Homegrown — Restaurant in Mercer Island

Just ordered lunch for our small office of 4 people. This is a Wednesday routine all of us look forward to each week. Out of the 4 orders, only 3 showed up. I ordered through doordash, but I happen to know that this 'sandwich' didn't fall out in the driver's car because he unzipped his carrier bag in front of me to hand me our order. This is super disappointing because we love homegrown, but I can only assume that this missing sandwich is a fault on homegrown's end... not the driver. I called MI HG and the manager was unavailable. Instead, I was directed by the employee who answered to get my refund through doordash. Wrong already. In my opinion, the food is great, but the customer service and level of courtesy or professionalism was sub-par. This was completely preventable if they took the two extra seconds to staple the bag shut! I was not offered a courtesy replacement for the missing sandwich nor courtesy delivery. Shame on Homegrown. Do better.

(I came back to edit my review and lower it from 3 to 1 stars). We gave MI HG the benefit of the doubt and ordered again this wednesday. Everything on the order was perfect EXCEPT one of the sandwiches had one single strip of bacon and the most pathetically small amount of turkey in it. This was supposed to be a turkey bacon and caramelized onion sandwich. It was mostly bread. I could put all the ingredients in one hand and easily close my fist that's how little was in the sandwich. Meanwhile, the rest of the 3 sandwiches came right as they should. Additionally, the bag of chips that was ordered to go with the bad sandwich was MISSING. Unfortunately this sandwich/chips belonged to the same coworker who's sandwich didn't come last time! (We doordashed again). Homegrown didn't even staple the receipt to the bag or anything. This whole establishment is pathetic I'm not even going to bother calling for them to waste a driver's time on a $2.50 bag of chips. Seeing the low reviews on this homegrown location, and numerous others put a real bad taste in my mouth. This establishment is so close to being fantastic with their ingredients and recipes if it weren't for their horrendous staff/employee efforts to provide timely and CORRECTLY ASSEMBLED orders. After seeing another review that they prioritize catering and that person stood inside waiting for 30 minutes for one sandwich, I was shocked. Honestly HOMEGROWN, MANAGE YOUR...

YUCK!

I moved away from the area five years ago and just moved back. I have mouth watering memories of my favorite Homegrown sandwich that I have missed over the years, so I was excited to see a location on Mercer Island, near my place of employment. Unfortunately, I am terribly disappointed.

The first thing I noticed is that there is a kiosk to take your order, so the welcoming mini chat I used to have with the person who rung me up is to be no more. Okay, I guess we are moving into the future and I just have to deal.. I ordered the egg and avocado sandwich on gluten free bread, just as I had so many years ago….

The service was not too bad. Not personal anymore, but they put it together fast which was very helpful when it came to how much patience a ready-to-go-for-nap 3-year-old had to lend at this time of day. However, we were inside the place for roughly 10 or 15 minutes and walked out smelling like we had bathed in burnt food. Yuck.

The food was the biggest disappointment of the year!! Need I remind you of my fond memories of delicious yumminess? I got almost the farthest thing from that. :( The egg was an egg. Cooked as requested. No complaints. The avocado was hard as a rock and black in some places. Yuck. The bread was way over toasted and also hard as a rock on the edges AND I had to pay an extra $2.30 for it. Yuck. The only good thing about this sandwich experience is that the spicy sauce is the same and still delicious.

Overall, a HUGE disappointment. Hopefully it’s only this location, I’ll revisit the Homegrown location of my past at an attempt at a...

I gotta agree with a few other reviewers about the lack of anyone working above high school age and no manager and its like they turn the place into their hangout spot instead of a place of work. I go once a week on the way to pick up kids at school and it usually takes way too long to get a sandwich when there's 8 kids working and no one else in the store. Today the music was blaring so loud you could hear it down the street at the French Cafe. Inside it was unbearably loud and was rap music which i guarantee whoever owns it wouldnt approve of if they were there. I mean come on I thought it was a joke or they all decided to quit that day lol. They're all just chatting openly about their private lives instead of working. When you get your food they dont make eye contact, dont smile and couldnt be less interested. I'm sure most of them are local and have wealthy parents and it's good they're working and trying to learn but everyone else has to suffer because they obviously don't care. I've seen so many different kids working I'm sure they have a very high turnover rate. It's funny how you can get really bad service in both affluent and poor neighborhoods but because of...