Call Your Mother Deli - Connecticut Ave — Restaurant in Washington

I really want to like Call Your Mother’s Connecticut Avenue location in my neighborhood but this place is a kind of a disaster. The bagels are fine - nothing special. The website is not particularly easy to order from using a phone, but once can figure that out. The real problem - and the reason for the one star review - is the way they fill orders.

Whenever I come here, I inevitably end up feeling enraged because of how long it takes to fill a simple order. Today it took close to half an hour for them to put three uncut bagels in a bag and bring them out from the back. I ordered 5 minutes ahead of my hoped for pick up time as i walked over there. (One cannot simply walk up to the counter, order, and have them simply hand you a bag with your uncut bagels quickly; they put your order in the queue with the large catering orders and the complicated sandwich orders.). If it was a matter of a couple of minutes wait, I wouldn’t care, but inevitably it is a huge wait even for the simplest order (placing uncut bagels in a bag should never take 28 minutes). which takes much less effort to put together than a bagel sandwich, which frankly isn’t that complicated to either. This is why they have 20 customers standing around waiting on weekend mornings.

They really should reassess how they fill orders. Until they do so, you are better off going to the Bullfrog Bagel truck on Wisconsin Avenue-much faster and better bagels, or Baked By Yael, down Connecticut Avenue across...

Service: Every Sunday, Call Your Mother sets up a stall at the farmers market in Silver Spring, and while the line is typically long, I decided to give it a try this past Sunday. To my surprise, the line moved much quicker than I expected, which was a pleasant start. The customer service was fantastic—friendly, personable staff who were more than willing to answer questions and offer recommendations.

Taste: I went with the everything bagel with veggie cream cheese, and it was absolutely delicious! It was tough to choose with so many great options, but I wasn’t disappointed. The flavor was spot on, and the bagel had that perfect balance of crunch on the outside and softness on the inside.

Ambiance: While it's just a stall at the farmers market, the energy is fun and welcoming. Everyone is eager to try the bagels, and the upbeat atmosphere makes the wait enjoyable. Plus, it’s a great addition to the farmers market scene in Silver Spring.

Recommendation: If you’re in the area on a Sunday and see the Call Your Mother stall, definitely give it a try—even if the line looks long, it moves fast! I also picked up some bagels and cream cheese to go and can’t wait to enjoy them all weekend. It was so good, I had to call my mom to tell...

This is the only breakfast place in the area and they know it. The bagels are pretty good, but the cream cheese selection is lackluster. Further, unless you're getting candied salmon cream cheese, they never put enough of spread on. You'd think it would be the opposite considering the other spreads don't have meat, but I'm consistently underwhelmed with the sweet cream cheeses in particular, they rarely have enough spread to cover both halves of the bagel. The pricing is pretty high compared to other bagel places, but this is the only option in the area so I can't reasonably complain...