Uncommon Grounds Coffee & Bagels — Restaurant in City of Saratoga Springs

I've lived in and visited Saratoga since 2012 and can't believe I've never taken the time to write a review before. This place is AMAZING. Right in the center of Saratoga amidst the hustle and bustle of Broadway is this gem of a coffee shop. The coffee is amazing, the selection of bagels is awesome and the menu items/suggested fillings are incredibly helpful. There are cakes and light bites, salads too. The staff are always awesome and despite the large turnover of staff (I assume this is due to them being college kids from Skidmore-I could be wrong) the service is always fast and efficient. When they roast their coffee beans in the large in store roaster the smell drifts along broadway like an intoxicating calling card that draws you in to sample more. I calculate that I have been in this place at least 500 times and they have never once disappointed or let me down. Their Oatmeal with fixings is a great way to start the day, soups are always tasty and if I could offer one note of feedback.......please make your delicious Mac n Cheese more often :-)

Uncommon Grounds by name - impeccable 10 out of 10 service by nature (or design, or hard work - I should've thought of...

The food and drinks are great but it’s quite disappointing that their customer service is terrible. We were standing at the pickup counter waiting for our food and we’re yelled at twice for taking a SIP of our drinks. We had masks on (masks mandatory in stores as of December 13th) and kept them on we pulled them down briefly just to try our drinks. We were treated terribly for pulling them down to take a sip and we pulled them back up afterwards.

Why yell at customers wearing masks who are just sipping on their drink? Seems like they should focus their attention on people walking around not wearing masks at all in-store if they have issues with mask wearing. The mask mandate doesn’t really make sense regardless because they let people who sit down in the shop not need to wear a mask….what’s the purpose of a mandate then??? Does sitting down protect you from COVID?? Please what a joke. Completely backwards and they are just using the mandate as an excuse to take out their frustrations on customers at will.

I can’t recommend coming here until they reevaluate their customer service. There is 0 excuse to yell at complying customers. Go to the bread...

This place is constantly busy and for good reason. There has not been a time we've walked in that there is not a line wrapped halfway down the length of the restaurant. Today at noon, it was to the back. That said, 23min to order, food less than 10min later. Service once you order is quick. Quicker when it's not cooked items. We were here at 9:00 today for breakfast too. So, the food is hands down worth it.

Now... hot beverages leave something to desire. That hot part. The coffee is great. The cocoa tastes fantastic. However, lukewarm at best. The whole point of a hot beverage is the heat. If we need to nuke the beverage at home, I'll just make it at home. This is a shame considering this is first a coffee house. So, the latte, cocoa, or other taste good but leave us disappointed. Hence, the 3 stars instead of more.

Friendly staff. Will return for food again, and again,...