Bruegger's Bagels — Restaurant in Buffalo

Updating my review to reflect the takeover of Bruegger's Bagels from Bagel Jay's:

Whenever a local chain that is owned and operated by local people is sold off to a national chain, it's never a good sign. I very much appreciated all of the years that Bagel Jay's was open, as they seemed like a pillar of the community, and seemed to really care about its customers and its food quality. Not so anymore, it would seem.

What's lost in having a national chain buy out a local one is food quality (gotta pinch those pennies to make a buck for those investors), community (do you think Bruegger's really cares about Buffalo or its people?), and craftsmanship, which is usually derived from the company caring about its employees or customers. I was glad to see many of the workers from Jay's retain their jobs at Bruegger's, but the quality has certainly dipped.

I usually order just a ham/egg/cheese on an everything bagel with a coffee. The order comes to about $10, which is rather absurd for a basic bagel sandwich and a medium coffee, but here we are. The sandwich is usually fine, with some exceptions: the bagels themselves are fine, but a bit on the small side, but they are rarely toasted, even after I request the sandwich be toasted. If there is a toasting process that they're going through, it's insufficient; I want to have a bit of a brown crunch on my bagel, but these remain chewy. I'm noticing the dip in ingredients quality mostly in the ham and the cheese they use. The ham seems to be typical sliced Boar's Head ham, nothing special here, whereas Jay's used to have big chunks of ham. The cheese doesn't really taste like anything, and I specifically remember the cheddar standing out at the previous restaurant. I once ordered the Vermont sandwich, which was sort of a complete mess: way too many ingredients, slapdashed together to a falling-apart bagel. I would recommend getting the simpler orders here instead of their more complex sandwiches.

I see a lot of other reviews complaining about the service here, I don't really see what they're talking about. You go in, order a bagel, wait a bit, and collect your order. No staff is rude to me or creating a problem.

It's not necessarily the staff's fault that a hometown favorite restaurant chain was bought out from under them, they are still doing a good job of preparing breakfast and lunch orders for their customers on a daily basis. But the quality of the food is certainly less than before, which speaks to more of the corporate side.

I mainly come here when I get tired of Tim Horton's, but then I check the cost of the meal to the quality ratio, and I usually end back up at Timmy's because at least with the lower food quality there, you're getting what you pay for. The food here's fine, but much better when...

I'm going to be very blunt. My first impression of this shop is that they are as a whole completely Rude. First I came in and there was a long line. That was saying they are an Excellent shop. However that was very shortly disproven. There was a man who worked there showing and talking about there different bagels . I asked him if I could tell him what I wanted because he was literally standing In front of the display. Only makes sense to do as I was. But no he said go over to the register and tell them what I wanted and pay. Even though this was literally the first time I had been there so didn't take a picture of the display. Although I should have . Because when I got to the register I clearly said exactly what I wanted. A bundle of bagels. The cashier clearly trying to upsell me said with the 2 cream cheeses bundle. I replied no just the Bagel bundle. Just exactly what I had asked for. And I was then asked what kind of bagels I wanted. Now the picture would have been helpful. Because I couldn't see the bagel display. So I simply offered to pay and go down line to pick my bagels but no that was clearly asking to much and felt attitude from her. So I went over picked my bagels and went back to pay. Which could have been resolved by me picking while in line. But no you can't do that. Finally I did clearly a bad thing I asked for 2 menus to take home. And was told we don't have any. A New restaurant should want to flood the area with menus. Hint Hint menus lead to more orders if you're not in the actual store. And want an actual piece of paper to look at . And finally jumping back to the register I was asked on the credit card machine if I wanted to tip for simply asking to buy food to take out. Really?? So now we are being asked to tip for people just doing there Jobs. I thought they got paid for that by the business. Clearly not. I will probably never return. Sorry for being so long winded but I felt...

I agree with the previous customer's review. Having been a loyal customer of Bagel Jay's for several years, I was disappointed to learn that it was sold to a new owner but was looking forward to becoming a new and hopefully loyal customer of Bruegger's. Unfortunately, I was very, very disappointed. I arrived around noon and it was very crowded (although many customers were waiting for "take out orders"). The system for ordering was different than it was at Bagel Jay's; instead of ordering directly from the staff actually making sandwiches, customers ordered from the cashier. So I approached the cashier (who was wearing sunglasses) and I attempted to order what I have ordered in the past at Bagel Jay's: tuna on a sesame bagel. The cashier was not very friendly or welcoming and simply stated: "we don't have any tuna, chicken salad, or egg salad anymore". Disappointed, I ordered turkey with spicy brown mustard (which was listed on the menu sign as one of the available condiments). Again, not very friendly, the cashier simply responded: "we don't have spicy brown mustard, only Dijon". The one positive was that my order seemed to be ready in less than 10 minutes. So overall, there seems to be limited options, unfriendly staff, and overall a very disppointing experience. Missing Bagel Jay's. Curious to see if the experience will be the same when the Klein Road...