Wise Sons Jewish Deli — Restaurant in Oakland

EDIT: Increased the overall stars from 2 to 3, the service, and the food rating for the sandwich. I reached out to Wise Sons via email as requested and they were very kind and assured me the staff were talked to about this experience and that a new button was added in their system to prevent this from happening again. We will be coming back here because their breakfast sandwiches and bagels are good and this was dealt with appropriately.

The cashier was very rude to my friend, who is vegetarian and asked for the veggie version of the Manny's breakfast burrito. They said the pastrami is substituted with mushrooms, and my friend asked (multiple times) to not have the mushrooms or pastrami. The cashier said that without either it was a lot of money for not very much - even though there are lots of other ingredients in the burrito besides the meat/mushrooms. My friend again asked to have the veggie option without mushrooms since the cashier was being confusing and rude about their request. The cashier did finally make a note on the order to not have mushrooms - but unfortunately we realized when we were home that their burrito still had a lot of mushrooms, which they cannot have for indigestion reasons. Additionally, this was the last meal my friend was able to have for 48 hrs due to an intense surgery coming up, so this was incredibly upsetting. This is also the second time my friend has tried to order this burrito without mushrooms and it's still come with them. If it is not possible to do that, then the cashier or menu should have said that so we could order something else.

We swapped meals, and I was additionally disappointed that the cheaper of the two (the Chili crisp sandwich bagel) was also far more flavorful than the burrito. Right now, we're not sure if we'll be back, but if we do it will be at...

Beauty's was a nice stop for a quick bite at an affordable price. I kept it simple, because I really wanted to focus on the quality of the bagel, so i just got an everything toasted with the vegan cream cheese. To start, I appreciate a dairy-free cream cheese, especially their brand choice: Spero, a sunflower seed-based spread perfect for those with aversions to nuts or soy. I love the tangy zing of this cream cheese, but for vegans who may have other preferences, smashed avocado is another good choice. The bagel itself is where this rating loses a star. It was a fine enough, but I don't think a New Yorker would stand by this bagel. For some reason, most of the topping was on the bottom of the bagel, and although it was warm, it was not as toasty as many would prefer when asking for a toasted bagel. The inside was more dense than fluffy, but the real miss was the exterior, which one would expect to have a more crust-like texture encapsulating the fluffy inside. There was no give when bitten into. It had a good flavor and was a cheap snack, so I can't complain too much, but it did taste a bit store-bought to me. One of the highlights of the visit, however, was their fresh squeezed lemonade (I double checked to make sure it was actually fresh squeezed and not some concentrate out of a bottle) and I was totally blown away by the flavor. Some might say it was leaning on the side of "too tart" which is absolutely perfect for me. All in all, a quick, warm, tasty bite before running errands, but you probably won't catch me waiting in the bagel line that supposedly wraps around the front of the building...

UPDATE! Still going to Beauty’s every month, sometimes 2x/month, and it does feel like the bagels have improved :). Updating my review from 2 stars to 4. To get to 5 stars I think I’d need to be able to eat them fresh, without toasting them, but they’re still a little too tough for me to do that, even immediately after buying them. Thank you to the owners for the thoughtful response.

ORIGINAL: This is specific to their bagels, not the rest of their food. I live nearby and go to Beauty’s once every couple months, always in an aspirational attempt to give it another try. Unfortunately, it rarely lives up to the hype for me. Here’s why: 1) bagels are often not fresh! Even on a Saturday early morning! You have one job - and that is to make fresh bagels. This is unforgivable, especially after so many second chances (I thought maybe I just got a bad batch or an off day). 2) Bagels too small! And often too flat / not plump enough - getting dangerously close to bialy territory :). They do seem to have gotten slightly bigger recently but the hole is also too big now. Finally, 3) I can’t put my finger on it, but the crust and dough density are just a little off. The outside isn’t quite thick/dense enough, the inside isn’t quite dense yet soft enough. So all this leaves me to leave a harsh review. It’s been a few years of trying with them and while I’ll probably keep going once in a while, I’m not going to pretend these are the best bagels in the area or comparable to NY bagels (which is often a comparison I hear people make when saying a...