The Essential Baking Company Review

Lemon brioche I think about at night. Extremely friendly staff. Very nice place to read, work a bit. Great coffee, too.

The sandwiches here are huge! The pastries are something you definitely will not want to skimp out on! Very nice and helpful staff :-)

Great breakfast sandwiches, amazing brownie cookie. Relaxed bakery/coffee shop setting.

This used to be my favorite local store until I encountered a rude staff in the kitchen.

The salad portions are huge! The tuna salad sandwich is great. My favorite part, though, is the whoopie pies!

Lemon curd brioche alone is worth going in for! Pastrami Ruben sandwiches are my favorite. Great cookies and coffee. Also the gluten free bread is excellent and can be bought by the loaf.

Breakfast not good, staff not friendly, bread only thing I enjoyed.

Great food. Good service. Definitely a place I like coming back to even if it's out of the way

This place has great gluten free bread for those who have allergies to gluten. Every sandwich gluten free or other wise is also amazing and the employees are very friendly.

Nice atmosphere and great selection of pastries and loaves.

Haven t been in about a year or two. The quality of food has gone way down since the last time i was there, and my side salad was like 6 pieces of mixed greens, I miss the kale salad. Probably wont go back.

If you are in the area, a great place for a stop. Not worth coming all the way from downtown Seattle for it though.

Coffee and Sweets were satisfyingly good.
Plenty of seats and tables and a very relaxed atmosphere.

I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich with a bowl of soup, after asking specifically about what was and wasn t vegetarian on the menu. The sandwich showed up with pieces of tuna salad on it. When I returned it, they essentially told me they would remake it. I was presented with the same bowl of soup and what I m almost positive was the same sandwich with the tuna picked off that had been grilled a second time. Their bread is lovely but I wouldn t recommend lunch options. You never know what you re going to get.

Great place for a quick snack, or even a little more!

Great spot for lunches, or an early dinner. Good quality sandwiches, and great pastry items. Often a great people watch spot as well.

Good place for salads. Reasonably priced and quick service

Unfortunately, this place closed even for take-out. If you miss their lemon tarts as I, you can find them in PCC market.

Good coffee, great breakfast sandwiches, fun atmosphere.

It was a really good breakfast the omelets are very tasty

Good bread, good sandwiches, good salads. I've eaten in the restaurant several times and had take-out and catered meals. Always reliable. Their bread is awesome, and I also love their pre-made pizza crusts.

This was the first time we visited this eatery and ordered the plain croissant and cappuccino. The croissant was so buttery and flaky, loved it so much that we went ahead an ordered a Vegan sandwich and Chocolate crepe, loved them too. They have huge selection of home baked bread, muffins, flourless brownies and many more selections for the sweet tooths like me. Walking distance from Gas works park, nice ambience. They are cashless and only credit cards are accepted.

Great food and service, kinda small, hard to find a good place to sit and chat with a friend

Second time I ve given this place a shot, but was left disappointed again. Ordered the vegan sandwich, which supposedly should come with avocado, but none was inside of my sandwich. Overpriced for what you get size-wise, specially when you don t even get all of the ingredients.

I've yet to have a single bad thing here. It's all good! The caesar salad is huge, and the bread that comes with it? A gift from the gods

High quality baked goods, including great bread loaves

Waiting 25 min for a sandwich is unacceptable. Not enough help in the kitchen. Lots of order takers standing around. Won't be back.

Great staff, very helpful. I love eating here (if I can find a seat.)

Delicious for bread as well as coffee and light snacks.

Tasty baked goods, wish service was more prompt. Took forever just to get a coffee, they got my order wrong and I missed the bus!

Never found anything I didnt love on the menu. Have even tried things I wouldn't normally like.

Really good salads sometime served with attitude. sandwiches packed with goodness. Decent Pastery and bread. But super cool place to sit and have a lunch with family or friends. Once you get your food they leave you alone.

The business is well run and clean, but no matter how much I try I hate most of the baked goods. Their quiche is more than 50% cheese (I love cheese and it is too much for me). Some of there breads are so oily that my hands were covered with oil and my stomach ached. I gave them 3 stars instead of 2 only because their soup is okay and their cinnamon rolls are delicious. Overall, they charge high prices for very mediocre baked goods.

Had the Shitake sandwich and coffee for lunch. Nice, cozy decor. Friendly service. Also had the cinnamon roll which was great - the nuts make a big difference.

I'll definitely skip the kale salad from now on. (Very fibrous kale, and I'm not a fan of sliced raw yellow squash come to find out.) Next time I'll stick with my tuna sandwich that I love.

It was cold & the chairs are hard. The half salad was huge! I don't recommend their gfree bread. ..

When they first opened, Essential was one of the best bakeries in Seattle. But since then, other places have far surpassed them for both bread and pastries and they don't seem to have kept up. Sandwiches and soups are pretty good. I still stop here in a pinch but I don't look forward to it.

The raspberry preserves crepe was delicious but the chai latte was not very rich or good

I've always liked their gluten free options for bread and was excited to try out their cafe. I now have a favorite lunch spot for sandwiches! Their dirty chai and cappuccino were good as well.

On a bike ride and stopped for a sandwich. Had turkey, bacon and Havarti on ciabata bread. It was excellent, service was great and cookie was awesome.

Great coffee, great sandwiches! Delightful vacation stop.

I love this place! The food is ready good, tuna sandwich is my personal favorite. There is a park right across the street, so it's a good family stop.

Food is always great. Gets pretty crowded during the core lunch hour.

The blt is phenomenal. Great selection of sweets. Make sure to try the macaroons.

Great place for breakfast and coffee. Pastry case is drool worthy!

Great options, locally sourced food made in house. Love!

I recently bought a pre-baked Essential Baking Company Parisian Baguette and when I got it home, I discovered it was burned! Don't they have any QC? I did reach out to the company via their customer service email address with a description and the attached picture, but they didn't even bother to respond! So beware, either pull the baguette out of the bag before you buy it to ensure it's edible (!) or just avoid this company's products altogether!

Standard, but good fare. A bit pricey for what you are getting.

Labor day. Deli closes at 4pm. We order at 322pm, but the cashier wont serve us for dine in. Says "I dont want extra dishes for the dish washer". So although we could eat inside, all the food was served as to-go. Aren't employees that are paid to was dishes supposed to wash dishes?? Kind of lame. My sandwich was good, but if I'm dining in I want my food served that way without dumb excuses. I'm visiting from out of town so I'll probably never be back.

The eclairs that I ordered had nothing but blobs of cream that was almost ready to be thrown away. The tea wasn't great either.

Yummy lunch, eve gluten free bread with delicious sandwiches.

Tiny overpriced sandwiches. Ordered the whole turkey with cheese, cost nearly $12. Was mostly bread and greens. Business refuses to accept cash in any form yet also doesn't allow tap to pay, Google or Apple pay. Typical leftist Seattle backwards mentality.

I looove this place. All of their bread is Beyond Great !! Above average sandwich selections. available as a half a sandwich or whole.

Loved my sandwich. Cannot wait to return to try other items on their menu

Good coffee and pastries, plus some hot breakfast items. Nearly always quiet, a great place to get some work done.

I really like this place. I read the yelp reviews before going in and there were lots of complaints about the rudeness of the employees but the two people i dealt with today were very friendly. I was hoping to get a scone because i have had their scones from other locations and they are the best scones you can buy. I ended up getting a croissant that was great but its just a boring croissant. It has great seating and just the right amount of ambient noise. I will be going back a lot.

Super cute rustic firehouse cafe, great great bread, nice staff! Good coffee!

One of the best sourdough we had in Seattle! Provide great selection for vegan or vegetarians too.

NEVER ORDER TO GO!!!
Ok, I want to love Essentials. I really do! and like a bad relationship. I kept returning, hoping for better.
But. Their customer service just plain sucks. I keep giving them a chance, because their sandwiches are excellent. They are!
If Essentials loved on their employees better and trained them better. Figured out how to make them more accountable ..
I ve not had this experience to this extent anywhere else in Seattle. It can t bee that hard. Can it?
BUT so far I am a fool to believe otherwise.
DO NOT ORDER TO GO!
Time and time again, they forget part of the order and/or don t check the order when it's bagged. SO crazy to drive away and end up a long distance (like on an airplane heading across the continent) to find the cookie I asked and PAID for, or the sandwich, someone else's order! I have called and asked for a refund. AND all nice and apologetic on the phone, but never have I received an actual refund for their mistakes!
It's been two weeks since the last crisis of omitted cookie that I paid for. So sad to have to call again, and ask for a refund. And be assured they would do so.
I just checked my account and they never bothered to follow through with the request, again!
This has happened at the Madison Street cafe as well. All in all, over the past 8 years of living in SEA, this has happened 6x. there was that one time I did return a couple weeks later after one of the flights where I bought a sandwich and cookie for the flight. They did refund me that time. JUST DON T CALL and expect the same. It's more like I got flipped the bird by the employee on the line. That's how it feels, when I ask to be refunded for missing or messed up order.
Crud runs downhill and I can only assume the upper management and owners just don t care enough. And have never really cared.

I am now formally breaking up with Essentials! NOT worth it.

Lovely little cafe and bakery. Definitely has a bit of an old school Seattle feel that is quickly leaving the area. Check it out before it's gone.

Healthy salads. They were out of bread when I was there!

Good coffee, better sandwiches and snack foods and of course the amazing baked items. Really like that they have gluten free options for bread and pizza available for pickup. Always quite busy in the afternoon but a pretty relaxed spot for working in the morning.

Great bread and even better sandwiches, I can t resist their Turkey with white cheddar.

Stopped by here after a race at Gas Works. We had two kids and one dog in tow, so we ate outside on their little patio. Note, the patio has two small tables and a handful of chairs.

We ordered sandwiches, which come with a salad. The food was hearty and great. One thing to note is that this is a cashless place.

This place no longer takes cash. I will never got here again.

This bakery has great bread and sandwiches, but terrible service if you are wanting to order something more than just a loaf of bread or a pastry from the case, pack your patience and don't have any immediate plans after your stop here. I waited around for 20 minutes for my cup of soup order and it didn't come. After waiting for that long I asked to cancel my order since it didn't look like it was coming any time soon and I had to get on with my day and figure out something else to do to have a quick lunch.

Normally I love this place. We come here (or to the Madison location) at least once a month, but I have to say, the staff here really needs some customer service training. I ordered an omelette with cheese and avocado and received one with meat in it. When I politely told the counter staff that the order was wrong, she was really annoyed. The woman who brought out the new omelette was even more annoyed. It's not my fault you messed up. Another person in our party also received the wrong thing in her order but didn't say anything about it. I like this place because the food and coffee is usually really good but the staff here seems like the hate their lives. Will probably try to find a different regular lunch spot.

Their sandwiches are so good, especially the BLT. OMG, that BLT.

Best bakery in Seattle. Their Fremont sourdough is our family favorite. Fresh pastries are also amazing. A little small in the seating area, but it's never super crowded. If you are in Fremont, this might need to get your second most required stop other than the Fremont Troll.