Panera Bread

This review is going out to Matt, their Catering Manager at the Saugus, Panera. I had a 19 visitors a week ago from all over including the UK. I needed to order lunch for them on multiple occasions and knew right away that Matt and his team would take exceptional care of me. I’ve used Matt before many times and his quality service is consistent along with his fantastic, upbeat personality. His work ethic is one that every company owner wants but sadly has trouble finding. He owns it when you order with them and takes it to the next level. The deliveries are timely and the food is ALWAYS what we ordered. Matt you’re outstanding at your job and I hope Corporate Panera recognizes you for the keeping your customers returning. Let’s face it, customer retention is just as important as new business and we applaud you at Affinion Group!

I love the service, love the food. Hate the traffic getting in here and the line to order but it’s well worth the wait. I love the deals and the atmosphere of this location and even though I live in Medford and work in Saugus, I’d much rather go to this location to eat. I love their lemonade too. A must if your going to eat here.

Writing this review solely to recognize the awesome manager who works here. This guy embodies customer service. Every time I come in I am impressed with how he does his job: He is efficient and does everything with a smile. He’s always joking with guests and doing what he can to make their experience great.
Food is pretty standard for a Panera. However, 4 stars because they always seem to be out of certain bagels (cough Asiago cheese cough). This must be a pretty high-​traffic Panera to run out so frequently. I wish they could prepare better based off of what they are running out of. Clean location!

It’s extremely tough to find a go-​to healthier eatery these days, so Panera is sometimes my only option. That being said I want to state I’ve been here before and left very unsatisfied, but come back hoping it was just that one particular sandwich that was the issue. I’ll give two examples and my opinion now: I’ve had tuna there before and the tuna wasn’t even chopped up, literally small bricks of tuna instead of the usually, moist, succulent bites how the majority of America makes it, disgusting. Yesterday I got steak and cheese panini, also terrible. I tasted horrible and it was basically roast beef posing as steak. All of this for the small cost of $ 10 a person. Typical yuppy/​trendy place that gets business based on reputation because I’m telling you between the poorly made sandwiches and costly prices you’re better off going to the supermarket and making whatever you would be getting here yourself at home.

Dirty and understaffed. Food is not worth it. Go next door to Lendy’s. Thank me later!

Always a good experience when dining in at this location. My favorites are the cheddar broccoli soup and Fiji chicken Apple salad. I must say that the take out is much less enjoyable than dining in. My husband and I have stopped a few times to grab dinner on the go and the food is never as good and portions are much smaller! I’d stick w grabbing a booth and having your meal in house.

This review is by my Fiancé:
I went to Panera for a quick lunch and some homework time. Normally this is a pretty mundane experience — get your food, eat, leave, etc. However this time I came in and a manager handled my order. He asked me if I was in the service, and I answered yes (he said he could tell). Without any fanfare or any other guests hearing, he quietly paid for my entire order.
Usually this makes uncomfortable, but this man was operating 100% out of the goodness of his spirit. This simple act made a very mundane part of my day something special. Besides the good food and clean environment, come here knowing someone behind the counter has a great heart.
Sincerely,
A well fed Vet

Never had a bad experience at this location. The service is good, and so is the food. The place is clean for the most part. The menu is good with things like sandwiches, salads and soups. I like the caesar salads and chicken salad sandwiches. The mac and cheese is also yummy. Would come back to this location again.

While I usually enjoy coming to Unilocal to compliment food, this was one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had.
I’ll start by saying I went 2 (!) hours before they closed. By doing so, I thought I’d be able to order off their menu without an issue. I ordered a salad and a «Pick 2» for takeout.
Complaint #1: I ordered an additional 2 baguettes because me and my gf love good bread. I was charged for them. While waiting for my order I was told they don’t have any more baguettes (2 hours before closing) and that I would receive dinner rolls. Naturally I was disappointed and was never told this while ordering. I initially received 3 cold dinner rolls… hard and disgusting
Complaint #2: I order a salad and «Pick 2» with a sandwich and salad. I received a salad and SOUP! I went back to the cashier to explain I received the wrong order in which the preparer DEMANDED the whole bag back. I explained the salad was right but I was told if i didn’t hand over everything they couldn’t help me.
Complaint #3: Because I ordered extra baguettes as sides and they only had «dinner rolls» 2 hours before closing and asked for my money back for the extra baguettes I was charged for, I received no sides. No rolls. No chips. Nothing. I wasn’t told I would get nothing because I complained. I wasn’t told to pick another option. I just got home with nothing. THanks Panera!
Panera is usually awesome. I rate their other stores well because of their service and food. This panera was rude, disrespectful, and should be avoided at all costs!!!
TL:DR — No sides which I paid for! Wrong order! and rude!
Lendy’s is next door and plenty of options on Route 1 South. AVOID!

Disgusting (environment, not food). Okay — you’re busy — it’s Sunday afternoon. Hire someone to clean the tables /​floors. Absolutely disgusting. Food mediocre — like a cafeteria with a good selection. Would be 2 – 3 stars if I could get beyond the disgusting eating conditions. Had a gift certificate — otherwise I would not have visited — too many better options out there. Friendly service. Bland food.

In the middle of working, my mother and I decided to take a break and head over to Panera.
Intro:
Panera is a café chain that prides itself on being the healthy alternative to similar cafés by taking the artificial out of food and leaving the goodness in. The café appeals to many with their decent sized menu complete with vegetarian options (you can substitute chicken for avocado in many of their meals) and the free wi-​fi for those always on the job.
Food:
The menu is typical for a café including soups, sandwiches, salads, and select breakfast items. They bake all their breads and bagels on site so it is always fresh. For this visit, I ordered the BBQ Chicken salad (substituting the chicken for avocado) and a tomato mozzarella flat bread. I will say, without the chicken, the portions seem to shrink down considerably as I was only given two small pieces of avocado (looking at my mother’s salad, she got a sizable amount of chicken). They overdid it with the BBQ sauce for the most part, it tasted like I was just drinking the BBQ sauce. The flat bread was very good (after I spent a little time actually spreading the tomato spread included). A small nitpick… a little too much oil was added. The included baguette was nice and fresh.
Service:
Not much happening here… the only contact I had with any staff was the beginning when I ordered. She was very pleasant and greeted me with a smile.
Cleanliness:
This was during the lunch rush so I’ll cut them a little slack… the table we sat at was not cleaned from the last customer that was there. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like they had anyone actively cleaning the tables until we were nearly done with our meal.
Atmosphere:
Again, not much happening here. Grab your food and pick your own table. As usual, a music track perfect for the café scene was being played.
Price:
$ 9.58 was my bill (at the time of this writing) before tax for a half salad, a flat bread sandwich, and a baguette. An okay price but the lessened portions definitely reduced the value.
Overall:
This is a cool place both eat in or take out. They were very good for this visit (which I base my reviews off of) but can typically be inconsistent from what I’ve seen. Regardless, I will still return to this location.
FINAL TALLIES
Food: ⁶⁄₈
Service: ¾
Cleanliness: ²⁄₄
Atmosphere: 1.5÷2
Price: ½
Total: 13.5÷20 — 3 stars

This location is the worst… My order is wrong everytime. Without fail. Wrong dressing everytime even though i always ask politely to sub it and have it on the side and they’ve forgotten chicken on my salad 3 times this month. I add corn to my salad but its never on the salad i have to go back everytime. They’ve forgotten avacado on my salad 2 times and unless i didnt notice anything wrong until after i left ive gone back up and said nicely my order is wrong and they’ve never given me a free treat like it says on the receipt not that i want it but they could at least offer like theyre supposed to then maybe id think they care they mess up my irder everytime. I do the rapid pick up a lot and its never on the shelf i always have to ask for my order which is usually sitting to the side somewhere rather than where it should be and then the employees give me attitude like its my fault i didnt ask for it earlier. Never going back here even though its close to work id rather drive to lynnfield for a correct order and proper customer service and be late getting back to work from my break. Would give zero stars if i could.

this place is such a tease. The products in the display case look much better then they actually taste. There’s no real depth of flavor, no heftiest to the actual pastry. And they are not inexpensive. You could probably do better at your neighborhood bakery.
The soup and sandwiches are good, not great. In my humble opinion, they could take a lesson or two from Au Bön Pain.
My biggest complaint is the almost total lack of customer service. I find the employees to be surly, aloof and definitely not customer friendly. Why pay for overpriced products and disinterested customer service?
Let’s call it as it is: this is a sandwich/​pastry shop, not a fine restaurant. Even so, a customer expects a value and good service, here you get neither. I’d rather go into a gas station convenience store and grab a pack of twinkles. At least I get what I paid for!

This panera is my favorite by far. The employees are always kind and put the customers first. They listened to me and made my visit the best I’m coming to this panera for lunch from now on. I usually get a you pick two with a sandwhich and salad. The food taste fresh and it looks great.

This place was consistent, and very good soup and sandwich place, and a good staff… what corporate suit made the decision to stop giving the only thing worth the soup it comes with the French baguette… now a soft tasteless dinner role… shame shame on that crap decision… well you lost a customer.

I always get the pick two. Such a great idea. I wish more restaurants would adapt to this. But for now this is my favorite special. Each time I get something different. Who needs all that food. It’s just the right size meal.

Portion sizes are not the standard of Panera, and prices are higher than those set by Panera. So many around that I will never be going back to this one.

This was a pretty terrible experience at Panera. I came here yesterday at an extremely busy and chaotic time. The line was very long and it seemed like some employees were picking up the pace to take care of customers, while others were snickering and commenting about how busy it was and how long people were waiting. Really?!? My order was very simple, yet I did not receive my drink without asking two people for it. I was then just told to «go get it at the front» since it was a bottle of water. Again, I ask, really?!? How about «I apologize for the inconvenience-​I will get that water for you. Thank you for your patience.» Customer service 101.
The guy behind the counter was callous and spoke at a ridiculously fast pace (with an accent). And then had the nerve to look at me funny when I asked him to please repeat himself. Seriously?
I had never gone to this Panera before and will not be returning. The mac and cheese is delicious, but I will buy it at my regular location. The staff there is not a whole lot better (Panera, do you train your employees?), but at least they smile (sometimes) and speak normally.

Great location, always clean, friendly, accurate and fast!

I love this Panera and come here for lunch often.
I almost always get the You Pick Two combo, usually with a sandwich and cup of soup.
For soups, I like the cheddar broccoli soup, the chicken noodle, and also the vegetable with pesto.
For sandwiches, I always get turkey.
And the Mac and Chesse… Is delicious. A friend of mine tried it and said «it was her new obsession.» and my mother has been trying to mimic the recipe at home ever since she first tried it.