Carolina Bagel Co & Deli — Restaurant in New Bern

I’ll keep this review fairly short… I’ve been coming here for years, literally ate here when the original owners opened in New Bern. And while I’ve heard stories of food quality changes and service not being the same, I got to experience that VERY thing today in person while lunching with my dad.

We arrived at the restaurant around 1:15 and a sign for the dining area had “dining closes at 1:30” and figuring the place closes at 2pm I figured it wouldn’t be an issue.

We place our order and it arrives pretty quick. It’s tasty but my dad was having a little trouble with the chewy bagel and it was taking him a little longer to eat his sandwich.

Around 1:40pm, another waitress turns off the lights… while my dad is still clearly eating at the table with me. I couldn’t believe it so I asked our waitress, “could you please turn on the lights again?” She pauses and says “I can but we’re closed.” I was confused because it wasn’t 2pm yet… and then the other waitress says (with a nasty tone) “the dining room closes at 1:30pm.” Our waitress only turned on half the lights and my dad was just ready to go.

Before leaving I asked to speak with the manager and the cashier was like “who are you?” Excuse me, what?? I’m asking to speak with a manager … and I believe it was the owner or co-owner came up and while somewhat friendly didn’t seem to understand what was going on and honestly didn’t seem to care at all… in fact somewhat annoyed that he had to come up to the counter.

I will not come back. And I am just really upset that folks here have turned their back on providing a good experience. When we walked out it wasn’t even 1:50pm and the time on the door states they...

The food was good, nothing that makes it amazing food, just average. The one thing I have always loved about this place is the bagels, I do feel they have the best bagels. The service is not good. We weren't greeted when we walked in, it wasn't that busy, we came between busy times at 10:00am on a week day, we sat down and were sitting there waiting for a waitress to come and at least say they would be right with us for about 5 min or more. There was a waitress that kept walking past us clearing tables and even looked at us a couple of times but didn't say anything, like 'someone will be right with you' or 'I will let your waitress know you are here', nope she just let us sit there and wait for our waitress to show up. My biggest pet peeve about a business is if you are in a customer service environment and you don't acknowledge your customers are there soon after they arrive, I will turn around and walk out because I already know what kind of service I'm going to get. But I was here with my mom and that was the only reason I stayed was for her, but it won't happen next time, if I ever do go here...

I was very disappointed. I usually give a restaurant 3 visits before writing a review for my 57K followers, but my 2nd visit to Carolina Bagel Company cinched that I will never return. I ordered a grilled tuna melt with the request of cheddar and Muenster on the bottom of the rye bread, with spinach in between. They did NOT grill it, the cheese was on top of tuna that should have been thrown away- the stench was horrible- and when I called, was told you were not charged for the spinach...goodbye. Needless to say, I wasted 14.72 on an inedible lunch. Perhaps I may return for a 3rd visit, but not in the foreseeable future. A BIG disappointment.

Update: Recently went back with my daughter, and was greeted by one of the rudest cashiers I have ever encountered. We were not offered a table, were yelled at, and though our food was edible, it was not the way we ordered it, items were missing, and it was rudely slammed on the counter. As this country seems to be going back to its horrible past, they should not be called Carolina Bagels but...