Specialty’s Café & Bakery

The customer service here is not good but the products are decent. I really like the chinese chicken salad here but it is hit or mis when it comes to how much they charge due to me ordering a side of dressing. The staff is hit or miss, most seem bored and unfriendly, there is one black dude that is very sweet and helpful but it is the luck of the draw interacting with him.
I will go here occasionally as it is very convenient but it is def. Not a first choice for me. I am pregnant and crave the dressing for their chicken salad… once that passes not sure how often i will be back with so many better lunch places/​cafes in the area.

Puuuhh… finding a good bakery in Seattle doesn´t seem to be easy. I like good bread.
Here I found a colleague from Italy… small world, but same opinion, no, we don´t like what we eat here. It was ok to get some calories and a coffee early sunday morning, but I don´t want this again in future.

Love the food and customer service from this place every time. Unfortunately today they ran out of my favorite cookie so I ended up getting my second favorite. The supervisor assured me that this won’t happen again so he gave me an extra cookie. Little things like this go a long way.

This may be Specialty’s shtick, but I’ve got a beef with both some of their recipes as well as the execution at this specific location.
The bread slices used for their sandwiches are SO thick that it practically overwhelms the contents of the sandwiches, plus adds much unneeded carbs. They’ve gone 0 for 3 when I’ve ordered using their web app, which offers an easy-​to-​tick «toasted» button for your bread, giving me incredibly soft, untoasted bread. And to call that white bunny bread garbage sourdough is both an advertising and culinary atrocity. Warning: Specialty’s doesn’t actually have anything resembling sourdough. Lastly, I thought the ham and cheese croissant might be nice, but apparently they also slather some cream cheese (or similar soft cheese) in there that’s both unnecessary and prevents the croissant from fully cooking due to its moisture level.
Specialty’s is HIGHLY overrated, IMO.

The first few times I visited this branch I actually liked it quite a lot. It was a relativity quick stop to get some good-​tasting lunch or breakfast. I wonder if a change in management is the reason for the sudden drop in quality I’ve experience in the last couple months. The pastries are stale, more often than not, and the food is slapped together in a rush, making for a very unsatisfying meal. This would all be okay (Specialty’s is fast food after all, however much they try to dress it up), but the service at this place is just awful. I’ve lost count of how many orders have been mixed up or gotten wrong, or how many times I’ve had to remind the employees of what I paid for. Often I have paid for an item only to find out a few minutes later that they’re out of it. That’s a sign of ill-​management. I get the cashiers are often stuck there, especially when its busy, but that means someone needs to be monitoring what’s actually in stock before someone pays for it. A lot of people seem to love this place, but I am done with it.

Great lunch spot, I’ve been here a couple of times and was always pleased by the food. The roasted veggie sandwich and the turkey with pesto are both great. The cookies are good as well as the coffee. The atmosphere is warm and cozy and there’s a couple of big comfy chairs to sink into.
Downsides are sometimes the service isn’t good and the bathroom is usually very dirty.

This place is always such a disappointment no matter how many times I give them the benefit of the doubt. Today was especially bad they had no baked goods because their bakers didn’t show or something lame and then ordered a sandwich which they never bothered to make because they didn’t have 2 of the main ingredients.
I say they need to close it, it’s so poorly managed, hurts the whole chain

I love visiting Specialty’s whenever I am on the west coast (which doesn’t happen often) for breakfast, because they have awesome steel cut oatmeal. Thick and hearty, it fills me up until lunch or an afternoon snack. I asked for my toppings (brown sugar, almonds, raisins) on the side but they put them on top.
Coffee is decent and they do have soy milk. I wish more places would switch to almond milk, so much better with coffee. Being from Miami, I just appreciate a non-​dairy option.
This store has just okay service and ambience.

Specialty’s Café is a great spot if you want delicious food. I order the BBQ chicken sandwich and it melts in my mouth. I also love the way they take your order from a tablet now, pretty awesome tech to incorporate and gets people in and out faster.

I placed an online order for two dozen assorted pastries yesterday to be delivered to my hotel this morning. Everything was perfect! Delivery arrived on time. Pastries looked amazing – I didn’t indulge this time. Delivery fee is $ 10 plus I added a $ 5 tip. Well worth it to not have to get up early and walk the Seattle hills before my meeting.

The most efficient and organized café & bakery I’ve ever been to. Their cookies are amazing and if I worked downtown, I would come here every day! During my visit early Tuesday morning, it wasn’t packed and the bakery case was full of options, and the café was very clean.

Overall a great place to grab a quick lunch or a cookie. Whenever I go I always get the turkey and have yet to be disappointed. The prices are reasonable and the service is fast and consistent. When we have out of towners come to the office we always include this place in our list of recommendations.
In addition, sometimes you have one of those days and you need something sweet… That’s where their cookies come in. Decent sized, baked perfectly, and under $ 3… You can’t go wrong!

Good place for a quick bite. Large menu selection. Not too crowded not too loud.

I gave Specialty’s a second chance, and went back for a semisweet chocolate chip cookie and a chicken salad sandwich.
The cookie was fresh, big, nice and gooey. Loved it.
The sandwich, yet again they were out of the bread it comes on. Fine, I went at 2 pm, understandable they’d be out after the lunch rush. I got the herb bread instead. The sandwich was good, if on the small side.
Where Specialty’s is losing is in customer service. Yet again, they wasted time at the register, peppering me with questions, and gave me a dine in order when I had specified to-​go. Is Specialty’s going to become the place that ‘always messes up my order’? Maybe third time’s the charm.

I needed some breakfast and I thought my cravings would be fulfilled… not so much here.
I heard good things about Specialty’s, maybe it was overhyped by the people who frequent this establishment. I ordered the turkey and swiss croissant. To my dismay, as I sat to enjoy my breakfast at my desk, I got a big bite of something green. Luckily, I like spinach. Sure, it was flaky, but the flavor didn’t quite resonate with me. Something was amiss.
I don’t like their menu setup. Let’s make it so people have to crane their neck and step back into the sitting area to gain the full scope. As of right now, I would easily walk blocks more to get something satisfying.
I’ll give their lunch items and cookies a shot, but my expectations are low at this point.

Really great little café. Their pastries selection is vast and complete. They don’t take Pete’s tea & coffee gift cards as they are a part of another business. I don’t know… But I enjoyed sitting in the café at breakfast time and reading my book. It feels very Seattle

Forever and ever, I’ve hated Specialty’s because of a really horrible experience with them from the Specialty’s in Bellevue.
I gave them another try… thanks to my darling husband who is a HUGE fan. The cranberry turkey sandwich is AMAZING. Seriously. AMAZING. Sprouts, turkey, cranberry, … super soft bread. Nice cookies and stuff too. Whenever I have a craving for a sandwich, that’s where I’ll go.

Sometimes, you just want to have a cookie.
When I feel like getting in touch with my feminine side, I’ll stroll in and ask what has recently come out of the oven. If I time it right in the afternoon, they’ll have a sheet of semi-​sweet chocolate chuck that is still cooling. When they have to put the cookie on a small paper plate before it goes into the bag, you KNOW it is going to be good. The staff here always seems friendly, and while I have had to wait during their busier times, I’ve never been disappointed in the food.
What’s really cool about Specialty’s is their selection of treats as well as their selection of healthy, and just because they make it fresh doesn’t mean that you have to wait long. I log into their website, and with just a few clicks, I’ve ordered my breakfast sandwich from the bus, and it is waiting for me to just grab when I get there. Yes, their breakfast sandwiches aren’t cheap, but you’ll be hard-​pressed to find a better place downtown that bakes their own bread and uses fresher ingredients. They will custom make sandwiches, salads, and a whole host of other items.
There are plenty of tables you can sit at, or chairs you can park in and enjoy your food. I’ve ordered meals for team meetings and have either had them delivered or have gone to pick them up (very fast). They even have corporate accounts.
I would highly recommend this place for breakfast or lunch!

The chocolate cream cheese pastry was tasty; flaky and fresh. The egg, cheese and sausage breakfast sandwich on a croissant was prepared quickly and had two layers of sausage, but the croissant was not very good. A good croissant should peel like the layers of an onion skin. An average croissant is like regular bread. This was more like bread.
If you’re hungry and don’t want to feed the Starbucks machine then Specialty’s will do, but it won’t change your morning.

I love that you can order ahead online so you don’t have to wait in line for your lunch. Ron the manager was very friendly and engaging with me about their online oder. I think that was nice.
It was surprisingly not crowded today I and out in less than 10 minutes. I love their most of their salads and their pantries a girl could really get fat from eating delicious cookies on a regular basis. Lol! Overall great place.