Have Panera cafes always been sort of gross or have they gotten worse?

[Anonymous]

Ours has always been substandard.

[Anonymous]

Love the food and service, but damn the one on Duke Street in Alexandria needs a remodel asap. Dingy and nasty…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m referring to the in-store cleanliness and caliber of workers. I’m traveling for work and just ordered a sandwich. UMC suburb location. No drive-thru so I went inside and ordered on a screen. The wait was much longer than I thought, so I stood and waited by where the food comes out for 20 minutes.

The entire store was a disaster. Garbages overflowing. Tables not cleared. Cup lids out of stock. Drip coffee empty. And I’m not well-versed on all health code rules but it sure seemed like the three cooks were casually violating a lot of them, repeatedly. I learned one of the women just had child protective services called on her (she was sharing this with her colleagues). All three looked like they had poor hygiene.

I was so grossed out by it all I finally just walked out without getting my sandwich. I honestly lost my appetite.

They’ve always been disgusting to me. Even my teen son comments that he doesn’t understand why people eat there. Trash food and everything else.

[Anonymous]

Paneras I have been in recently seem fine. What’s really gone downhill is Chipotle- dirty lobby, dirty kitchen, filthy bathrooms, trash bins overflowing, tables needing wiped down…etc.

[Anonymous]

I walked into a Panera once -- several years ago.

I literally could not figure out how to order a simple sandwich. It was chaos. No one acknowledged me. The menus went on forever.

Left. Never went back. Obviously haven't missed a thing.

[Anonymous]

The food quality has really gone downhill. Their salads are inedible.

[Anonymous]

Is this the one in Vienna? It's gross and smelly.

[Anonymous]

I think it can't keep up with the unpredictable demand of orders that come through via the mobile app, even with limits, and the in person dining experience suffers. It's like that at a lot of places.

[Anonymous]

Prices up, quality down.

[Anonymous]

The one in Gaithersburg is still okay.

[Anonymous]

Haven’t been in a decade but never felt good about it, even though I was just getting a coffee the self-help coffee area was always a mess.

[Anonymous]

It used to be an inexpensive place to get better than average quick food. Now they charge way too much money for bad to mediocre food and I still feel hungry when I leave.

[Anonymous]

I think they peaked around 17ish years ago, I'm sorry to say

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Paneras I have been in recently seem fine. What’s really gone downhill is Chipotle- dirty lobby, dirty kitchen, filthy bathrooms, trash bins overflowing, tables needing wiped down…etc.

And so many stores do not teach their workers how to keep the food at a safe temp. Small wonder there are so many cases from food contagions. Sorry, but there are plenty of restaurants that are much safer than Chipotles food poisoning. That's a hard no for me.