Barrier Island Bagels — Restaurant in Kitty Hawk

My husband and I live in Manteo, and made the drive up to Barrier Island Bagels because we have heard they have the best bagels in the area. We always support family owned and operated restaurants.Upon entering the restaurant, not a friendly face or greeting was to be found. My husband ordered a dozen bagels, and requested that two of them be toasted with cream cheese- this was not possible according to their rules, no big deal. We ordered two additional bagels, toasted with cream cheese. My husband gets to the car and realizes that the bagels were missing the cream cheese, goes back in and asks for them to put cream cheese. Ava treated my husband with the extreme disrespect and continued to argue about whether or not he asked for the two bagels to have cream cheese. With a nasty attitude she finally agreed to take the bagels to the kitchen where cream cheese was added to the bagels. The kitchen person then slammed the bagels on to window, and they were handed back to my husband by Meredith. My husband asked her to verify if he had paid for the cream cheese or not, she would not, and told him not to worry about it with again a nasty attitude. He offered to pay for it if it had not already been done. The whole exchange made us not want to ever come back to this establishment. We’ve never had this level of treatment before in this area, and we’re sad to say we don’t feel comfortable recommending this place to anyone. If the owner could see how these two employees treated him I can’t imagine they keep their jobs. We spent $47.17 on bagels to eat and take home, including a tip for nasty attitudes. This was a very...

Well, we always come to OBX the first week or so in January-- we've been making the trip for six years. Each time, we stop at Bonnie's in Kitty Hawk on the way down. It's a tradition I absolutely love and look forward to--a tasty bagel after the long trip from NY.

Well, today we walked into the "new and improved " Barrier Island Bagels at 1:45, to be greeted in a sort of off-hand way by the counter guy from Long Island, and then informed, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, that at 1:45 OVER AN HOUR before they close, they were simply OUT OF BAGELS.

Friday of New Year's weekend, over an hour before they were scheduled to close, completely OUT OF THEIR CORE PRODUCT.

Are you kidding me? What kind of service is that? What kind of business model calls for such poor planning? No one thought to look at the case at noon and think, gee, maybe I should make a tray of assorted so at least we have product to get us through close.. perhaps that's why the folks who ran Bonnie's had a few frozen always on hand?

So, with the option of lunch non-existent, we left. So did the three people who walked in behind us, and the people after them.

And the worst part of this already dismal experience was NO ONE offered to make it right. There was no "here's a ticket for two breakfast sandwiches on your way out of town" or, "I'd be happy to make lunch for you on any other kind of bread," or any such option. NOTHING.

Good luck Barrier Island Bagels, we won't be back, and I would bet neither will the people who also got shut out over an hour before your posted closing time.

Sorry to see you gone, Bonnie. OBX lost a...

Woke up this morning and wanted lighter fare. We decided on bagels and closet to us was Barrier Island Bagels. Let me preface this with the most important thing: the food here is out of this world good. I had a French Kiss, my partner had The Owner Approved, and our guests had a Ghost Ship and a bagel respectively. No complaints about any of the food from anyone. We are looking forward to coming back, but only for the food. That being said, the service left a lot to be desired. I’m certain this establishment gets very busy and no doubt tourists can do silly things, however a list of rules on every table and the menu being labeled “HOW TO ORDER YOUR BAGEL” gave the feeling we were immediately being treated like we had never been in a restaurant the moment we walked in the door and were bereft of any etiquette whatsoever. Not sure if this is an attempt to be cute, but it came across as condescending. Our server wasn’t very welcoming either. I’m certain she was the only server on the floor but it felt like by being there we were being treated like an inconvenience. This was only exacerbated by the fact that our server was very obviously warm and welcoming to the regulars at the bar seating, however the paying customers in the dining room were there as filler. The meal ended with our server bringing us the bill without being asked for it and her leaving us alone in the dining room. Not my favorite dining experience. Next time we’ll probably just...