Bagel Boutique — Restaurant in Stratford

After reading mixed reviews (mostly positive) on fb, I decided to try this place out for myself. I love a good bagel more than the next person so it only made sense! I go to esporta, so this was literally minutes away. Im going to just bite the bullet and compare this to the, what I and many others, consider the best bagel place in the surrounding area - bagel king on main street, in Bridgeport. But first, let's start with location and parking. It's easy on, not so easy off ferry blvd. If you're going back to i95 you have two options - go north on route 1 and make a quick turn into the edge parking lot, and head out the west exit back onto Barnum ave to make your way to highway, or 2. go what's probably the illegal and riskiest way, and cut across the three lanes where ferry blvd splits into route 1 and Barnum ave and then head to highway. This was a slow Sunday morning so I did the latter, as there was no cars coming. But on a typical busy day, I'll be opting for the safer way. The parking lot is small, I can't imagine on their busy days what the lot looks like, and I don't know that there's an overflow lot nearby. I think if there's no spot, you just gotta keep driving around until you get lucky. Inside is small. Go twds the end to place your order. I couldn't find what their cream cheese spreads were at first. And i thought maybe there were none. Finally I saw them written on board by the register. I also didn't like that i can't really see what's going on in the back. Unless you really peek over the counter and shamelessly rubber neck! The guy who checked me out was friendly, patient and helpful. Moved down twds the exit and wait for your number (on receipt) to be called. I was in the out. I got a sesame bagel with lox and cc. They don't necessarily have a lox spread, I was told, but they layer the salmon on top. Sure, I'll take it. My bagel was pretty amazing. When I go to BK, i get the lox spread and sometimes i get maybe 1-2 pieces of lox in my spread. It sometimes makes me wonder why I spend more for that! But with BB there is no magnifying glass needed to find your lox! It was a well proportioned and quite visible layer! The bagel itself had that quintessential crunch on ther outside, and soft moist inside. With BK, the crunch is so rough that i sometimes admit I cut the inside of my mouth! But really if you don't shed blood did you even have a good bagel?! lol! Also, and I don'tknow if i just came at the right time or what, but my bagel was warm and fresh. Not like they had toasted it, but likeit just came out of oven. It was good y'all! So my consensus, well, i can't say. I think i need to see if BB is consistent with the quality i got today. Bc I always get a good bagel at BK. If they keep this up, then I'd have to give the nod to bagel boutique. Plus being so close to my gym,I can see going here more often. Great job!

Update, August 2022: love this place. I especially love the London sun tea. And recently they have a half and half (half tea, half lemonade). It's soooo friggin good. I've already earned two rewards with my points. Lol... the smoked salmon is...

First time coming in!

Nice ambiance - it looks like they put a lot of thought into the interior with color choices and the cute pampas grass. It’s clear that the owner cares deeply for the business and their customers given the answers on the reviews. The person, who I think is the owner, that checked me out was super kind and personable. They were very helpful and patient when I needed some guidance on ordering and made a genuine effort to connect as humans. 10/10 for service!

Just a note on their toast menu: they only serve avocado toast. The menu inside the business reflects this but I’m guessing that the online menu is hard to update.

Okay so the food - the food was okay. I ordered the Asiago bagel with veggie cream cheese. The bagel itself was soooo delicious, but they got my order wrong and gave me plain cream cheese instead of veggie. I guess I’ll have to check back in and try again. I didn’t love the hash brown but the coffee station was very nice with the various syrup flavors!!

For the avocado toast, the focaccia bread was nice. I prefer my pickled onions to be more pickled - you know, the kind where it looks almost purple? The avocado looked a bit browned - I get that restaurants need to prep their ingredients for morning rushes - so maybe sprinkle some lemon juice/refrigerate or something to help preserve the avocado. The everything seasoning… honestly, it kind of looks like they just dumped a container of it on the toast and I had to scrape a lot off.

So overall pros and cons. Maybe they were having an off day? If I’m in the area,...

Don't get me wrong, the food is good. HOWEVER SERVICE is SLOW and EXTREMELY BAD. I gave them 3 opportunities, every time they disappointed me. The first time we tried to order at the kiosk, we were almost finished, and suddenly didn't work, we had to make a queue and wait, even when we told them we already placed the order the issue was when we had to pay, second time... I ordered ahead, my order say ready, I was working so I have a really few minutes to pick up my food, again they told me to wait for a few minutes and I asked where is my coffee, they told me to grab them from the jars (2), well... both jars were empty, so I had to wait. In the meantime, they were doing fresh coffee, I just barely time to go back to work and eat my breakfast in a rush. The third time, I tried to order ahead with the first website that I saw (because they are a lot), and when I arrived I checked the place where they have the orders ready and nothing, I wait 10 minutes for 2 bagels and when I asked them, "hey on my phone said ready", and I showed them, they told me I ordered thru Doordash so I have to go to see the cashier and she will have my order for me. There is no way I knew I have to go to see the cashier, why don't place all the orders at...