Citizen Collective — Restaurant in Seattle

Food was disappointing. I got the waffle with spinach, asparagus, avocado and bacon. Lots of individually delicious things but it just tasted plain. The dish didn’t meld the flavors together in any meaningful way. It was underwhelming and felt like I was just eating a bunch of unrelated things on a plate.

The service was mediocre. It wasn’t bad so much as non existent. For starters it’s mostly self serve. You order on your phone and then the staff bring you your food but that is the only time you will see anyone who works there. They don’t come and check on you or bring refills. I helped myself to some water when my drink went dry. I actually visited here twice, because it was so close to my hotel. My friend noted that the waitress that brought our drinks pointed out that there wasn’t going to be any refills available because she didn’t want to make another pot. I already knew from my first visit that the pot isn’t the reason you don’t get refills. They just don’t want to check on you. The default ordering system has no space for comments so you can’t ask for any adjustments. Like I would have preferred unsweetened tea or a hot green tea and a cup of ice. But even with me doing all the work and forcing my order into the faceless ordering system and even bussing my own table the payment system defaults to a minimum of 18% tip. But you can select a custom amount - which I did.

The outdoor patio looks like a lot of fun. Although it was raining all weekend so it was closed the entire time. Odd in a city that rains so frequently. I noticed they had some party games like Cards Against Humanity, Exploding Kittens and traditional games like Dominoes. If you can stop by on a dry day it could be a fun place to just hangout with friends. But maybe eat beforehand? My friend ordered some tacos on my second visit and I stuck to just a drink. He said the tacos weren’t...

Fantastic coffee! The Golden Mylk is yummy, not too sweet. The staff is nice and somewhat helpful. We ordered a citizen breakfast sandwich, obviously contains and egg but the sandwich showed up with no egg. Told one of the deliverers and she very quickly sprang into action and apologized. She didn't take the sandwich away which we had bitten into not realizing right away it was missing the egg. And 10 minutes later brought us an egg. Very strange. Wouldn't you bring a whole new sandwich? The waffle is made with blue corn which gives it a really great crunch and flavor. The nutella waffle is more like a whip cream and strawberry waffle with a very light drizzle of...nutella? I've never seen nutella drizzle so I question what this is. Also, it was so little, it was hard to actually get a full taste of it. But the waffle itself was yummy. The savory waffle was good not great. The cubano is not a cubano. Too much bread, pulled pork not sliced pork. Only one pickle and a slice of ham. It tasted good though. The breakfast sandwich with the egg is yummy albeit expensive for a small macrina bakery brioche roll with an egg sandwich with arugula and ham. Notice in the picture, they didn't even spread the arugula and ham out onto the sandwich. Half is arugula and half is crumpled up ham. The photo makes the sandwich look big but it's about 2.5 inch roll, with one egg. The seating is mostly outdoor seating with a lot of fun places to sit. On the whole, the coffee was wonderful the food not as much. It's a fun place to meet with friends and sit outside so that's why I gave it a 4 star review instead of 3. Plus they add a 20% service charge on already...

When we got to the restaurant we were allowed to pick any available table in their outdoor seating area. It was a beautiful day and a nice setting. At this eatery we are told to go outside the restaurant and order. They have a window that opens to the public sidewalk. After standing 5 minutes in line we place our order for 4 breakfasts. The young woman behind the window then takes my CC and as she turns around she says, as fast as she can, that my total comes to $83.65 including tax and an 18% automatic gratuity. Really? This has been totally self serve up to this point. So I ask, what the gratuity is for? She says it is so she can make a living wage and be paid fairly. Then she starts to get mad at me for asking and raises her voice and says she doesn't have to explain or justify her pay to me. I agreed with her on this point and subsequently apologized for offending her. Now I know what she gets. But I already knew that. My question is what do we as customers get for an "automatic gratuity? By the way, "automatic gratuity" is exactly how it is printed on the CC receipt. At this establishment we get to stand in line to order and the opportunity to be embarrassed by snarky employees. I think this sneaky surcharge is dishonest. If it was printed on their menu perhaps it could be rationalized, but it isn't. This combined with the fact that I was virtually yelled at for asking the question has totally...