Tons of options to choose from, with lots of fresh and tasty ingredients. I picked out my own and made a custom bagel sandwich (lox and cream cheese, red onion, capers, arugula on a long island bagel), and it came out exactly as I hoped. Delicious! Lots of great baked goods as well. The manager Nathan was helpful and friendly and made sure we had a great experience. We will definitely be back next time we're in town! read more

There sandwiches are superb! I do wish they would bring back the house smoked pastrami though. Other than that everything is great!

the vegetarian options are amazing. This is not the best of the locations for Ithaca Bakery, but it is close to work and the food is amazing. It is a bit expensive but hey I love it. I have never had a problem with service at this location. They always take my order with a smile and I always get exactly what I ask for. The Seitan is great, the soups are always amazing. read more

I would go to the Meadow Street branch instead of this one-- they used to be one of my favorite places to pick up some food, but lately, the service has really declined. They have an uncanny knack for having "just run out" of whatever I wanted to get. If you're rushed for dinner and want to pick up a Chef Lucy Meal to Go, make sure to examine the ingredients label closely before buying it-- they put some weird spices in there. The staff appears burned out and irritable-- as if someone put decaf in the wrong pot. They tend to wrap up all the food and start putting it away 20 minutes before closing time. Again, Meadow Street's service is far superior to the uptown Branch. All in all, this is still a viable option for food because of its vast array of tasty food that is unique to the area-- you really CAN find almost anything here, however, the Meadow Street location has a wider variety-- bigger sandwich menu and more salads that don't spoil quite so fast. I think they don't have enough space, enough locations or enough staff to meet the demands of Ithaca. read more

You pay too much for hard bread and a small amount of food. The wait for the food was almost as bad as having to eat it... Sorry, stay clear of this location. read more

As many have mentioned the service here is terrible!! Ithaca Bakery down town and CTB in East Hill are slightly better but also pretty despicable. We try to support local businesses and eateries but after our latest experience here I don't think we will be returning. I have been to plenty of other busy bagel and sandwich shops around the country that do not have the difficulty in serving their customers like this establishment does. There is little rhyme or reason as to when the order is placed and when it makes it out to your table. Today we had an order with another family for one sandwich with melted cheese... you really wouldn't think it would take that long especially because all the other meals were easily prepared- deli sandwich, microwaving liquid egg, reheated already cooked bacon- is it really that difficult?! 45 minute wait from order placed until food finally arrived at the table. We watched numerous other customers go up to cancel their orders and ask for their money back. It's quite tough when you only have an hour lunch break to actually have time to order, get your food, and eat without inhaling it to make it back to work. Meanwhile, if you take a peek at where the food is being prepared none of the workers actually seem to be working quickly in an attempt to make a dent in the orders! Having been a Ithacan who has visited all of the Ithaca bakeries/CTBs at sometime during the time I have lived here, I can honestly say that the service has continued to get worse to the point where I don't see myself returning which is sad since the sandwiches are fairly good. read more

We stopped here and my wife ordered a hot chocolate with almond milk. The barista stated that the chocolate mix had dairy, and they had a vegan chocolate they could serve as a replacement. Wonderful customer service. read more

By far this is the best run of all of the CTB/Ithaca Bakery locations in Ithaca. Spacious, clean, fast, friendly.

This updated review is for their bagels and 2 sandwiches I've tried: the Parisian and Laura's Sweet Surprise. My 2 star review still holds for the breakfast sandwiches, but I felt I needed to revise my review after thoroughly enjoying a pumpkin bagel with cinnamon sugar and Laura's sweet surprise. read more

I love IB (Ithaca Bakery, for those of you that don't know, Ithacans shorten most titles to initials) they have a great selection of prepared food, baked goods, etc. Most are organic, which seems very important in this sleepy little college town, home of Ithaca College and that Ivy League powerhouse, Cornell. They have an endless list of prepared sandwiches loaded with meats, cheeses, home made hummus, or go the complete opposite, and try something vegan. You can't go wrong. They have the best muligatawny I've ever tasted. Also, when I'm here I alway bring back 5 or 6 loaves of their olive bread. It's a wonderful sour dough loaf stuffed with Kalamata olives and it's only 4.99 a loaf. But it has at least seven dollars worth of olives in each loaf. I love to make sandwiches out of this bread. plus id freezes well. I wish Pittsburgh had an Ithaca bakery! read more

My friend from Kendal and I went to dinner there. She wasn't moving around very well but they were very accomodating. Their food is solid.

The menu here is insane. Their list of sandwiches is so extensive. In total, my friends and I tried 10 of their sandwiches and none of us were disappointed in the least bit. Note: most of those sandwiches were from their vegan/vegetarian menu. I would have to say my favorite was the Cascadilla Crisp, It is one of the cheaper sandwiches so it's definitely not a filler upper, but it's perfect if you are looking for something refreshing and light. For a heavier, more filling sandwich I would go with the Jonah's Jive. Among our favorites were the Jib's Jaybird, Viva Chelsea, Susie's garden and the Michigan Hollow. In regards to their specialty espresso drinks, I had their Bing Cherry iced drink and their Mocha, but could not tell the difference between the two... They were both good, but not very distinct in flavor. This place serves great quality stuff, but beware that quality has a pretty high price. We ordered a carafe of drip coffee for our whole team and the total price was about $70... It was pretty good and came in a very impressive looking pour spout box on stilts, but oh my gosh... Other than that Service is excellent! read more

I love this place! The food is awesome and it is really convenient location-wise. With this particular location, though, the set-up it is a little odd. You have to order at one side of the restaurant and then pay at another. It was really confusing at first. However, it is great that they expanded into a larger location. Love it! read more

Every time I go to Ithaca Bakery, there is nothing but great service and fantastic food. From day one, I felt welcomed and satisfied by the service and coffee. The food is a little pricy, the quality of their local produce and fresh breads makes it painless to give the extra dollar. read more

I know the anxiety is killing you. And I just killed my salad. Not enough dressing but the mozzarella slices are a big get. All the veggies were pretty fresh. Not too many complaints but the chicken was a little dry hence why more dressing would've made it easier to eat. Kinda pricey but what isn't these days. I would come again but maybe get a Sammy or something else. Cheers. read more

Tasty sandwiches and great service! The chocolate covered cheesecake brownie is to die for. Layout can be confusing but CTB is a lot worse imo. read more

I have to say- as much as I love to shop and eat local...I could not be more displeased with Ithaca Bakery. Before they made the salad bar, every time I ordered a custom-made salad they REALLY messed it up. Even when I sent it back to be fixed, it still wasn't right. The manager (Brian) at the Triphammer location assured me it wouldn't happen again (after the 4th) time and was going to give me my lunch for free...but then the cashier only comped the salad? They have forgotten the chicken twice on a chicken salad, put blue cheese crumbles (I think that is what they were) on my salad when I asked for ranch, forgot croutons and so SO much more. Once, I even sent the salad back because they forgot the chicken and they gave it back to me without the chicken a second time. Since then, I have placed plenty of delivery orders (reluctantly) and have had nothing but problems. The panini's are always cold on arrival (We are 4 minutes away) and the last time we ordered they "couldn't find" our order- giving us delivery drivers numbers who didn't answer their phones and had no answers. They finally agreed to make us a fresh lunch free of charge, comp our meal and deliver it when our food was ONE AND A HALF hours late. They no more than said that to us and our hour and a half, cold, late and awful food came through the door- the "manager" (they must have 7 of them because everyone seems to be a manager) told us that they took it to the wrong building but gave it to us anyway...after it had been sitting who knows where for 1 1/2 hours. Today, my work team wanted to order again (so I did, again reluctantly) and when I called to place the order for 8 sandwiches and asked an approximate time of when it would be here- the woman taking our order (Sue) stated that "she had no idea because its busy and a big order"...it's 10:45 in the morning...Sue is the same person who failed to track down our food the last time our order went missing and simply told me she had no idea and just kept giving me delivery driver numbers who didn't answer instead of actually following-up on what was going on. If I could give this place zero stars I would. They are AWFUL! Follow-up: The food arrived this time an hour and a half after we ordered- the panini's were cold once again- but I will say...the delivery driver was so sweet. Truly ran our food through the door for us and was so kind. If only everyone there had his work ethic! read more

There's surprisingly a dearth of places to grab lunch and get some work done in Ithaca (this is a college town, right?!), so I find myself forced into Ithaca Bakery. I would say it's fine, but no better. The internet barely works if at all, and the food is a bit overpriced and underwhelming. read more

I don't usually go up to the Triphammer location, however I was in the area and popped in for lunch. I was blown away by how friendly and helpful the staff was. It was really busy, but even with a line full of people behind me, all I got were smiles and good service. In my experience, the food is always excellent at both locations. I love the variety of sandwiches and the freshness of all the ingredients used. I'll definitely try to stop in here more often! read more

I want to like Ithaca Bakery because it's local and sounds like it would be good, but I've gone here three times now and am always disappointed. The ordering system is strange and slow, and you have to wait in multiple lines before you can pay (and are not treated very kindly along the way)--and then on my most recent visit we spent another 15 minutes waiting for a simple cold sandwich. I do like that they have vegetarian options; but I don't enjoy the coffee. read more

I have been a customer of Ithaca Bakery for many years. They have terrific food and the best coffee in Ithaca. I just wanted to say that for the past several visits at the Triphammer Plaza location, the customer service has gotten friendlier, quicker and more customer-service oriented. It's not that it was bad before, but it is definitely at a higher level now. I leave smiling, happy to have supported a place full of people that care about their jobs, and the impact they have on their customers. read more

I usually don't like to give bad reviews publicly but, I will make an exception for this disaster. I used to take my staff here for lunch over the summer at least twice a week and, despite the food being mediocre, we loved the coffee and a couple of the employees that always waited on us and treated us so well. We started scaling back to once every other week in the late fall due to the long waits and the complete lack of management. Our last four experiences since Christmas have been nothing short of awful. The food was terrible, the waiting time was almost an hour and the service was disgusting. The staff seemed more interested in chatting with each other and less interested in serving customers. The management seemed arrogant and borderline abusive to the staff, which may explain why the staff were less than enthusiastic. When I asked to speak with a manager about the long wait and poor customer service, the man I talked to said that it was very busy and that he was the assistant manager, he told me that he would let his boss know that there was a complaint and that's all he could do. He said if I don't like it there, then I shouldn't come back, that I'm a regular and I should understand the way it works there. I said OK and I took my colleagues and we left. We will not be returning and we will not be asking Ithaca Bakery to cater our annual office picnic this summer, as they have for the past three years. It's a shame because, we always looked forward to their catering in June. My office, my colleagues, and my family are all finished with this place. We have also spread the word. read more

Eggs were terrible. There was no seasoning. Hockey puck like. Sandwiches were built without care. Mustard piled in one area instead of being spread evenly over the bread. read more

Fake eggs! Apparently they use "processed" eggs. For breakfast our group had a number of egg dishes - bacon & eggs on bagel, egg wrap, etc. None of us were happy - the eggs tasted fake and not good. This is a very popular place - crowded Sunday morning - and serves a "foodie" population. Why don't they take the trouble to crack & stir their own eggs like most good - and even basic - breakfast places? If we come here again it will not be for breakfast. read more

Two vegan sandwich options on the menu, but they were out of the sauce for one. Every time I come here I remember why the CTB in East Hill Plaza is better. read more

I stopped for breakfast for the first time yesterday, and I was really disappointed. The food was good, but the service was terrible. The young man who took our order was rude and disrespectful. Furthermore, after he made some patronizing comments, he screwed up our order and charged us for an extra item. After noticing the problem, I didn't go back to address it because I didn't want to deal with his behavior. I will definitely not be back. read more

I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at Ithaca Bakery! As an out of towner everyone told me to try Ithaca Bakery and I'm glad they did- everything was DELICIOUS, the people were super friendly, it was clean. I thought the prices were reasonable and the service was really fast! the only con- they don't have Ithaca Bakeries where I'm from. Will definitely visit again! read more

I do not live in Ithaca, so the Ithaca Bakery is an occasional experience. I went with three friends, all of whom are also were not from Ithaca. Two of the three had eaten there occasionally, as had I. One person was on his very first visit to Ithaca, and of course the first visit to the Bakery. One of us had for his lunch an eclair and a croissant. He explained that these 2 things were so much better at the Bakery than anything similar in Syracuse where he lived. The guy who was on his initial visit to Ithaca is a vegan and had a tofu sandwich, which he described as "eh". That pretty much matches what I think of tofu sandwiches in general. I had a Turkey BLT which was quite tasty, but had way too much food for me. For my first bite, it was like I was a snake and had to open my mouth so much the jaw hinge was displaced. There was especially too much lettuce. I ate at 2 PM and did not need to eat anything for the rest of the day, till after midnight when I went to bed. There was so much turkey that the tomato and the bacon tastes were crowded out. I could of made two meals out of it, but did not have a way to keep the food cold. After my first couple of chomps, I removed some lettuce and improved the sandwich. The other guy had a Reuben which he reported as great. The food was certainly way above average and a fair value for the money. The most extraordinary part of the experience was the staff. The system is one waits in line and gives their order to the staff person at the cash register. You then get a metal stand with a number and another staffer brings the food to your table. My cashier was on a triple dose of happy pills. The energetic older lady made me feel like I was giving my order to a favorite aunt, as opposed to a cashier. She smiled, talked to herself, made jokes, and was a warm and pleasant experience all by herself. How often can one say that ordering some food was a pleasant experience, let alone the best part of the experience. read more

This is the most inconsistent branch of the Bakery. They need to teach and watch their employees construct the food before allowing it to be sent to the customer, especially the to-go items. Today I purchased a to-go $6.20 CTBLT and found that it had one piece of bacon, once piece of lettuce, no mayonnaise, and a tiny lump of avocado. If this was a one time mistake, it would be fine, but this happens every other time I go there. So much for hoping they will improve their staff skills. read more

I'm a temporary Texas transplant and have gradually become a regular at the Triphammer Ithaca Bakery. I go there about 3 times a week, sometimes more, to use the free wifi (yay free wifi!) and because I'm addicted to their iced lattes (the largest of which is $4.50+tax for 4 delicious shots). I've had a variety of their sandwiches and they've all been good but they don't come with anything but a pickle spear, so I think they are overpriced. Any sandwich that costs more than $5 should at least come with chips (and their sandwiches tend to err on the pricier side, up toward $8 or $9). To save money if I'm hungry, I usually look in their food case for quiche or anything in Phyllo or puff pastry since these items are usually under $5 and filling enough for two meals. They have several of these on rotation, and they are consistently good. Their pastries are hit or miss. I've ordered muffins here twice and both times they were very dry and flavorless. I didn't even finish the second one since it was so bland, dry, and crumbly. It was supposed to be lemon poppyseed but it was more like a cornbread muffin that sat out all night. Their bear claws are incredible, unlike any bear claw I've ever had. They are light and flaky with a sweet cream cheese mixture in the middle. I also recommend their cupcakes (seemingly one of the more economic sweets here at under $2 each), as well as their coffee cakes (found wrapped in a basket on top of the food case--I like the blueberry version). Other than overpriced sandwiches, another problem I have with Triphammer Ithaca Bakery is the inconsistent service. My food has been forgotten about in a microwave three times now, and I've had to remind a staff member about it in order to get my food (this happened even when I had an order number displayed on my table). The first time this happened I waited for 20 minutes because apparently they hadn't even put in my order, and I had to ask someone about it. They were very apologetic, remade my order, gave me an extra sandwich, and a $10 gift card. Good work there! But other times the staff seems to have no organization or efficiency in general, which is bad because the place gets really chaotic. I've learned that I have to watch the staff once I order to make sure I get my food in a timely fashion. It's completely unnecessary but it hasn't been bad enough to keep me away for good...yet. The only other complaint I have is the staff isn't the friendliest, but a few of them have warmed up to me. Back in January I tried ordering a medium iced latte (which comes with 3 shots) in a larger cup, since I basically wanted a 3-shot large-sized latte. The girl at the register actually told me, "It's hard for us to pull 3 shots on these machines" and waited for me to order something else. I was really irked by this. THEY have chosen to put 3 shots in a recipe they have for sale on their menu, it's not like I was asking for something they can't or don't make. I got the impression that she just didn't want to be troubled by making my drink. It was totally unprofessional, but now the same salesgirl knows me and my order by heart. Service seems to be a mixed bag. If you go to Triphammer Ithaca Bakery, don't expect the best service, and certainly don't expect the best prices. But I keep coming back, so they must be doing something right. read more

Even though the service can be slow sometimes , one need to understand ,that this place is always ,always busy throughout the day and the food is freshly prepared. So it takes longer than a junk food place would to prepare . The store offers an array of FRESH sandwiches ., salads, fresh breads , hearty whole grains , baguettes, fresh bagels, bialys , fresh ,fresh and fresh. There is also a good , not enormous ,selection of cakes , cakes, muffins, and some other sweets, nothing overwhelming ,just right. The hot the hot drinks ,including chai ,coffee ,hot chocolate etc, are always served at right temperature, and i would give them a nice 5 for the effort. There is a good selection of cream cheese,, imported cheese,pates ,lox , juices, etc.. If you are looking for a nice place to sit down ,enjoy a nice conversation with a friend , and you would prefer to eat something healthier than the regular low quality junk made in some places around . I think that Ithacans should feel really luck to have Ithaca Bakery around . Besides all, they deliver in case you are too busy to get there. read more

I have been here twice within the last two months for lunch. A great place, a great deli with many selections including sandwiches, soups and salads. I have never been a big fan of the original Ithaca Bakery downtown (and yes, I know stating that will be considered by some to be a sacrilege) because the downtown restaurant is so confusing as to which station you order what and who is first in line...very haphazard. The restaurant here in the Triphammer Mall is the exact opposite...it is extremely well organized, three cashiers next to each other that can deal with many customers at once, and a great number system to get food out once you are seated. There are two main dining areas, both spacious. The wait has not been long both times, including the first time I went on a Friday at 12:30 PM filled with many hungry people. I have had turkey and pastrami on rye and on pumpernickel, very good, one had cole slaw on the sandwich, also very good. If you are looking for a quick and yummy place for lunch in Northeast Ithaca, forget the Mall or Applebee's...go to Ithaca Bakery. read more

So I have a review of a different kind I guess... This morning I was waiting in my car to go into the Ithaca bakery for breakfast and coffee as I do usually a couple times a week, when I happened to notice one of the managers named Tom who was in his car as well. I witnessed him smoking out of a pipe. It was not a tobacco pipe and I'm assuming it wasn't a crack pipe, although I have seen the way he treats his employees there, and the way he berates them sometimes I guess it wouldn't surprise me if it was crack. However, I will give him the benefit of the doubt and say that it was marijuana he was smoking. Truly disgusting, because he is a person who is supposed to be an authority figure there and for him to publicly be doing something that is illegal in this state is a shame. Apparently he thinks he is above the law and can do whatever the heck he wants, and it completely mirrors his management style. So now I am going to be getting my breakfast and coffee elsewhere as well as tell my friends, who will certainly do the same thing. He's a disgrace, and I hope appropriate action will be taken because I'm sure that wasn't the first time he has done that, it's just the first time he was seen doing that. I will give a 3 star rating as an average. 1 star for what I witnessed and 5 stars because everything else at that store is just fine, sans Tom... read more