Everybody's Coffee — Restaurant in Lake View Township

BAD SERVICE EXPERIENCE (and one bad coffee drink). Caveat: this is one of those long, venting reviews centered around one person's bad experience, so take it for what it's worth.

If you walk in and order yourself something, you will likely find the large, bright place with friendly staff and good food that other reviews mention. But I thought I would be a nice guy and pick up breakfast for my co-workers on the way to a video shoot and it all went very wrong. First, I called ahead from my taxi to order, to ensure there would be no stress or wait, and was told, "we don't have a way to take orders over the phone, you have to come in." I asked how long it would take to get some breakfast sandwiches and was told that there's no line so it should be pretty quick. Even though I was concerned about being late to work, traffic was light so I decided to go for it, thinking I had a solid 15 minute buffer.

When I got there, there was no line but there was one person up front doing barista and cashier duty (while 2 people were in back making food), so I had to wait several minutes to order. Then I ordered 6 bagel breakfast sandwiches and she seemed crestfallen and said, "that will take a bit of time." I reminded her that I called ahead and tried to order in advance for that very reason, to which she replied that she didn't know my order was going to be THAT big. I also ordered one latte with an extra shot and light milk for myself - it was basically a lukewarm kids' steamer with a hint of coffee flavor. She added a double shot of espresso which helped somewhat.

Meanwhile, the 6 bagel sandwiches took over a half hour to make and bag up! I was extremely late to the location and it threw my day into turmoil. The woman at the register who rebuffed my phone order and made the coffee drinks was clearly stressed as she took additional orders that piled up behind mine, but she did maintain a friendly and professional demeanor almost to the very end. On the way out the door of the coffee shop, I tried to leave on a positive note, saying, "have a better day!" I said this because I felt bad for her, getting frazzled by this pile up and me clearly being unhappy with the wait and with my drink. Her response could have been to say, "you too" or "thanks for coming in" but instead she defiantly replied, "have a better day? My day is fine." I replied, "well, you seem stressed about being backed up after you wouldn't take my order over the phone." Her response, "sorry - that's just our policy."

Bottom line: the sandwiches were tasty and clearly carefully crafted, each served with a small side salad of mixed greens (in a separate container, making for a huge mountain of packaging). But if you're serving breakfast food, you have to be able to get it done reasonably quickly - people are often in a hurry in the morning. 6 sandwiches shouldn't take over a half hour. And even if your only official means of transmitting an order to the kitchen staff (who were standing 5 feet behind the front counter) is via a POS, you must have a scrap of paper and a pen somewhere in that café to jot down a larger order and get it started for a customer who's on his way in. In a service-oriented business you have to be flexible to try to understand your customers' needs to some extent and make small adjustments. There was nothing so amazing and unique about the products at this restaurant to warrant an inflexible policy and lengthy wait times, which could have easily been avoided through a bit of asking questions...

I have waited to write this review because I was told a manager would reach out and they haven't. The latest incident occurred this past Saturday .

First, I would never recommend this restaurant to anyone. They are incapable of fulfilling simple orders. Management clearly does not care because this has been going on for months.

My orders have progressed to being as simple as possible. I was determined to give this restaurant a fair chance.

My first order was for my coworker's who just wanted bagels and drinks. The order was 3 plain bagels, juice, and coffee. As the food was being prepared by the barista, the toaster burns a bagel they show the cashier. Not a big deal. However, once I returned to the office and began passing out bagels. We were given two plain bagels, a half of a plain bagel (bottom) and half of a wheat bagel (bottom). The restaurant was called and they said they would give us a "new" bagel.....As this point my coworkers refuse to do any further business with this place (which was very smart)!

My next two orders were placed by app. I simplified each order because I continued to not receive the correct products.

My fourth order was for three bagels. When I picked up the order I opened it in the store to check for the correct products. One of the bagels has large growths of mold all over (impossible to miss). I request a manager and showed them the bagel. I asked if the other bagels came from the same place/bag as the mold one. I was told by the cashier they were fine. It wasn't until I verbally asked for bagels in a fresher bag, that I was given a new set of bagels.

Management reached out. Apologizing and issuing a gift card and was reassured this would not happen again.

Saturday, I had a friend visiting who loves bagels. Being an idiot I placed an order with Everybody's Coffee. My order was two plain bagels and a juice. When we open our order it was two sesame seed bagels, which of course was a food my friend had a sensitivity too. I returned the bagels and requested my money back. I was told a manger would reach out. They haven't. Please do not do business here. They clearly do not care about their customers and have not intent to...

Edit: 5/15/2024 decided to give this place another go. Ordered a cappuccino in a glass mug. Waited 20 minutes only for them to holler for me to come and get my phthalate full to-go cup. When I addressed the situation I was met with a huff n puff reaction without an apology or any courtesy response to the error. After that they proceeded to ignore my order and attend to other customers. At which point I requested a refund. Here’s the funny part, I told the cashier they can keep the tip and refund the drink to which she replied condescendingly ‘no we’ll just refund your entire order’ only to see my refund receipt explicitly reflect that she did IN FACT keep the tip. What a joke 🤣 being on a high horse, not even offering an apology to your error then pretending to not want money only to keep it is quite hilarious. There’s a reason why I told you to keep the tip, I know you need it. You didn’t need to pretend that you have all the pride to not take it LOL very unfortunate that this is smack dab in the middle of my neighborhood; making it the only option. Regardless, Im not returning and will advise all my coffee enthusiast neighbors to give this place a pass.

A lot of fluff without quality to back it with this coffee shop. Which is the exact problem with newer coffee shops that open now a days. Coffee is sub par, pastries are as you would expect any less in quality and we’d have a problem; Especially with how they price their items. All in all, a go to if I don’t...