Harknell and I just had the worst dining experience we have had in a long time at the Panera Bread on Rte 1 South in North Brunswick, New Jersey.

Their menu is printed in a font that is too small for me to see. This is annoying, but luckily for me they had printed brochures this time that I could use.

Unfortunately, the person working as cashier was barely functional. We had to repeat the order back a few times. It was not a smooth transaction at all.

I made the mistake or ordering a skim milk Gingerbread Latte. The cashier was also making the drinks. She immediately pulled out 2% milk and started making my latte. Not a big deal. I’m not very picky about things like that, but clearly she wasn’t listening to us when we made our order.

Then it got bizarre. She says to me, “I really hate making this drink. It stinks real bad.”

I was like…ummm? Ok? I ask her if I made a mistake and shouldn’t have ordered it. She says, “No, it tastes good, but it just stinks.”

This was awkward. She finishes my drink and tells me she overfilled it and that she can’t fit the lid on. At this point I just wanted to take my drink and leave. I told her “No big deal, I’ll just take care of it.” She puts 3 inches of whipped cream on it, puts the lid on top like a hat and hands me the drink which compressed as she handed it to me and promptly exploded all over my coat.

I go to the coffee bar and dump the whipped cream out. It was a skim latte after all, and shouldn’t have even had that on it. Relieved, I finally made my way to the table with my food, then left my stuff with Harknell while I went into the bathroom to clean myself up from the latte explosion.

I go to leave the bathroom and an employee rushes in, clocking me in the face with the door. She apologized. Again, I say “It’s OK.” I just want to eat my food and leave at this point.

I had ordered a half tuna salad sandwich and half French Onion soup. The tuna sandwich is the smallest half tuna sandwich I have ever seen in my entire life. Because of that, it was also the most expensive Tuna Salad Sandwich I have ever had. It was more like a large tuna ravioli.

The French Onion soup was just onion boullion with 3 croutons in it and a barely detectable amount of grated cheese. I finished the tuna salad sandwich. I thought it was pretty tasty, but it was super-small. I barely managed 4 bites of the soup before I declared that I had had enough. It just freaking tasted bad.

OK, now time to try the skim Gingerbread latte. It tasted like a cup of sugar syrup with a splash of coffee and milk in it. One sip tasted kind of OK. Two sips made me want to throw up. The person making it had clearly emptied most of her syrup bottle into it to the point that it was un-drinkable. I threw the full drink into the trash along with the apple that came with my meal that was old and starting to develop rotten soft parts.

Harknell’s salad, was mediocre. I’m actually still hungry because I just ate what would normally be a 1/4 of a Tuna Salad sandwich anywhere else.

Both of these terrible meals for $25. What a bargain. I’m guessing I paid extra for the awkward ordering process, uncomfortable conversation about my drink, a Gingerbread Latte shower for my coat, and being hit in the face with the bathroom door.

I am never coming back to this Panera Bread location as long as I live. This is not the first bad experience I have had here. I will try another location. If that isn’t better, I’m writing these guys off for good.

I wrote them a letter 2 weeks ago about how difficult it was to read their menu due to tiny font and they never even replied to my email. How abysmal.

Quick, someone share another bad dining experience so that I feel better. I feel like I got ripped off for $25 tonight.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, December 5th, 2009 at 9:58 pm and is filed under Customer Service, Oni's Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.