Bagel Bistro — Restaurant in Maryland

This place has always had the best bagels and over the years and was not only a place for me and my family to enjoy but also a place I would stop to buy several dozen bagels to bring in for the office. About two weeks ago I had stopped in and thought that the place looked great, the new owners did a nice job with the new look. I proceeded to the counter and ordered a bagel toasted with butter. When I went to pay I was informed that credit cards were not accepted for anything under $5. It's 2017 and if you are running a retail business you can't turn away a customer. Customer acquisition and retention is what keeps the light on. Here's some advice, if the 3% cost is not something you can absorb then bake that cost into your price. Don't ever turn a customer away, acquiring a customer should be your #1 objective. Fast forward two weeks later, I decide that since we have a training class in town I am going to pick up a few dozen bagels and I am willing to give Bagel Bistro a second chance. When I walk there is no one in line so I walk up to the counter. There are 2 employees/owners (not sure) behind the counter making a sandwich. After about 1 minute one person sees me but continues to toast a bagel and then once finished starts cleaning the toaster. 3 minutes go by and still no service. Once the 2 employees finish making the 1 sandwich she cleans up some more but by that time I was walking out. There was only 3 customers in the entire place so being "busy" was not an excuse. Bottom line is that I pass 5 bagel shops on the way to work everyday so it is a very competitive landscape. Sadly, Bagel Bistro historically has the best bagels but they have no idea how to run a business. They have no clue about customer acquisition or customer retention and I imagine we will be seeing another ownership change in the...

I ordered two bagels online. They messed up one of my bagels and I had to bring it back.. instead of remaking my food, they cooked the missing meat and added it to my already cut and opened sandwich. First of all , how do you mess up on an online order? Especially where you charge for everything you add on the damn bagel? Then let’s not forget the older women working the counter and how rude she is. She definitely was talking down on the cook for making my order wrong, to the point where I felt bad for even coming back. Let’s keep in mind the cook was Latin American and the cashier is a Caucasian women. If I had to be even more honest , I felt like I wasn’t even welcomed when I walked in. After interacting with the cashier and watching how she treated others, I stand on that feeling. Definitely seems like it could be a bit racist in there.

Also a older women came in before me and asked for a dozen bagels half everything and the other half (a flavor I can’t remember) and the cashier told her she couldn’t order that because it was the only bagels they had left in those flavors for the rest of the day. Who does that? They close early any way.. what’s the big deal. Isn’t the whole point to sell them anyway. Needless to say, the older women didn’t buy anything .. which I don’t blame her. I should’ve known then that my experience wouldn’t be good.

How cheap and lazy is it to remake a damn bagel? What’s the point of selling bagels if you don’t want the customers to even buy them? It’s 12pm you close at like 3pm and it was a week day… you’re not selling out! And if you do, isn’t that point! Not sure if I’d come back here.. not even because of the bagel , but the people who work here and how they interact and treat people who don’t...

I just ordered two orders from there. My first time ordering from them. They have some good reviews, so I was hoping it would be good. I called over the phone to place. One Blueberry with cream cheese, one salmon. I asked for both open faced. I gave a name to place the order. They put my order under the wrong name, gave us the wrong order. They said they fixed it. We took their word, then got home to see it was wrong. They charged us extra for open face, didn't do it. One bagel had no cream cheese, wasn't toasted, one bagel had no onions, no tomato, no capers as was asked for. I called the shop from my house, and the girl who took the order said the owner/manager was too busy to speak and hung up. I called again, she picked up, I asked why she hung up on me and told her why I wanted to speak with the owner. She said they didn't want to talk right now. I said I would like a refund since I didn't get what I asked for. She told me I had a custom order which they usually don't do (it's right on the menu by the way...not custom). She said give her a minute to get the owner. Then came back and said they didn't want to talk right now. Call back. I will never be going there again. The bagels they did give us look gross, wasn't the right bagels, bad, very unfriendly service, and they charged us apparently for some...