Panera Bread

This Panera is the WORST! Completely incompetent staff, they are slow and never properly stocked. I would give negative stars if I could. Waste of time go anywhere else.

Once again I gave Panera Bread a chance. I ordered from their website for a «pick up» time of 11:51 am today for a meeting involving clients and received an e-​mail confirmation of the order, so we sent the receptionist over to get the order.
She shows up and there is no order to pick up — oops, they said the computer didn’t transfer the order to the store. It is now 12:31 pm and the meeting started at 12 noon… no lunch to be served. I call bull crap on blaming technology, I’ve met the «human resources» at this store. Then they tried to push blame onto us for not calling to confirm the order. Had I not received an email confirmation of the order being received and ready for pickup at 11:51 am I would have called!
They didn’t even offer a discount or anything; of course I am guessing Panera would go bankrupt if this location had to actually make right all the wrongs it commits all on its own.
The inability of this location to provide a service as promised and paid to do disrupted an important meeting and caused chaos with us having to interrupt the group in the middle of a presentation to divvy up the food.
Amazing how much is wrong with this particular Panera.

Review for morning coffee:
There have been a couple times when they have been slow to replenish the coffee supply during prime coffee-​drinking hours (8am — 9am). While I am normally not in too, too much of a hurry in the morning, it would be inconvenient for someone in a rush. Mostly a sticking point since I use to work cafes /​college library coffee shops and we always had a back-​up of brewed coffee. The system Panera has is to just reuse the same canister, so there is a wait time once the canister is out that is at least 5 min.
The coffee itself is decent as far as Panera coffee goes.

Grabbed lunch there today, and was so pleased with the exceptional service. Taryn helped me place my order, she was very friendly, helpful and filled with an enthusiastic spirit uncommonly found in the food serving community. Her positive disposition was infectious. This young lady is an exceptional example of great customer service. The mediterainian veggie was great too.

I have been to this Penera three times prior to the most recent two visits in the most recent two visits have been extremely disappointing. They did not have fresh croissants ready in the morning. This place is called Panera bread I don’t see how they can always be out of bread. They got my order wrong and they returned my money as cash when I paid for it with the card (didn’t quite understand that). The manager on site seemed befuddled. And the kitchen did not look too clean however the staff was somewhat friendly. It’s just hard to grasp the fact that they are called Panera bread when there is no bread or very little selection available.

It really hurts me to write this terrible review. This is directed towards the MANAGEMENT of this establishment. I truly feel bad for all the employees working at this location, let me tell you why.
I used to frequent Panera bread weekly in college and always had such great service and amazing food. In fact, I actually lived with one of the Managers for a period of time. I’ve been on a health kick lately and walking into Panera bread and seeing that bakery is just not the best environment for me because it’s just hard to refuse the amazing baked goods. Given the cold weather yesterday i decided why not and was so excited. I walked in yesterday and at 5:30pm the ENTIRE bakery case is empty, literally 3 croissants left. how does that happen? Did your baker quit this morning? Did Panera bread have a swarm of people come in seeking baked goods? This should’ve been the first red flag. I waited in line for about 5 minutes looking at my phone until I realized this is taking way longer than normal. There were only 3 people in front of me and two were at the cashiers, this should take few minutes AT MOST. It took about 15 minutes for me to get the register. Every single customer was upset and one guy ended up leaving. A mother with her two small children, in front of me, had the hardest time simply subbing out a turkey/​cheese sandwich for a PB&J sandwich in the «you pick two» combo. Managers were called and ended up «training» their employees real time, then and there. Instead of speeding up the process they were making it slower. The manager was a very serious person who had a very standoff-​ish personality. When someone would ask him a question he would just reply, wait until i am done!
When it came my turn the really sweet cashier started to help me. While talking with him I found out he had just started working there and was CLEARLY not trained properly or even at all due to the management. He was trying his best and figured it all out then the machine would not work to swipe my card. I then asked since they LITERALLY had NO pastries if they could cut/​sell the coffee cake that was sitting there, not being sold. The manager said no. I then got frustrated and told him, «Really? Even though you literally have NOTHING, you can’t sell me a slice of cake that you CLEARLY are not selling?» He eventually decided to sell me the two slices. Fine, thanks.
Next, I went over to pick my phone ordered item, which was now cold since I’ve been standing in line for 25 minutes. Upon visiting that section of the store I began to notice more problems. A man showed up to pick up an order for 20 people which he placed with management. No one knew of this order and it was clearly not prepared. Next, Remember the mother who ordered the PB&J? I witnessed one of the employees create a PB&J and place slices of turkey on the sandwich and take it to the family. I thought to myself ew, how strange but then remembered. wait a second I heard exactly what she ordered and it was surely not a PBJ&Turkey, YUCK! Overhearing the conversation within employees I realized this error was due to the confusing receipt the chefs were given from none other than THE MANAGER.
Finally, My turn! I pick up my order and such enough the manager had not informed them I also asked for cheese, no problem, the employee hooked it up. Next, they are out of the bread they give out… Another bakery item they are sold out of? Interesting! Who typically takes inventory? Management? Hmmmm
I took my food home and it tasted lovely but that experience alone REALLLLYY pushes me away from Panera, or at least this specific location. This wasn’t the case a few months ago, Get your SH*t together Panera.

Customers service is great, very clean. food is delish will come back again for sure thanks Panera staff

Super unorganized. I love Panera, but this specific location makes me not want to even spend my money there. I specifically ordered online so that I could quickly pick up my food on my lunch break. I get there and they had no clue what was going on. Jose the MANAGER seemed the most clueless out of everyone. Not only was my food not ready, but they didn’t even have two of the items that I ordered AND payed for in advance. They didn’t offer any type of a resolution, refund me any of my money for the items «they didn’t have» or even apologize! The service there is like a joke because it’s seems that most of the employees are always clueless. Another customer lost.

I have been to Panera at many different locations and usually love my experience. However, the customer service was horrible. They got our order wrong and then hassled us when we tried to correct it.

Bad franchise. They are consistently out of food (example: the employees have been told to only make the soufflés once a day) and the place is dirty and unorganized. Employees are apathetic. This is a problem with management plain and simple. I like Panera but you should drive right past this one. It’s a blight on their brand.

I love Panera — so not a blanket review on all Panera’s. Food is always great. Just comparatively, this one always feels a bit dirty, dated and flies galore. At least there is a parking lot, granted it’s small.

My wife and I have frequented the Panera in Santa Monica for years as it is usually a low stress environment where we can eat and I can work. NO MORE! We showed up today to find that their parking lot is now limited to 45 minutes. We used to arrive for lunch, and then my wife would go shopping nearby and I would stay and work. While working, I’d buy a cup of coffee and desert. When my wife returned we’d buy something else to take home. Oh well, Panera is losing this business as we’ll have to return to one of the Starbucks in the area. I liked helping smaller chains like Panera by giving them business, but their shortsighted parking limitations will not allow that.
Another problem is the bathrooms. They installed new cypherlocks requiring a numeric code. The large signs on the bathroom doors say the code is located on the bottom of the receipt when we bought food. Guess what? No code. In fact, when we asked the workers, they acted like they knew nothing of the sign on the doors. They gave us the code, but that’s not the point. We stood there entering every number of the receipt: order number, pager number, a long serial number of some sort, etc. It was a waste of time.
Finally, we ordered a ½ ¹⁄₂ comb of soup and salad. We had a long discussion with the worker about upgrading from a cup of soup to a bowl. I paid, food was delivered. Guess what? No bowl, just a cup. Another waste of time for unprofessional behavior.
I hate, hate to say this, but there is a reason why Starbucks is so successful. They run their business AS A BUSINESS, not a hobby. Poor Panera, we’ll miss you.

Honestly the worst Panera I’ve ever been to. I needed about half a dozen sandwiches ordered by 8am. Called the day before to make sure they can accommodate a large early morning lunch order. Was assured it would be fine. Called at 6:15 to give them extra time to prepare. They told me they were running late and they weren’t doing sandwiches yet. Then they also mentioned they had a huge catering order that was placed 4 days prior and probably wouldn’t be able to do my order. Then suddenly said if I called half an hour before pickup I would be okay. Called at 7:30 and they said to pick up in half an hour. Came at 8 and they tell me that it will be half an hour after I pay not when I called it in. Then she seemed confused by her own words and now I’m running half an hour behind wondering why this location lacks efficiency. The worst.

I never thought I’d have anything negative to say about Panera Bread until I visited this location. I should have known better by just looking at this restaurant. Instead of a clean looking café this place looked like an old rundown diner.
This place definitely needs to be revamped. Everything in this restaurant looked almost 20 years old and Panera hasn’t even been around that long. Inside there were few tables that had trash and plates on them which looked like they have been sitting there for awhile. As for the bathroom, it was filthy with floors that needed a good mop. The toilet paper holder was broken so I’m sure the roll fell plenty of times on the dirty floor. Gross.
After seeing how dirty this place was, I was a little skeptical to eat my salad. Panera is known for their freshness and cleanliness which this store sadly lacked. I’m still a huge fan of Panera, just not this one.

Well, at least they had a small parking lot in the back which is a rare commodity in Santa Monica…
Got the tomato bisque soup, BBQ chicken wrap, n chocolate chipper cookie. soup was mediocre nothing special, BBQ chicken wrap was okay – wasn’t horrible but tbh I wouldn’t get it next time aka didn’t make much of an impact on me (besides in my waist garrrr). It did fill me up until dinner though. Cookie was huge and I got it because it looked exciting. It just tasted like a store-​bought cookie, definitely inferior to Subway’s cookies :/​
What kinda disappointed me was that the girl who rang me up didn’t offer the wrap, soup, side combo (?) leading to me almost spending more for less because I’ve only been to Panera once loooong ago and not familiar with the menu. I had to ask her if the combo would be cheaper and she said yes… why didn’t she offer it to me??? :/​
Food came out pretty fast though and dining area pretty spacious and cozy. I guess it’s an average Panera for people who love it, but for me it’s not gonna be a regular lunch spot. 2.5 rounded down.

Don’t know why all the hate for this location. Yeah, it’s in tourist trap Santa Monica, but that’s ok! The food quality is consistent with all Panera Breads and I can sit and enjoy a cup of unlimited refill coffee or tea. Can’t beat it!

This place is an absolute disaster. I went here a few months ago and they had a special soup that was on almost every marketing campaign they had throughout the entire building. Turns out they didn’t have the soup at all. I chalked it up as a one time fluke and decided to come back again. Today I ordered a new Soba Noodle Chicken bowl with a side of French Miche. What I received was a Soba Bowl with some sliced bread, which was torn as well. It’s hard for me to believe that a place that is know for its BREAD would serve a paying customer this. If I wanted 60cents worth of bread I would have drove down to the local grocery store for a loaf. What a waste of money. I will not be giving any more of my money to this Panera.

This is a sub-​par location in terms of customer service and efficiency. The way the employees socialize with each other while they cook, and shout when there’s an order ready for pickup was very tacky. It made it seem like it’s the customers who have to pick up their own food, and not the servers. One time, an entitled-​looking employee dropped a fork, and she let it stay on the floor for a while, then she picked it up and slammed it on the counter without communicating to the kitchen staff about the fork. We won’t be coming back to this location!

Oh, Panera. Apparently I am a masochist for you. EVERY SINGLE order I have placed through Rapid Pick Up is either late or missing something or wrong. Just this morning my order was about 10 minutes late and was given the wrong cookie. Last week they forgot my chips with my lunch. Two weeks ago my breakfast sandwich still had paper attached to the egg.
I honestly don’t know why I keep coming back every week. Some menu items are tasty but the incompetence is starting to outweigh the few good food stuffs I come here for. Alas, I’ll probably keep coming here forever since it’s half a block away from work. Sigh.

The parking here is AWFUL! I repeat AWFUL! I don’t know if they don’t monitor it and people park here and walk to the beach, or the employees themselves park here, but I have never ones been here and parked on the lot. And they have a pretty decent sized lot.
I’m eating their Mediterranean flat bread sandwich right now as I type this and it’s actually really good, plus I always enjoy a good soup (even on a hot day) and their soups hit the spot (if you coves your eyes on the calorie count).
My boyfriend got their grilled cheese tonight and hated it. He took on bite and said «wow really? Aren’t they supposed to have good bread since they have the word bread in their name?» Poor guy had nothing to eat but his baked potato soup, which he also wasn’t fond of. I’ll subtract one star for his pain and suffering and another for them always forgetting something (this time it was avocado in my sandwich) and their awful parking. Otherwise this place is ok if you don’t feel like dressing up and going to a nice spot.