Panera Bread - Maple Valley

Really thought I didn’t like Panera before coming here. Taste buds really do change.

I was greeted warmly and promptly. My food was hot and tasty. I recommend trying the new pick 2 of toasted ham and gouda with the French onion soup! I will be back. Thank you for the delightful visit!!

The new drive-thru online order pickup system definitely needs some major improvements. I arrived 5 minutes early and waited for my order status to update, but ended up waiting longer than expected. Despite receiving an email saying my order was running late, I waited for another 10 minutes before being told to drive through for pickup. Unfortunately, there were already several cars ahead of me, resulting in an additional 10-minute wait at the window. The staff couldn't find my order despite it being marked as ready, and I had to wait even longer for them to bring it out to me. By the time I finally received my food, my kids were hungry and impatient. The food was decent, but the French baguette was burnt and extremely hard. This whole experience has made it unlikely for me to return to this restaurant.

This place has to be the only Panera that is always out of bread. We try to go here all the time and they are always out of bread bowls, baguettes and every bread item. This isn’t a single occurrence but been multiple times. Panera in Maple Valley let us down again by being out of ALL bread at 4:30PM on a Saturday. I’m not sure how its possible for a bread store to always be out of bread and especially for their number one side. I bought two cups of soup here for $15.20 and went to Fred Meyer to buy branded Panera bread. Odd isn’t it?

This is at least the third time something has gone wrong in my order from this Panera location. This time, I ordered the Baja warm chicken bowl (which I often get), with extra avocado. My bowl seemed rather lacking in content and was definitely not extra avocado. Not much quinoa either. My boyfriend ordered the BBQ chicken sandwich and it had several spots that were just bread or just onion, not nearly enough chicken to cover the sandwich. The strawberry banana smoothie did not taste much like strawberries and not at all like banana. If ordering from this location, I highly suggest going inside and verifying all is correct before heading home. Do not use the drive through!