City Egg — Restaurant in Toledo

This is a kiosk-style restaurant - You order at a terminal, and you pick up your food at the counter. I saw some people mentioning this as a negative point, and I don't think that's fair - It's like complaining that a fine dining restaurant doesn't have a drive thru, it's just not the nature of the business. Anyhow -

I've been to City Egg twice, and had a pretty good experience both times. I went once during a slow time, where my partner and I were literally the ones present. I then went again when it was swamped.

The restaurant is clean and sleek, a comfortable place to eat but without much fuss. I enjoyed the very cohesive decor, and large clear menus on the wall so that those waiting for the terminals could see what was available before ordering.

The terminals were fairly intuitive and easy to use - A little bit of clunkiness to the interface, but nothing too confusing. It was easy to find what I wanted and order it the way I liked. While the staff interaction is fairly limited by design, the staff we interacted with were pleasant and seemed well trained.

The portions were a mixed bag. The breakfast I got had nice portions of egg, meat and hashed browns cooked properly and served hot. My partners breakfast sandwich was a little on the small side, but still reasonable. My side of fruit was tiny though, and my partner's side of toast (which costed $2.50) was literally only one piece of toast. Honestly, the $2.50 single slice of toast was the most frustrating thing about our visits. Otherwise, the food was all tasty and something I'd be happy to eat again. And (I'll admit to being fairly easily charmed) I was enamored with the cute egg shaped serving plates.

When we went on the busier day, we did notice a problem - Many people seemed to not realize that this was a bus-your-own-table restaurant, and the staff was too busy handling the rush to help with bussing. While I can't blame the staff for this, it did result in my watching multiple groups having to clean other peoples messes from the tables in order to sit at them - Not great. I think the problem here is that there is only one bus station, and it is way by the door. It isn't very obvious at first, and I can see how it could be confusing. Another bus station on the other side of the restaurant would go a long way to alleviating this problem I think.

Overall, we had good experiences - I think this is a great option for those who want a nice sit-down breakfast, but in a hurry. I love that they open so early, and we'll definitely go back... But probably just during slow times, and we certainly won't be...

My coworkers and I went to the Downtown Toledo CityEgg in hopes of a decent meal as the menu offered a lot of good options for calorie counting, egg whites, no butter, turkey sausage, things like that. So I ordered an Uncle Moose(low calorie options), cant go wrong with that, and a Soda in hopes of getting a Diet to balance out the hash brown's extra calories. Only after paying can you see that the soda machine was town to only a few choices, diet Dr Pepper and diet Pepsi. Being as I don't like cola's, this left me the choice of diet Dr Pepper. As I dispensed the diet Dr Pepper into my $2.50 cent cup, it came out completely clear. One can assume that that means the soda syrup is 100% completely out and I was not the first to see this. Again, I don't like cola's, so I went back up to ask the "hostess" if they could change it and was told they are out completely and it cannot be replaced. This left me a little confused because if you knew that, why not put up a sign. So I then asked for a refund as I would just get water. I never got her name, but the "hostess" then told me to wait, so she could talk to "him" and gestured to the other side of the kitchen. I waited patiently until AFTER my food was ready and again, asked for a refund. In a huff, she went over to the man she waved at earlier. "There's this man over there that wants a refund for his soda." where the words that she loudly stated to him. I cannot speak to what he said, but it was brief and dismissive. She then returned to tell me they could not refund just the soda and offered me a "buy one, get one" coupon. Funny, the same coupon the couple ordering behind me used (worn and folded from a wallet). I did decline the coupon as i don't currently have plans to eat two meals at the same time at your restaurant, but was surprised by the fact that that was the end of the conversation. No other option or offer was provided. She did finally get an "out of order" sign on the diet Dr Pepper though, right as I was finishing my meal.

To treat a guest in that fashion, I'm am astonished you have as many customers as you do, though, to be honest, there were not many patrons during a Friday lunch hour as one...

this is the sort of place that some corporate business guy might dreamt up to get in on the millennial demographic without having to think about making food that is any good.

i feel bad for the employees since they all look to be fresh out of high school. they didn't seem to have a proper chef, or anyone of real experience in the building. they didn't know how to cook eggs. if your whole gimmick is supposed to be eggs, having someone there who is experienced at cooking them seems like a simple ask.

i ordered the avocado toast with overeasy eggs on top, and what i got was avocado toast with undercooked, sunnyside up eggs upside down on top, with a puddle of still translucent whites leaking out from all sides. while they were kind enough to recook the eggs, the plate i got back was still the same piece of toast with the more egregious glops of raw egg uncleanly removed.

the meal was okay at best. the drizzle of siracha sauce on top provided the strongest flavor. the side of hash browns was better than the main dish, though there was nothing special about them at all.

the kids there were doing their best. the cook's explanation for screwing up the eggs was that that was what he thought "overeasy" meant. i think he was being sincere. if the owners think they can just shove a bunch of unsupervised, untrained, and underpaid baristas into a kitchen, and think that no one will notice, then it doesn't seem like customer satisfaction is a very high...