I really want to give Einstein's a five stars because the food is always delicious. I have no doubts about the quality of food. It always tastes fresh. The coffee is also delicious. Much better than Starbucks coffee in my humble opinion.
However, there is a bit of inconsistency coming out of this location. I always order the bacon spinach Panini. Depending on who makes it, it always seems to come out different. Also depending on the staff it either takes 2 minutes with a huge crowd or 15 minutes with just one person ahead of me.
I feel the staff can be very unorganized at times but I do not blame them for this. In my opinion, organization of staff and how a business is run comes from the higher up management and training.
One example of this would be: I ordered a caramel macchiato and I noticed the employee who cashes people out is also the one who makes the coffee for the customers. After she cashed me out, she stood there and continues to take payments. Well... people kept coming in and ordering and she continued to stand there and look frazzled while taking payments.
On another Occasion: I ordered a caramel macchiato and the girl taking payments kindly asked a few customers to wait after cashing me out. She started to make my coffee, took another persons payment. Then finished my coffee. She was done in under 2 minutes with my coffee instead of the previous version of this which took 15 minutes.
So again, there seems to be a bit of inconsistency and organization with the staff. Things should be able to flow smoothly and run at a pace that is smart and timely to benefit the customers who are on their way to work in the morning and want to be in and out. It should never take 15 minutes for a coffee just because it gets a little busy. Other people can wait to be cashed out or to take an order. Get to the people who have already ordered are waiting first. It only makes sense.
Instead I see people who have ordered being pushed back and pushed back when it gets busy. To me this is unfair. If you get there and there's only one person in front of you and you order one thing it should take two minutes. Instead if they get a rush it could now takes 20 minutes because they will put your order on the back burner to accommodate the people walking in the front door.