House of Bagels — Restaurant in Mountain View

Everyone who works here is so rude!

I was trying to order a jalapeño bagel with pesto cream cheese. I ordered from the iPad & have included screenshots. I can admit that I accidentally selected jalapeño cream cheese, because they had it abbreviated as c.c. I don't work here & I don't order bagels every day, so the abbreviation threw me off, but I should've read it more closely. Then there is a page where you select the bagel, & I clicked on "jalapeño bagel" (see photo). A few pages after that I'm on the page that says "Go half-and-half on another spread of your choosing", where I clicked on the box "/Pesto ($0.50)" (see photo). So I should've gotten a jalapeño bagel with 1/2 jalapeño cream cheese & 1/2 pesto. Instead, I got a pesto bagel with jalapeño cream cheese.

My friend asked me what I ordered & I told her, & I said I was confused because I wasn't finding any pesto in the cream cheese, but there were crunchy things in the cream cheese. I thought maybe celery? I went to the counter & nicely explained that I think there had been a mistake. Before I could finish my sentence, the worker cut me off & said that she made it how I ordered it. Then an Asian lady chimed in & told me that I made a mistake & ordered pesto bagel with jalapeño cream cheese. She did not try to understand the situation & didn't even try to see what could be done.

At that point I was almost half way done with the bagel, so I wasn't expecting a whole new one. I was hoping maybe they could give me some pesto in a little cup so that I could add it in to what was left. I was just so put off with both workers’ lack of customer service & being so rude on top of that. Why do I have to get scolded when I just spent money here?!

That's when I decided to check the iPad & re-order the same thing to see if I had ordered incorrectly, or if there was a mistake made somewhere else down the line. I saw that I had indeed selected "jalapeño bagel" & "/Pesto ($0.50)". So I paid an extra 50 cents, didn't get what I ordered, didn't have anyone try to rectify the situation & got scolded on top of that.

I went back to the counter, not looking for a fight, but just wanted to explain that there was a mistake made in my order. Really, a sincere "we're sorry about that, what can we do to fix this?" would have been really nice. I politely told the Asian lady that I think a mistake was in fact made & she replied: "so you think I'm wrong?" Wow, aggressive & overly defensive! It's not a big deal to make a mistake. Just do what you can to correct it. I told her: "I think there's an issue in your ordering system that doesn't send the orders over correctly." Then she said: "Come back tomorrow & we give you." What in the world makes you think I would ever want to come back?! What a shameless, greedy money-grabbing way to write somebody off!

I told the Asian man that he should come & look at the iPad with me. At this point the Asian lady says a bunch of stuff angrily in Vietnamese. They should want to see that & fix it, right? I shouldn't have to persuade them about this? I had to ask the Asian man 3 times to come over to the iPad so I can show him. The Asian lady made a loud sigh & the Asian man rolled his eyes & sighed before finally coming over to the iPad.

I told them that I paid extra for this. The man said: "how much extra you pay?" I replied: "I don't want any money back, but maybe someone could've apologized instead --". At this point the Asian lady cut me off & said "I'm sorry" with a large smirk...

I just moved to CA from NJ 9 months ago. I've tried a handful of bagel places around the South Bay area since then, hoping to get my "fix" of real NY-style bagels. I had almost given up hope... but House of Bagels hit the spot! A nice crust (evidence of a legit boil) and chewy, doughy crumb. This was distinctly a bagel - not just bread/a roll in a bagel shape (which seems to pass for a bagel around these parts). The veggie cream cheese was good, not the best I've had. I'd prefer bigger chunks of veggies in there - but that's a personal preference. On my quest for east-coast bagels though there are still two things I still can't seem to understand: (1) all-in-one bagels (akin to the "everything" on the east cost) here don't seem to come with salt on them. Why? Salt makes it taste so much better; and (2) almost every bagel place I go to microwaves their eggs. This kills me. Microwaved eggs just don't cut it! The stovetop griddle is a necessary staple for amazing...

Hands down best bagel place in Bay Area!(esp for vegetarians) Also the best House of bagels outlet too amongst all other HOB outlets here. Rich variety, great quality of both bagels and cream cheese type! People running the place are extremely friendly and patient with your confusion to decide your order lol!

Seating is not ideal but bagels are as best as they come :)

Top favourites-

Veggie bagel-which (without sprouts and olives) with Jalapeño cheddar bagel and garlic herb cream cheese

Pesto bagel - best! Runs out super quick

Veggies cream cheese + garlic herb cream cheese combo in everything bagel

Tuna melt - Jalapeño cheddar bagel with (for non vegetarians) - liked by my partner!

I always forget to take pictures of the food and place when I go here only because I just can’t wait to gobble them :D Will post...