Big Apple Bagels — Restaurant in Forest Lake

Um, my review was taken down? That's shady. The owner is argumentative & has an attitude. Accused my roommate- who is neurodivergent- of some horrid crap and then tried to justify it in the review section when he spoke about what happened. I reccomended my roommate go in there one morning for breakfast on his literal bday. He went in there, after buying flowers and the owner called the cops on him. My family used to come here a lot when I was younger; and on occasion when driving through Forest Lake. None of us have been there since the heinous incident my roommate experienced and have since decided to never go back (over a decade's worth of business, from 10+ people). I don't think I need to type why I give this place 1 star for my review to stay up. It's good to know though that my previous review where the owner commented back saying "wondering why you left 1 star etc.." (which couldve been precieved as a genuine question, if you havent read their response to previous bad reviews) was actively removed. I didn't add text the first time for the primary reason of #1 not wanting to air out just HOW BAD this situation was for this business & #2 not wanting to have some bs response back for CLEAR wrong-doing on the shops behalf. Staff on weekday mornings in their 20s-30s are not "youth" & villifying people who aren't neurolotypical is so incredibly wrong on SO many levels. What better way for a business owner to treat a first-time customer than to call the cops on them. If my roommate was someone who had been in MULTIPLE times exhibiting strange behavior or was in for longer than 10min without ordering; sure- that's suspicious. Absolutely none of that was the case though. Just wanted to see what was there, got uncomfortable & left. I have repeatedly apologized to my roommate for suggesting he grab something to eat here- especially because it was his birthday and the incident comes up now and again. In 5 years of friendship with my roommate and our own lifetimes worth of bad days/bad interactions while out & about - this was BY FAR the worst experience we've had...

Food is okay but prices are over priced. Several experiences in the last several months have left me dissatisfied and today was the final straw and I won’t be back. The main reason is because the posted specials that I have ordered and were previously honored, yet still posted, are no longer honored, New or daily posts are also not honored. Always an excuse as to why that isn’t what the sign means ...ex...Make any sandwich into a meal for x amount of money and previously could be used on breakfast sandwiches, is now only for the lunch sandwiches only, yet that’s not what the sign says. It’s not specific to that. There’s more but don’t want to go into every one of them. The final straw today was that my friend that tried using his new diners club card no longer has it because the server said it was expired and before we could say anything or take it back she ripped it up and threw it out as she was saying she would take care of that for us. It took us a little bit to realize that it was his new one and not his old one from last year. We remembered later that he already got rid of his old one and on top of that he remembered what holes were punched on it and it was the months that the card begins on, not ends on. Also, the daily special that was posted on the counter today also had an excuse to not honor it. The gourmet muffins are definitely tasty but not worth paying $36.+ tax for 12. On top of that I have had my orders screwed up and didn’t know it until gone and didn’t have time to go back for them to fix it. I stopped going here years ago because of the expense, but have gone around 6-8 times in the last 4-5 months and have been dissatisfied with the service over half the times I have been there. I’m sick of the excuses for not honoring the specials. It’s not worth the expense or aggravation. The one star is because the muffins are great tasting and the other food tastes a step above fast food, but overall really not worth the...

I was excited to find a bagel shop that reminded me of living on the East Coast back in New Jersey. My experience at Big Apple Bagel was not of any bagel shop I remember from back home.

I ordered a half dozen bagels, a 8 oz cream cheese and a side of cream cheese for curbside pickup. After my order was brought to my car, I checked it to make sure everything was correct. The side of cream cheese was in a container that you would normally get in a togo order for a side sauce. It may hold an ounce of cream cheese. Mind you, it was $2.40 where the 8 oz. was $6.00. I went in to talk to the person at the counter and they told me that the side of cream cheese comes in that small container. I asked to return it and then I would just buy the larger 8 oz. container instead. They said that was not allowed because it already left the store. Being in customer service, it would have made sense to just give me the credit for the small side of cream cheese to purchase the $6.00 8 oz. container.

If anyone wants good bagels and cream cheese, go downtown to Rise Bagels. That is where I would typically go for bagels but I thought I would try Big Apple Bagels due to it being closer. This was my first and last time ever trying Big Apple Bagels and I will keep going to Rise Bagels instead.

Mind you, the cream cheese was not even good. We got the very strawberry and it didn't have a lot of strawberry flavor. Also the garden veggie tasted not as good as the store bought...