Cosi

This place made me fall in love with T.B.M. sandwiches and there has only been one other place — also in Old Town, that ever could compare. Everything else I’ve tried has been good, but their bread and vinaigrette makes the tomato basil mozzarella my favorite thing to get there. Their table s’mores are always a hit when I bring friends or kids. I’ve enjoyed it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Excellent location, right in the middle of Old Town. Love it!

I AM BEGGING — DO NOT SUPPORT THIS BUSINESS!
BLUF: Exceptionally poor customer service.
INTRODUCTION:
I have spent way too much of my time dealing with this issue, but since I have already emailed the Co-​Founder, Regional Manager, Director of Marketing, and talked in person with the Store Manager, I feel there is no better way to inform the public of my experience than write to a review for others to see.
This was by far the worst customer service I have ever experienced, so due to the length, I will break this review into two parts. By the way, I was a loyal customer (up to 2−3times per week).
PART I:
It started yesterday, December 29, when I placed an order online using my iPhone at 7:00PM that would be ready for pickup at 8:35PM the same day — the 29^th. I was an hour and half away in Leesburg where I spent the day with my lady. When I first placed the order, I had two browsers open, and the order came in wrong. At that point I called the store and a lady answered who seemed clueless. I explained I needed to modify the order, and she handed the phone to a guy who was also clueless and told me to call back in 5 minutes. Once they hung up, I simply went back on my phone and placed a second order, to fix the missing items. I receive to separate emails, confirming my order and time of pickup.
Fast forward an hour and a half. I walk down two blocks from my house in Old Town to the Cosi store at 700 King Street. To my surprise, all of the lights, except one small kitchen light, were turned off and all of the doors were locked! I arrived at the store at 8:30PM. I checked all of the doors again and read the signage, which clearly says the store closes at 9:00PM. At that point, I called the store number at 703−299−9833, and left a voice message at 8:35PM. I continued calling the numbers thinking there HAD to be a mistake. No answer…
At this point I am so confused, I call the nearest Cosi location at Crystal City. I speak to a very nice man (for sake of remaining somewhat professional, I am leaving names out). He informs me to submit my comment online, seems sincere and apologetic, and even goes the extra mile and offers to make my lady and I food! I had to decline, but I am grateful there is a decent employee at Cosi.
My initial phone call was not taken care of, my order was not fixed, and the store was closed at least 30 minutes early with zero notification to me as a loyal customer.
PART II:
I submitted the above write up as a comment to Cosi through the
website. Within 30 minutes, I received an email from the corporate office marketing department claiming they would give me a call the next morning to discuss the situation.
Today, December 30, I waited until 3:52PM for a phone call or email, of which I did not receive either. I took it upon myself to contact the employee from the marketing office, and to my surprise someone answered. I spoke to a man who informed me they are looking into the situation, and did not have a reason why the store was closed early. 30 minutes later, I arrived home and decided to walk to the store and find out myself what happened.
I asked the cashier to speak with the manager. A man comes out, wearing casual clothing, and says he remembers speaking to me on the phone the evening prior. I confirm, and get to the point asking him «what time did you close last night?». He gave me a blank stare, and responded with «well, we closed early last night». I ask why, and he tells me his general manager told him it was alright. At this point I ask to speak with the general manager, and the store manager goes to the back, comes back a few minutes later, and says «he’s busy doing inventory». Hmm… so this is a business of serving customers, I am a customer with a problem looking for resolution, but the boss is too busy for me.
I tell the store manager in the time we have been communicating, I have not once heard an apology from anyone at this store location. Of course at this time he says sorry, offers a refund, and tells me it was probably a system glitch — using a computer as a scape goat instead of owning up to the situation.
Well, my debit card has been charged, I did not receive any of the services I paid for, I have no real explanation of why the store was closed early, why I was not notified in advance of placing an order, and I had to beg for a refund.
CONCLUSION:
Look, I’m sure this review will either get zero attention, or at best a view or two, but I think it is extremely important for businesses in the service industry to be rated on their customer service.
I hope everyone understands this is not about the money or about the fact that my lady and I did not eat the dinner we were expecting, but it’s about someone owning up to the mistake, fixing the problem, and preventing this from happening again.
In the end, am I saying don’t eat here because of the food? No, someone already has — google «DC Cosi Health Violation»…

I went through my Cosi phase back in 2004, when I was young and DC was a place of promise, promiscuity (not mine!), cheap happy hours, last Metro trains of the night, and uncomfortable shoes. I’m older now, and I wear more comfortable shoes during my commute. I also no longer live near Courthouse and work in the District, which means fewer Cosi opportunities.
The Mister and I stopped in the King Street Cosi for a light dinner before attending an party (which he also wanted me to Unilocal,but you know, privacy of other people’s home addresses and such). It was around 7pm and the ‘level’ of table service was very confusing. No fewer than 11 people were on the clock and no more than two (a cook and someone at the register) were working. The rest were playing on their phones and doing that awkward service industry flirting thing. The place was pretty dirty and the tables/​chairs were not in the best condition.
The food was alright. The pizza wasn’t quite as hot as it could have been, but the tomato soup was tasty. Portions were large and we were glad we elected to split a soup and pizza. The fact that the soup was sort of tossed and sloshed down on the table when it was delivered is sort of indicative of the entire experience. They did bring us half a second pizza, gratis, after dropping a few pieces of the first one on the floor.
I was really annoyed there was no price listed for the s’mores, as that was most of the reason I dragged the Mister there and I really wanted to try them, but I was unwilling to pay more than, say, 12 $ for the whimsical experience. (The Mister was not interested in helping me eat said s’mores.)
It was sort of blaaaaaaah. It was cheap, it was fast, it has zero ‘atmospherics.’ The iced coffee was a pleasant surprise, but I think I’ll avoid a return trip for the s’mores and make them myself.

Love this place! Most of the employees are super friendly. Only thing is. if your ordering to-go.you may definitely have to wait a while. I love the atmosphere and the seating is nice. Them having decent public restrooms is also a plus. Menu items can be kind of pricey but worth is to me. Pick a table with awesome sofa like seats or a great window spot for a good view if you like to people watch.

Came in just to get some coffee drinks on a cold night. TWO HOURS LATER (more like 15 minutes later) a hot chocolate was plopped onto the counter and the frazzled woman who made it screamed that she didn’t have time for people to not get their drinks. I quietly asked if she knew where my drink was, she said, «Oh shit. You’re right, that was supposed to be your drink.» Just very slow, very disorganized, and the lady behind the counter acted like she was auditioning for one of those louder-​than-​need-​be reality shows. Avoid this place and go to one of the local establishments in the area.

So I always love Cosi’s food but the service here is always awful. They’re extremely slow and not friendly. It’s always been slow when I’ve gone, and twice I was their only customer so they weren’t busy.
Not the best.

The fresh baked bread here is amazing! It has just the slightest bit of salt on the top which makes it amazing! Only negative I see is that sometimes the line is ridiculous! Maybe they need some more cashiers. Or something! Food is great though!

This restaurant is by far one of the best I have been to in a while. The women there today were just the friendliest. As far as the food I had a chicken parmesan, and a mango smoothie, all of which was divine! Everything seemed fresh and healthy I’m pregnant and picky when it comes to food I loved this though! The customer service was impeccable speedy and pleasant, a must go!

In a word: yuck. I am kicking myself for choosing this place when there were so many options in the area. I had just been on a self guided tour and thought it would be nice to grab something and take it back to the hotel room to unwind after what seemed like a 10 mile trek. This place reminded me of Panera but with more exotic ingredients. I got the Korean pork bowl. The basmati rice and quinoa that sold me on choosing this dish was bland, flavorless and completely unseasoned. I guess the «Korean» part was cabbage with a slathering of sriracha. The mojito lemonade was so tart and bitter I had to add 4 Splenda. The phở soup didn’t taste like phở at all. Gross. Sadly I was so tired and dehydrated from the walk that I gobbled it up while trying not to really taste anything. Do yourself a favor and eat at one of the million other places on King Street.

It’s not bad, but I wasn’t particularly impressed. The best thing I can say for it is that it’s cheaper than most of what is available in Old Town.

I drop into the Old Town Cosi prior to my haircut appointment and I’m always impressed with the wonderful customer service and the high quality of the food. The tomato basil soup and Greek salad are outstanding. The bread is fantastic! The friendly and very polite staff will keep me coming back.

The interior is very nice, modern design, lighting was soft, but nice. Menu is simple, and the staff itself was very friendly and hospitable.
As for the food itself, it was portioned a bit small, but it was good nonetheless. I only tried the chicken flat bread, but I do plan to return to try other menu items.
Overall a pleasant experience

I love this place. I usually get the tuna melt with a signature side salad, the taste 2. I have had the chicken BTM, which seemed tasteless. The cappuccino is pretty good, I would get it again!
This week I had s’mores with an old friend, and it was just as nice as when we were kids, though we had to have the flame re-​lit. I have observed the service is better late at night at this location and the staff is friendly.

This is the busiest Cosi I have ever been to. They do a really good job preparing and expediting food quickly.
I grab an egg, spinach, and artichoke breakfast wrap almost every Sunday before church. High in protein and delish, also easy to eat while running down the Parkway.

It’s not bad… but I wouldn’t call it good either. This applies to everything.
This is a decent place if you’re in Old Town and you’re hungry, thirsty and want to use the internet; they have much more seating and more dining options than Starbucks. It’s like Panera Bread — casual, solo-​friendly (some people come here to eat and study alone) with sandwiches, salads, espresso drinks, and even flatbread «pizza» but sometimes the gourmet options don’t execute well. If you’re not that picky, you can probably find something that you kind of enjoy on the menu.
The staff is friendly and helpful.

I stopped in here for lunch one day after browsing around on King street and was not as disappointed as others have been. I didnt get a chance to look at the reviews until after I sat down after ordering, I got through the first review and my food was delivered to my table, maybe it was a slow day but I thought the service was really good and really fast. I also dont have another Cosi experience to compare this one to
My only complaint was that the trash situation was weird. multiple people walked around confused with their plates in their hands trying to figure out how to dispose of their trash, the restaurant should really have better signage or have people walking around clearing tables.

I was waiting for a morning meeting when it was suggested that I check this place out and since I hadn’t any breakfast yet, I was craving to get somethin’ in mah belly!
I was looking forward to their Santa Fe breakfast burrito. The description sounded amazing and I haven’t had a breakfast burrito in forever! Unfortunately, my anticipation was destroyed as I was given a poor excuse of a breakfast burrito. The inner fillings did not blend well from the eggs to their pico de gallo. It went down a bit oily and it just didn’t taste good overall. But the worst part — when I asked for hot sauce, THERE WAS NONE!!! Dude, how could you have breakfast burritos BUT NO Hot Sauce! C’mon! *insert sad face*
The only reason why I am not giving one star is because their raspberry mojito lemonade was pretty good, so there was somewhat redemption.

Not the pits, but certainly not up to the standards of a usually reliable chain. Despite being overstaffed for the time of day (late Friday afternoon), service was slow and inaccurate. Muffins were pretty dry; coffee drinks were okay, nothing special.
Hey, at least the wi-​fi was free. Not a bad way to kill some time.

If I could give this Cosi negative stars I would. This review is based solely on the service, the food once you get it is ok… its Cosi, nothing great nothin horrible.
I only go to this place for coffee, fruit or squagel and to read the paper prior to church on Sunday. The service has gotten real bad over the last few weeks. They changed the ordering system so that it is all done at one counter, so you have people who only want coffee fighting with people who want to order for their entire family.
This past Sunday there was only one person at the register who could not figure out how to order a persons breakfast sandwich without eggs… after 10 minutes with the line growing he finally asked for help. Ten minutes later he was still tryomg to place the order, finally the other person took over his register and placed the order for him. The only reason I did not leave is I was next in line and did not want to lose my place.
This location needs to revisit their ordering system, have more employees on duty at 10:00 on a Sunday morning in Old Town during the summer and most important have competent mangagers who make sure their employees are trained and are available for assistance when needed, instead of hiding in the back.

They have a 50% military discount!
Stopped in here for lunch yesterday. Even though it is a chain, I had never gone. At any rate, stopped in and ordered a hot Tandoori Chicken sandwich (with lite vinaigrette) with a side bowl of their chicken and pasta soup. The woman taking my order/​preparing the food was a little bit aburpt and not too friendly.
However, the cashier was lovely. I had not known there was a discount, so when the cashier told me my bill was $ 5.25, I paused and asked her if she had forgotten to add something. At that point, she told me that Cosi has a discount for military, policy and fire department personnel. Not just a 10% discount, but a 50%. I couldn’t believe and I was pleasantly surprised.
I thought my sandwich and soup tasted great, but it was probably even better because of the discount. I loved the ambiance too… cool artwork on the walls and comfy couches gave this café an incredibly homey feel.
I will definitely be back.