Specialty’s Cafe & Bakery

I have been a big fan of Specialty’s and note them when in a new area. We officed a block from the Howard Street location for 10 years and had consistently good experiences.
So when we relocated to Oakland this year and found this a block away I thought I had another solid lunch option.
Nothing could be further from my experiences so far. On 4 different visits with my business partner just about everything they could screw up they have. Order one salad, get another. Order a $ 3 croissant with your soup, not in the to go bag. Today the soup to go sat on the prep counter for 10min while the lone front worker rang up more new customers. When I finally got someone’s attention they were put out that I wanted a fresh serving to take away.
The staff is disorganized and couldn’t care less about serving the customer. The kitchen seems OK and the kiosk technology works. It’s the oafs in between that make the entire place off limits.

I was just in the store about 3 mins ago and when the Latin worker behind the pastries counter saw me he immediately turned around and refused customer service. This is what you deal with, with the people who work at this ghetto store. Immature, lazy, emotional workers who clearly don’t value their job nor constructive criticism. This place really turns my stomach. An eye sore of bad customer service and quality to the Downtown Oakland community.

This is the worst Specialty’s I have been to in the Bay Area. I have frequented two in SF and one in San Mateo and found the quality of all of them to be variable. Had sand in my salad in San Mateo, bad scones from SF, and just generally poor quality food and service from the one located on 12^th Street in Oakland. There is great potential for this chain, however they are far from reaching it. They survive on being convenient, which they are, but that only works when you are desperate and most often there are many better choices available. To add insult to injury, their ordering system is also problematic. It will say your order is ready when it is not ready and so you get to crowd in with all the other diners in same situation near the register. Today though was the last straw for me. Their system let me order a soup, it took my ‘rewards points’ for it and 14 cents from my credit card, then immediately was unable to fulfill the order and said to talk to the servers. I did and was told there was nothing they can do and I have to call customer service. They could refund 14 cents but my ‘reward’ was lost to their poor IT systems. Anyway, I will probably still use them when it is raining and I don’t want to go out of the building, otherwise they are not a good choice.

This was my first time trying a Specialty’s café ever! $ 7.99 for sandwiches is pretty awesome. However, your meal doesn’t come with a bag of chips. It’s totally fine though because you don’t need it, unless you really do. Then you should probably order a pastry or something.

these workers seem not to be able to keep my hands out the hair while making food. this is the second time in one month also employs playing and coming their hair while in the kitchen area.

Good food and the app makes it super convenient to order ahead. The desserts are dangerously scrumptious too.

Love this place! Always yummy sandwiches. Just wish they had more locations closer to me (and more parking).

My experience has always been great. The staff is extremely friendly and gets to know your name after just a few visits. The food is just like any other specialty’s, and there is a Peets Coffee also inside.

Today is the last time that I will purchase anything from this Specialty’s. Every time I order from the 12^th street venue there is an issue with my order. Twice they have ran out of an ingredient and had to substitute something else. The end result was me tossing out my sandwich because it didn’t taste like it was supposed to. And why does everyone who works there seem to walk around in a depressed state? They rarely smile and everyone just looks so unhappy. They move like molasses and my order is never ready on time. Even though I order online so that I can run over and pick it up in 15 minutes, it is never ready on time. Today I purposely waited 20 minutes and then went over there. I then had to wait an additional 10 minutes before I got my food. There were 4 other unhappy customers waiting around for their orders as well. Guess I’ll just get my salads from Fountain café and my sandwiches from Rattos from now on.

Their drink service sucks!!!
I have ordered the Ice caramel macchiato twice now in the span of a week and my order has been missed or messed up twice. Last week I ordered iced and they made me a warm one which they had to remake. Today I ordered the iced caramel machiatto, my co worker got coffee and a quiche on the same order.
My co workers coffee comes out in 3 mins, 5 minutes later my drink wasnt ready and 2 people that ordered drinks after me got their drinks. We brought this to the attention of the person making the drinks and she said I had just ordered my drink which was a lie, she couldnt find my ticket but said my drink was coming up. 4 more people that ordered after me got their drinks before I did when I was just told mine was next. I asked the manager what the problem was and do people not order iced drinks that are on the menu, she apologized telling me they dont get many iced drink orders and that I would get a free drink on my next visit. I waited 5 more minutes after talking to the manager, and still no drink.
After almost 20 minutes waiting total, we had to ask for the drink a second time, and the drink was then made in 1 minute.
It was an almost embarassing waste of time because we were just waiting around as people ordered after us and got their coffee then left.
No cheers for the service here…

When I worked in Foster City, we’d have lunch meetings and all of us loved the food ordered from Specialty’s — great sandwiches & sides, wonderful variety, and chilled drinks. Specialty’s was a favorite for our large department.
Yesterday, I went to the 12^th Street Specialty’s in Oakland around 2:00 PM and ordered a Warm Veggie Sandwich with a bottle of water for me and a Pesto Turkey Sandwich (to go) for someone else. When the food was ready, I went to the counter and the gal advised the kitchen the the veggie sandwich was to be eaten onsite. A kitchen staff put the sandwich on the plate and she handed it to me. I asked why the sandwich had two huge slices of bread, but only a tablespoon of veges atop a couple slices of spinach? She advised that this is the sandwich I ordered. I pointed out that it’s supposed to be warm and pressed my pinkie against the veges. It felt like it had been warmed 10 minutes early as you couldn’t feel much warmth. Given how little was on the bread, it seemed like the veges had been warmed 10 minutes earlier, then left to cool open-​faced.
She said she could ask the kitchen to re-​make it. However, the kitchen staff who put the sandwich on the plate was staring at me. «Do I want this guy’s saliva on my sandwich??» Don’t think so. So, I declined and ate two bites of the veggies and threw the poppy seed bread in the trash.
When I delivered the Turkey Pesto Sandwich to someone at work, he said that there wasn’t any pesto on the sandwich — at all. What? Instead, staff in the kitchen put cream cheese on the sandwich, but I ordered a Turkey Pesto Sandwich.
Yesterday made it clear that Specialty’s quality standards are not uniform location to location. The sandwiches were so badly made, as well as, incorrectly based on what was ordered. Based on lunch yesterday, the Oakland kitchen staff on 12^th Street lacks adequate supervision and quality control.
A Warm Vege Sandwich, a Pesto Turkey Sandwich (which wasn’t made), a warm bottle of water cost just under $ 20 and the food ultimately had to be tossed in the garbage.

I have complained to upper management about the men’s bathroom routinely having no soap and/​or paper towels as well as being generally disgusting and nothing has changed. What is more concerning is the fact that a lot of the employees use this restroom. How exactly does one wash their hands with no soap? The place is a mess. Additionally, they mess up orders frequently and what you get for the price is absolutely ridiculous. I’ve ordered a vegetarian salad with no protein/​flavor for $ 10+. What a joke! I wish an actual café with tasty food and clean facilities would open up in this prime location…

I ordered a simple egg sandwich. The bread was completely stale and dry. For a bakery to serve me old bread in the morning felt like a telltale sign of them not caring very much about their profession. Egg wan’t great either.

The cranberry scone was more like an over baked cranberry morning biscuit. I don’t recommend it. It lacks sweetness and crunch. Not your traditional scone. True bakeries should master the basics of scone before naming a biscuit a scone.
But I do receive great customer service from the employees.

We ordered the «Corporate sandwich boxes», which seems like a good idea. However, the sandwiches were distinctly uninspiring. The vegetarian sandwich was thankfully vegan with removal of the cheese (assuming the bread was), and mayo and mustard were on the side, and the ingredients were listed on the box.
The bread was soggy, and the ingredients just bland, and I had difficultly finishing. There was also an apple (vegan, obviously), plain potato chips (OK), and a cookie with unknown ingredients, which probably wasn’t and I skipped.
I’ve yet to visit the store itself, but this isn’t very promising; if I just want a vegan sandwich, there are at least 5 other places in downtown Oakland I can visit instead.

Best chicken Cobb salad I ever had! My fiancé had a roast beef sandwich, tortilla soup and A dark chocolate walnut cookie. Delicious stuff and I will be back for more salads

This place is really close to my office so we come here pretty often on our coffee break. These guys make a good alternative to Starbucks down the street. Their prices are basically the same, they offer actual food, it’s super spacious and relatively quiet, and is never crowded. I once saw Harrison Barnes here too chilling with some Warriors execs. Any place good enough for the Black Falcon is good enough for me.

The Oakland Civic Center location is not as posh as SF Fidi, but I was warmly welcomed and got my food quickly. Apparently it doesn’t fill up too much as I was one of the few customers — I guess you might say there was an echo effect. I didn’t see Intelligentsia coffee being served, but I will clarify that next time. I will go back because maybe it isn’t a five-​star joint, but it’s as good as the local Starbucks which gets four stars. It’s worth a little bit of a walk because I think it’s one of the better lunch or breakfast options in the area.

I came here with the gf for lunch in between job interviews. We originally wanted to go to Popeyes, since we don’t get to have it often. Once we decided it would probably be best to stay in the vicinity of the interview, and since we’re not familiar with the area, we came to Specialty’s.
The place is of the likes I have never seen before. The area is massive with a dining room that is bigger then a lot of restaurants, and a huge front counter with displays of food, as well as a semi– open kitchen. They also have a Peets coffee counter to another side of the kitchen counter.
The ordering system is what really blew our minds a bit. No ordering up at the counter. Instead they have three or four kiosks, fully automated, where you can place your order, fully customize it, and they even program the square beepers for you. Seriously all of this, right at the kiosk. The way of the future I guess, but still pretty cool I admit.
I ordered the Caprese sandwich, drink and a bag of chips. We did wait quite a bit for the beeper to go off. Even when it did the first time, it was to tell me that my gf’s order was going to be missing a few items, that they ran out of. I had two people helping me at different times. The first girl was very quiet, and almost seemed melencholy, I’ve never described a server in that way before, but that’s really the best discription. When I would give her the answers about my girls sandwich, she would pause and then quietly say «OK.» The other server who helped me was polar opposite of the first. So full of energy, saying hi to everyone, helping multiple people at once. This is a girl with so much energy, you can’t help being happy just standing near her. I wish I could remember her name to give her some recognition, but if you come here, you will know her when you see her.
OK, now to the food. My sandwich was freaking awesome. A nice good sized sandwich, packed with red pepper pesto, tomato, spinach, FRESH mozzarella, seasoned with basil, olive oil and pepper. It has a bit of everything. The red pepper pesto adds a lot of flavor with a sweet/​savory taste. You can really taste the fresh mozzarella which brings the creamy element. Between some great tasting, toasted focaccia bread adding the crunch. The tomato and spinach bringing that freshness. It’s an orgy of amazing flavors.
After lunch I was able to sit down in the lounge area and get some work done. If I worked in the area, I’m pretty sure I would be a frequent customer here.

The sandwhiches are usually consistantly the same but this review is for the semi sweet chocolate chip cookie. Is it me or did they shrink the cookie’s size?! I remember it being slightly larger and that’s why it was over $ 2.00, now it’s $ 1.89 but the size of a kid’s fist. This was my go to cookie spot when I needed a pick me up at work but I guess I’l be looking else where!