Great Bagel & Bakery — Restaurant in Lexington

Living in Lexington and being from NJ and my husband from NY it was great to find a place that reminded us of home. We have been going here nearly every Sunday for 3 years. We’ve always been pleased with the food and the service, until this morning. The bagels were different: smaller, darker, and not as flavorful as they were. My order was made wrong so my husband went up to the counter and spoke to one of the ladies working. He said that my bagel was toasted and he ordered it not toasted. She looked at the receipt and repeated what it said: berry bagel w/ cream cheese not toasted. My husband said “yes but it’s dark and hard as a rock.” So the lady asks another worker to remake my bagel not toasted w/ cream cheese. She hands it to my husband. He says “Thank you. Sorry about that”, and she replies “It’s ok.” Not one single apology came out of her mouth. She was reluctant to admit that it was possible one of the line cooks made my bagel wrong and she made it seem like my husband was the problem. To top it off, our son looks forward to going there and always devours his bagels, but not this time. He barely ate any of it. Between the recent change in the recipe of the bagels leading them to taste horrible as well as the poor service we will sadly not be returning. Such a...

I rarely eat here cuz I'm cheap (habit from raising children) and it's out of the way, but I like the sandwich I usually get which is the BMB. It's only $7.60 which isn't breaking the bank, but the sandwich is on the medium to small side (like a normal sized bagel). It's thick because of all the stuff on it though. It's almost as tall as it is wide which makes it an unstable squat Jenga-like tower. So expect to either to: 1) stretch your mouth wide while pinching the bagel halves to get all the flavors in one bite risking the contents being squished out, or 2) nibble to try and keep it all together. My bet is no matter what you do, you're going to be losing bits and pieces to the wrapper or table. Here's why. The BMB is Vietnamese-style (Bahn Mi Bagel, I'm assuming) so there's a loose mix of veg and meat: spicy pork meatballs, pickled carrots and daikon, sriracha mayo, jalapeño and cilantro. This "slaw" is extremely hard to corral.You've been warned. Now, let's go back to economics. I usually buy an entree that my wife and I can share for this price (or a little more). This one you can't because of the size and it's so good you'll probably want to eat it all yourself. That's why I'll pay this on occasion for a special and...

I have been supremely disappointed in Great Bagel several times. I used to go regularly but recent visits have made me decide to never go back. If want a gluten free bagel, do not go to Great Bagel. My experience was as follows: I went Saturday morning and they happened to be quite busy. The line was long so I went to ask if they had gluten free bagels before waiting 10 minutes in line to order. They said they did. So my partner and I waited in line and ordered. We waited 20+ minutes for the food. We check on the food after some time (the cashier warned us it would be a while, which was much appreciated) only to find out that someone had just taken our order AND it was the very last gluten free bagel. Waiting 30 minutes to get food after paying and then not getting the order was frustrating to say the least (!!!). They asked how they could make it right. We said a gift card because they had no gluten free bagels. She said they could refund our order and what could they do when things are so busy? Well, I have lots of responses to that. But with how they handled it, I’m just going To say I’m never going back. They failed...