Einstein Bros. Bagels — Restaurant in Mercer Island

The food here is okay. This place is always busy so I ordered ahead. When I arrived to pick up my food, I saw it was ready. I went to the cashier to pay, I told Jo##### B. that I had ordered ahead and she said "you still have to go to the back of the line with everyone ordering." They're training someone new so it took another 10 minutes or so to get my food paid for. When they finally handed me the bag, I check the cheesy hash brown and it was cold to the touch so I asked for a new one. They work in sight of everyone. I watched them hold my bag in back and 5 minutes later hand me back the same exact bag without the courtesy of at least reheating the food. I get it...you're busy... but this is absolutely not acceptable.

Received an email response from the same “manager” doubling down on their policy that calling ahead still means you should wait in line. To be perfectly clear, no where and I mean NO WHERE at any restaurant would you call ahead only to be told to wait in line with everyone else that has not yet ordered. The lack of genuine knowledge and professionalism shows here. You’re better off spending your money at McDonald’s across the street for that level of service.

Also in the emailed response they mentioned the bag of food was still sitting in their office. I doubt it is true, but if it is then that doesn’t do much to help your case. Why would you feel the need to keep it? Health code violation?

Keep reading for more drama.

During my initial encounter, I snapped a picture of the name tag for future reference with their corporate office. I thought I had done this stealthily, but no harm done either way. Johanna then asked why I took a picture. I explained. She then threatened “okay I will just take a picture of you then.” To which I responded “you already are..” while pointing at the security camera right above her head. Johanna again threatened “so I’ll just look at the cameras later and look you up.” Okay sure. Go back to making my food please. (Didn’t say that, just my thoughts in that moment) but why try to make an ominous threat? Later in the email response, she claimed to have looked at the camera and say I placed the order and picked it up over 30 mins apart. I double checked my personal cell phone call logs and found that I had placed the order at 8:39. She said I entered at 9:57. Doing some math, that’s 18 minutes. Just 3 minutes past the 15 minutes they said my food would take to be prepared. Keep in mind I’ve placed many orders here before and they always say it will be 15 minutes and in my experiences it has never been less than that. Standing there steaming in line really did feel like 10 minutes. She claims it was only an additional 5 minutes or so. Okay. I’ll believe that. Not sure how that helps her case, but figured I’d at least concede on that one point. Maybe instead of wasting your time analyzing footage so you can make due on your threats to customers.... Maybe you could focus on customer service more? Or...

I see other people here have complained about the unbelievable rudeness of the cashier lady. Well, I went to Einstein one day and this woman was INSTANTLY hostile toward me and had a horrible attitude. I ordered a certain bagel and, despite there being three of them clearly in the case, she said ‘we’re out of them’ in a very rude manner. I pointed out that there were three in the display case and she again rudely said that those were spoken for. So I left and didn’t say anything thinking she may just be having a bad day (it happens to all of us). But I went back a couple weeks later and, thankfully, I was not served by her. I did, however, hear the same woman being very rude to other customers and, now, having seen others complaining about her attitude, I decided to speak up. I see so very many mentions in the reviews about this very same person being just inexplicably rude and I’m now wondering; why isn’t anything being done about this? Do you like to be known for awful customer service?

Horrible demeanor, attitude and service. If it weren’t for her nastiness, this could be a great place to get some bagels. 1 star. Would NOT recommend!

Update: after this review, I get some canned corporate response saying, ‘glad to hear we satisfied your cravings’. Ummm did you even read the review? Or the dozen plus reviews complaining about this lady and the poor state of customer service at this...

Oh Noah's Bagel... where did you go? This used to be one of my favorite places to grab a quick lunch. And I always order the Nova Lox on a sesame seed bagel. I've came to this location about five times since they changed their name to Einstein Bros Bagels. The more times I come, the more disappointed I am. And this will be my last time here until I see better pictures. After Einstein Bros took over the chain, they first took away the side dish and dill pickle. They claimed that it was cheaper, but it certainly doesn't seem like it was a fruit salad side dish and dill pickle cheaper. But today's order of two Nova Lox bagels was what made me to decide not to come back anymore unless I see significant improvements. The picture I uploaded is probably not as dramatic as you see it in real person, but first the size of the salmon was dramatically decreased to about half of the size I used to have. Second, the color of the salmon looked like they have chosen to use a source of lesser quality. Well, there was a less significant third, which I was ok with it, and it was I ordered a non toasted and the cashier repeated it, but they still have me a toasted bagel. So long Noah's Bagel. We...