Me and my girlfriend used to be a frequent customer of Panino Teca Sanlitun, mainly for good sandwiches at reasonable prices and a fast and efficient service.

However, within the last months we have observed that the customer service of this restaurant has gone down dramatically.

Very long time to take orders and to be served, sometimes orders taken are wrong, plus an indiferent crew that ignores Customers in a daily basis, and basically they don’t care about offering a reasonable service.

Although this decrease in the quality standards, we still frequented this restaurant. Until the 15 April of 2012.

On the 15 April 2012, I found at least 3 fragments of glass inside my salad at Panino Teca Sanlitun. The dimensions varied, the biggest piece was 4mm x 2mm. I believe the glass fragments came from a bulb light that exploted on top of the food.

When we adressed this to the waiter and to the restaurant manager, we were completely ignored, mistreated and no alternatives were offered.

• I politely requested for the cashier (a Chinese lady who was the deputy manager) contact details, which were not provided.
• I politely requested for the Panino Teca manager contact details, which were not provided.
Basically the restaurant staff did not care at all.

To find a fragment of glass inside of a meal does not only reflect an extremely poor higienic and quality management practise of the restaurant, but it represents a serious health and safety issue – a glass fragment amongst other problems, can open a hole, an ulcer inside of your mouth, stomach or intenstines, leading to a potentially very serious health problem.

I am also reporting this event to the Beijing Health Authorities to see what course of actions are most suitable.

After this even, I would advise you not to go to Panino Teca, unless you are into glass fragments inside your stomach.

For us, PANINO TECA = NEVER AGAIN restaurant.

Thanks for reading

I went there with my brother and one friend.

I took bruschettas, pretty good but quantity is very poor.
My brother ate the lasagna and for the first time , he didn't finish it so I tried them, what is that?!!

And my friend choose a salad, also very disapointed by it.

Except the bruschettas, the others ( included sandwiches, Waffleboy and Crêpanini are totally better!),

With a good location and a nice atmosphere, they could do better.

Having recently moved offices nearby I have now given this place two tries as it seems to packed every lunchtime. On both occasions the sandwiches were dismal. Maybe they are so proud of their bread they don’t want to spoil it with a whiff of a shade of a hint of a touch of a suggestion of a mere possibility of a filling, but even the bread is nothing special. It would also have been helpful if they’d mentioned when it came to paying that they needed 25 minutes to provide a receipt. Actually I have no idea how long it takes them to get a receipt because I couldn’t be bothered to wait around the counter after the first 10 minutes, with the girls behind the counter ignoring me when I asked how long it would be.

THIS IS THE SANLITUN NORTH STREET ONE - NOT THE VILLAGE ONE.

A coffee ,some sandwhiches and a cheese cake works for me here.
Though some glitches in service, I frequent this place for the food .
A good wifi is an added facility.

Love their home made cheese cake, very special and very smooth, reminds me the taste of zabaglione and the meringue foam. The strawberry sauce on top doesn't seem to be very great here. But eating the cheese cake only is a bit too creamy.

Sandwiches and salads come in very big sizes. Taste is fresh at least. Nothing to do with pleasure unlike the cheese cake...

Village branch is very well designed, the interior, the menu and the logo all very italian!

Why do people go to McDonalds at the Village when this spot is right there?!? Large, fresh ingredients go into these massive sandwiches that even come with a side salad for slightly more than a supersized value meal at McDonalds. A nice interior, quick wait staff, and some excellent desserts make this one of the city's best quick lunch spots.

I've never been to the Village branch of Panino Teca, but I've been going to the Sanlitun Beixiaojie branch for about two years and have found it consistently good. The sandwiches aren't cheap, but they are always tasty and the ingredients fresh. The coffee is very decent too.

I've always found the service here much better than Panino Giusto, with the staff reasonably attentive and the orders prompt. They've also never messed up my order, which is more than I can say for Panino Giusto.

I like the quiet setting on Sanlitun Beixiaojie and the cafe's bright and airy environment.
Great place for a lazy Sunday afternoon lunch.

The sandwiches here are good value at around RMB 25-35 - cheaper than Element Fresh and of arguably higher quality, depending on whether you prefer huge slabs of ciabatta (Panino Teca) to wraps and laffa bread (Element Fresh).

Service however, can be lacking at times, especially at the Sanlitun Village brunch. The staff there are usually nice enough, but I've had a few experiences of waiting for a long time to be served, while staff hang around the counter looking anywhere but towards the customers. I once saw about five staff huddling round the counter as one of their colleagues uncomfortably tried and failed to deal with a customer's request for a fapiao. There seems to be an absence of a senior manager to keep the staff focused or solve problems like this if they arise, which is a definite negative to an otherwise great venue.

The Village location is definitely the best: more food choice, convenient location, friendly and most of all SMART Staff!!!!

A bit pricy, but it's a good value for money due to the gigantic portions (exception made for the Bruschetta, my only disappointment)!

The coffee is good and also their Tiramisu!!!

Avoid the Sanlitun Beixiaojie location: the staff is not up to standards.

This is a nice sandwich place with a bright and comfortable environment and good quality ingredients, set at standard expat-prices (i.e. ¥¥¥). The service tends to not be overly annoying and they don't seem to mind you camping out with a laptop for a few hours over some coffee to do some work.

The sanlitun beixiaojie branch is a far too often a madhouse, but the new Sanlitun Village store seems a bit more manageable thus far.

Kudos to the kitchen for having a great selection of authentic-feeling stuff such as mortadella, good salamis, tasty cheeses, and pepperoncinos.

The big complaint I have with this place is that the sandwiches, while built with very nice ingredients and very authentic bread, seem to be almost entirely made up of said bread, which might very well be large enough to feed a family of four for a day. We always find that we have to put a tonne of the provided side salad or ketchup inside the sandwich to finally start registering some flavour other than "really bread-y".

The coffee here is good, although at some point they switched from Lavazza to Illy, so it's now a slightly darker roasted coffee. French fries and regular drinks here are nice, and the wine isn't too outrageously priced.

Cut the bread in half, but keep the filling the same amount, and you'd have equally filling and notably more satisfying sandwiches.

For now, we'll continue going to Bocata -- which has a much better balanced sandwich -- for good food, and we'll keep coming back to Panino Teca for a more "Italian" feeling lunch with some coffee and wine.