Panera Bread in Madison

“I’ve taken my 1 and 3 year olds here twice now, as a solo parent outing, and both times the staff have gone above and beyond to help make everything easier for me while I manage getting my kids situated. The first time they brought my food out to my table after they saw my hands were totally full and this time the manager brought two cookies out to my kids. That was so unexpected and my 3 year old felt so special! Thank you so much for being a wonderful place for me to take my kids to!“

“Love all the glass
Great views of the bus lanes and shelter
Manager is always friendly, takes time to say hi

Parking: It is usually busy but always seems to be an open parking spot or two

Wheelchair accessibility: Rest room handicapped toilet area is usually clean.Some inconsiderate customers leave toilet paper on the floor and can't seem to manage to get their used paper towels in the garbage can.“

“Excellent customer service experience with them today; they corrected a mistake that WASN'T EVEN THEIR FAULT!!!

DoorDash delivery driver picked up my order, then STOPPED - a few blocks away, for >20 min (I'm 12 min from the Panera....).

Seeing the delay in my delivery time I called the driver, who was rude and admitted he was stopped because he was "waiting to pick up a friend from work". When I responded to ask if he legit stopped, after picking up my food, he yelled back at me "what do you f'ing want to do about it?!"

At that point, the order was on track to be in the driver's car >40 min, so the hot food would be cold and nasty, AND, I was worried he would tamper or mess with our food out of spite.

I called the Panera directly and talked with Paul (or Paulo?), who was the manager, and he apologized for the botched delivery, cancelled the order, and immediately had a new one made up and sent out (with a new driver). He called DoorDash on my behalf and gave me their number to file a report for this driver.

Replacement order was fast & fresh.

AND - the DoorDash rep confirmed that drivers are NOT supposed to stop after picking up food deliveries to run errands, etc. LOL

Give this place a try, and don't be afraid to advocate for yourself if you have a mistake in your order (vs. just ranting in a review). They genuinely wanted to make things right, and they did.“

“The food was available quickly. The bathroom was clean. The tables and chairs needed to be wiped off. The food was good. The Southwest Chicken Caesar Salad - They were out of avocados. The Chicken Caesar Salad, Chocolate Milk and Agave Lemonade were all great.“

“My mom and I have eaten here many a times and are always very happy with our meals! Tonight, we came to get dinner but unfortunately they were super duper backed up. The workers were extremely apologetic and gave us free pastries and a full refund because we could not stay to wait. Understaffing is a real problem and I felt terrible at the angry customers yelling at them. We will certainly return and hopefully the workers won't be as stretched thin then!“