Brown Bag Cafe

This location is closed. I do not know if they relocated, but I drove by it yesterday (8/17/08) and it is very much gone.

I am super sad because it was one of the most delicious breakfast places I had ever been to! Really, really yummy. I've had their cinnamon roll french toast and a few of their different pancakes. They had a special every time I went in that was usually a delicious type of pancake. Example: coconut macadamia nut pancake. DELICIOUS...

What to say about this place... hmmm...

Great breakfast... you go home with leftovers...
Yummy yummy lunch... try the club sandwich... you go home with leftovers...
Did I mention not to forget to ask for a box?!?!
lol...

Their loaves of bread are a must see because you wouldn't believe it if I told how big these loaves were!!
Try eating outside on the patio... a perfect place to enjoy lovely conversation with a good friend : )

Great service and friendly smiles are what I've gotten every time I come here and I'd expect nothing less in future visits...

I know this is an eastside place (moan and groan form the seattle peeps), but trust me it's worth anyone's trip from the west to eat here!!

enjoy ; )

Scrumpdiddlyumptious.

A cramped little restaurant with generous portions of breakfast and hearty lunch items. Don't let looks deceive you, though, it can get very busy on the weekends - so be prepared for a wait.

Originally a genuine hole-in-the-wall out in Carnation that nonetheless drew crowds from miles away for breakfast; the popularity sprung up two new eastside locations and ultimately closed the original (ironically).  The new ones are desparate to maintain the old country hole-in-the-wall feel, but are obviously more commercialized (even despite being a small chain).  Still, the food is good and the portions are huge (if not excessive).  

On the negative side, the service can be intermittent (even considering how busy it is), the wait time for seating is often long on the weekends, parking is surprisingly difficult (for Redmond) and sometimes I'd like a bit more privacy (the tables are really close together).

My only other complaint is that they don't have english muffins (which makes for a disappointing twist on the eggs benadict), although they make up for it with their home made bisquits/bread.

Back in the day I was a server at the Brown Bag Cafe. It is not only a great place to eat but a fantastic place to work. The management trusts the staff so if ever there is something wrong, the Brown Bag is quick to fix the issue.

There is very limited parking but circle the block and park on the residential street behind the restaurant. They even built a gap in the fence for easy access.

They do not cook the potatoes in the same oil as the meat. If you don't believe me that's fine. Instead of giving up on the Brown Bag, try taking advantage of the flexibility with substitutions. You can always get fresh fruit or vegetables instead of potatoes. It's better for you anyway.

The portions are ridiculously large. Try to convince a friend to "split" a meal and you will both leave happy and full. It's less expensive that way too! If you're dining alone and do not want leftovers you should ask your server if you can order off the kids menu - remind them that we're all kids at heart.

Lastly, if you are in a hurry avoid ordering a burger or grilled chicken. They simply take longer to cook. Yelling at your server won't make the grill any hotter. So know that ahead of time.

Also try the Brown Bag Cafe in Kirkland (just off of 405, next to Sherry's)

Enjoy!

I had a santa fe chicken omelet made with egg whites and without cheese.  It was very tasty - the chicken quality was very, very good.  Though, I must mention that even with the healthier modifications, it was dripping in grease.

The omelet came with huge pieces of homemade white bread.  I tried a little piece of the bread - all I had room for - and it was delicious.  

The omelet also came with potatoes, but they didn't look that appetizing, and I was very full, so I left them.  I wish I read the comments on yelp stating I could have asked for veggies or fruit instead of the potatoes - I would have if I had known.

I second the comment about the coffee being weak - surprisingly not good coffee for a Seattle-area breakfast spot.

Given how tasty my omelet was, I still would have been tempted to give this place five stars if it wasn't for the price - for my sub egg whites omelet, I paid $10.95.  Now $10.95 may have bought me a lot of food, but I wasted most of my food and would have rather paid $7.00 for one third the food I got.  And, taking food home and splitting food just weren't good options for me that day...

Enormous portions...but why?

It's not that the food was bad; it was just okay. What's overwhelming is the amount that's served. Who wants to take home leftover cold eggs? Maybe they can scale back just a tad and up the quality?

The most ginormous plate of hash browns I've ever seen...smothered with cheese and who knows what-all else! And that's the "hashbrowns deluxe" on the light menu!

My son had the "Big Mike" breakfast as he couldn't decide between pancakes and eggs. The short stack of pancakes would've fed our whole family by itself.

Again, it wasn't terrible...but other than size, nothing about our meals was particularly memorable, either. And when I'm eating out, I'd rather remember the food itself and not the potential waste.

In Redmond, this may be the best breakfast around!!! The portions are huge and the service is great. The parking sucks and so do the hours, they are only open in the morning and dont serve lunch. Oh, and the wait is usually really long. But the OJ is fresh squeezed and the hot chocolate is home made.....

A good place if you feel like a nice full breakfast. Probably better for the fact there are not many good breakfast places around.

The service is decent most of the time and the food is good. It can be a bit crowded, even more so because they jam more tables in there than should be allowed.

They do have a few unique things like their corned beef hash with full sized cubes of corned beef instead of shredded tiny. Unlimited toast which is really good bread.

Not somewhere I'd go every week, but worth it for a decent breakfast now and then.

Homey, good food & lots of it. I think it's called Brown Bag 'cause you'll always leave with one.