Dennis O.
Yelp
Not a New York-worthy bagel. Poor service, old bagels, limited options, over-priced.
Made a very simple order this morning -- plain bagel, toasted, tofu cream cheese. Here was my experience:
* I used the large touch screens to place my order, thinking it would be more efficient, and faster -- wrong. I saw three people who entered the store after I did, go up to the counter, make larger orders than mine and get served before me. It took 23 minutes to get this simple order fulfilled.
* When using the large touch screens, it will default to include a 15% tip even though it's a self-checkout machine you're using. On top of the 15% tip you'll likely leave because of social pressure, when you get your receipt printed out, you'll see at the very bottom that they attached a service fee of 44 cents for using the machine lol. Seriously? A tip and fee for slower service?
* I waited by the sign at the counter that said "Pick Up Here" for 15 minutes, because... that would make sense, right? Only after inquiring about my order, was I told that there's another pick up area in the back if I placed my order on the machine. Apparently, if you place your order on the touch screen, it gets placed behind all the delivery orders and you're waiting there with all the Uber Eats delivery guys -- cool! Again, you're paying more for worse service.
* While I'm waiting, I notice that all the guys fulfilling orders are purposefully grabbing the bagels from the back and bottom of the baskets on the shelves behind the counter; this was early in the morning when they first opened up. My guess at the time was that these were maybe older bagels they were trying to get rid of, which was only confirmed when I finally got my order.
* Another 8 minutes of waiting and I finally get my order. I take it home (I live in the neighborhood) and see what looks like a day-old bagel -- dry, not fresh, not soft -- all despite getting it right when they opened, when you'd expect bagels be the freshest and softest, like every other New York bagel shop! And with the skimpiest amount of tofu cream cheese -- it was also kind of watery, so it looked like someone spread mayo on this bagel. Again, comparing to other shops that are very generous with cream cheese, sometimes giving you too much, that you have to wipe some off. I realize that inflation is affecting prices but I just paid $6 for this bagel, come on! It tasted terrible.
Bottom line -- don't go here for your bagels. These are not New York-worthy, and this place has no integrity. It's right over the subway station, so they're clearly just filling a market void of people grabbing anything on their way to work, with the cheapest product and service possible in order to keep margins as high as possible. Bagelsmith on Bedford Ave in Williamsburg is way, way, way better -- there's no comparison. But really, any place -- even bodegas, that don't specialize in breakfast food, will serve you a better bagel, for much quicker, and cheaper.