Paradise Bakery and Cafe

This was better before it was purchased by panera. It’s weird. They use panera menu but panera has better ingredients and seems better trained on putting it together. There used to be a ton of great people working here but the last couple times I have been in there are eye rollers and bored staff. The cookies are no where near good as they used to be either. The tomato soup is still great! Routinely bagels are out early.

We decided on Paradise because Perkins across the street had a 40 minute wait. We could have waited, and eaten at Perkins in the time it took to dine at Paradise. 1^st, we waited in line behind 3 families for almost 20 minutes to order. Everyone behind the counter was running around, and switching roles during orders, making the wait longer. When we finally ordered, we asked how long it would take. She said «just a few minutes». We ordered two breakfast sandwiches (turkey sausage, egg white, and spinach to be exact). 25 minutes later we still had no food. When I asked what the issue was they said they make everything fresh to order. Okay… So are you baking the bread right now that goes on this sandwich? It was beyond slow, and no one apologized or gave any explanation. Long story short, if you’re looking for a quick in and out, this isn’t the place. Drive the 10 minutes to Panera where they have it together.

The system of ordering your food is not efficient Every time I come here during lunch I spend more time waiting in line. I never order a sandwich, always get soup and salad but not sure if I can go ahead of the people who are deciding on a sandwich. The cashiers are pretty slow too because they never know what you have ordered and have to bag the food if you are getting it to go. Plus my roll is touching the dirty top to my soup… gross.

Bad wifi at this place. Been multiple times trying to make it work and many times had to leave for a nearby place to get better service.
Good place to go for food and hanging out and talking with friends. The bakery is really good too. They also have great smoothies.
The place has horrible wifi to do work. That’s where it looses me the most.

This place seems a little fast-​foody at first, but it’s actually really good quality. The sandwiches are tasty and made with fresh ingredients. I’ve only been here a few times, but I can’t recall anything negative about the experience.
Can I get a YES for cookies? YES! (This place has AMAZING COOKIES. Like… amazing. Knock your socks off good.)

A solid place for a meal, cute, light, and healthy. It’s nothing terribly special, but if you’re from out of town like I am, it’s a nice surprise. Kind of like a cuter Panera bread.

Service was bad. Unfriendly staff. Order was wrong. On top of everything else, once we got our order we informed them that our order was wrong and we had ordered the breakfast croissant sandwich with ham egg and Swiss. The employee let us know that breakfast ended 4 minutes ago and they would fix it another day. We hadn’t even left. And I don’t care that breakfast just ended, I ordered my breakfast sandwich during breakfast hours. Point is they should have fixed it!

While this may seem like Panera’s slightly less glamorous sister, I’d choose my order carefully. I ordered a BLT with avocado and got significantly overripe (tasted rotten) avocado on my sandwich. When I brought it back, they substituted for chicken soup, which is basically a side (even though I paid for a deluxe sandwich).
However, I have gotten some delicious Greek salads here. Just check your food and utensils!

Quite a long line when I arrived, but it moved quickly. I’m a sucker for the power of suggestion and ordered the All Natural Turkey Chili and Southwestern Chicken Flatbread Sandwich from the board along with a caramel latte. Service was friendly, and the food was great. Only negative was that it was a little noisy. No biggie. I sure I’ll be back!

Slow service at 2:00 pm. Though there were tables available we had to wait for someone to clear one and wipe it down. And you better inspect the cutlery for evidence of previous diners. The best way to have your order brought to your table is to complain about the wait and that diners who sat down after you have been served. Soups are okay but the only flavor to the ravioli was the fried onion bits and handful of arugula dumped on top. At least bathroom was clean.

Us vegans can be a little complicated, so when there a mistake on ringing up and preparing my order that isn’t on the menu (whole grain bagel with hummus, tomato, spinach, and avocado) the staff was very on top of things to get my food replaced. They were very patient with me and I appreciate their customer service. And I swear I could eat this order every day, it’s so damn good!

Please just close this place and turn it into a Panera already! This place used to be great before Panera bought them. now it’s just pathetic.

I use to like it here. I guess Panera has bought this chain, but kept the some of the Paradise ness of the original. Some. The food, though it is listed under the same name does not taste the same as it once did. Old favorites were changed or completely removed. The hubby and I found ourselves going to Panera instead of Paradise, ironically. Pass, unless I want some cookies.

Panera bought this local chain so it’s really just Panera with a different name.
I was visiting from out of town so it fooled me into thinking it was a new place to try. Nope, just Panera.
I don’t imagine that the locals are fooled either as all the food is branded with the Panera name and logo. Why not just call it Panera.
It does have way more seating than your average Panera, so there’s that. Otherwise no real reason to come here unless you really like Panera in some sort of odd Federal Restaurant Protection Plan.

I come here for their chocolate cookies, actually my husband asks me to buy them every time I meet my friend here to chat. Delicious cookies and their caramel latte is delicious as well. I do want to warn those mothers who are alone pushing a stroller that this café does not have those handicap push buttons to open for you. So like me, I had to struggle pushing my twin tandem stroller through their double doors to get in. Thankfully, a customer who was leaving helped open the doors for me while everyone who was eating outside just sat there and watched me. After I was buying my husband’s cookies I asked the worker behind the counter to be so kind and help me by holding the doors.

After a long day we were looking for something quick so I suggested a sandwich and some soup from Paradise since we live very close to the one at the Hamilton Town Center. It was a weeknight and they were pretty slow around 8pm. After searching their rather large menu (in my opinion), we both settled on a ½ order of tomato soup and new fontina grilled cheese. It seemed like a great combo on a chilly evening. We got our order to go so our soup and cookies (you cannot leave Paradise without cookies) was bagged up right away while we waited on our sandwiches. When you order an entrée you get a chocolate chip cookie with your meal but they had ginger molasses out too so I had to grab a few of those.
We got our sandwiches after what seemed to be more time than I thought to make a grilled cheese since there were at least 4 or 5 people behind the counter and it seemingly slow. We weren’t in a huge hurry and as soon as we had those in hand, we were off. We chowed down as soon as we got home and it was pretty tasty. Even though the sandwich had Wisconsin white cheddar, fontina, reduced fat chive and onion cream cheese and it was on a 4 cheese bread, it wasn’t overly cheesy. I know it sounds like it would be but it had a very nice taste to it and I highly recommend you dip it in your soup like I do.
Paradise is usually a last minute selection for us. It’s close and they have a wide selection for both breakfast and lunch/​dinner but I feel like they are somewhat expensive for what you get. It’s nice to have in my backyard but it may not always be my go-​to choice.

Great food. Very similar to Panera cause it is owned by them now. It would be 5 stars if it wasn’t so expensive.

Paradise Bakery and Café is a chain which Panera bought but kept the name on the outside. Inside, you will find all Panera products.
This seemed odd to me because the name wasn’t something I was loyal to so I was just confused. I did like the set up more than Panera and the seating. It was a huge place.
We had breakfast here our second morning in Indianapolis and it was better than the first one we had. I had OJ, coffee, milk, oatmeal and a piece of coffee cake. It was all really good and somehow it seemed a bit better than your average Panera.
It’s chain that has been bought by another chain, but this chain within a chain was pretty good for breakfast.

I called to place a catering order for pick up and was warmly greeted by the catering manager, Larry, when I arrived to pick it up. He explained to me that their baker was new and he didn’t like how some items turned out so he included some other items for free. He even helped me carry everything to the car. He included his business card and a catering card as well. I can’t seem to activate that online, but that is probably my problem. Nothing is worse than getting to your client’s office and setting up and realizing something is missing, like utensils or sugar/​creamer. Everything was there and that is always a relief. I will definitely use them to cater another function for me.

Not gonna lie… my immediate impression went along the lines of «seriously, this place is a Panera knock-​off», but then I didn’t get stuck waiting in long lines, I still got to enjoy the incredible bacon turkey bravo sandwich, and to top it all off… I got a (free) cookie with my meal! Not to mention it’s right down the street from my house, and well… Panera isn’t. So say «goodbye» to Panera and «hello» to Paradise Bakery!