R&A Sourdough — Restaurant in Lake View Township

Wanted to try this place out today. And it will be the first and last time. Took well over 10 minutes to get a toasted everything bagel with cream cheese. Pissed off that multiple people behind me who looked like regulars based off how the staff spoke to them were taken care of before me. Not returning. Person at the window was very competent though and was good at listening.

UPDATE was a 2 star review but they really doubled down, so be it! 1-star it is! Looking at the response by this business tells me everything I need to know about their self-righteosness and pugnatious attitude I suspected when I was deprioritized in my first visit. Deflection, Projection and Blame is a terrible business model. I will gladly go elsewhere. To echo your verbiage, what a silly response. No accountability, refusal of responsibility. Get your coffee here if you are the kind of person who cannot receive any feedback and deflects any semblance of personal responsibility, they will hook you right up! To be clear, at the time I was in line there was only a few people there with me. They were not busy at all. It was not extremely busy, so you lied on top of deflecting any responsibility. Wow. It is not unreasonable of me to expect to have my bagel within a 10-15 minute time frame. One bagel. One. 😅

And I didn't mention this initially but the bagel was not even toasted lol 😆 can't even get a simple order right. I would have given them another chance but looking at how they responded to other negative reviews it's clear they need professional help. You're not perfect, embracing that fact is a really good first step at accepting responsibility for how your business actually operates. Not the first self-righteous, haughty business I've ever encountered.

A simple apology and "we will try to do better" was all that was necessary, all that other stuff in your response is best for a board-certified...

This is the second time we've ordered from R&A--second time because the bagels and lox are quite good. TBH, the chocolate chip thingie is a conflicted piece of not-quite cookie and not-quite bagel--not sure that it works. It's also pricey. Which would lead me to give a 4-star review. However, the second order did not go so well. We (my daughter) forgot to pick up our prepaid $62 order. When we called this morning to see if we could do-over, I was shocked when they said no and did not even offer to refund our money, I understand we did not show up, but they did not call to ask if we were coming, nor did they offer any solution--like we pay for the six bagels again, but the rest? It would not have gone bad. (You really left cream cheese and lox on the counter all day?? Isn't that a health code violation?) In any case, the owner was singularly unhelpful and made my daughter cry for the sin of forgetting her order. Not the kind of local business I want to support! There are better bagels from nicer people.

UPDATE: I now have to add that the owner is either deluded or dishonest. What text? What offer to create a new order? Neither of those things happened. At least your last statement, that you don't think it's appropriate to work with people who have made a mistake, gets to the truth. Llke I said, there are better bagels from nicer people. Don't waste...

Bagels are really top notch. The interior is really nice as well. However, like others I would like to see the customer service improve. I've been to R&A many times and there's typically something off with the customer service experience. I would go more often if the experience was better.

I will provide some examples ordering inside right after someone else just ordered inside the store and being told I need to order at the window. not being able to take an order over the phone. being told the business doesn't slice bagels on weekends for large orders (didnt even ask but this was odd for a bagel place). waiting long periods of time (10+ minutes) for a toasted bagel and CC sometimes with almost no one else there. No order priority system it seems. Bagels also undertoasted. being told totally sold out of bagels even though they are right in front of me. No explanation by customer service staff there. sometimes staff at counter could be friendlier or provide more information. I have had good experiences here but it's a mixed bag.

Note for business: take customer service reviews seriously and work on this aspect of the business. It seems there are a lot of the responses to below complaints that are retaliatory and accountability...