Athens Bagel Company — Restaurant in Athens-Clarke County Unified Government

I have never in my life had a restaurant staff put a complete pause on taking new orders because the kitchen was too backed up. When there is a full line of customers! No one offered any explanation or time frame either, just a bunch of confused customers waiting in line with no one taking orders or acknowledging anyone. Hardly any seated tables had their food either. If you are overwhelmed (and I get it, it happens), at least tell people what's going on so they can take their business elsewhere instead of completely wasting their time with no food in sight. Either the current staff desperately needs training or they need to hire enough employees to keep up with the breakfast crowd because the service today was entirely unacceptable.

Edit: what I'm getting from the owner's "explanation" is they prioritize virtual and online orders over customers standing right in front of them. No apology either, just a lot of excuses for a poor business practice. A business can operate however they choose, but businesses who operate like this are bound to lose customers, like they lost our business today (and likely in the future). I maintain this is not a normal practice and I've never had a counter service restaurant tell me they cannot take my order because they're backed up. Also, this is a bagel place...isn't the food in theory already cooked? You just have to assemble...

Went in on a Friday at noon. Waited at the counter to place an order. Made eye contact with the employees, but they were just hanging out and waving to someone in the back. Waited for a few more minutes. No one took my order or even acknowledged me. Left without being able to place an order.

Anyone thinking of going for lunch, don't. Their hours must be wrong on the website and door as they won't take tour order.

Update in reply to manager's response: According to Google Timelines, I was in the store at 12:02pm Friday, Aug 15th, 2025. I was wearing a blue and white striped polo and the only one in line! I will visit the store on Monday, Aug 18th 2025 at 7am to point myself out on their camera. Again, I was the only one in line, not hard to see. To post an honest review and get told I am lying by thier manager should show what kind of place they are running. They also wanted clarification that I didn't eat, which i didn't, and I waited an hour +. Nowhere in my review did it say I waited that long. Assuming the manager didn't even...

I was excited to try it out after reopening. Unfortunately, felt like having online orders and the walk up line on was a little premature for how prepared the staff was alongside their ability to track inventory. We showed up to pickup our online order and they were out of all but one item ordered. The people in front of us were walk-ups and told after placing their order that they were out of the bagels requested. You could tell the staff was overwhelmed and jumbled. We requested a refund for the items they were out of and the manager took the receipt and said he’d get it taken care of but then walked off around the block with his hands full doing something else. I asked for a receipt or proof of return and was told he would handle it. That’s not the proper way to handle a refund. It should be handled on the spot. Flavor was mediocre and didn’t taste fresh. Don’t think I’ll be back...