Einstein Bros. Bagels — Restaurant in Cedar Park

(**ADDED UPDATE AT THE END) They have great food and we have been coming to this location regularly for 6 months since we moved up to this part of town (probably 20+ times in all) and if I could say one statement to sum it up: they don't have their crap together. Or I should say, management doesn't have their crap together. It's 100% management.

Generally, the employees are nice and accommodating. I'll get a grumpy one from time to time. Which is normal, but they are disorganized and always look like they're a minute away from complete destruction. I'm here now, and every minute or two there is a mini-meeting around the ordering monitor to clear up some problem. Employees seem to be missing as orders are backing up. The wait times are generally very long for a bagel with an egg in it...

Nobody seems to be clear on their responsibilities and there is usually one person who is running around keeping the place from burning down. Today, there is a girl who had tattoos and large ear piercings who is doing a great job of caring for customers. (Missed her name) She's busting her butt running around trying to keep people happy. I'm not sure who the manager is here but they need more people like her.

Anyway, we will continue to come here but I have certainly decreased my visits because I get tired of dealing with the circus.

UPDATE: Here I am a week later from writing his review. I went through the drive through and bought 6 bagels; 2 chocolate chip, 3 blueberry, 1 everything. I failed to check before driving off and ended up with 3 plains instead of blueberry. I get that that is a pretty normal mistake to make, so normally I would chuck it up to a simple mistake. But on top of the other bad experiences here I will not be coming back until things improve. This is...

First, I'll say that Einstein Bros. Bagels is one of my family's favorite places to get breakfast. The chorizo sunrise sandwiches and twice-baked hashbrowns are absolutely delicious.

However... The service at this location has declined substantially over the last few months. I'll share two experiences that I've had out of my last three visits:

1. Ordered two hot vanilla lattes with our food from the drive-thru. When the person handed the coffee to me she was holding the cups in a way that forced me to grab the cups from the top. The lid on the second cup was not secure and it popped off as I pulled the cup into my car. I had hot coffee spilled all over me and my car. The woman who handed me the coffee had no reaction; she just stared at me. I had to ask for napkins and was shocked that she didn't seem to care at all. My car was a complete mess and I had burns on my fingers, legs, and side.

2. Ordered two hot vanilla lattes with our food from the drive-thru. The person tried handing me two iced coffees. So I told him that they were supposed to be hot. He took them back and fairly quickly came back with two lattes in the cups for hot coffee and apologized. I said it was no problem, but as I was driving away I felt the cups again and noticed they were cold. Very cold. I took a sip and realized the drinks were as cold as ice. I'm fairly certain they simply poured the iced coffee into the different containers... Very disappointing, but at least I didn't leave with burns that time!

We're going to go to a different location from now on if we ever decide to try Einstein's again. That's such a shame, because the breakfast sandwiches they make are really...

Update: I returned to give this place a second chance. I ordered 6 bagels, cut in half with a tub of schmear. I got to the window and the female employee with red hair asked me if I ordered muffins or bagels. I said bagels (as I said at the drive through speaker). She said she has to change the order since I ordered muffins and then she just walked away. I know what I ordered. I just don’t know how to order things from incompetent employees. She left the window to cut the correct bagels. Another employee proceeded to hand me a bottle of water and I said I didn’t order a water. She realized she was wrong and looked up my order and she repeated my correct order. She then charged my credit card $17 dollars and then gave me my bag of food. I asked for the receipt knowing that the total charge was too much. After a few seconds she turned to me and said she thinks she overcharged me and needed to give me a refund. She was nice about it but I had had it with this place. I got my refund and went on my way home. When I opened the bag, I noticed they gave me the wrong flavor of bagels. This place really just needs to retrain everybody or get better organizational skills.

Drive-thru employee lacked any kind of humor and/or friendliness. She was on the cusp of being outright rude. Food was good but what makes it worth it to return to a business is having good people help you as well as good food. Starbucks is just as busy but always friendly (I went to Starbucks just before getting my bagels at Einstein). From reading the comments left before mine, customer service at this drive-thru has always been a problem that has never been...