Panera Bread

I work on writing projects here on a regular basis. I’ve worked at cafes across the country and Ballantyne Panera is among my favorites. They deal with an incredibly high volume of customers every day, and yet manage to make all of us feel like they are family. Karen, Reshma, Ted, Nabila, Kaylynn, Amy ~ these people are the very best. More like Ballantyne Panera, Please!

THANK YOU KAREN …. for your outstanding customer service skills. Thank you for always acknowledging me with the warmest greeting! You are an asset to the company and I truly appreciate you. You are the reason that I don’t mind driving little bit longer JUST to come to this location. THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH you really make my day every time I see you . This review is for : 14835 Ballantyne Village Way Charlotte, NC 28277 United States

Our visit was not the best, first we have to place the order ourselves and our soups were cold. We approached them to tell them that the soup is cold, please, we want it hotter and they sent us to heat it up in the microwave ourselves. I'm not saying what happened all the time but this happens due to the lack of personnel, who are paid very low.

As someone who has life-threatening food allergies, eating out can be hard. I have had problems with this location in the past, with some rude managers or people not taking precautions seriously. Errors on my order, such as not changing gloves or putting the wrong condiments on my sandwich, could cost my life. However, on Monday, October 24th, 2022, I had the best experience with this location. Cynthia was working in the kitchen at the time when I placed my order and I went to the take-out window to tell her my accommodations for my allergies: please change gloves, new knife as I am allergic to some breads, new cutting board, etc. She took my allergies very seriously, even telling another associate not to touch my order because of how severe my allergies are. She was very cautious and alert with my order and she made me feel completely safe. I will definitely be coming back to this location because of Cynthia and her extreme precautions with my life-threatening allergies. The only reason I am giving this location a 4-star review instead of a 5-star review is because I have had recent complications with my orders, as I am a regular customer, to which one of them I did not even eat the food due to the employees not accommodating my allergies. At that time (it has been within the past month), the manager who made my sandwich did not use a new knife while cutting my bread and did not use a new cutting board, so there was potential cross-contamination with allergens. Also, when ordering a smoothie, there was chocolate sauce on the lid (I ordered a Strawberry smoothie, so idk how chocolate sauce got on the lid) which I am not sure if I am allergic to or not. I stress my allergies every time I dine at this location, asking the employees to change their gloves, use a clean knife, a clean cutting board, and be extra cautious, but yet some employees and managers do not understand the severity of my allergies. Cythia did VERY well handling my allergies and I will definitely be requesting her assistance next time I dine in.

I am Very Pleased with the service that I received. I have not been to Panera since the pandemic and I wasn't familiar with the selections. The manager had to help me and she was kind, patient and polite. I believe her name was Dara. My only issue was that they were completely out of napkins. A restaurant should never be out of utensils or napkins. Thank you for your Service ladies 👍

Ordered delivery this morning to find out I was missing about 1/2 of my order. It happens, no big deal. But when I called up to Panera in Ballantyne, I spoke with Andy (I believe she said that was her name), and she was nothing but a delight! Found my order and immediately offered to send another driver out to correct the issue instead of just a refund. In addition, she and her team included some cookies for the inconvenience. So my daughter sends an extra thank you!!!! This location continues to be amazing every time I go. Many thanks again!! :) -Alyssa