Wholy Bagel — Restaurant in Austin

So I have to preface this review that I have been wanting to hit this place up ever since hearing about it, but never had a reason to until a recent outing to that side of town on my way to Blanco (I live in the Arboretum area). I was excited to experience the awesomeness that I have been reading about in all these reviews.

Sadly, as much as I wanted to love if not at least like this place, I have to be honest in that it did not live up to the hype for me.

I got there around 8:30am on a Sat morning and there wasn't that much of a line, thankfully, but there isn't really a place to queue, so I was standing in front of the case in what I would have assumed was the "line" behind a guy I thought was waiting to order (turns out he was just waiting for his order) when a dad and his two kids walks in and the girl who had been busy putting together an order walks up to the counter by the register and takes the guy's order. WTF? Ok, fine...the learning curve is apparently part of this place's "east coast" charm. So after taking the guy's order she goes back to making food even though I see two other people doing whatever it is they do behind the counter. Finally she comes back and takes my order cuz by then I had deduced that "standing there guy" was not in fact in line (though to be fair, it is a very small space and the few stools and the one table was already occupied). After placing my order the confusion continued because this very gruff older gent barked at "who's next" so I thought he meant to order, but evidently meant to pay. Again, my perception of the disorganization of the ordering/payment mechanisms of this place definitely stunted aforementioned "learning curve". I got it together and went up to the register and told the guy my order.

Which brings me to, I guess I ordered the wrong thing? I ordered a bfast bagel w/egg cheese and bacon on a blueberry bagel and a small coffee, which somehow comes to almost $9? It took awhile for me to get my actual bfast bagel, but I got the coffee first and to be quite honest if you are going to charge over $2 for a coffee at least have it taste better than something I could have gotten from a hotel lobby. No bueno. But, this place isn't a coffeehouse, they are all about bagels, so I was gonna let that slide if the bfast bagel blue me away. Again, sadly, it did not. I finally got my bagel and hit the road, so I was eating it in my car, but honestly, for the pricetag, I was really disappointed. I couldn't even taste the blueberry in my bb bagel and even w/the cheese and bacon, everything was just bland.

It pains me to say it, but for the price vs quality, I will stick to my usual at Einstein Bros where at least the coffee is palatable and somehow the bfast bagel is more flavorful than wheat I got here.

Maybe I should have ordered the Lox bagel referenced in several other reviews, but unless something brings me back down this way and I have some extra spending cash, I don't see myself ever coming back here,...

I rarely write bad reviews because I truly don't wish to hurt a small business, especially when COVID has been so hard on them. Sometimes however, bad operators need to be called out. When you try everything to get it resolved and nothing improves, it's time.

Wholy Bagel has good food and when they first opened, I went regularly. However, the service was often poor and after staff was rude to my 90-year old mother, so I had to complain. Someone working the store at the time was apologetic, so we tried again. I called to place a substantial catering order for a staff function and the person who answered the phone said "Can you call back later? We're really busy."

Who says that?

I tried to contact management and didn't hear back.

So we went elsewhere and I haven't been back for a couple of years. Einstein's had closed early the other day and I stopped in to try to pick something up. There was one other customer in the shop, apparently waiting on an order.

I assumed the one staff member out front was working on her order but it turned out he was cleaning something. He never looked up or said a word to me. Another person came out of the kitchen and started doing something with the coffee maker, also not looking up or saying a word to me. This went on for about 10 minutes and I really wanted to see how long they would continue without asking me if I needed any help. To my amazement, a third person came out of the kitchen, handed the woman in front of me her order, and went back in the kitchen ALSO without saying a word to me. The other two were still in the front area working on whatever task they had.

So I literally stood there for 15 minutes and three different team members had no interest in helping me. I left and attempted to contact the owner via the website - AGAIN - but never heard back.

This place may do well in the kitchen but the customer service is the worst I have ever encountered and every time I try to see if things are any better, it's more of the same. They continue to act this way and there is no indication it matters because it never changes.

What a waste! You guys have lost literally thousands of dollars of business from me and for what? Because you can't train your staff to give the very minimum level of customer service, such as greeting someone who comes into your store and asking if they need help or responding to an email? This type of company culture comes from the top down. I have to assume you...

Update— The owner offered a gift card, so my boyfriend went back and was equally disappointed. The sesame bagels were sour, and all 15 bagels were hard, as if they weren’t fresh. Unfortunately, the employees again were unfriendly and made him feel like it was a bother when we only ordered bagels, untoasted and unsliced, no cream cheese. Won’t be going back :( Old review— I just moved to the area and was excited to try this but was a little disappointed. First, I asked for 3 bagels and 3 cream cheeses, all on the side. One was toasted, as I was going to eat it now, and the other two, I was taking home for my bf for later. I saw her putting the cream cheese on one of my untoasted bagels and asked her if it was my order and, if it was, to please put the cream cheese on the side for the next one. I was the only one waiting for an order in the store, so there was a good chance it was mine. The employee, bothered by my question asked “who are you?” And then said “that’s a multigrain bagel. It doesn’t come with cream cheese.” I had ordered some with it, but I said okay. All in all, I got two bagels with cream cheese on them, one toasted, one not, and one multigrain bagel untoasted with no cream cheese. They are small problems but with the mixed up order & unfriendliness, I’m wary to...