House of Bagels — Restaurant in Reading

Bagel Boss here, Today we drove down to House of Bagels; the location is right on a main street but the pull in is a little uncomfortable. The store itself is not bad but nothing special. We were feeling traditional and entered the store with the intention to order two plain bagels, one with strawberry and one with regular cream cheese. However, no plan survives contact with the enemy. Upon reconnaissance it appeared that only one plain bagel was available, and so feral instinct kicked in. We change one of the bagels to whole wheat and proceeded with the operation. When we went to pay we encountered another hiccup, Murphy's first law strikes again. Bagel Boss Bravo's debit card was declined, so Bagel Boss Alpha ended up having to pay for both orders. We would, however, like to note that this may not have been an error caused by House of Bagels. As they say, all kit is made by the lowest bidder. We adapted to this situation with a level of prowess often attributed to the finest of Navy SEALs and carried on with our mission. Our bagels underwent swift preparation and received a hefty serving of creamed cheese. Unfortunately, the cream cheese we received possessed a consistency falling far below our expectations for an established bagel shop. The House of Bagels cream cheese was clearly not cooled to a sufficient temperature prior to its serving and possessed a shallow flavor profile similar to what might be found in a decades old MRE. Upon our return to the Bagel Transport Vehicle (BTV) we discovered that we had, unfortunately, received two bagels with plain cream cheese, and as a result Bagel Boss Alpha was forced to return to the establishment and request a remake, which, to the employees credit, was quickly prepared with no questions asked. Once we returned to home base, we eagerly dug into our selection of what can be described as astonishingly mediocre bagels. To our disappointment, they were unfortunately rather soft, lacking the crisp texture one would hope to experience when biting into a toasted bagel. The cream cheeses we tried were similarly subpar, as the strawberry had large yet ultimately flavorless chunks of strawberry's spread throughout with no distinct or special flavor profile to mention, aside from hints of drastic sweetness which seemed to indicate inconsistently creaming of the cheese. As for the plain, it had a stronger flavor profile but was still weaker than most we have experienced, ultimately creating an overall mediocre bagel outing for the day. Final...

I’ve ordered from here multiple times for my company. The bagels are great, but the service is a joke. My first two bulk orders were fine, so I trusted their app again to schedule a next-day pickup. Big mistake.

This time, they either messed up my order or their app did — instead of making it for the next day, they made it immediately. When I contacted them to fix THEIR mistake, they refused to remake the sandwiches, refused to refund me, and acted like they did nothing wrong.

To make it worse, their manager was rude, impatient, and actually hung up on me — basically telling me to take day-old sandwiches or nothing at all. Clearly, they care more about keeping $40 than keeping a loyal customer.

So here’s my advice: the bagels are good, but never trust their app for orders — and if anything goes wrong, don’t expect an ounce of help. They simply do not care. Dine in if you must, but spend your money elsewhere if you want decent service or...

Really excellent bagels. I almost passed by this place in favor of the other two bagels spots closer to Reading center, but I've very glad I went the extra distance.

House of Bagels bagels are noticeably larger than average, the biggest I can remember getting in MA. The bread is flavorful and fresh, and it keeps well in the freezer. I've been going through a half-dozen that I picked up over the weekend, and every morning, they're fantastic (Tip: Just put the whole bagel in the toaster oven, toast the whole thing, then cut it open when it comes out. Really soft inside, nice crunchy outside.).

Also want to call out the cream cheese as being really spot-on. I picked up the japaleno cream cheese and it's exactly as good as I was hoping it would be.

I haven't tried the sandwiches, but the pictures here show them to be well-packed and delicious. Staff were great, place was cute.

Definitely my go-to bagel place whenever...