The Essential Baking Company

Not quite as good as billed. Essential is an institution in Wallingford, and deservedly so. The breads are fresh, if not flavorful. The pastries are sweet, if not sublime. However, there is something I can't quite peg that isn't great about this place. It's not the workers, who are friendly and patient, but the lines are tiresome, and the quality of the breads are not worth the wait. The location is drop dead gorgeous, 1 block from Gasworks park - but they seem to have run in to some of the problems any successful and beloved brand does, complacency.…

Don't Understand the Hype. The bread is good. I love the pizza bianca and the (expensive) little pastries. The lunch items are pricey given the portions, and sometimes the soups can be a bit iffy/too-experimental. I'm not a regular, but already a couple times the morning baristas have acted put-upon when I "interrupted" their conversations to order coffee... never had that problem with staff later in the day though.…

favorite spot in seattle. Not meant for tourists and you need to know how to order. Stand in the first line, place your order, walk to the register and then pay. Sometimes the staff will bring you your food but more often they yell your name out. When it's really busy, it's hard to hear. It is entirely worth the effort though. So far, it has been the best coffee I've had in Seattle and it has turned me into a pastry lover. I take everybody to Essentials. Very fresh, all organic ingredients, and an eclectic mix of workers.…

Stick to traditional sandwiches and soups for better flavors. My wife and I recently visited Essential for lunch and being inquistive decided to order the yam sandwich and the mole veggie soup. Both sounded interesting and were definitely new. Both unfortunately tasted...well..awful. The yams in the sandwich were semicooked and sorta crunchy but not in a good way. The mole soup tasted like some sort of food experiment gone awry. My recommendation for anyone going to Essential is to stick with the classic sandwiches and soups they make. Being culinary diverse is good, and choosing exotic ingredients is nice to see, but if you can't pull it off, the result is unhappy customers and really bad tasting food (like the yam sandwich and mole soup). For me, after tasting the soup I would have been embarassed to even serve it - my wife and I kept saying, "what were they thinking?" Unfortunately we took both the sandwich and soup to go, if we hadn't I would have gone back and said, "Um... I don't think so... give me money back.." I'm sure that the chefs at Essential taste everything that they make prior to putting it out for people to buy, but they also need to think about whether what they put out is both delicious and helps carry Essential's image as providing top quality gourmet foods. My recommendation, I'd think twice before keeping either of these items on your menu.…