Steve's Bagels (150 Center St) — Restaurant in Manchester

I hope this review can be seen as constructive criticism because by no means am I criticizing the product and or services your company provide. I work in HR for the company I work for and your probable thinking it's irrelevant but you'll soon see what it has to do with my post. I've been coming to Steves Bagel for about as long as they've been in business and that a little over a year. We also now order bagels for the company I work for and are satisfied with the service. The bagels are always fresh everyone enjoys them. I also stop in during the week to order and I've had many of sandwiches they have to offer I sometimes buy the dog treats for my mini pincher or there are times they sell items off the menu and I'll buy it and bring it home for my family to try etc. I have many friends and family whom also enjoy stopping in because they appreciate the cooks effort in making sure you get what you ask for. And there are also a couple of the girls that are awesome and check to make sure your order is all set and its what you asked for so that you don't get all the way to your destination and find out it's wrong and then got to turn all the way back around to exchange it. However for the past month and a half two months Ive been going in at least four times a week and as I'm waiting for my order the wait time has exstended longer then normal. There's been two maybe three people and I've waited 15 to 20 mins for a breakfast sandwich and an ice coffee. It normally really wouldn't bothered because on Friday and Saturday I have that extra time so it's not such an inconvenience. But what does concern me is during my wait i wouldn't expect to hear in a place of business the employees talking about other employees discussing person information about one another, employees cursing each other out arguing about the register arguing about time off, the older women up front can be very rude an nasty rolling her eyes appearing frustrated with her body laugage towards customers. I've witnessed the women in the frontend tell a female they were talking to that was standing in the lobby to write a complaint in the suggestion box about a nother employee which sounded fabricated all while customers are in the lobby! The same employee also discussing with a nother male employee how their boss is planning to let another employee go (by termanting them!) and how he plans to do it. What I've heard is definitely a breach of ones HIPAA foremost! And inappropriate period! In the past couple months I've noticed a change in the staffing and the issues they affect the the service because Ive witnessed after two of the employees got finished with verbal disagreement between each other the short male stormed off and the women with the dark hair then took an order snap the customer waiting to order. Clearly she should have mad a choice if she felt frustrated an asked to take a break to regroup! I know I'm not the only one who has witnessed this behavior but i feel that the own should address what is going on after all there's no way this can be over looked by upper management when the owner is on site and partaking in some of the conversations. This issue bothers me so much because I don't see the respect nor value of co-worker to co-worker or the own at times because I've seen him also engage in a couple incidents while out on the floor with a female employee and a older gentlemen regarding not being allowed anytime off due to her schedule etc. smh it's a mess...like I said the foods good depending on the cook because they've replaced so many but the environment has changed so if your hungry you probably don't mind but if you have values that not an environment I want my business associates or kids experiencing because that's not how ppl should be treated. And again I apologize If anyone's defended but the apple don't fall from the tree... and most of you are grown adults!!!! remember this is a place of business not social media! I don't know if the employees got to meet Mrs.Lezlie but if she were there it would be a 360...

I used to love Steve's bagels however, it has gown down hill fast. I purchased two breakfast sandwiches at the Manchester location the girl behind the counter asked if I would wait inside or in the car. I said in the car 30 minutes later I'm still waiting. Then about 45 minutes goes by I get out of the car and head back inside to see how long it would be. They completely forgot about my order and did not even make it. No big deal I gave the benefit of the doubt the girl behind the counter apologizes tells me they will make the order fast. She kept apologizing saying they were busy and the girl behind the counter seemed to be by herself. They ended up running out of the bagels we wanted so we had to substitue for something else. We picked the substitutions and they begin to make our bagels. Finally an hour later I finally get my two breakfast sandwiches get home and find both breakfast sandwiches are wrong and not what I ordered at all. Head back to Steve's bagels at this point I'm frustrated. The girl realizes she gave me the wrong bag says the right order is coming now. Not even apologixing for giving me the wrong order. At this point I just wanted a refund she said I would have to wait to speak with a manager. I waited to speak with the manager another 15 minutes later. The manager apologizes said things were crazy and gave me a refund. I paid with a debit card she showed me she was going to send me a refund it should take three days to have a refund back to my card. I completely forgot about the refund until today and realized I still have yet to recieve a refund. I love to support local bussinesses and used to always love getting bagels from this establishment when I was in high school. Sadly, this establishment is going down hill very fast. Hoepfully they can figure out a new ordering system so this does not continue to happen for future customers. At this point I'm just going to take the lost on the twenty something dollars I spent. I hope their Vernon location is doing better...

After getting to try a sandwich from my other family members I decided to come out and try it on my own, given that the one I had the first time was so good, I couldn’t wait to get one for myself. Unfortunately, today I was disappointed with not just only my own, but the other items my siblings have gotten. We drove to this establishment to order for the first time, the lady taking care of us was very sweet! Although I would recommend to not offer to hand deliver customers’ orders to the car anymore if it meant that the customer would have to come and get their order anyway. Which was exactly what happened, we placed our order and was told to wait in the car with the expectation that we’d receive it from someone. After about 30 minutes, I had to go in myself to check on our order. I understand that it does get busy, but it’s unacceptable that I had to see other consumers that came in later than us, go in and quickly come out with their food when we’ve been waiting for what seemed like forever.

After getting our food, I had to go back in again because it didn’t come with any chips (we ordered two signature sandwiches and one breakfast sandwich), I thought because the lady didn’t ask us what kind of chips we would like, that she would give us whatever they had. Thankfully she was kind to let me grab any from the stand hidden to the side of the counter.

The two hash browns were stuck together and our sandwiches were cold, and the bottoms of our sandwiches were soggy by the time we got home. Probably from having to sit in the bag for a while before I decided to come in and get my order.

As much as I’d love to try this place again, I think next time I’ll just wait inside the restaurant than in my car to make sure that I get my sandwiches nice and hot. The service was good, I just wish that there was a better way to know when my order...