Waiting for a BEC at Konbini – NYC

Konbini, the newish Japanese convenience store inspired egg sandwich and udon restaurant in KTown seemed promising at the onset. Upon arrival, there was plenty of seating at the bar, and the hubs and I plopped ourselves down ready to brunch. It was noon on a Sunday, and they were already out of the egg and sausage eggbini, but no biggie, we ordered the bacon and cheese with spicy mayo instead of the signature white cheese sauce. I also orderd an ebikatsu sando with a small udon on the side. Then we waited, and waited, and waited some more until about 30 minutes had passed by. And finally, one dish appeared, the egg sandwich.

The bacon and cheese eggbini ($9.50; pictured at top), made with soft, toasted housemade brioche was very tasty. Although the bacon was gone in two bites, the eggs were fluffy and the bread was buttery and soft which combined with the spicy mayo made for a messy meal. As a result, the sandwiches comes with a single wet wipe, but ask for napkins. We didn’t receive that or any utensils until we asked for it. I’m not sure if something was awry in the kitchen, but the food was coming out crazy slow and the waitstaff seemed confused and frazzled.

And as a result, we waited another 30 minutes for the next dish. It was a good thing we were sharing, otherwise one person would have been sitting hungry for an hour.

The ebikatsu sando ($10.50), a fried shrimp cutlet sandwich on milk bread with cabbage salad and tonkotsu sauce was also tasty. The shrimp cutlet was hot and fried crunchy with a generous amount of sauce, however the bread was soggy and wet. I’m not sure if it was because of the steam from the cutlet or if it had been handled with wet hands, but it was odd.

The small side udon ($5) with seaweed was perfectly fine. Nothing fancy or out of the ordinary except the noodles were the flatter kind than the completely tubular variety, which I prefer.

As we were leaving, the manager apologized for the delay, but offered no explanation. I noticed the couple next to us was even offered a free dessert as they complained about the wait. Again, I’m not sure what happened, but I probably won’t be back for a few more months until they work out the kinks. In New York, even for a somewhat fancy BEC (bacon, egg and cheese sandwich), 30 minutes is way too long to wait. And an hour for a soggy shrimp sandwich? Get out of here. Let me know when you’re ready for primetime.

Konbini
312 5th Ave
New York, NY 10001 (map)

Visit Rating: 3/5 stars
Pro Tip: Egg sandwiches are good, but get ready to wait at least 30 minutes, if not more.