The Essential Baking Company Review

Their food is okay the Ambiance is fantastic it's a cute place to hang out with friends.

Pricey place. Pastries are good, especially eclairs, but the coffee is mediocre.

I really really want to support Essential and love them, but for some reason this particular bakery doesn't ever achieve greatness in my opinion. Bread is superb, baked goods are good, but service and prices always leaving me feeling a little short-changed. Beautiful light space to eat in, convenient to Burke Gilman Trail, parking lot, and mostly friendly staff.

Bacon breakfast sandwich was good. The cappuccinos are underfilled and very bitter.

Excellent quality. This location in fremont is closed, wallingford location is open

Lattes were Luke warm and croissant was ok but didn't have the fresh bakery taste we were expecting. Nothing exceptional about our experience.

the pastry was a little cold, coffee was fine, but the space was really cool!

Fabulous, delicious organic food. Excellent and quick customer services, clean bathrooms. They always allow substitutions with types of bread and condiments. I am able to go in, give my order, pay, and wait usually within 5 to 10 minutes. I usually get it to-go. One of my favorite places for meals.

When I lived in Wallingford, this Cafe was one of the things I loved.

Sunday morning was a walk to the cafe, an amazing mocha, an equally amazing piece of coffee cake alongbwith the Sunday paper.

While I don't live nearby, I have reason to visit, and it's still as wonderful.

Staff seemed stressed and distracted when I visited for coffee.

The food choices are good, but I have had moxed experiences with the customer service.

essential never fails to surprise me with the quality of food. you think it is a bakery, but it is also a great, simple cafe.

Always good food and good coffee. The quality of service is hit or miss though. Great place to pick up a picnic meal to partake at Gas Works Park which is just a short distance away.

My husband and I discovered this place few years ago while exploring Seattle and loved it! We make the trek over from Bellevue every few weeks to get our fix. Their mochas are excellent and their off-street parking lot is a huge Seattle bonus. My husband is addicted to their omelets, and I can never decide between the BLT or egg sandwich. So delicious! There can be a bit of a wait depending on the crowd, but the service is always friendly.

I love this place! Mushroom Reuben and chicken bahn mi for lunch. Really delicious and quality ingredients.

First time visit. Food was excellent and Niki gave us 12 star service! I will definitely spread the news about the food and great people that work there.

Love their food, but the service is so slow sometimes. 40 minutes wait for 4 sandwiches to go, and then they also forgot one. Friendly staff though, for what it's worth. The Cubano sandwich is great.

Sandwiches sound really boring but taste really good. I've tried maybe 7 different sandwiches here and was pleased with all of them.

I had to settle for an almond americano when their chai base was all frozen, and the coffee was incredibly disappointing. Luckily their Magic Bar did not disappoint.

This place was awesome. My Husband and myself had a sandwich each and it was fantastic, though mine was better :) The Italian. We sat outside and had a sliver view of the water. The staff was friendly and the service was fast even though it was pretty busy!

Excellent sandwiches, very tasty and made with good produces. I had the Italian sandwich which I really liked. Half sandwich was enough for a light lunch

Great big sandwiches with delicious ingredients and fairly affordable, and of course the bread is perfect. This will be pleasing even to your discerning friends and family with a disdain for fancy, over priced, or small portions.

Great service, yummy breakfast sandwich, and tasty drip coffee!

We just happened upon this place while driving by and decided to stop for lunch. We had the turkey, bacon, havarti sandwiches (daily special) and they were delicious! Loved the potato salad and pickle that came with it and the service was pretty fast, I guess because it was 2:00 in the afternoon and the lunch rush was over. I also noticed that half the lunch menu was erased and they were out of a few other things. I'm assuming the menu is complete earlier in the day before they sell out of certain items. My main complaint was that it was pretty expensive for two whole sandwiches and one bottled drink ($28). Unfortunately, none of their baked goods looked very good so we skipped them. I would eat here again, though.

No cash accept. Visit at late afternoon to get Latte and sandwich before heading to the Gasworks park. Good food&coffee, casual place

One of my favorite before work breakfast spots. Have the turkey and cheddar crepe

I had one of the egg sandwiches, which was good but nothing out of the ordinary. Cute vibe and great staff. Also, their gluten free bread is great.

Good service, nice people. Ordered 1/2 a Rubin sandwich. Tasty and skimpy, 1 slice of pastrami! For $8 one would expect more. On a positive note, after my complaint the manager refunded my money.

Nice spot for an afternoon coffee date. Meal and drink options. I found the prices to be a bit high and if I could ask for anything it would be that they add some delicious cookies and Gluten-free treats!

So extremely disappointed in the quality of our recent purchase of two ciabatta loaves. We were celebrating our "Family Christmas Dinner" and purchased two loaves of the ciabatta bread only to find them HOLLOW inside. So, basically we bought "CRUST". I mentioned this to an employee at the store where we purchased the bread and they suggested that I contact the company about quality control. However, your site won't display the email address to contact customer service. Here are the photos of the loaves we purchased. One of them is MUCH worse than the other, but they were both hollow.

Food was delicious, especially the bread and the Victrola single-origin drip coffee they had was excellent. It wasn t the greatest for working as it was a bit noisy, wifi was kinda slow, and outlets were scarce. But food wise it was excellent.

It's a great location to my office and I love that they serve breakfast all day. I do get bummed when I show up and half the menu is erased- but it clearly doesn't stop me from going!

Came here with nanny kid after checking out the transfer station. What a fun trip. He had lemonade and a lemon bar. I had a cold brew and a chocolate dipped macaroon. Everything was delicious. The staff was patient and helpful.

I had their house chai and some pastry, and they are pretty good. The interior is rustic, build off an old bakery. The bake goods are fresh tasting, and light not sugary.

Our breakfast items were prepared well. They don't take cash

Great baked goods.
Nice salads.
Good sandwiches.

Just tried your sourdough bread ( bake at home ) WOW , Like many things about this product Organic / Non GMO /shelf stable package / no preservatives /ingredients / easy baking instructions ( good for me ) etc but most of all taste ! Picked it up at Costco ...surely hope they continue stocking it !!! Highly recommend ...

Excellent food & bakery! The soups are definitely worth checking out. Good coffee. Hibiscus tea is delicious. It can get chilly in here in the winter with the two doors. Busy during lunch, but they take phone-in orders for pick up!

Nice atmosphere, solid pastries and savoury breakfast. A local go-to place.

Nice casual spot for a morning coffee or quick bite. The crepes take a bit of time to come out, but otherwise service is good and the staff is super friendly!

Excellent foods, but visit early for the full selection.

Fantastic pecan cinnamon roll, though $.70 more expensive than PCC price. Bummer is weak coffee, as has been for at least 3 years. That usually slows down my pecan roll habit, otherwise I would be there 3x per week!

Great atmosphere, people, coffee and food! Would definitely recommend this place!

We love essential baking co. for coffee, snack, pastries , bread annd lunch.
Favs are the magic bar, and pugliese bread. Great stmosphere and location, easy parking. Worth a trip out of your way!

I like getting their garlic bread and focaccia. The garlic bread comes with garlic cloves baked inside, so you should like having actual garlic pieces inside if you get it for yourself. The store only has a limited amount of each kind of bread everyday, so it's best to call in ahead of time if there's anything specific you want. Usually by the end of the day, there's nothing decent left except more plain or sweet breads. It helps that they take these pre-orders.

Great stuff! Nice atmosphere, good food, good people.

Great spot for a delicious soup/salad/sandwich combo!
If you're GF, order the half sandwich w/a soup and you'll get a full sandwich. Perks!

Delivery drivers are rude and inconsiderate. Leaves a closed door wide open. Violating store security policies

Had an excellent, fresh tasting turkey pesto sandwich on delicious house made ciabatta.

Not the most efficient experience. Slow does not begin to describe the service here.

Always amazing. I usually go in for the rosemary toast and whenever I branch out to other foods, it never disappoints. This place is a go to whenever I show people around Seattle, especially since it s so close to gasworks park!!

Nice location and building. The quality of food is so-so. We like challah, raisin pecan bread, and vegetarian sandwich. Pastries could be better, especially croissants; they smell like sourdough and should smell like butter. Some days I have a feel the pastries are day old. Breakfast plate usually has grey eggs (probably the griddle is not cleaned well), bacon is often stuck together in lumps, fruit a bit dried on top. Food should not have any black burned pieces stuck to it. So there is definitely place for improvement. Currently my impression is that this cafe needs new management; current standards could be easily improved.

Very good chai and bakery items. I wanted dominant little work there but Wi-Fi doesn't support VOIP calls

Delicious breakfast sandwich. Orange juice way too expensive, nearly $5 for 15.2oz of SunnyD orange drink tasting beverage. Staff was 50:50 friendly. Older haggard lady kinda bitchy, may not come back due to her rudeness. They also have many desserts, but I didn't try them. If they are as sweet as the staff, they're probably not that good. Table wobbly, which is strange since they have over priced stuff and bitchy attitude. But, the sandwich was very good. Maybe sandwiches and coffee and bad attitude are what they want to serve. I may come back if i bring my own juice? Or, get stuff to go...
I did have a news revelation here, though. No tip on first visits to any restaurant! I kinda want mine back from the hag. Paying $15 for a sandwich, "juice", and attitude isn't worth it.

As a resident in Wallingford, The Essential Baking Company is a good breakfast spot for us to go to. Food is great. However, we've only grabbed breakfast there a few times, but walk past it every day.

While the food is good, The Essential Baking Company is an absolute blight to the area. Employees from the bakery are habitual smokers and feel compelled to use our sidewalks and roads as their trash cans. The entire sidewalk is covered with cigarette butts, and you can see which direction the wind was blowing that day based on where they've rolled to.

Fresh, fast, and freaking good! I have heard great things about essential bakery and I am glad I tried it! I had to pick up food for a work event and was able to grab a sandwich for myself. I was in and out within 15 minutes.

Pictured is their Bacon and Edd sandwich.

Have heard great things about this place. Got some coffees that ended up being only slightly warm. Decided to give benefit of doubt and come back for lunch. Food was great but they forgot our hot drink order and did not apologise when we asked where the drinks were. It may just have been an off day.

Egg breakfast sandwiches is the best way to spend a Saturday morning

The service is super fast and everything is delicious

Loved their Turkey Reuben's sandwich and the drip coffee to go with it. Stop by here to grab your food supplies before you enjoy the sun in Gas Works Park.

Wife bought a bunch of croissants here for a class and did not get one but heard from her they was a big hit! I love their Americano coffee was good.

Great space, tasty sandwiches and wonderful service.

Very peaceful and friendly place with good pastries :)

Great spot for breakfast or lunch. Friendly staff, and delicious food, coffee and of course baked goods.

Great lunch and service. Always dependable for healthy quality food.

Expensive. Pay for tips beforehand. Minimal table service. Must empty and store your used plates. Fetch your own drinks.

Breath, smile and nourish yourself at the North Lake Union EBC where the fresh menu variety, breads, baked goods, coffee, tea and friendly service will always leave you feeling great and satisfied.
Closed now, gone, due to COVID-19

Nice atmosphere and good coffee, but disappointed by the pain au chocolat, given that this is a bakery!

Great sandwiches, soups, and other yummy baked goods. Kale salad was so good! Quality of their food is great. They have indoor and outdoor seatings available. Indoor has a nice high ceilings and feels spacious. Vegan options are available as well. Good place for everyone! The service can be slow sometimes. If you are in rush, it may not work for you. Street parking only. This area is not too hard to find parking spot if you are parking for 1-2hours.

Busy, busy bakery and cafe!! Fabulous organic baked goods, delicious lunch options and great coffee!! A perfect seattle combo

Exactly what a coffee shop / cafe should be. Plentiful seating. Fast service. Delicious specialty food. Great tasting coffee.