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Panera Bread Bakery Cafe

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MY REVIEW: Great, friendly service.great soups and salads. Clean.

My favorite place to have coffee in Houston, and refills are free, free wifi.

Haven't found a sandwich yet that isn't just mediocre. Would be great to be able to have a grilled cheddar sandwich to go with the soup. Not a fan of asiago.

I eat here at least once a week. Great value.

NAME: Kaf58
SUBMITTED: 9/20/2012   LAST VISIT WAS: Sep/2012
FREQUENCY: Everybody here knows my name...

MY REVIEW: Panera Bread remains a favorite quick stop meal in spite of the prices being significantly higher than in my 2004 reviews. I'm offering another review to make a couple of points.

1) Many new menu items. The Thai Chopped Chicken Signature Salad is excellent. The Thai chili vinaigrette and peanut sauce dressing offers a very tasty and unique salad.

2) While I'm sure everyone will agree that NO restaurant's offerings EVER look like the posted photos, shouldn't they at least be close? Our recent Roasted Turkey Artichoke Premium Signature Hot Panini was not even close in thickness and stuffings as the photos showed! This is their most expensive menu item and should have had more ingredients in it; it was very thin with sparse fillings. Why is Panera Bread skimping on ingredients?

While the thin panini had a good flavor, I must question it's value. There was too little on this panini to charge as much as they do. Other chains give much more food for the price. We'll return and order something different.

NAME: msu79gt82
SUBMITTED: 5/7/2012   LAST VISIT WAS: 5/12
FREQUENCY: Everybody here knows my name...

MY REVIEW: Like the selection of bagels, the other baked goods are varied and tasteful too; though their prices have gone up a bit, just like some competitors, the quality is still fairly good for the $$. Other reviews note that it does get crowded and parking can be somewhat difficult at peak times, fortunately I'm close enough to bicycle there if the weather is good.

Nice place to enjoy a toasted bagel or sample the lunch menu and they do offer WiFi.

NAME: snack-zilla
SUBMITTED: 2/29/2012   LAST VISIT WAS: 12/2011
FREQUENCY: Visited 4-6 times

MY REVIEW: Met a client here for lunch. Very crowded, so a good sign, but managed to snag a table. We both had the half sandwich with soup. I had the tuna half sandwich on honey wheat and it was very good. I had the low-fat black bean soup with it and it was very good. They also gave you a choice of bread or an apple to go with it and I chose the apple and had it for a snack that afternoon. Overall it was a pleasant dining experience.

NAME: GoCoogs!
SUBMITTED: 9/28/2011   LAST VISIT WAS: 9/2011
FREQUENCY: Visited once

MY REVIEW: If you want to have a bite to eat by yourself, this is a great place to do it. Their Asian Chicken Salad is wonderful. Iced tea is strong and flavorful. I had their new steak & cheese panini. It was nothing to write home about.

NAME: CM
SUBMITTED: 7/31/2011   LAST VISIT WAS: JUL/2011
FREQUENCY: Visited 2-3 times

MY REVIEW: I arrived at 11:30 AM. It wasn't crowded. I ordered a cup of coffee and 2 muffin tops. The first coffee I tried said it was last brewed at 9:30 AM and there was hardly any left in the urn. Why they had their coffee urns almost empty right before lunch rush is surprising to me. The coffee tasted worse than bitter. I returned to the coffee bar, dumped it out and tried coffee from a 2nd urn. It also said last brewed at 9:30 AM and was almost empty. This time the coffee was lukewarm. The last coffee I tried was OK but it was Hazelnut: my least favorite.

On to the 2 muffin tops. I got the muffin tops because the baked goods were scarce. I really wanted a slice of their coffee cake. There was none. The first muffin top was OK. The 2nd one was as hard as a hockey puck. I gave it back to the waitperson and asked for a refund. She seemed put out, not eager to assist me in getting a refund. I got a refund but no acknowledgment from management.

NAME: LTCQueen
SUBMITTED: 3/22/2010   LAST VISIT WAS: March 2010
FREQUENCY: Visited 2-3 times

MY REVIEW: Stopped by for what was supposed to be a quick lunch in between appointments on a Thursday. At 11:50 there was not a soul at the counter to take orders - the one person working the register was in the back finding a particular pastry for the customer in front of me. Finally place my order, get my number, and still have to ask for a glass so I can get my drink. Find one of the few unoccupied and cleaned off tables, put my number in the holder and WAIT and WAIT and WAIT. Finally a manager stops by (I was about ready to get up and find one since I had been waiting almost a 1/2 hour for a salad) and asks what I ordered. Whoops - the counter person keyed in the wrong ticket number so that was the delay. He gives me what is supposed to be my salad and is gracious enough to refund my money. However the salad he gave me was NOT what I ordered. When he returned with my refund I pointed this out to him. He offered to replace it, but unfortunately I had to get to my next appointment and no longer had time to wait on a replacement much less eat it.

This isn't the first time that I've had poor service at this location but I had chalked up the previous occasions to making the mistake of stopping in on the weekend. I probably won't return here again after this weekday lunch fiasco.

NAME: Michelle
SUBMITTED: 8/12/2009   LAST VISIT WAS: 8/09
FREQUENCY: Visited 4-6 times

MY REVIEW: Weak points: Registers fluctuate inconsistently between being open and closed causing long lines at lunchtime. This causes confusion as to who is next in line and allows others to cut in line.

When this place is busy, they never get my order right.

Employees socialize with customers so much that it causes the line to back up.

NAME: md
SUBMITTED: 8/7/2009   LAST VISIT WAS: August 8, 2009
FREQUENCY: Everybody here knows my name...

MY REVIEW: Unfortunately, this location is now closed, even though it was always busy. The sign on the door of the empty space gave no explanation, no note of where they may have moved to, or the closest location.

NAME: MSP
SUBMITTED: 6/18/2009   LAST VISIT WAS: 6/2009
FREQUENCY: Visited 4-6 times

MY REVIEW: I was very happy when this chain came to Houston area after I got used to eating it in Michigan several years ago. The on-site bakery really does wonders for the sandwiches, as the bread is so fresh and so varied.

Pros: Sandwiches and soups are very good. I like the option of a piece of fruit as a side. This is a big improvement vs. the bag of chips most sandwich places toss in as an afterthought.

Cons: A little expensive, but not too bad. The seating is very cramped, however, as each little seat gets very little square footage of table (and elbow) room. Tables very close together, and combined with the hard surfaces that do nothing to dampen sound, this can be a very noisy place.

NAME: ScottyP
SUBMITTED: 3/25/2009   LAST VISIT WAS: 02/2009
FREQUENCY: Everybody here knows my name...

MY REVIEW: I have also visited Memorial City location recently as well. The employee was not friendly. They seem to be clueless and don't know their product very well. They ran out of the bread around 3:00 P.M. I know they do not want to have leftover. Then they should not be called Panera "Bread". Their bread was hard and cold if there is any. If you want hot and fresh bread go to HEB at Cypress or Louetta. They have plenty of them all day long and taste much better than Panera's

NAME: JoAnn
SUBMITTED: 11/14/2008   LAST VISIT WAS: 11/08
FREQUENCY: Visited 2-3 times

MY REVIEW: We love the half sanwich with smoked turkey breast on artisan country or sourdough bread/cup of soup, and side is an apple. The black bean soup is to die for its great. These are great meals for people on weight watchers 7-10 points for the total meal.

NAME: DianeTexas
SUBMITTED: 11/7/2008   LAST VISIT WAS: 11-06-08
FREQUENCY: Visited 4-6 times

MY REVIEW: It's really too bad....the food is pretty tasty - when they actually have it - but the service is about the worst I have ever had. It was great my first visit there, but went completely downhill with every visit since. To be out of most of the breakfast/brunch items before 8:30 in the morning on a Saturday/Sunday is a pretty inefficient way to run a business. And yes, I did ask because I've been in later in the morning than that and had a slightly better selection available than that day, but the response was given by an employee who'd appeared to have been woken up from her mid-morning nap and looked confused. Needless to say, I won't return and I don't think they really care if me or anyone else does either......

NAME: Matt Houston
SUBMITTED: 8/8/2008   LAST VISIT WAS: 6/08
FREQUENCY: Visited 4-6 times

MY REVIEW: I just love eating the baked goods, so pretty, so yummy. I take bagels and sweets to work every week or so. However I did stop in on the weekend and it was not as good (day old baked items perhaps?) not sure. Yet, this is one of my favorite weekday spots. Did I mention I love the Pastry and Sweet Rolls?

NAME: Ms. Greenwood
SUBMITTED: 7/31/2008   LAST VISIT WAS: July 2008
FREQUENCY: Visited 4-6 times

MY REVIEW: Something is different. There is a consistent lack of food! No Bagels! No Sweet Rolls! No Bread! I asked a very nice young lady what the problem is and I have been told that the oven is broke. Here is an idea, lets get it fixed! I do not understand how a bakery can have a broken oven for such a long period of time. I would think the oven would be a top priority. I feel bad for the staff having to put up with upset customers as I am sure it is not an 18yr olds choice to not fix the oven. Sad, Sad, Sad.

NAME: Sugarland Express
SUBMITTED: 7/12/2008   LAST VISIT WAS: June 2008
FREQUENCY: Visited 4-6 times

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