Balsam Bagels — Restaurant in City of Rochester

I’ve been coming here for years, and have had many questionable experiences, but today was the last straw. After ordering my food, the cashier said “FEEL FREE to wait for your food outside”, but there were several seats available in the store, and not many customers in the store at the time. I like to watch my food get made (which I’ve done several times in the past without issue), so I decided to stay in the store and wait, because he said FEEL FREE. As I was watching my food get prepared the cashier asked me to go out side and wait, to “keep the line clear”. So I pointed out that no one was in line, and he then replied “it’s not polite to stare at people”, I told him “I’m not staring at anyone, I just like to watch my food get made”. He then said “that the same thing as staring, no body wants you watching them while they work” while mocking me with a Buckeyed snooty facial expression. I told him that was really inappropriate, and he said “it’s inappropriate to stare at people”. Not to mention they have a customer facing food prep station, where they make the food right in front of you. So to say that I shouldn’t be watching them make the food is ridiculous. And I would have asked to speak to a manager, but the owner of the store was sitting right there unbothered, with no input at all. She didn’t even turn around to address the issue or even provide clarity.

I don’t like to post bad reviews on businesses because I’m a business owner myself, but being a business owner, and a black man I felt an obligation to. I also don’t like to make thing about race, but these people are definitely RACIST(even though they have black employees), and I’ll make sure me and all of my community members know this is not a safe place for black...

I really wanted to like this place - especially with the raving reviews.

But besides the fact the employee got my order wrong (I ordered the egg/sausage/cheese but received bacon), it tasted slightly fishy. My guess is that the gloves were used to touch salmon which is maybe passable for most, but I don’t like seafood. The breakfast sandwich in general was underwhelming, but I would return to just try a plain bagel with cream cheese. I tried the Neapolitan cakes which were okay. Despite all this, I experienced good customer service with both employees I talked to - that does count for something. Old two year review: When I first went here, an employee very unprofessionally yelled at someone who walked in with out a mask. I don’t care if you have signs or not, not everyone is tempted to read every sign or any sign, but rather to just walk in a place & buy a product. Either supply a mask or tell someone in a normal way if you won’t serve them. I left right after that charade — ain’t no bagel worth...

really bummed out on this place.

We used to go every sunday, but slowly its less and less often because the service is getting worse and worse. The people are sweet, and the food is better than average with portions what you would expect from a bagel. But the wait times are atrocious. We were given an estimate of an hour for our food, which was fine, but after an hour and a half it said we had to wait another 15 minutes. I thought 45 minutes was enough lead time to get food before work. I was wrong i guess. This is on a day where, according to google, is LESS BUSY THAN AVERAGE. The frustrating part is we couldnt cancel our order because they wouldnt pick up the phone. I wouldnt mind, but their prices arent cheap. Wasting $20 on food i couldnt cancel or get is kinda wack. pretty bummed.

I know this sounds like a karen review, but it's not like they wouldn answer my call to...