Bagel Boutique — Restaurant in Silver Spring Township

Well, I hoped to be able to try this place out, but unfortunately, it has a lot of kinks to work out. I have tried several times, and most of the time the lot is full, with some people even having to park illegally. Went in twice, but the first time they said they were out of bagels. Isn't that kind of what they do? But the second time, I really saw the problem. One line, one register, one person taking orders. Heard several complaints from people leaving that it took way long, like 50 minutes. Explains the parking lot. Good customer traffic, but they are not getting people served in a reasonable amount of time, so they can't leave the lot. The staff preparing the orders appeared to be in chaos, which would explain why they can't keep up with orders only taken by one person. Stood on line for 15 minutes and watched only two orders taken with 2 people at the register trying to get the orders in, left AGAIN. I will wait for my opportunity to try out their bagels if they get things worked out, but they better be incredible for them to be charging their prices and unable to produce reasonably. I am from NYC myself and would love to see good NY bagels in the area, but I am going to wait and see if unreasonable wait times and higher prices are worth what they actually serve. Right now, I notice the owner has many thanks for positive reviews, and no responses to negative reviews, which does not seem to indicate an intent to work things out. Hope he does since I would like to see this succeed.

In response to the owner's comments below:

I apologize for misgendering you.

Your response is disappointing. No, my criticism is not unfair. I freely stated that I hoped to be able to try your bagels. My criticism was limited to the problems in your poor roll out, which is entirely justifiable. That is the fault of management, not your HS employees. They need to be better trained. I even said I hope you do get the kinks worked out since I would like to see this succeed. A professional response would simply to been to write "Mr. Cohn (you and I are not on a first name basis), I am sorry you found the experience of visiting us to be inconvenient. We were blessed, and unfortunately unprepared, for the great turn out we experienced at our opening. I assure you that we will have the kinks worked out shortly, and I hope you will give us a visit and trey our delicious bagels!"

That would have been a much more professional response. Instead you seem to have taken my comments personally, became defensive and gave excuses, and did so in a public forum. As I said, I had hoped for success for your establishment, and after having a chance to try your products, I would have revisited and amended my criticisms accordingly. Now I may not actually get that opportunity after your...

The owners are dedicated to addressing critiques and deeply value customer feedback. Negative comments seem to be coming from those who may not fully understand the challenges of running a new business, especially one with few local competitors. It's natural for such a business to occasionally run out of product and experience high demand during their first 1-2 weeks of opening. They offer unique, delicious items that many in the area haven't experienced before, at least not at this level. I've visited multiple businesses run by this family, and they consistently demonstrate quality and professionalism.

Today, I enjoyed an iced latte and the French toast burger, both of which were fantastic and definitely worth the price. The schmears are excellent too! (I’ve tried multiple) I can tell that the food is created using quality ingredients.

A few days ago, we were overcharged and received cold coffee. I contacted the business privately through their page, and they resolved the issue quickly and without defensiveness. It's evident how much effort the owners put into their business, which is commendable. Mistakes from new employees (for many of them this is their first real job) are expected in such a busy setting where customers may not always be the most kind or patient. Everyone makes mistakes, and it's part of the learning process. I know when I was a teen I made many mistakes at past jobs.. I’m sure we all have. Nobody is perfect. In my opinion part of what makes such a great business is being able to adapt, learn, address customer concerns, and offer solutions; all of which bagel boutique has proven to do.

Bottom line: if you're expecting perfection, it might be best to wait until the grand opening kinks are worked out. I encourage everyone to keep realistic expectations when evaluating this new business. Thank you, Bagel Boutique, for your hard work and commitment to customer satisfaction. Your efforts are noticed and appreciated! I will definitely be...

Giving 3 stars because pricing on items is not clear.

On 9/11 ordered the following: plain bagel with butter and lox cream cheese spread. According to their menu, the bagel is $2, butter is $.75 and specialty schmears are $3.50. That comes to $6.25 before tax. I was charged $7.70. I asked Kelsey A., the cashier why it was more and she said that the lox spread is more expensive but no where on their menu does it states that lox spread cream cheese (and possibly other flavors) does not fall into the specialty schmear group. I did check Panera's website and their plain cream cheese is $1.70 vs. $2.50 here and Panera does not charge for butter. At Bagel Lover's in Harrisburg, a plain bagel with lox spread and butter would run around $6.40. At Ressler's in Mechanicsburg, looks to run around $6.99.

Overall the bagel was good and decent amount of toppings but I do believe that $.75 for butter is kind of pricey but if she rung it up correctly, $4.95 for lox cream cheese is very expensive. I went there again today to get a bagel without cream cheese but the line was almost back to the door and the entire display case that was full of assorted bagel flavors the first visit, was about completely empty so I did not stay since there was no way to tell how long it would take to...