Sam's Bagels — Restaurant in Santa Monica

Two trips to this Bagel shop were two too many. I don't even know where to begin on how bad this place is. I will start with the physical setting of the building, it feels like the waiting room to hell. No music playing, no decor on the walls, a few tables, and customer patiently waiting for their sub par bagels, waiting FORRREEEVVVERR.

Now to the food, it is 10 am on a Sunday and we call in an order to go. One bagel sandwich with egg bacon and cheese, another bagel sandwich, ham and cheese hold the egg. We arrive to get our breakfast and the bill is $18, I am confused and the man at the counter claims I ordered the lunch ham and cheese sandwich at $9 that comes with a side. IT'S 10 AM on a SUNDAY I certainly ordered the $4 breakfast sandwich. The manager comes out, and we discuss the situation, she is NO HELP and actually starts arguing with me about what I ordered. We wait another 10 minutes for the 2 bagel sandwiches we spent $18 on to come out, while customers who ordered after breeze away with there food, and what do we find. THE HAM AND CHEESE IS COLD, the bagel burnt to a crisp and they forgot the side we had to order.

Save your time, money, and taste buds and go anywhere but here for...

In Europe, governments enforce standards of food quality. In America, anybody can call anything "a bagel". And as a result, most of the bagels I encounter are simply rolls shaped into a ring. No crunch, no dense texture. Sam, however, makes bagels that are decently dense. They may not stand up to New York or Montreal bagels, but this side of the Mississippi, they are among the best I encountered. I especially recommend his sourdough bagels, which are hard to find. The service was efficient, and the 2.50 a bagel this is a good deal. I would recommend, however, getting rid of the automatic tip option, which is an insult. Nobody should be tipped for handing you a bagel. Employers should pay their employees living salaries, and not expect the...

I once was a regular of Sam’s Bagels, their BLT, in particular. Always ordered on an egg bagel.

A few months ago the bacon was suddenly reduced by half, while the price went up. Disappointing but I could live with that.

Unfortunately, about the same time, every order came on a dry-as-sawdust, thinner-than-sliced-bread, whole wheat bagel, that made the sandwich inedible. HORRIBLE flavor bagel I did not order. So I started calling ahead. Every time I got someone on the phone (difficult to do) I got an egg bagel. Today, I couldn’t call ahead and got a terrible “whole wheat” bagel. I just tossed a $15 sandwich in the trash.

Apparently they fob the awful, inedible whole wheat bagels off on delivery orders....