Gems House of Bagels (Port Monmouth) — Restaurant in Middletown Township

I got a bagel here a year or two ago, but it was one bagel, not very good.

Decided to try again today, and the place was packed, which was promising at first (in retrospect, I don’t know of any bagel spot that isn’t packed on a Saturday morning).

Again, bagels not that good in the end. I ordered two bagels plus a bagel sandwich. The girl taking my order repeated everything back to me, and I watched her write down the two bagels toasted on the paper bag. Got the two bagels cold, the one with cream cheese was stingy, which was weird to me because I’m used to other bagel shops. I didn’t bother with the other (with butter). The sandwich ordered with ketchup and hot sauce, there was a drop of ketchup and no hot sauce. The actual bagels, not that great but they’ll be good in a pinch if you toast/spread yourself at home.

Customer service wasn’t rude but wasn’t great. The wait was a bit long but was fine when considering the volume they were putting out (if I waited and didn’t see orders coming out, it would be a different story, but they did...

The food was okay I guess. I wouldn’t know if what I wanted was good seeing as I didn’t get what I asked for. My husband ordered a toasted poppy seed bagel with cream cheese and grape jelly for me. It came toasted with butter when I brought it inside and informed them it was wrong, they seemed irritated with me. Like i had done something wrong by requesting what I ordered. The girl who took my husbands order just kept repeating that she swore he said butter. No big deal my main concern was the attitude of the employees. They remade my bagel only this time it had cream cheese and wasn’t toasted. I wouldn’t have minded the 3lbs of cream cheese on my bagel if the warmth of the bagel could’ve softened the cream cheese....

No Sparkle In Gems Bagels.

Tiny bagel shop with with a couple tables inside and out. The mediocre customer service left them short of a gold nugget star. Lack of greetings or pearly white smiles did not make me feel welcome at all.

In honor of national walnut day, I ordered cinnamon rasin walnut cream cheese on a cinnamon raisin bagel which was rough with a hard exterior and chewy interior that left my jaw a bit jaded from so much chewing.

I also ordered a lox and cream cheese bagel which was lack loxster. The lox was pale in color and had no taste.

This place was...