The snowflakes at Grand Central got my first review deleted, so here goes #2. I will never again try this restaurant. I popped in last week at 12:42, very much still the lunch hour. The sign said they'd be closing at 1. The counter staff informed me I couldn't order salads or sandwiches, as they'd closed that part of their operation early. Just pastries. Well, I wanted lunch, and I don't even like your pastries -- they over brown everything and they all taste half burnt. If you say you're open for lunch, then flippin open for lunch. Useless. read more

I got the French ham & Swiss on a baguette. The bread was very hard and after eating for a while my jaw started to hurt. I don't think that's normal. Anyway the oatmeal chocolate chip cookie was also hard. If I come back here I will get a warm sandwhich read more

Grand Central Bakery - French ham & Swiss sandwich. Bread was hard - Bakeries Near Me - Seattle, Washington

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Idk. I am not feeling this place. It was very basic. It was a free breakfast sandwich for me because I was taken to breakfast, but it was a total waste of calories. I did not like the chai tea and I was not a fan of the rolo bread. I ordered a bacon rolo and without the bread, there was nothing special about the egg or bacon. Given the price, it should have been memorable for something other than the price. Absent the Yelp check in offer for a free drip coffee, I see little reason to give this place a try. read more

Grand Central Bakery - Bacon Rolo - Bakeries Near Me - Seattle, Washington

Love this place. Best croissant in the city. Not greasy. Great sandwiches and service.

EDIT:management treated this issue very well and offered a coupon to try something else on the menu. While I still highly suggest you double check items on the breakfast menu before ordering, the pastries,baked goods, coffee and service are incredible and I highly recommend visiting this spot Normally, I only have fantastic comments to say about this place. I come here twice a week for the fabulous sandwiches, coffee and pastries and today I was recommended the "Bacon Egg Croissant" for $8.50. I was pretty excited to try it out as it is one of their top choices on the breakfast sandwich menu. I was truly disappointed to see that what I paid $8.50 for was 2 pieces of crispy bacon, a tiny over easy egg, and a giant croissant with no other ingredients. I understand that some like simple sandwiches but $8.50 for something like this is unacceptable. Truly disappointed and will not be ordering from the breakfast menu again. Additionally, to give some reference, the same croissant used in this sandwich to buy separately is $3.00 and an actual deliciously made gourmet sandwich is $10. read more

Grand Central Bakery - Bakeries Near Me - Seattle, Washington

Chicken tarragon salad was good but a bit under seasoned. Pastries are good and fresh

They have all kinds of stuff on offer here, but we stuck to their handmade pastries to go. The Pesto & Cheese Twice Baked Croissant was delicious, with an impossibly glassy exterior that shattered when I bit into it, though the inside wasn't as flaky as a consequence. The flavors were great though. The Quiche was fairly eggy, with a creamy and custard-like filling. The mushroom flavor was very muted and the edges of the shell could've been crustier. All in all, a solid way to start our day off. read more

Grand Central Bakery - Pesto & Cheese Twice Baked Croissant - Bakeries Near Me - Seattle, Washington

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Probably one of the best breakfast sandwiches I have had. The egg was cooked perfectly, and their option to make your own breakfast sandwich is a picky girls dream. Glad I can still get a good breakfast sandwich during this quarantine. I can't wait to come back to pick up fresh loaves of bread and try out their grilled cheese :) read more

2nd time here ordering an americano. They seem to pride themselves on how long it takes to serve you. As if the longer it takes the higher the quality or something? They definitely discern themselves from Starbucks as far as speed of service. They seem to have plenty of people available to help but don't know how to flex to customer demands. Anyway, 2 stars because the quality is good, but high prices and not worth the wait. read more

Incredibly slow service. Out of tomatoes soup. Was second person in line and waited 20 minutes for a grilled cheese. They forgot to put the fresh cut tomato slice on it and they asked if I wanted them to make me a new one and I said I didn't have another 20 minutes to wait! read more

Great pastries and sandwiches. Regular place to go to for a quick bite. Coffee is great too. read more

Awful very rude service. Do not order on line they forget these orders. For $15 crazy expensive for the quality and quantity. You don't need to be rude to customera. Will tell my entire new office to never come to this location. All the women today handing out food so rude!!!! The service is waaaay to long for a lunch spot. 34 minutes for a sandwich at 1:30pm is not ok. One sandwich to go read more

Food was good! I got the turkey sandwich and the tomato soup. However, the wait time was well over 35 minutes. They had many employees in the back and had to wait an additional 10 min to take my order while there was no line. Not a quick place to stop and grab a quick bite. read more

Ordered a sandwich online. Only after i paid was informed it would be 2hrs. Tried to cancel. Not possible. Tried to talk to a person. Not possible. Always tons of staff and slow. Thought I'd give them a chance. Sorry I did. read more

Really good food. I love their croissants, they are very flaky. The bread is delicious too. However if your in the mood for a breakfast sandwich be prepared to wait 20+ minutes. The staff is very friendly. read more

Overall a solid bakery. The pastries are downright fantastic, the coffee is quite good, and the sandwiches are tasty. Some of the seasonings on the sandwiches are a little out there, but I've never had something I didn't like. Pastries are definitely their thing, however. At lunch time expect to wait a decent amount of time and maybe get the wrong order. They seem very disorganized and inefficient when they're busy. A few times, I've had to remind them to get my coffee after I already had my food. And one tip: You must get the mini quiche. I dream about their quiche... it's absolutely perfect. read more

I've now visited this GCB a number of times now and more for the bakery than for the cafe. I love having a good bakery in the neighborhood, a place where I can run in and grab a roll, baguette, or whole grain loaf of something on the fly. Every time I pick something up it's fresh and tasty! For the cafe, I've visited a handful of times, typically for brunch. I grab a breakfast sandwich and she tries one of the many coffee options. The sandwiches are great and the build your own allows to make just the one you want. It's typically busy but rarely more than a 5min wait. Once the food is ordered our names are called within another 5min. Everyone here is super friendly and more than happy to help. One area they could improve is to have the busser wiping down the tables. read more

I have to give this place 5 stars! I had the sausage, egg(over medium), and cheese biscuit. It was amazing. Then I had to of course have a pastry. I ordered the chocolate croissant but the wonderful lady at the counter recommended I get the chocolate hazelnut croissant. GREAT CHOICE! Then we decided since it our last day we would grab a fresh loaf of sour dough to snack on through the day. Best decision ever! The staff was friendly and inviting. When I come back to visit Seattle this will be on my list of musts. read more

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At first, I went to Grand Central because I live so close. Now, I go because it's consistently tasty and downright delish. While they do have coffee, I go more for the sandwiches and pastries. My favorite are the croissants and shortbread cookies. Oh, and their breakfast sandwiches!! Usually served on a biscuit, I splurge and ask for it on a croissant because I can't turn down the chance to eat one of those buttery, flaky beauties. The homemade breads are outstanding, too, obviously. Also, they have a TON of take n' bake options like pie dough, puff pastry, cookies, etc. read more

Grand Central Bakery - Bakeries Near Me - Seattle, Washington

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Great baked goods!! Tried scone, jammer and seasonal quiche. Scone and jammer are both crispier than scones/ biscuit from other places, which I enjoyed. Scone has a strong ginger flavor and jammer had blueberry jam in the middle. Wasn't a big fan of the ginger scone tho... Seasonal quiche was broccoli and cheddar for April 2021. Really soft inside and crispy shell! Loved it. Grand Central Bakery has parking lot and outside seatings, so when the weather is nice, it is a perfect place to get sandwich, coffee, baked goods and sit outside to enjoy the sun! read more

Breakfast going downhill. First breakfast sandwich hours are now restricted to before noon only. So much for a late weekend brunch. They refuse to fry an egg after that, even a few minutes late. Also they only now do medium or scrambled eggs, can't request a harder cooked egg. Given that the prices are already high, seems unreasonable that they can't make simple accommodations. Online ordering is unreliable - limited options compared to in store and no drinks available, so I have to wait in line for that too which defeats the purpose of ordering online. Food is still good, but I think I'll need to start looking for another breakfast place. read more

No toaster for toasting our ham and cheese croissants?! You have gotta be kidding me! :(

I used to hate this place, but now I am starting to come around. Let's start with the cons: 1. They are quite slow. Even when the there is no one else in front of you and there are two people making sandwiches or working the espresso machine, they often seem more involved in talking to each other than getting your food/drink ready for you. Forget about it or call ahead if it's during lunch. 2. They are mostly locally sourced and organic, but some of the things they abstain from are just weird. They do not have a microwave to warm up ANYTHING, so if you order the quiche or like your hand pie warm, you better show up when they come out of the oven. Also, if you get a large carafe of coffee to go, they do not have individual packets of sweetener, sugar, or cream, so you will have to hope they decide to give you enough empty coffee cups to fill up from their pourers. The pros: 1. Their food is decent to exceptional, and this includes the baked goods and sandwiches. Their sas-squash sandwich is to die for, and I am not even a vegetarian, and their lamb chimichurri is worth the visit alone. Sadly, these were both seasonal sandwiches (gone now) at the same time, so deciding between the two was pure torture. 2. Make sure to check out their twitter feed. For the last several months they have had a 'tweet treat' almost every other day that could include a free loaf of bread, a cookie, a coffee drink, or a cinnamon roll. Overall, I would recommend this place if you are either not in a hurry or just want to pick up something from their baked goods case. Just watch out for the cold quiche! read more

Grand Central Bakery - Chocolate croissant. - Bakeries Near Me - Seattle, Washington

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I was disappointed that they didn't have any bread to make their sandwiches. Your a bakery. Figure it out. I really like Grand Central, but not if you can even order the sandwich you want. I did get cookies, but that doesn't help me when I wanted/needed to eat lunch. read more

Edit/update: I cannot for the life of me figure out how to PM management as suggested in the response below. And if I could, giving you my private contact information is certainly not going to happen. Thanks for the try, though. Ordered the night before for a 9 am pickup to comply with their social distancing "system". I arrive at 9:10 and wait for 20 minutes while half a dozen or more walk up customers are served. I can see my order, the only bag with a baguette sticking out of it, the entire time. But I don't want to get in people's way and they instruct us to wait until our orders are brought to the window. So much for social distancing -- I was exposed to way more people than if they were actually focused on moving their online busiClearly prioritizing the people who walked up for an inessential morning treat, while I was punished for planning ahead. read more

I've had their pastries here many times but because I'm trying to be more health-conscious I chose the Harissa roasted vegetable salad. It did take a while to prepare but it was during the lunch rush. The place was busy and loud and I couldn't hear my name when it was called. However, I have to give it up to the woman ringing up the orders because she was very polite even though I saw how people in line were on their phones or busy talking and weren't acknowledging the person taking their orders. I would. lose. it. The salad was very good, flavorful and spicy and it didn't need much of the lemony yogurt dressing that it came with. I did pick up my favorite pastry on the way out--the jammer. A thick biscuit with jam baked in the center. I fall for it every time. read more

Grand Central Bakery - Harissa roasted vegetable salad. - Bakeries Near Me - Seattle, Washington

I like this bakery, their coffee is good, their pastries are great, and their savories are awesome. I took one star off because I was told today that I cannot bring my dog inside of the bakery (there is even a dog bowl inside of the place! I was little confused. I never dine in). I will be going there less frequent because my dog has anxiety and gets barky if I leave her alone by herself at a random place. so I can't come when I am walking her by myself :( read more

Grand Central Bakery - Bakeries Near Me - Seattle, Washington

we've always gone to the one in pioneer square but it's good to know they have the same goods at this location. we come for one thing and that's their twice baked challah that no one else makes, but now we have to come for their everything croissants. it's not shaped like a croissant but the texture and inside was very croissant like. the touch of making it like an everything bagel is what made it different and super addicting, it was like a cro-gel read more

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I definitely haven't tried anywhere near all of what this place has to offer, but my experiences here have been pleasant and I like the food. Someone mentioned the atmosphere being a little sterile. Its kind of industrial and airy, but yea, not necessarily with a lot of charm. I sat on a bench and thought it was fine, but I really see myself going here on nice days to sit outside. They lose a star because they close at 5pm, but maybe once my schedule changes, I won't care. Anyway, I have had a couple sandwiches and I love the bread. The crust is a little too hard maybe, but the bread is soft and the egg salad sandwich bread is infused with kalamata olives. It tasted amazing. So good flavors in what I've tried so far, but they have all kinds of delicious looking treats behind the case. I've ran into a couple employees, who initially seemed snooty, but as soon as I mentioned something that I thought they could relate to they opened right up, so those interactions were pleasant. This is a place I'd come to frequently, but can't afford to buy the $9-10 sandwiches and salads every single time. The coffee taste good, but not as amazing as Louisa's up the road. read more

Great food and the service is always super friendly! During Covid the bakery had to switch to online orders and self pickup. The order process was very straightforward and the pickup process was safe and easy. Highly recommend the molasses cookies, peasant bread, you really can't go wrong with anything! read more

Grand Central is my go-to stop whenever I'm in Eastlake for their sausage breakfast sandwich or a turkey deluxe for lunch. Their online ordering and in store pickup system was very intuitive, always a bonus when you can add a loaf of bread to bring home! read more

Really good bakery. Loved the sandwich I got. Was a veggie sandwich that I added avocado and turkey to. So tasty. It was recommended by the employee. Also got a couple loaves of bread to bring home. Has some unique varieties that I hadn't seen elsewhere. read more

Grand Central Bakery - Veggie sandwich with added turkey and avocado on sesame current. - Bakeries Near Me - Seattle, Washington

Just wanted to say that I frequent this location often and I want to give amazing props to the entire staff. With everything going on in this world right now the staff is always welcoming and very helpful. I have been doing online ordering to try to keep my social distancing and I think it is a wonderful option. Pick up at the window could not be any easier and you can tell the staff really enjoy their job. I would recommend this place to anyone their pastries are to die for... read more

I stopped in here and had an Americano and a scone a few weeks ago. Scone was delicious and coffee tasted a little burnt but I think its just the type of coffee they use (not my preference). Great spot! I worked in there for about 3 hours. read more

A very reasonably priced bakery located in the heart of Eastlake Ave. My favorite pastry is the latte dunker and it's less than $2! This place has a great variety of pastries and sandwiches all made in-house so the freshness is amazing. There are usually lots of tables avaliable to work at too if you want to spend a few hours here. Parking avaliable in a lot next door. read more

Grand Central Bakery - Cinnamon roll and black coffee - Bakeries Near Me - Seattle, Washington

This is by far the most underwhelming food experience in recent history (note: it's not the worst, just the most underwhelming). I walked in expecting to get some soup... all out. The special? All but one is out. Quiches? Out. It's only 3 pm. I look across the board... nearly everything I would remotely considered eating is out. I settled on a ham pressed sandwich... it sounded pretty delicious with honey muster and all. NOT. Wish they had been out of this too, cause it left me feeling like I got a little gipped given its minimal size to price ratio (small sandwich for 8+ bucks... really?) The only redeeming quality about this whole experience? 1/2 price baguettes at 4 pm - which I waited until... and it is relatively yummy... probably 4 start worthy. read more

Being missing Grand Central Baking Company-Eastlake since I no longer work in the biotech neighborhood, so stopped in today on a nice Sunday early afternoon with the family. Much easier than trying to get to the Pioneer Square site. I usually get my sliced Como artisan loaf from Central Market, but it's not the same versus stopping in to one of their bakery/cafes. Easy peasy free street parking out front and clearly a leisurely spot for folks in the 'hood, not the usual crazy weekday work crowd lunch line. The counter person was very pleasant and friendly (contrary to other reviews I saw posted). She wasn't fazed by either us and the line of a dozen or so after us. I liked her weekend attitude of just being mellow. Her fellow barista did a fine job with our beverages too. So what did we order: 2 - 16 ounce mochas ($4.75 each) - nice and strong 1 - 12 ounce sweet chai ($3.65) - can be ordered spicy also 1 - Latte Dunker ($1.50) 2 - giant Ginger Molasses cookies ($1.95 each) yummy! 1 - Campanolo bread loaf ($4.95 - but got for free with a Chinook coupon) Very nice touch to get the artisan bread loaf also sliced upon request. With tax and tip, it was under $25 Also really cool to see a refrigerated case to buy ready to bake cookie dough, puff pastry, pie shells, whole pies, and pizza dough with helpful recipe cards/baking tips above. All I can say is that Grand Central Baking Company has been an established go-to for decent quality baked goods and bread, hearty lunch fare, and beverages (2 in Seattle, 1 in Burien, and 7 other locations in Portland, OR). The family business was at the forefront of the artisan bread baking movement in the late 1980s, which I count among the many local businesses I gladly support as a former assistant pastry chef. Yes, I am that picky about my coffee and baked goods - especially when it comes to artisan bread, pastries, and cookies. Thankfully, I've never experienced any rude service that warranted a negative Yelp review. But I also remember that I'm paying for better quality - note, this isn't a fast food sandwich joint (think Subway, Jimmy John's, Quiznos, Jersey Mike's and that ilk). One can either pack their patience or take your business elsewhere. I remain a Grand Central fan! read more

I live right next to Grand Central, and I've only been maybe three or four times over the past two years. For me the food is consistently good and delicious, however, you pay a price that you do not want to be paying on a daily basis. I believe that is because the ingredients are pretty high quality, so I'm okay doing that every now and then. I also only go if I really want something (breakfast sandwich, normal sandwich, pastry) in a pinch since it is so close. If I have the time I'll go elsewhere in Seattle for a really good breakfast or breakfast sandwich at a more reasonable price. If you are interested in those places feel free to message me! All in all Grand Central makes good, high quality food. Nothing that will blow your socks off, and a bit pricey. Their bread, in my opinion, is really good, and I always buy a loaf from the local supermarket. read more

Great place for coffee and breakfast or lunch! Large windows allow you to enjoy the Eastlake view and all the action going on outside. Parking is a little limited, I found street parking, not sure if they have a private lot. I got an almond milk chai that was a little "watery" for my taste, but that could have been due to my almond milk substitute. They offer cups to-go and for here, so this place is great if you're environmentally conscious. I understand that their clientele is the breakfast and lunch crew, but I think closing at 530pm is early. Service was friendly and welcoming. The eating area was clean and orderly. I highly recommend for their baked goods. read more

There are great big photos of wheat on the wall. I have grown used, more or less, to scarfing up crackers and sandwiches, muffins and pie, without thinking my mother, thousands of miles away, will email and tell me I've been blinking (BLINKING! always the most serious of accusations) and must have been eating (evil of evils) WHEAT. But there's no getting away from it at Grand Central Bakery. The glass-front display case is full of cheering sights, and what are they made of? Wheat! Every one of them! Made out of wheat! Golden hairy-headed wheat! Settled-agriculturalist wheat! Civilized wheat! Population-exploding wheat! End-of-the-world wheat! Today I just had coffee, but my mom doesn't exactly approve of that, either. I should think, though, even my mom would have to acknowledge that if you're going to bake things out of wheat, this is the way to bake them, and I think she would thoroughly approve of the potato sauerkraut soup. I like Grand Central Bakery. It has the neutral and impersonal, bright and clean surroundings of which I so approve in an eating establishment, the qualities that always draw me to chains even though I always guiltily think I should be supporting small, independent businesses. But the food tastes like it's cooked by cooks, not designed by food scientists. Also, it's ten minutes' walk from my office, and people from my office don't walk for ten minutes. Short distance, complete escape. read more