free cookie, pastry, a cup of coffee or whatever other free-​bie is offered. I also don’t want to be tracked on what I order or how much I spend each time I visit a PB. Having a PB card is a gimmick for their marketing department and buyers. For example, How many customers prefer the Asiago cheese bagel over the plain bagel? How much of that product did we sell last month? What was our number one selling sandwich last month? What was our number one selling soup? What was our number one selling salad? How many of these items did we sell?
Consumers today are very savvy, well-​educated and smarter about so many things especially when it comes to eating good quality healthy meals. Maybe this is why McDonald’s is not what it used to be, and their bottom-​line is not where it used to be either. I suspect that eventually PB will be in the same boat as McDonald’s since third-​quarter earnings fell 8.3% in 2014.
PB should adopt a new policy in place with a sign that states «If you have a Panera Bread card, please show it to the Cashier upon payment.» This will avoid the question that I get every time I visit a PB, and please DO NOT ask me if I want a card any more. Funny, they can ask this question immediately, but they cannot ask «What side would you like with your meal?» I guess it would be too much to ask because they all seem to have the attention span of a Third Grader.
Now, let me get the «F» outta here and kick it up elsewhere!

This location’s service sucks! They need new staff asap. Smh. The staff is what really messed up my experience here. They didnt know anything. Accidentally overcharged me for tea. Then the ruse little cashier girl at night on Saturdaywrote down my name wrong. I clearly. said mike and ahe put down mark. I was sitting down waiting for my food for abt 20 min. Til i go ask em. They said they had me down as mark.. The one on noeth abe and harlem is waaay better

Please stop employing kids in high school.
They are snotty and rude and rather dim.
Perhaps pay a little more and get some people who can… TAKE AN ORDER!!!
UGH
It ummm looks nice though… Pretty clean.

I give it a two star rating because there are some exceptional people to make my visit here «O.K.»
There’s one female cashier that is consistently rude. I’ve been here consistently for 2 weeks just to have a nice space to do homework so I’m pretty sure she can recognize me. She, (along with another one), daydreams or goes into some rogue state to the point that they don’t listen to my order. I catch myself having to repeat things more than twice sometimes just to be sure they properly got my order.
One time I was next in line I dropped my keys so of course I picked it up. BUT that same cashier LET a wandering customer who was NOT in line CUT in front of me. Instances like that completely shut me off from trying to give someone a second chance.
Also I’m not sure if it’s an issue with reading orders but I can never have a side correctly if I don’t take it to go. If I ask for chips I get bread, if I ask for bread I get chips. But if I ask for things to go, somehow my order is right.
So on behalf of the option of placing online orders or things «to go,» this location can handle your food just fine.

Came to this location on a Monday night. First the parking lot is a total mess! Went around and around for five minutes before a spot opened up! They jammed too many new stores in one location with out enough adequate parking!
Now finally inside Panera and guess what fruit flies all over the pastries! Gross! I still placed my order hoping that the kitchen looks better than their front display! I discreetly told the young guy taking my order about the fruit flies and he apologized and told me he would tell his manager. He then noticed his manager by the food prep area and told me to just tell him. By the time I got to the area the manger had walked away so I figured the associate would just alert him of this issue. We sat down ate our food which was ok. On the way out I purposely looked at the display expecting to see no pastries on display… Nope they were all still there and so were the fruit flies! I will not be returning, if this is how they keep the front of the store how do they keep their kitchen? Nasty!

If I can give this zero I would. Management should be ashamed of themselves for not properly training their employees in professionalism!
My husband, my girls and I went in here around 645pm on a Tuesday and it was fairly busy for dinner time. The line moved quickly but when I got to place my order, the guy who took the order had a personality like a wet mop. So bland and seemed like we were annoying him. Order was placed without a problem.
Less then 5 minutes and the food was ready and made to order, no issues there at all. The issue was the sandwich maker who was a cold nasty young woman who did not acknowledge or say you’re welcome after I said thank you. Bad or not I’m not the one she should be taking it out on.
Fast forward two minutes later I got up to get some regular butter, and she seemed bothered that I asked her for butter, went to the container that had the «Fleishmanns» and said «here is butter!» I said no, I would like the other that is currently empty in the other container. She was so upset at me, she did it and did it with attitude… She’s not equipped to help customers and should rather clean the bathrooms. If I didn’t have my girls with me running around I would’ve chewed her out as well as management. Never coming back to this location again!

Let’s face it, Panera is a second-​rate corporate chain from St. Louis, of all places. But this youngish place ranks among the worst Panera stores we’ve been to. Please, please, please, HIP, cut bait with this place and turn it into a Starbucks. Look, Norridge, you’ve essentially doubled the size of your mall in an attempt to, among other things, help bring the HIP and its surrounding area into the 21^st century. Yet you have no Starbucks and no Gap. And no, the filthy express Starbucks inside Target is not a real Starbucks. (Every dime I’ve spent on the bitter brown water they call iced coffee has been nothing but wasteful.) No demographic is ever going to take a mall seriously that doesn’t host a Gap and at least one viable coffee shop.
I wish I could buy all my icy java across the street at J Bean, but despite the many great reasons to patronize J Bean, the iced java is not one of them. Let’s get this done, HIP. Replace this crumby, careless Panera.

Looks like my review is more of the exception rather than the rule at this point, BUT my experience is based on carryout and not sit down like many others here speak about. And while it is not unique to this Panera, I too would like to give a big «Boo-​Hiss» to whoever it was at Panera that decided to replace the Asiago Roast Beef sandwich with steak. I also didn’t see any brownies at this location which is what I usually buy at Panera — they lost a few dollars there too.
However, this was about the best take-​out experience that I have had at a Panera. I was 3^rd or 4^th in line and it moved quickly. Placed my order, the employee asked all the necessary questions and on I went to pick up my order. Things went well there too and I was on my way in about 5 minutes. Huge thumbs up.