Our visit began with high hopes for Essen's brunch. However when we realized we had been waiting for over 45 minutes for a bagel and a small brisket sandwich with no explanation from the staff, we began to reconsider our initial enthusiasm.
The food was actually pretty good when it finally arrived, although the service was subpar. Some tables were reassured by the servers that their food would be out shortly and apologized for the inconvenience, we were ignored completely.
The silver lining is that both the smoked salmon bagel and the brisket sandwich were quite good and the servers, though timid, were pleasant. We'll most likely give it another try but maybe next time with lower expectations.