The food was good and the cashier was nice. But $6.19 for a half a turkey sandwich? Nearly $9 by the time I added chips and a drink? Too pricey for a daily lunch, this is more of a treat youself deal. But then it's not really nice enough to consider a treat. Touch screen ordering, which I hate. First, who wants to touch display screens a thousand other people have touched, then eat a sandwich with your hands? Second, stop finding ways to not employ people. (Here's part of the deal to run a business in my view: unless you're a mom and pop shop, give back to the community by employing workers. Pay a living wage. Boycott self-service!) Anyway, when your order is ready, they call your name and leave your food sitting on a shelf. No one hands it to you, no one makes sure you've got the right order. No one makes sure nobody else takes your food, or that you don't take someone else's. Also, very little seating provided at this Panera. I guess they want to be strictly pick-up and delivery. A couple of high top counters with chairs line the windows, and exactly one booth. One booth, at which the manager was seated, conducting interviews. Outside there are 4 tables with umbrellas, weather permitting. Im not sure they are even Panera's; might belong to the shopping center. With the price of this food, they could certainly provide some more seating. I guess the goal here is to cut costs wherever possible. Makes me wonder what cost cutting is going on in the kitchen. And the cost cutting is not reflected in the prices. Lastly, they have a pretty interesting soundtrack playing as I sit here eating and writing. No popular music, instrumental only. Unusual. I guess I would call this a retro jazz/house fusion. Good beats, lots of subtle horns and woodwinds as opposed to rock guitars. I like it, but some people might think it's elevator music. It's very different. Ew. And now some really annoying easy listening reggae tune came on. There's a singer singing the same line over and over and over. Extremely annoying. I take it all back. read more

It sounds like I am going to jump on a very full band wagon here. We have gone to the Somerset Panera at least five times this year. Panera is our kids favorite place. However this one never gets the order correct. Every time it is missing a few things or is the totally wrong order. Today,even my wife asked them several times to include utensils, the forgot. They need to change things up. This has been going on for the entire time it's been open. read more

Worst Panera ever! They have options to deliver frozen beverages but every time you get tree beverages delivered to your home they're a watery mess! I spoke with a manager and gave her a piece of my mind! I said what's the point in delivering beverages if you can't deliver them to the standards of Panera Bread? I was told that the drivers are "supposed" to deliver frozen beverages in a cooler but this never happens! The Panera Bread in Princeton is wonderful so is the one in Raritan but this one in Somerset needs some shaping UP!.. Also when dis Panera Bread become an Asian inspired restaurant? The broth bowls were tree best but with the menu changes every few months you can never enjoy what you really like! I'm shocked they still have the cheddar broccoli soup! read more

I ordered a few items for delivery, I actually have food delivered fairly regularly to my house from here. This is the second or third time and item has been forgotten, but Sara answered the phone quickly and was very apologetic. Offered to have the item brought right back to me. A bit of a nuisance but at least the error was corrected and handled properly. read more

This has to be one of the worst managed panera locations in the entire chain. I've yet to have an order completed correctly. I've gone back several times in hopes that these were just growing pains from being a new location, yet they continue to make mistakes. Today I ordered delivery, lunch for 4. I placed the order at 11:15 for noon requested delivery. The delivery person showed up at 12:05, with the wrong food. Upon checking the order I didn't see any drinks and had to chase after the delivery driver to let them know. When I returned back inside I realized the entire order was wrong. They offered no discount or free treat to compensate for the inconvenience and barely apologized. Had to wait an additional 30 minutes while they re-made my food. read more

I went to Panera on Elizabeth at Somerset weekly with experience getting from great to just OK and then to BAD. As one would say "it's not that company is bad, but the people working for it" applies exactly to this place. This third and last time, I ordered a customized sandwich from the menu. Upon receiving my order, person at the counter read my 7-letter last name incorrectly a few times and laughed making me really embarrassed. Ignoring that, I discovered that my sandwich was missing topping. When I asked to add it, instead of adding, they re-made the whole sandwich from the scratch (really??? was it necessary???). This time totally forgetting that the sandwich I ordered was customized. So I wasted an extra 15 minutes just to get what I didn't order. The conclusions are: get literate to read the customers ' names correctly and to follow what the customer ordered. This was my last trip there, NEVER again! read more

Let's see....made an delivery order. The delivery driver decided he didn't want to get out the car even though I'm at a hotel so the MOST you have to do is come inside to the lobby. My food went back to Panera after not knowing ( I called them and they told me they still had my food over an hr later). I asked to speak to a manager and they said "They will call you back". Never got a call back by the way. No food + no callback = this place is TRASH read more

I work locally and come here every once in a while for lunch. Food is always good and they always get my order correct! They do run out of items quite often though so that can be frustrating especially when I only like one of their soups. I don't mind ordering from the touchpads and they recently added more seating. I only wish this was a full sized Panera! read more

My experience here was decent. I got the mac and cheese bread bowl, it was OK but nothing special. The sourdough bread is the only thing I come here for. everything else on the menu is overpriced, and small in portions. Half a sandwich for nine bucks and it's small... I don't understand the draw to this place. I'll give three stars for nice service and the sourdough bread. read more

After having a great experience with business luncheon delivery, I decided to order and pickup. I ordered the same meal that I previously had, broccoli soup (good) chicken sandwich had possible a 1/4 if that, piece of chicken. The sandwich was soggy and because the lack of chicken I give this rating. read more

If you've been to this Panera multiple times, you'd know they are really inconsistent. Sometimes they are missing something, and other times they are adding things you didn't want. read more

I wanted to wait to give this location a proper and fair review, since it take a few months to get into the swing of things. But it's been over 6 months since it's been open and I have to say - they need to get their act together. I work a few minutes away and we order catered lunches for corporate meetings, delivery for smaller lunches and I even place orders just for myself sometimes and 9 times out of 10, something is missing. Every time we have it delivered, it's a new delivery person (I wonder why?) and some item is usually missing. Whether it be coffee, salad, cookies, chips, or even sandwiches! Almost every single time. I'm not sure if the delivery person is at fault or the person preparing the food. Either way, it's incredibly unnerving and frustrating. They need a better system to ensure that your entire order is delivered! The food is great and I enjoy it but when half my lunch is missing, it means I'll be ordering from you less often.u read more

Slowest, smallest Panera ever. Is this a concept store? Because it is awful. Poor staffed with slow workers.

I can't knock the food, it's very good. The reason for my low rating is that management needs to plan a little better with the food availability. We ordered dinner on a Saturday evening at 630 and a bunch of items were not available. I should mention that all of the unavailable items were bread. No dinner rolls, no bread bowls, etc. We were offered a pastry to make up for no bread bowl with my wife's soup. Come on, Panera, the word BREAD is in your name, maybe you should make sure it's available? Dunkin Donuts doesn't run out of donuts and offer you a pickle for compensation. The other thing that bothered me is that the two staffers up front were playing a game of "basketball" through the serving window, throwing something back into the kitchen repeatedly. Not too professional to be throwing things around my food being made. Save the shenanigans for when there are no customers around. I want to keep eating here because the food IS good, but I'm a little bit disappointed so far. read more

While Pamela breads food is a better alternative to all other fast food restaurants, the staff at this branch is incompatent and the store is very dirty. There quality incrurancce is the worst I've ever seen and as many times that I've ordered from them they've never got the order correct. I do not recommend this branch. read more

Let me start by saying their delivery system is entirely too long! I ordered a soup with a frozen lemonade and it took 45 minutes to get delivered! Once I received my food the frozen lemonade was watery, my soup was only half filled. I told the driver I want signing my receipt because this mess wasn't what I'm paying for! I proceeded to call the restaurant when I encounter Cynthia Ramirez who claimed to be a manager but had a very bad attitude. Cynthia at fist told me that she cold give me a credit for my drink on my next order! Well first of all why would I even order from here again when your incapable of delivering food properly! Secondly why should I have to get a bad order and pay when you're the one's who screwed it up! Cynthia then told me to give me order back to the driver and they'd remake my food. I waited another 45/50 minutes for one soup and a frozen lemonade to get delivered to my house that's only a mile away! I'll be giving corporate a call this morning to notify them of the poor customer service and even worse management experience! This place is such a disappointment and over-priced it's not even funny! Used to really enjoy Panera but now they're falling down the tubes! They need a redevelopment of management and training! Terrible, terrible, terrible! read more

Zero stars is appropriate. Bad for groups. Horrible management, lazy incompetent employees. I came to Rutgers with a sports team for a 3 day competition. Pre-ordered lunch for all 3 days. 2 of the 3 days our orders were incomplete and the food we did receive was wrong. On the third day none of our orders were labeled so we had to guess what food was for each person which is dangerous when you have people with food allergies not to mention massively inconvenient when on a tight timeline and needing rest for your athletes. We will never order from this location again when we come back in future years. read more

Rapid pick up is terrible here, the worst I've experienced. Every time I've ordered from here, they forget something. I've honestly never experienced this at any other location, it's annoying. read more

This specific locations screws up orders constantly. Also they skimped on my Greek salad the last time I was there barely anything but lettuce. read more

Does "good clean food" (to quote their TV ad) include ice cold bread? I went to this Panera in Somerset recently, because i had a gift card. First of all, I'm not a big fan of the self-service kiosk thing, but i could get past that, IF the food was worth it. I ordered a turkey sandwich, which reminded me of something you would be served on an airline flight. The turkey was several slices of straight cut turkey just plopped on an ice cold roll (I kid you not), with 1 leaf of wilted romaine lettuce (I prefer iceberg on a sandwich, but not a deal breaker). Wow... folks, just go to Subway, where they have fresh, well-made (in front of you) sandwiches, with fresh soft bread! read more

1 star based on SLOW service. 2 bagels and 2 soufflés (which were already made). We've been waiting for 15 minutes and still no food. There's hardly anyone here!!! read more

This is a mainly a pickup location and it's clear the staff is used to this being their main form of service. While the food is standard, when I arrived on a Sunday afternoon staff was slow and ill prepared despite the fact there was no one there. I ate in with 2 others and although our salads and sandwiches came out in normal fashion, they forgot to bring the pastry for the friend who had only ordered coffee and a pastry. They also encouraged kiosk ordering, but didn't have the buzzers that the kiosks would ask you to input for your order. Definitely a less than pleasant panera experience. read more

I love the food here. With all of the unhealthy choices out there, it's nice to know I can order good quality fast food that tastes great and know how many calories I am consuming! read more

This place is way understaffed. Waited 20 minutes for my food and it wasn't too busy. They need to hire a few more employees to keep up with the business. read more

Terrible. Sandwich was sloppy and fell apart with my first bite. Turkey was wet for some reason and was tasteless. Avocado was chopped in gigantic chunks which also fell off sandwich. I ate half of it and threw the rest out. Dislike the touchscreens. Waste of $9. read more