Bountiful Bread — Restaurant in Town of Guilderland

I have been going to Bountiful Bread in Albany for the last 15 years, and have never experienced any issues with their customer service until last night.

My boyfriend and I went into the Albany location around 6:30pm to order food for take-out. When it was my turn to order, I walked up to the register where there was a young woman working. She looked at me but said nothing. I said, "Hi!" and smiled, and she just continued to stare at me. I said, "Ok, I'd like a quart of the tomato pesto soup to go" and she asked if I wanted a roll or breadstick with the soup. I asked her if a loaf of bread still came with the quart when you order it (because I know it has for many years), and she did not respond. She said, "are you asking for a loaf of bread?" and I said, "Does the quart of soup still come with a loaf of bread for free?" Mind you, I was super calm and just trying to find out if the bread was complimentary with the soup. She raised her voice and said, "Are you asking for a loaf of bread??" And once again I said, "Does it come with a loaf of bread? I don't want an extra one, just asking if it comes with one already" and she raised her voice even more and responded, "And I'm asking if you want a loaf of bread!" At this point, it was clear she was not going to answer my question and we asked if there was someone else we could speak with. She was incredibly disrespectful and rude. The shift manager came over to speak with me and apologized on her behalf. He did confirm that every quart of soup comes with a complimentary loaf of bread, and that she should have been able to help me with that. Mind you, while we were speaking to the shift manager and explaining what happened, she was cursing under her breath and making rude comments...while there were other customers in line. The shift manager took my order and was able to get me everything I needed, which is all we wanted to begin with.

I have loved this cafe for many years and it's unfortunate that the level of service has fallen to this poor of a level. To say I was appalled by her behavior is an understatement, and I sincerely hope that the owner/manager speaks with her about her interaction with us. I can't imagine that other customers around us wanted to hear her either. Additionally, she was very rude and dismissive towards the gentleman who was in front of us while we were in line, so I'm sure I wasn't the only one that evening who felt a certain way about this. I won't be heading back to Bountiful Bread...

My fiancé and I had never been here before, and we were excited to try some freshly baked bread! We came in this afternoon and immediately noticed the rude, disinterested, and condescending attitude of the young dark-haired woman working the register. She had a downright nasty attitude - unsure why she has chosen a job that requires customer service. We simply ordered a single baguette after asking several questions about the menu that she couldn’t be bothered to answer without a snarky remark (maybe she was having a bad day and wanted to try to make someone else feel bad to make herself feel better?). She went to the back herself to get the baguette, and it was harder than stone. My fiancé tried to rip a piece off, and he couldn’t even chew it because of how hard it was. I went back in to explain that it was rock solid and stale, to which another blonde employee tried to be condescending as well by saying, “so, baguettes are supposed to be hard…” I responded that I agree, but they should be edible.

Another gentleman from the back wearing an apron came out and immediately changed the tone. He was polite, kind, and sweet. He grabbed the bread, agreed it was a bit too hard, and went to get me a new one right away without fuss. This baguette was much softer and tasted great! Such a shame that those two young ladies are working front of the house - they have incredibly negative, sad energy. I hope whatever makes them so miserable stops coming into the shop with them, because it would have been nice to try other items from this place - but we’ll never know, because we won’t be back due to the...

I no longer love this place. I went back today and they changed my beloved Cobb salad into a smaller bowl with less ingredients. I had a bowl at home I would put them in and it would fill it previously. Now that same bowl is half full with the portion I got today. The Food, the lettuce was brown tinged or light green, the blue cheese dressing has no tang or bite, the bacon was good, I only got half an egg and the chicken was tough. There is obviously less of everything in the salad the ingredients were less than top quality except for cost. It is now $17 inc tax instead of $15 it used to cost me. So not only is there is there less food of lower quality, it is more expensive. The bakery also had a ton of mislabeled items its super hard to tell what is what and there are no prices on bakery items so who knows until you have to pay. The staff is nice and friendly. I will not be back or eat here anymore unless someone wants to go and it's a social thing. It just does not have the same top quality fresh ingredients in the same quantity for the money they used to have. If you are going to charge me more and give me less at least maintain a standard of excellence. I used to eat there two or three times a month for over five years.

Love this place and all their fresh choices and home made feel. I have a single complaint. When I get the cob salad it needs to be chopped up better into smaller pieces. Each piece should be bite sized. I should not have to cut up huge chunks of turkey, cucumber, lettuce, onion and half a boiled egg. Thanks for years...