Grand Central Bakery - Sellwood cafe — Restaurant in Portland

Wow, what happened to this place?! Granted, it’s been awhile since I’ve had a sandwich here so maybe management has changed but their food used to be amazing! I could have made a MUCH better egg sandwich at home but I took a long morning walk through Oaks Bottom yesterday and was craving BACON, and espresso, which I didn’t have at home, so I decided to pop in here. I was remembering their delicious BLT with thick stacks of pepper bacon and heirloom tomatoes, mmm! Well a BLT wasn’t on the menu but no problem, I ordered a build-your-own instead: hard fried egg, cheddar cheese, bacon, & tomato relish on sliced whole wheat. This was an $11.40 sandwich, the bacon portion alone was $4. So what I ended up with was a totally out of proportion mess with the wrong elements being oozy. For example, the yolk was super runny, so much so I could barely lift the sandwich (went through mountains of napkins) with glops of tomato relish oozing out (no nice shmear here!) but the cheese was not at all melty, instead it was hard and caked to the bread like an old grilled cheese! Worst part? No $4 bacon! So I had to wait back in line and tell them there was no bacon on my sandwich. Cashier had to go through a bunch of old receipts to prove to herself that she ordered bacon (Um, I can tell you since I just paid and my total was twenty bucks for a sandwich, medium capp & tip!). I then had to wait several minutes for a side of bacon and what arrived were two of the SADDEST skinniest little slivers of scalding, bubbling hot meat that I then had to add to my now cold & congealed sandwich. Ok, lest you think I exaggerate - would you pay FOUR dollars for this bacon? Almost $12 for this sandwich?? I am so saddened that this once great bakery and sandwich shop has declined so drastically....

I have been coming to Grand Central in various locations since I was 10. I am 42 now. Today I ordered a Chai and when it was announced I went to get it and saw that it was a (coffee) latte. When I asked (I was very calm not snarky or rude) if it was a chai the person who was behind the counter just said "Ugh I don't know" so I took out my receipt and said the reason I am asking is I ordered a chai. Then they started making a new drink for me without saying anything looked at their coworker and said, " I don't want to deal with this bullshit" and made their coworker make my drink as they walked away. On the weekends part of my routine is to go get pastries and a sack lunch from Grand Central. Honestly? Seems like you would like me to take my money elsewhere so I will. My heart is a little broken because I really loved my little tradition but if this is the way your staff feels about customers, I don't want to give them my tips or any...

After a 30 minute wait for our sandwiches, they handed it to us in a brown take out bag because they were getting ready to close in ten minutes. We had a hard time finding a place we wanted to eat in Sellwood where we could sit down and be comfortable. We ordered our food dine-in. They should have told us it was going to take a half hour to make two sandwiches so we would not be able to eat there because the cutoff for eating inside is 10 minutes before close. Maybe that should be posted somewhere. Here's your 20% up front. We threw the food in the car and found somewhere else we could eat. Don't think I'll try the food as it left a bad taste in my mouth and I haven't opened the bag yet. Not my first bad experience here. I just forget how bad it is every few years and...