The Essential Baking Company

I’ve come to this café/​bakery dozens of times, mostly for to go orders. The more I come in, the more the employees look unhappy to be there, dragging their feet and with literally a frown on their face. The only time I had a good experience at this place was when the manager was there. This one lady in particular who always wears yoga pants literally makes you want to leave with the look on her face, like someone is forcing her to be there. Many times when you call into this place to make an order, they are closed early, well before the closing time of 3pm. I’ve heard several excuses, anything from the credit card machine not working, to meat slicer is broken. I’ve had pretty much every sandwich there, but one of the most popular the «Italian» is never made the same. No consistency. Sometimes the prosciutto will be as thick as a tomato slice making it impossible to eat and actually unpleasant. Other times so much pickled onion is put on the sandwich it’s so overwhelming that you can smell it through the bag before even opening it. Sometimes I think they just hire anybody and have them make the sandwiches.
The owners of this café/​bakery need to hire competent staff because it’s ruining this place. The sandwiches here alone cost $ 11+ and this is not what I expect for the cost. Otherwise this place has great potential. For now, I will avoid it further until some changes are made.
It’s also impossible to to find contact information of the owner to give him feedback.

Cold rainy days call for hot soup and sandwiches and I ducked in here after purchasing a gift at the UW bookstore. The food left much to be desired.
I ordered a cup of tomato bisque and half a tuna sandwich, which was $ 10 after tax and tip. They took a dollar off for a little «meal combo.» The tomato bisque looked to be creamy –it was almost pink in color– but it was difficult to tell because there were chunks of … veggies or something… throughout the soup. Overall, it tasted okay, but it was not a rich, creamy smooth bisque that I was expecting. This was a soup that required chewing of unidentifiable edibles. The tuna sandwich– served warm– was about the size of a packet of gum, which is really expensive at $ 5 for a half sandwich. The presumably roasted pepper inside was cold and slimy. The tuna itself tasted alright, but overall the sandwich was a fail.
Really disappointed after seeing such great reviews on Unilocal.:(

1 star for gluten free bread!
1 star for sandwich & coffee being brought to me.
1 star for solid coffee.
–2 stars for a cold «toasted» sandwich.

I ordered a full cheesecake a week before I needed it for a work wedding shower I was hosting. This location doesn’t make them in house so they have to order from another location, which I found out as the gal who answered the phone put down the phone and called the manager from her cell phone. I heard the entire conversation AND the conversation with the two customers in the store as I sat «on hold». All fine and good, she would call in the order the next morning and I could pick it up at 10:30 am on the desired day. Fast forward to pick up day… the gal working had no idea what I was talking about. Morning delivery already made, no cheescake. «Let me call my manager»…Yes, it was ordered. «Let me go check the freezer in the back»…proceed to walk at a snail’s pace as if this was the last thing on earth she wanted to be doing. «Not in the fridge or the freezer»… Call the home office, yes, it was ordered and the delivery truck is in Tacoma, can you come back at noon? The shower started at 11:30 with no cheesecake. I will NOT be back. Sorry my business wasn’t that important to you.

Let’s be honest…
Fresh, organic and flavorful! Doesn’t get any better.
They have really smooth espresso and the mango Assam tea is the best!
The breads are so yumm. Fresh daily! I have also had a few pastries and I enjoy very much. The soups have off days. Sometimes good, sometimes not so much. The bran muffins are very good and go well with a warm beverage. I love you the turkey with goat cheese sandwich. Great portions as well!
See you soon!

The interior looks very nice. I came to this location because I heard good things about the bakery. However the options of baked goods were extremely limited & some were individually packaged. I expected the pastries to be fresh. So I ended up not purchasing anything

Hard to beat this place as far as quality cafes go.

Stopped by here to grab a sandwich for lunch while I was in the area. I am glad I did. I had the vegetarian sandwich with the side of french potato salad and it was quite tasty. Prompt, friendly service and a quiet, pleasant atmosphere.

FYI, this place closed down so don’t bother trying to find this location. Walked over from the Westin and ended up going to Starbucks

I love Essential Baking Co bread and I was excited to stop by their shop the in bookstore to try some other items. Around 1:00PM most pastries were gone from behind the counter but I chose a lemon meringue tart for a whopping $ 5.95, jeez! I wouldn’t complain if it was amazing but frankly, it wasn’t. The meringue seemed old, it was chewy on the outside and very moist on the inside, so much so that it completely pulled away from the bottom half of the tart and made it hard to eat. I couldn’t even cut it with my fork.
The lemon filling and the crust were very good, the meringue was the biggest disappointment. I enjoyed the seating area and appreciated the fresh flowers at each table. Next time I’ll plan to get a sandwich or salad and hopefully it will be fresher!

Great place to just sit and enjoy. Not as crowded or noisy as any of the Starbucks in the area with much better good. The soup of the day is worth checking out — Indian lentil soup smelled so good! I had an egg and cheddar breakfast sandwich. Was pleasantly substantial with really melty cheddar.
Mostly sat and drank the gunpowder green tea (strong)

I’m a fan of their breakfast sandwiches. They’ve got quite a nice selection and the sandwiches always come out hot. Prices are reasonable, about $ 7 after tax, and you’ll be full after eating one. Why only a three star review then? Their hours. They were marked on the website to open at 8, but in fact, they don’t open until 9. Not cool when I’m hungry, you’re advertising that you’re open, I show up, and BAM; not open for another hour.

Came in to try this for coffee and a little something. It was 2:45, so we knew lunch was over. Asked gal if they were still serving. She said sure. Hubby asked if coffee was fresh. She said no. Didn’t offer to make some fresh. It was obvious she was interested in cleaning up, which she continued to do, and we left.

I’m a sucker for their sea salt rosemary bread. It doesn’t matter what sandwich I get, I am really after the bread. The sandwiches are nicely done too though. Balanced, so it’s not a large meal, but still satisfying. It’s newer and kept clean, within walking distance from downtown Bellevue. Good lunch spot. I have been a few times and while the service time isn’t especially fast, it wasn’t slow either. I want to say about 10 – 15 minutes.

Still not sure about this place, I’ll come back when I visit again. But from what we tried the first time, it was alright.
We started off with a lemon curd filled brioche muffin thing. We wanted to save it for last, but the food took quite some time. It was alright, I think it was like $ 4 though, yikes. I do love lemon curd though, so I think anything that has it will be yummy to me =)
I ordered a crêpe. The crêpe itself was lacking. Mine was pretty mushy, but my friend also ordered a crêpe and hers was perfectly crispy on the edges and soft in the middle.
David ordered a breakfast croissant with egg, cheddar and bacon. It was good but that’s a pretty hard item to mess up.

Delicious coffee, crêpe and salad here at the Essential Baking company. I was looking for a good study café in bellevue and decided to try Essential. I loved the natural lighting that it gets from outside. I ordered a lemon crêpe that was cooked perfectly. For lunch, I got a half size salad that was so huge that I was sure that they didn’t make any money off of me for $ 4.50. The café manager was also very friendly and offered me coffee on the house after seeing me study for the whole day. I got a lot of work done and definitely enjoyed the ambience.

Pretty good but expensive regular-​size sandwich (turkey for $ 10). Add in a cookie and a beverage and you’d be up to $ 15.
Unacceptably SLOW when there were just a few customers. THIRTY MINUTES for a sandwich to come out of the kitchen. I hope the owners read Unilocal reviews because I can’t imagine anyone (office worker, bookstore browser, passerby) being ok with waiting so long for simple soup, salad and sandwich items. I can make a sandwich in 3 minutes and that includes getting everything out of the refrigerator. I’m not sure what was going on in the kitchen but waiting 30 minutes for a cold sandwich is not acceptable.

Essential Baking Company is tucked away in a corner of the University Bookstore, but hard to miss because of its buttery aromas. It was really quiet at 9:30am on Sunday and parking was easy.
I normally go for croissants but for some reason, I couldn’t resist ordering the lemon brioche. And I’m glad I did — the brioche was light, and the inside was filled with creamy custard and topped off with lemon cream. Not too sweet and perfect for starting the day. They also have a selection of pastries, cookies, muffins and sandwiches.

I’m trying this thing where I go to a new café/​bakery every weekend and get a staple (vanilla latte with soy) and a pastry. My ritual has been working out pretty well for me.
I came in to Essential Baking Company this morning around 9:20ish and was almost the only person there (it is a Sunday morning though). The barista was friendly and quick. She told me she made me a double instead of a single but that if I didn’t like it she’d do it again. They didn’t have any blueberry muffins but she told me that a lot of people liked the pear and ginger. I am not one of those people. It wasn’t a bad muffin but I got a lot of big chunks of ginger and that isn’t a favorite taste for me. The latte was great. One of the better ones I’ve had in Downtown Bellevue.
I like this place. There’s a lot of open seating, I was able to get work done and I didn’t feel like there was a rush for me to leave (probably due to the fact that I was the only person there). There’s plenty of parking (big plus for me). Next time I think I’ll try a crêpe, I’ve heard nothing but good things!

It’s one of the best places to sit down with your laptop in Bellevue Downtown. The seats are comfortable, the staff is friendly, it’s well lit and there’s a general feeling of openness because it’s inside the University Book Store. There’s also ample parking in and around the place.
I’m not a big fan of the food yet, but the coffee is the best in Bellevue Downtown.