Panera Bread - Homewood

Eating and drinking is almost always fantastic. the real problem is that this place is always out of something. Brownies/out. bbq chicken salad/out of dressing. large drink/no big tassen.

This is the worst Panera I have ever been to and I continue to come for the mere fact that it is close to work and it’s the only place in the area I can do my homework. I’ve often thought of leaving this review but decided not…This place is NEVER clean. Floors are always sticky, tables and seats always have food and crumbs. Can never understand why no one can clean when many times workers are just sitting or standing around.

5/26/22 UPDATE…a month later and still bad. I have ordered this same sandwich weekly since my original review. Every week incorrectly prepared. Please train your people how to prepare the food you advertise. No bacon. Incorrect cheese. Not toasted. I never ask for anything special. I order the sandwich as advertised how hard can that be?!! ORIGINAL REVIEW >Thanks Panera. Supposed to be a bacon, egg and cheese ciabatta. One problem the bacon I paid for is missing. I’m over all these fast food places that can’t hear, read or follow instructions. Waste of time and money. Customers deserve to get what they pay for.

We just got back home from a ridiculously horrid experience thanks to an unprofessional manager on duty named Cara. We picked up an expensive order from a nearby restaurant which included a free sundae for Teacher Appreciation Week, and decided to stop at this Panera to pickup a complimentary drink as part of the drink promo. We literally waited in the drive thru for 45 minutes thanks to the poorly designed drive through which prevents cars from driving out of the drive in the event that a customer changes their mind or there is an emergency. What angered us is that the car in front of us held up the line for 20 of that 45 minutes but that customer should have been instructed to pull up to a holding space until their order was brought to them. When we finally reached the pickup window, we asked for a manager and that was Cara who needs to be fired for incompetency! She lied and said she did not have staff to take orders to cars, yet we witnessed a worker who did just that for another customer who pulled to a wait space. We showed her the melted sundae and advised that our food was cold but she did not care, only saying there is nothing I can do She kept asking what I wanted and when I advised her to compensate me for my food order from the other restaurant, she said, again, she is not responsible for orders from someplace else. Why ask me? Furthermore, we tried calling twice to ask that they instruct the other customer in front of us to pull up but they never answered the phone. I was so mad, I left without the drink and thinking I will never return! Awful manager! Awful decision on Panera's part to hire Cara who is incapable of making common sense decisions.

Food was good as always, same as any Panera. However the service here was lacking on my visit.Took over 30 minutes for a rapid pick up, pre ordered salad at 1:30 pm. Did not appear to be short staffed so not sure what the issues were. No comments or apologizes from anyone working either. Staff was also marking carry out orders as “quality checked” without actually looking into the bags to verify full contents.