Natalie R.
Yelp
Where do you go when you're craving breakfast food and it's past 11am? Einstein Bagels, of course! I'm rarely a morning person, so it's hard for me to make usual breakfast hours. And as a lover of bagels, Einstein is a great option. I got spoiled while in college by an AMAZING bagel place, so I'm only so-so about Einstein's bagels. But they have lots of options and convenience.
My most recent visit, I came for 2 things - to use a birthday reward (free egg sandwich with purchase) and to try a couple of the new menu items that caught my eye in my email box. First, I got an email about a mac and cheese bagel. Amazing. Then, a week or 2 later, I got an email about fried chicken as a sandwich topping...mac and cheese...and fried chicken...OMG, I was excited. The fried chicken came on 2 types of sandwiches - a breakfast sandwich and a lunch/dinner sandwich, both on the hash brown bagel. I love breakfast sandwiches and I had my reward for an egg sandwich, so I got the "Crispy Chicken & Tater Breakfast Sandwich," but subbed the mac and cheese bagel. I also bought a French toast shmearful, since I had to make a purchase for my reward and that's a pretty small item. The woman who checked me out was very nice and chatted with me about my birthday and some other light conversation while I waited for my sandwich to be prepared. A different employee came up to give me my food and asked if I wanted a fruit cup or chips with my meal, because it came with the sandwich. I was very confused because I've never had that before with breakfast, but I figured hey, it's a new sandwich, maybe they changed it up, so I got fruit. This fruit cup was so sad. Tiny, with bad fruit, and strawberries that looked inedible. And when I opened my bag, I realized why there was the difference in what was included with my meal. The woman who prepared my food was different than the one who took my order and rang me up. So in the pass-off of my order, she must have misheard, and prepared a lunch sandwich instead of the breakfast version. Normally I wouldn't make a big deal about a free sandwich, but I really wanted to try this breakfast sandwich, with my chicken, egg, cheese, country pepper shmear, and mac and cheese. So I went back to ask about it and they gladly prepared the breakfast version, letting me keep the lunch one as well, since they would just have to throw it out. So it was a little annoying at first, but they demonstrated great customer service by addressing it. And this way I could try both sandwiches as well. I was surprised how much I enjoyed the lunch sandwich, considering the only sauce on it was mayo and the lettuce looked kind of wilted. I think it was the tomato and red onion that added the extra oomph. I loved the breakfast sandwich though. The pepper shmear added the perfect seasoning and the combo of mac and cheese and fried chicken was pure goodness. Next time, I'll have to try it on the hash brown bagel, like it was intended, in order to compare. The shmearful was also very good and a nice sweet bite at the end of my meal. It would have been better warm though.
Other visits, I usually get the turkey sausage and cheddar egg sandwich. At other bagel places, my go to is an everything bagel. But at Einstein, the caraway seed is a deterrent to me, plus there's not nearly enough salt on this bagel and they don't season the eggs, so the sandwich is very lacking when on this bagel. So I've taken to getting this sandwich on a salt bagel to up that salt factor. I wish they had other cheese options available, since cheddar isn't my favorite. But you can't beat this classic combo.
Overall, Einstein is a pretty good, fast bagel option with lots of options. And this location has always been great with customer service.