Eggcetera, Etc

This review won’t be based on my dining experience because my partner and I decided not to dine there at all.
I couldn’t have been more confused when I walked into the restaurant, which didn’t feel like a restaurant at all. It was more like a Subway sandwich shop. There was a shelf with piles of mini «frying pans» and cups for you to put your «farm fresh» ingredients in. (No farm to be found — practically across the street from the entrance to the Mass Pike — Exit 13) Around the corner of the entrance to the right was a buffet style setup with «farm» ingredients.
The owner (recognized from the newspaper article faded and posted at the entrance) welcomed us and pointed us to a menu hanging up over where the line cook/​grill kid was (he must’ve been 20 – 22 years old). The menu was small and boasted of meat, egg and cheese sandwiches, french toast and pancakes. It wasn’t a decent sized breakfast menu at all and wasn’t the usual found at other breakfast establishments. Looking at the grill, I noticed some demolished potatoes that were sliced thin and looked like they were home frys.
After staring at the menu for 3 minutes and deciding to leave she stopped us and asked why, to which we politely replied, «we were looking for something more of a larger breakfast menu, like Eggs Benedict and other choices. Your menu is a little small for us.»
It was her defensive response that guaranteed I wouldn’t be giving her a second visit:
«I don’t know how it can be a small menu with over 40 different things to choose from!»
That’s the thing. When I come into a breakfast spot, I want to come in and taste the chef’s culinary creations; I don’t want to put any work into it, hand ingredients to someone, stand there, watch it be cooked and THEN sit down to enjoy it.
Friendlies has a larger breakfast menu. These people should take a page from J & M Diner… then they’d have people waiting in line out the door. (There was only one family in a booth when I went in).
Gordon Ramsay might want to pay her a visit. I wonder hoe much money she’s losing every month keeping that dump running.

I wanted to like this place as well, but I stopped in here a while back and was really disappointed by the canned mushrooms and generally wilted veggies. Really did make the food taste «off.» Big lover of omelets, but I don’t think I’ll be making a return here.

So disappointing. First, if you visit their website, they rave about their «farm stand». There’s even a picture of a barn! We get there and it’s a store front off a busy road in Framingham. No farms for miles.
The concept is fun — add «farm fresh» ingredients from the «farm stand» to create your own omelet. But the «farm stand» is a buffet area set up with food that looks like it’s been sitting out quite a while and definitely not «farm fresh». I selected what looked reasonably appealing — scallions, spinach leaves, and some shredded cheddar cheese that was just being refilled so I assumed it would be fresh. I brought the ingredients to the cook who made my omelet, and returned it to me with potatoes and a roll. So far, so good, albeit somewhat misleading.
I take a couple bites and something tastes… off. I am able to narrow it down to the cheese. My sister got the cheddar cheese in her omelet and has noticed the same funkiness. Her boyfriend gave it a sampling and described the flavor as «sock». Not exactly the breakfast of champions. Opening my omelet, I find it drowning in the offending cheese and my stomach starts to flip flop. No way can I eat this.
We call the owner over and I gently try to explain that I think the cheese might be just starting to go bad because it tastes just not quite right. She is friendly enough, but gets defensive, telling me that it’s a sharp cheddar (yes, I’m familiar with sharp cheddar, it’s a favorite of mine), and also that it’s one of the most popular items on the «farm stand» (no, I can’t describe the «farm stand» without using quotes, since it’s just a pretend «farm stand»), and therefore, gets refilled often. She investigates, tasting a few shreds, and offers to me to do the same. I am nervous and slightly nauseated so I only take a small bit and taste it. It doesn’t seem to have much flavor. My sister does the same and she still notices a bit of funk. The owner offers to have the omelets thrown back onto the grill for a few minutes, suggesting they may just be undercooked. I decline the offer because I no longer want to eat sock cheese. She smiles apologetically and leaves, offering no further resolution. I would’ve liked a new omelet without the cheese, or a refund, or even a coupon for future use, or SOMETHING. I mean, there’s $ 11 of my life I’ll never get back. But no, my omelet sits congealing on my plate, only to be thrown away, uneaten. I could’ve eliminated the middle man by ripping $ 11 into little pieces and throwing them in the trash.
The potatoes were ok and the roll was flavorless but not offensive, but honestly, I no longer wanted anything to do with the place. As everyone else finished their breakfast (my sister switched with her boyfriend who had gotten French toast and has a far less discriminating palette), I logged onto my Unilocal app to check out the reviews. I felt really stupid for not checking them out beforehand.
Bottom line, I don’t know if the cheese was truly going bad, or what. But if I was the owner and I saw a customer who was that disappointed and unable to actually even eat her meal, I would’ve offered some resolution beyond putting the omelet back on the grill. I think that’s the real problem here. Well, that and the completely false advertising.
Lesson learned at the cost of $ 11 and a few bites of sock cheese: never again will I blindly go eat at a place without checking Unilocal first!

very confusing set-​up. The staff (owner?) was very helpful in explaining how it works but if I were them I would seriously reconsider the format. Any place that needs to educate almost every customer how the system works does not have a good system. It is a a cute idea though.
That being said, the eggs are done cafeteria salad bar style in that you select what you want and put in a fry pan then bring over for them to cook. Some of the items looked like they suffer from low turnover (half dried out chives) or had been put out several days in a row.
We opted for the french toast which was passable but nothing to write home about.
Doubt I will ever go back.

First of all, when we walked in we found the place confusing. There was a «menu» on the wall over the frying pans and another one over the grill. You had to wander between the 2 to figure out what you wanted and what you had to do to get it. The owner came over and asked if we need a high chair and when we said no, she left. She never offered to help us with the menu or explained how it worked.
We picked our «farm fresh» from a can ingredients and headed over to the grill. One of the cooks had recently gotten a tattoo. I could tell because his sleeve was rolled up and his new ink was covered in some kind of greasy ointment… not very appetizing! He must have noticed me looking at it (trying to figure out what it was and what it said) and he said, «don’t worry… I’m not a real skin head»…really!!!
We went last weekend with the living social deal. I explained to the owner that my mother had been very sick in ICU on a ventilator since I had purchased this deal so this was our first opportunity to use the deal. We had 2 deals and asked if we could use both since they expired the next day. The owner immediately got an attitude and was nasty saying she couldn’t use both. I understand that we were asking alot to be able to use both, but she could have been more accommodating… or at least nicer. She was nasty.
My daughter got an omelet which was just gross. It was overcooked and rubbery. My husband and I got noodles (which it took me about 5 minutes to find out if we could have noodles at breakfast time) and they were not good at all. They tasted very artificial. The noodle dish was also about $ 12.00, which was way way over priced. We threw everything out and went home for breakfast.
I received a survey from living social about our experience so I filled it out.
THEN we had to use our other deal, so my husband went back in to get us sandwiches takeout. He ordered 2 Reubens. When he went to pay for them with the other deal, the owner recognized him from the name on our deal and proceeded to be nasty again and try to refute all the things I had said on my living social survey. I had said that we weren’t offered any help navigating their concept. She told my husband that she came over to us and asked if we needed a high chair and when we said that we didn’t, she disappeared. She argued that at least she had come up to us! She kept arguing with my husband on every point I’d made in the survey!
She was just nasty to us… twice.
THEN I was looking forward to my lunch and is was gross. The «Reuben» had been made with fat-​filled, over cooked roast beef (not corned beef). I guess the line cook didn’t know the difference between corned beef and roast beef. In his defense, my husband thought it was corned beef that he was slicing. The sauerkraut tasted old and bitter, so I scraped it off. We didn’t say anything because of our first experience with the owner. We didn’t want to be told we were wrong again.
We will definitely not be going back. I will be surprised if they last at all… you can’t be nasty to customers and expect them to come back… or expect them not to tell everyone they know to never go back.

It is Monday morning and just got here. The place is not very clean, the bathroom is so dirty I could not even use it. The floors in restaurant don’t look like they have been cleaned since they opened a year ago. The egg sandwich bread soft or soggy. Does have okay flavor. I was hoping it be better there are not many breakfast places around here. Will not return.

Great food, fun concept, pick your own ingredients for omelets, pasta, stir fry or just get it plain. Fun, clean, cheap.

This new restaurant is a great concept-​fresh food made fresh as you order it. It can be confusing for your first time, depending on what you get. The owner was super friendly and nice. I got the stir fry noodles. I wasn’t a huge fan, mostly because the sauce I made was bland, but I would definitely go back for pancakes/​french toast and their home fries were delicious. My husband got an omelette and it was great! Will go back.

i really liked this place. it’s a little confusing the first time you may go, but when you walk in you decide if you want an omelette, stir fry or pasta. i think there are other options but i just wanted the omelette. you then go and pick all your ingredients, and then give it to the cook to fry up.
it came out good, with home fries too. jess is the owner, and she was really nice!

I wanted to love this place, I really did. The concept is great, but the execution is poor at best.
First read Mason H’s review it is spot on.
I went there once after they first opened and remember thinking, eh. Then recently they had a living social deal $ 7 for $ 14. I checked out the menu online and they offered «Deli Sandwiches». Great I though I’ll get a soup and sandwich. The menu has pictures of these delicious looking sandwiches so I assumed that they would look the same when I ordered one.
I watched the cook slice the meat and grill the bacon so I was thinking this is going to be a great sandwich. I also ordered a clam chowder which they said they would bring to my table. I «paid» and proceeded to eat my sandwich. I should have learned my lesson from every fast food place I have ever been to, the pictures never look like what you actually get. The sandwich was average in every way. Standard toasted white bread, a few slices of turkey (way less than what is in the picture) tasteless tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, and some mayo.
Then to the chowder. I was almost done with my sandwich and I hear a ding of a microwave timer go off. And only a moment later the chowder is brought to my table. It came served in a syrofoam container with a lid along with a package of saltines. I removed the lid noticed it smelled a little funny and gave it a stir. I took one spoonful and it tasted terribly awful. I would call the taste clammy sour.
That was it. I did not want to confront the owner (she rang me up and I could tell from the news article posted in the entry), I am not big on confrontation. I threw it out and will never patronize this establishment again.

If I only had to eat here for the rest of my life, I would be okay with that.
The variety of food and options on how you make your food is pretty limitless. They also put emphasis on making the customer happy. (No upcharge for egg whites, free hash browns and toast is awesome) On a side note, the coffee there is amazing, and I risk caffeine overdoses everytime I go… (I drink a lot of coffee…)
(The owners?) are very nice people and probably know me by now… the only negative thing… they aren’t open later in the day. But it’s a breakfast place, so,… i understand.

Starting a restaurant is said to be an extremely difficult and risky venture, and I salute anyone who believes in their idea and busts their hump to make it real.
**That being said Eggcetera, Etc. uses a gimmicky DIY food aesthetic (which would be cool, if the DIY portion were more entertaining an involved than putting ingredients into a paper cup) as well as the allure of ’ farm fresh ingredients’ to get patrons in. On my trip to this establishment, I very quickly uncovered that both of these elements are loosely rooted in deceit.
The process is simple, choose a method of assembly (stir-​fry, sandwich, omlet), then walk to the small salad bar and gather scoops of meats, vegetable, fruit and sauces that you would like incoprorated into your meal in a paper cup, the largest of which could hold about 2 cups’ volume. Your interaction with your dish ends here, and I’m not sure why, for the next step is to hand it to a cook standing over a griddle who unceremoniously flops your ingredients on the hot surface, mixing them up, and placing them on a paper plate with rice noodles or bread. Thats it, the only thing left to do is grab your plastic silverware and some paper napkins and of course to shell out $ 11.00 before attempting to enjoy your meal.
Honest business is honest business, and if this place had represented itself as a ‘cafeteria’, then I would say it hit the nail on the head. Then the owner made some claims that troubled me.
When gathering my foods, I inquired as to the origins of the vegetables, to which a quick and smiley reply was ‘oh yea they’re all locally grown!’ Seeing the next question before I could ask it, she said ’ I don’t even know where they’re from, we got guy who drives around looking for the best prices on stuff and he brings it in’.
Rubbish, I say: Local farms as a rule have to be boastful about their foods, they much like a sports team create a brand that they sells to garner a customer base. Farmers work such involved hours, with such unique craft bsed on their land, that any purveyor of the produce is almost obligated to tell you where in the state it is from, and moreover WHY it is special. If farm fresh is your premise, and you have pictures of chickens and corn fields all over your place, you need to know why they are worth buying and why you approve of them.
**Most of the produce within the worn-​looking bins was not in season around here, and to follow suit lacked flavor and color; both attributes of mass-​produced, inorganic, and non-​locally sourced produce.**
**Then perhaps even more telling, only ¹⁄₃ of the bins had someting fresh in it. All other items were sitting in the same liquid they’d shared a can with for countless months after their stint in the foreign sun and Monsanto owned soil.**
I cannot prove their dishonesty, but I can say that in those two ways I felt this place was masquerading as someting it was not, and erego felt decieved. ** If you have a hotplate and a pan, you can cook this food anywhere; if you shop at Shaw’s Price Rite, or Aldi, you have already seen the locale of these foods.**

I know what they are trying to do — but clearly they are failing.
The premise of farm fresh food is just nonsense. The food looks like its been sitting in the freezer forever. There is confusion as to what you are supposed to do. and honestly, the food is nothing great. it makes you feel like you’d have rather done the same thing at home. Mongolian BBQ meets diner meets grocery store salad bar meets disappointment. Sorry.

I have always been happy with the food here. It took me two visits before I had everything figured out, but now I’m a pro (haha).
Love being able to put together my own meals, and loading up on stiff I like while avoiding stuff like onions that traditionally over saturate food.
I have tried pretty much all variations on the pasta, and they’re all great. You make them up yourself, after all. And the accompanying multigrain roll is delicious. The prices are very fair and you get a good bit of food for the money.
They have Red Barn coffee, which is my favorite, and a comfortable seating area.
The place has a different concept, but the father-​daughter tandem work hard to pull it off and clearly care about their customers and their experience. If you have an open mind And are willing to try something a little different, I highly recommend giving them a shot. Ask for help or clarification the first time — everyone does — and then sit back and enjoy the food they prepare but which you picked out!

Farm style restaurant was advertised and I assumed it would be fresh and yummy. It’s an interesting concept and my kids loved carrying the pans and filling it up with ingredients for omelets and pancakes. The ingredient bar had add-​ins that just weren’t fresh. It is a good time of year to get good fresh veggies and fruits but they just kinda looked sad. Pancakes were the best; filled with strawberries, bananas and blueberries (which were frozen but that doesn’t bother me). Owners were really nice and involved. Place was a little hard to find but it’s in the plaza just before home depot heading away from Framingham towards Natick on the right.

Went here for breakfast on the recommendation of Unilocalers. Not entirely thrilled. My husband got an omelette that he liked. Unfortuantely, he did not care for the home fries at all. Underseasoned and undercooked. I agreed. I got a little overwhelmed by the choose you own options, and ordered a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich and blueberry pancakes to share. I got the sandwich on an everything bagel, which was very good. However, my bacon was far from crispy when put onto the sandwich. I partially blame myself for not speaking up as the cook was taking them off the griddle, but they were already off before I noticed. Also, the blueberries for the blueberry pancakes are frozen. This surprised me, given the farm stand motif, and was unfortunate because it meant there were undercooked parts of the pancakes. Otherwise, the pancakes were tasty. A woman was there, who was clearly the owner. I like to see that type of involvement and dedication. I do hope that they get the kinks worked out. One last thing, there were a lot of kids when we went. I don’t mind that at all, but I know that others do, so if you are particularly kid-​averse this may not be the place for you.
Bottom line: I will give this place another shot, but stick to the omelets, bagels and pancakes (no blueberries!). Oh, and order any bacon up front as «extra crispy».

At the risk of 100% repeating others, I’ll offer a bit of repeat and personal commentary. The food was tasty, and Jess was very attentive and friendly. When she explained the concept, I got it (but was a bit confused for 15 or so seconds when I walked in). Others in my party were confused, even after the explanation. I agree with another Unilocaler that the signage and menu needs to be consolidated. The very simply menu board (two sides) is too simple. Case in point: as i was eating, I watched probably a dozen more parties come in and try to figure it out before Jess or another approached them.
I also overheard Jess explain the concept a bit different than her counterpart. I think that, in addition to a simplified explanation of the menu, the three-​sentence pitch could be shortened and honed.
I’m not sure I agree that it’s good for kids. We ended up getting what we needed, but if you have a fussy eater, then sometimes it could be a bit of a challenge to get what you want right away. But, if you have a kid that’s a more roll-​with-​the-​punches, then you’d be fine.
I’ll come back. I like the idea. Once some of the execution is improved, it’ll be more smooth.

I like the concept of choosing your own items, although I’m not sure how well it’s executed. I almost walked out because there was too much signage and I was confused — all the signage needs to be simplified and presented differently. It’s a lot of time and energy if you have to explain the system to each individual customer as they walk in (which frying pans are used for which items, which meals require how many paper containers, etc.), but it’s obvious that the owner is very passionate about the place and is trying really hard. It’s nice to have options, but it was all a bit overwhelming. There’s a place in Ann Arbor that has the same concept, but is presented more cleanly and it’s like a well-​oiled machine (
.) If Eggcetera could fix this, I think it could be really successful.
Food was ok, although I felt I probably could have paid the same or a little less for sit down services (almost $ 10 for choc chip pancakes, side of bacon and small coffee).

Just came in for breakfast. Awesome concept! Come in, get a frying pan, add whatever ingredients you want from the «farm stand», bring it up to the chef and watch them make your delicious meal! So fun, so easy! Definitely an A+ for cleanliness, quality of ingredients, and service! Yummy!

I like the «design your own omelet» freedom. It’s a lot of fun to make the omelet of your breakfast dreams and have all the fresh ingredients chopped for you & dishes washed by someone else. The people working there are very helpful in explaining the process & there’s a handy sign there outlying it as well. So easy that even I could manage it before having coffee. Speaking of coffee, they offer iced! Yay!
They also offer bananas & strawberries for your to put with your pancakes or waffles which I exercised great self control & did not try. This time… But they serve breakfast daily until 3 P so I’ll be back. Maybe by then they will expand the French toast/​pancake mix ins — mmmm… coconut? Chocolate chips? Nuts? A girl can dream.
Maybe also «combo suggestions» for the unimaginative or pre-​coffee crowd?