Specialty's Café & Bakery — Restaurant in Mountain View

This was my first time in a Specialty's after all the Bay Area stores closed right around when CoViD hit. I'm so glad the owners decided to take a chance and open a new store at this location next to the NASA base.

For anyone who used to work in the FiDi in San Francisco, this feels like coming home. The sandwiches and cookies are the same tip-top quality as I remember, and the drink selection has gotten even better.

As for the service -- outstanding. I miss the cloth bags they use to hold large orders back when I used to order breakfast for the whole office, so I asked if I could buy one; instead the cashier walked to the back and got me two new bags for free, then wished me a pleasant day. What more could I ask.

The people of Mountain View don't know how good they've got it here. Come back, Specialty's,...

First time and last time. The dough in the bakery goods, like the sticky buns, ciabatta breakfast sandwich and morning bun, tasted funky like the dough wasn’t allowed to rise completely before baking. There was a fermented taste and rancid smell to these baked goods. Also it’s a hassle to order at one station then go to another station to pick up the coffee drinks then back again to get the food order. Also when a person asks what’s in a specialty coffee and the person at the food counter doesn’t know what’s in it that’s another hassle. She wanted me to walk over to the other station and find out what’s in the latte then come back. I didn’t do that because there were too many people behind me in line WAITING to order so I just ordered it anyway. Wish...

The food is great but the service is spotty. The pagers they hand out often do not work so they have started to also ask for your name to call out. However, they did not call my name at all when my order was ready as I was sitting very close and they simply called out the others but not mine. So when I noticed an order that looked like mine had been sitting for a few minutes I went up to enquire and indeed it was mine. So pager did not work and backup plan also failed. Second time this has happened to me in 3 visits.

I also asked if there was a side salad to go with a soup and the employee searched for a minute and could not answer my question. They really need better training...