This review was delayed in posting. It reflects my numerous (daily) visits in December 2024 and January 2025.
The establishment is in a retail strip with easy access to the road and decenet parking, It has a deli-like appearance and feel.
I had an everything bagel with one side of the bagel with jalapeno cream cheese and the other lox spread. The bagel was good, far better than Panera Bread and likely most other places in the Nashville area. I was impressed-it actually met my NYC standard for a good authentic bagel. The cream cheese spreads were equally good, again meeting my NYC expectations. The spreads tasted just right, well balanced without the overpowering sour cream taste other non New York City bagel shops try to pass off.
On my first two trips here, the college aged male worker and a young middle aged woman were effective and efficient. I was in and out in less than 7 minutes. I also tried a apple beet ginger carrot juice that comes in a bottle and is made elsewhere. It cost $9, very very expensive and it tasted horrible . I had a few sips and discarded it. I will never buy it again-yuck!
What a difference a day makes! The following day (my third day there) I returned to this place and had a totally different experience. Two different workers were on duty, one a middle aged female taking the orders and the other, an elderly woman making the orders up.
The difference between this day and the day before was very evident from the second I began ordering the exact same me things I did just 24.5 hours before.
I ordered the bagel with one side jalapeno spread, the other with lox spread on a well toasted bagel. The order taking woman said she can't do that. I asked why, she said I can't have two different spreads on the bagel. I again asked why and she said because they don't do that. I told her if there was a new rule in place because I ordered the same exact way the day before without a problem. She insisted they don't do that.
I asked why it's a problem because all they need to do is put half the amount of the spread they normally do on one side and the other half the amount with the second spread on the other side of the bagel since they are already charging me for the flavored cream cheese.
She dug her heels in, I said I need to get to work, don't want to waste time and I became perturbed. Evidently "the customer is always right," no longer applies even here in the South. It's a long gone belief in many places in America.
She asked the owner to come from the back of the store as the line behind me grew. When he did, she and I explained the discrepancy. He told us it can be done and it's called an open faced bagel and there is a small upcharge because I'd get slightly more spread on one side. I said fine, it's fair, it's how they did it the day before but they didn't tell me it was called an open face and there was an upcharge, they just did it. There was no wasting of time going back and forth about it, no one getting frustrated or mad.
It's obvious the owner /manager needs to better teach the staff so they don't tick off customers by providing wrong information or losing a customer's business because the customer doesn't want to waste time or get mad over what turns out to be incorrect information on the staff's part or the customer must do things the staff's way or no way.
In the end and 13 minutes later, I left with the two bagels the way I ordered them. However I was shaken and upset for about 2 hours, which cranked up the stomach juices and made me not wanting to eat the morning bagel. I threw it out and wasted $7.80 plus 9.25% tax by this easily preventable event had the staff been properly trained on how to make the order an open faced bagel.
While I recommend this establishment, I will NEVER return here again just to get upset and have to argue with someone about what I ordered and pay for so they have a job.
I highly recomend H&S Bagel as a much better tasting, more generous with the spreads and much more friendly and less frustrating bagel place as a great alternate. read more