Smith Street Bagels — Restaurant in New York

Update: After coming here weekly for two years, the bagels are 5 stars, the service is 2 stars at best. Be sure to check your bagels on the way out the door, they mess up my order about half the time (not exaggerating). Their ordering system is weird and ineffective. Whoever is available at the bagel counter will take your order while only half paying attention and then scribble something on a post-it. Often they'll wander off and start doing something else while you're in the middle of ordering, and then they'll seem confused when they see you still waiting there.

Then you tell the cashier what you ordered, they ring you up, and you join a large mob of people waiting for their orders. There are no names or numbers on the orders, so the cashier apparently has to memorize the order of every person waiting, which is understandably very error prone.

Overall I feel bad for the employees, since this is clearly a management problem. Pretty much every restaurant in the world has figured out how to take orders from customers and then get them their food with minimal miscommunication, except for Smith Street Bagels. Their system might work for a small neighborhood shop where everybody knows each other but this place isn't a small neighborhood shop (it's large and often packed), and they don't seem to operate like a small neighborhood shop in any other way (like I said I've been coming here weekly for 2 years and as far as I can tell nobody has ever recognized me).

Previous review: Best bagel shop in the area! They also have a lot of vegan options which is nice, tofu cream cheese and vegan chedar slices for sandwiches. If you're in the mood for something sweet the french toast bagel is great. If you want savory the chipotle and jalapeno cheddar cream...

I've been a customer here several times - as a vegan I have enjoyed that they offer many vegan options. I've always opted for a bagel sandwich and been very happy with the food. This past Saturday I was going to the movies nearby, and popped in because I wanted a bagel - just a bagel, nothing fancy.

The sign board with all the menu items under Bagels listed a "BAGEL & FLAVORED VEGAN CREAM CHEESE" with the price of $5.50. I ordered a wheat bagel, toasted extra dark, with scallion vegan cream cheese. Side note, there are only plain and scallion vegan cream cheeses in the case.

I was charged $4.95 for a bagel with cream cheese, AND AN EXTRA $1.75 for scallion tofu cream cheese. With tax and tip the total was $8.30 WHAT??!! I didn't even notice the prices until after I had paid.

When I explained and questioned nicely that the menu item lists the bagel as $5.50 the cashier said she would check....and came back twice to say she was right. I repeated to her that it wasn't right, that the menu says differently. No one behind the counter would offer help or explanation or agree that THE PRICE ON THE MENU WAS WRONG, or that the Cashier had rung it up incorrectly. It wasn't even so busy that staff couldn't help.

On top of all that, the bagel was barely toasted (I asked for extra toasted) and the cream cheese was too much - there was enough to cover three bagels at least. It was inedible.

I was thoroughly discouraged and found this to be unacceptable staff behavior, improper preparation of the item I ordered, and unfortunately Smith Street Bagels will have lost a...

The place has a lot of great selections which make it very appealing. Nice outdoor seating. There are great vegan options which is a huge plus for anyone who is plant-based. I’ve been to this place maybe like 10 times. And only 2 out for 10 times they got my order right. The rest the order was always wrong lol. I brushed it off sometimes, and even with the step of listing my order out on paper and showing it to them just to make that much easier when taking the order, and still wrong. The front cashier gals are amazing, but the works cannot seem to get it together. In my recent visit it was very calm and not busy, and they STILL got the order wrong. It wasn’t event that complicated to be honest with you. Needless to say I will not be going back and wasting my money there especially with many other options nearby. They even charged me for someone else’s order by accident this last time so I ended up paying for something that wasn’t even mine. I would warn future visitors to please make sure they got your order right when the workers are taking it before the shush you away to speak with the next person. The cashier is second to know your order, the workers are first and always forget or misunderstand you resulting in a...