Great American Bagel — Restaurant in Schaumburg Township

This is my 2nd attempt at this review, for some reason it didnt post before.My wife and I visited this location on Saturday 04/27/2024 in the early afternoon between 3 and 4 PM. We got a bakers dozen of bagels along with a coffee and a what was supposed to be a cappuccino but seemed to be more of a bad latte (French Vanilla. they don't even know what a cappuccino is but they charge more for it then just a coffee)and I will come back and explain more about this. The bagels are average, not good not bad but OK. The Strawberry and Blueberry bagels have no berrys in them and no strawberry or blueberry flavor that we could taste. They tasted like plain bagels that were just died red and blue but without any berry flavor. We were waited on by a young girl who appeared to be new and perhaps in training, she was nice and as helpful as she could be . She had to ask the other girl questions while she was helping us, so I am pretty sure she was new. You could feel tension between the 2 of them as it was if the other girl didn't want to have to help her or answer her questions and it seemed like she was even afraid to ask her questions. I got a large coffee and my wife got a small cappuccino that was a $ 1.50 more than a small coffee would have been. When the newer girl asked the other girl for help she was rude to us and not very helpful. The other girl instead of helping asked my wife what flavor my wife wanted for her cappuccino requested plain she barked back rudely we have Hot chocolate, French vanilla or Chai. My wife again politely asked you can't make plain with just milk and the girl again rudely rolled her eyes at my wife and said Hot chocolate, French Vanilla or Chai. My wife said coffee instead then and the girl just put an empty cup on the counter with no coffee in it and turned her back and walked away. I suggested to my wife to just try one of the flavored and she asked for a French vanilla. At this point we were both upset, this girl didn't even offer to refund the $1.50 difference if my wife got the coffee instead and had just turned her back and walked away. She even forgot to give me my coffee at this point. So after she got my wife her French vanilla (did not taste good or even like a cappuccino in any way my wife threw it away) I asked for my coffee now and she grabbed a empty cup and put it on the counter and again rudely turned her back and walked away. I walked around looking for a coffee pot to get actually get the coffee and finally asked her where the coffee is as she had given me an empty cup. She was rude again and told me to give her the cup (this young girls tone when she talked to us was unacceptable and left us shocked) ( they had all the coffee behind the counter, how she expected me to get it is beyond me) she then rudely told me she only had these flavors and read off like 3 flavors I just took the dark roast and we left. The coffee was ok, the bagels were average and the cappuccino was not a cappuccino and had little to no taste ! But the worst part was the customer service or the complete lack of customer service I should say. I would normally give this place a 3 star but this was by far the worst customer service I have ever received at any business and I would highly recommend you go somewhere else where the employees are polite and appreciate...

I love Great American bagel usually but, my most recent visit was very disappointing. Prices have gone sky high for a bagel and cream cheese. My wife had a special bagel with cheese and bacon on it but the base price of the bagel was well over $5. Seems a bit excessive to me for a piece of bread with some cheese on it. But, my complaint comes for a sandwich I bought. GA bagel used to sell you a sandwich with a pickle spear and a little potato salad. Now, it's $10 for just a sandwich alone. That better be some spectacular sandwich. I ordered a reuben bagel sandwich and it was a mess. Your basic reuben is bread, thousand island dressing, sauerkraut, corned beef, and melted Swiss. When it's open face, your cheese is melted, the sandwich is warm and it's a great bite. I don't know if the girl working at GA bagel didn't know how to make a reuben or she was tired and in a daze or just wasn't trained well or if the restaurant just needs to work on their sandwich recipe but the reuben I received for my money was a mess and not worth the price paid. I watched it being made and it started out good and that ended there. The bagel was toasted... yay. Then, corned beef was put on a piece of paper and a slice of Swiss cheese was placed on top. This was heated in a microwave. After my bagel was toasted, ice cold sauerkraut was pulled from the refrigerator and slopped onto my bagel (made it soggy and was cold for a hot sandwich). The microwaved meat and cheese was placed on top of the cold kraut. Finally, the dressing was drizzled all over the top of the cheese. How does one eat this mess? Warm meat and cheese, cold kraut, and dressing all over the top. It was a mess left to be eaten open faced. Luckily, there were two halves. I sandwiched them together to attempt to eat this but the cold, wet kraut was dripping everywhere. My first bite slopped sauerkraut juice everywhere and made a big mess. The sandwich was soggy and just plain messy and falling apart. I took this as takeout so, I was stuck with it. Don't buy the reuben if you go here. The sauce should have been somewhere inside the sandwich and the kraut should be served warm too for this hot open face sandwich to have been good. I fully recommend GA bagel for bagels and cream cheese. They are just failing on the sandwich front and I miss the slice of pickle and little cup of potato salad which used to make their sandwiches seem like you got a meal for your money. The price of the lox and cream cheese sandwich is $16 now. It used to be my go-to...

Stopped for two dozen and they suggested the box of bakers dozen and two small cream cheese. So I got two boxes that totaled $42.00. When I finally opened the cream cheese at my destination I found their deceptive little trick. They spread the cheese up onto the sides of the clear tub but the center is nearly half the depth. The tub states net weight 8 oz. I weighed them all IN THE TUB, so gross weight and each was between 5 1/2 and 6 3/4 oz. it would have been much less if you subtract the tub and lid. I picked 3 different flavors and they were all packaged the same way. At this rate they double their profit with each tub of cream cheese. You could see the swirl marks where they pushed the cheese up all the way on the sides. So when you grab it from the cooler it looks full. This is intentional and extremely dishonest. There used to be loads of bagel stores but very few now but this was my last trip to Great American. I have pictures and my next stop is to the village. Great American Bagel is ripping people off.

Update of review from two weeks ago. Since my review there was a response posted by the store fanchisee asking me to contact the franchise owner Chris. We spoke today and I was sincerely appreciative that the owner would reach out to assure me the issue was addressed. I have not been back since my review date and thought I would not return but after speaking with Chris I know I will visit them again. This is an example of good business and customer service. I appreciate that the owner would deal personally with something like a cream...