Smith Mountain Lake Coffee House — Restaurant in Bedford

This has been a favorite summer spot of my family and I’s for the last few years. Sadly, today’s experience was not a pleasant one. We waited in line for 15 minutes to order- no big deal, as it’s a holiday weekend and certainly has been worth the wait in the past. We ordered a sunrise bagel and a bagel with butter. After 10 minutes waiting for the coffee and food to come out, an employee came over to let us know that our bagels would be another 10 minute wait. We were not told why, but could clearly see how busy the place was and figured things got backed up. We wait the 10 minutes, and nothing. We walk over to the kitchen, assuming it would be coming out any minute. I then overhear another customer being told that they ran out of eggs, and thus, breakfast sandwiches were backed up. We wait…and wait…and no one ever comes to check in with us and ask what we were waiting for or offer compensation for the extensive wait. All of the employees in the back were chatting and lingering around, even after the eggs came out. We finally get our bagels- after waiting for an additional 40 minutes from when we were originally told 10 (1 hour 15 minutes spent there total from time we got in the line to time we got our food). We were never offered an apology or anything for the inconvenience. And after all of that, we arrive at our destination, take the food out of the bag, and the bagel has no butter on it.

I am a very understanding person who loves to support small businesses, but this was extremely disappointing. Please put more thought into your breakfast prep and...

Friendly folks, good place to work and meet community. Appreciated them even opening on a cleanup day after an ice storm. I ordered a coffee and one of the signature sandwiches on a bagel. Tasted good, and I liked that the salad had grapes in it, but the saltiness was off the charts – the chicken salad filling was already a little too salty, the bacon added even more, and one of the toppings on the whole wheat everything bagel was, you guessed it, salt crystals. The sandwich was accompanied by a bag of Cape Cod potato chips (by far the least salty item) and a pickle. (I do get the feeling that they would have been understanding had I sent it back, but I was starving.) Also, at a little more than $16 for the bagel sandwich and the americano, this was exactly double the price that a comparable chicken salad bagel + coffee would have run in Charlottesville from a local bagel chain with three locations in that (expensive) town. So surely too high a price, even factoring in the views of water and...

First trip here was fine but nothing to write home about. Food was fine. Came in the summer and it was packed. Service took forever but I was with good company- first trip was no big deal. 2nd trip over the Christmas holiday season. 2nd trip we were the only customers in and they couldn’t serve any coffee drink that required espresso and were out of the apple cider presented on the menu as well. Decided to order deserts-which looked AMAZING. Dig into the Christmas brownie cheesecake slice and there is a hair embedded in the brownie! One last attempt on the 23rd December. Shop was relatively busy. I’ve typed all this waiting for my 2nd order in the shop and the experience has confirmed it’s the absolute last time any of us will patron this particular coffee shop. It’s two days after the 2nd trip. I’m here with a party of 12. Don’t come here if you have a large party. The workers have all been friendly but the quality of service and product and speed of service have been...