the original brooklyn water bagel co.

been a regular here but not going back now. was a regular here for many months - 2-3 times a week. but in the last week or so the place has gone downhill. the muffins - well seen better at walmart for certain - used to be excellent, now just heavy lumps. looks like the guy who was always working in the kitchen isnt there anymore and i guess he was the only one who could actually bake in the place.

the crowning factor for not going back - saw the owner (no less) picking up a bagel with cream cheese on it off the floor and then handed it out to a customer. sorry but no thats just wrong.

dont care how authentic the food is but you are failing at basic hygiene and your new baker sucks!


-----15 oct, 2012-----

awesome food, poor front of house staff. eaten here a few times. the food tastes great, wonderful presentation. but the front of house staff are terrible! orders often wrong, or given to the wrong people. there is one cashier type who i dread getting as she always delivers the wrong food to the wrong people. they also need to smile or at least look like they want to be there, was in there friday afternoon and was greeted by one staff member cleaning the coffeeareawho just looked angry and upset - like she didnt want to be there - and that a smile would have cracked her pale face.

get new/better front of house staff or else you will lose your customers out of frustration no matter how great the food is.

better trip, still huge bagels. decided to try an old-standard instead of something with eggs and it was a big success. had the sliced nova, cream cheese, tomatoes and onions on a toasted sesame bagel. as before, this was huge sandwich, but it was again a very fresh and tasty bagel and everything else was fresh and in nice proportions on what was still a bigger than average version of this breakfast standard. with a big cup of the hazelnut coffee with a pump of simple syrup, this was a very satisfying breakfast. it might be that, for me at least, the key is to stay away from the egg sandwiches. all in all, worth another stop if i'm in the area.


-----03 sep, 2012-----

will need another visit to decide.... the "good": above average bagel for the area, huge 3-egg breakfast sandwich (3-egg "protein" sandwich , with chicken, spinach, mushrooms, tomato, onion and swiss on a toasted everything bagel) for the price, and a lot of flavored coffee's and do-it-yourself coffee add-ins (for us non-coffee-purists).

the "hope it gets better": the molten hot and bone-dry egg and vegetable brick in the middle of a tasty toasted bagel (way too much microwave?) with absolutely no flavor. the lack of utensils if i wanted to deconstruct and eat (ended up having to use/burn my fingers tearing up the unholy-hot egg brick) and the lack of anything other than ketchup, mustard, and mayo packets anywhere.. no tabasco or texas pete out (seems they do have a stash of tabasco miniatures behind the counter... but they make you ask for it).

i hope they can tweak it a little here and there because i think it could be a nice addition to theareaif they're allowed to improve some things and aren't at the mercy of, what appears to be, a very tight franchise.

was very excited to see that it was finally open after slowwww construction. i agree with barney, will have to go back to decide. first impression was that it is slightly over priced ($16 for 2 bfast sandwiches, 1 coffee and 1 mcdonald's style hash brown). plus they got our order wrong. then we got 2 bagels to go before leaving to eat the next day. got home & they weren't sliced?? odd. i'll go back but hoping for a slightly better experience because the smyrna/viningsareaneeds something better than einstein's for sure!