My husband and I were in Mesa running an errand and were absolutely starving. Driving along Power, we didn't see any sandwich/lunch places except for Subway, so when we saw a sign for Kokobelli Bagel Cafe, we decided to stop there. The place itself was small - maybe 7-8 tables - and decked out in some very colorful Ikea decor/accessories. At the beginning of the line, there were bins with fresh bagels sorted by flavor and some bags of day-old (and discounted) bagels.
The woman who took our order and rang us up was super-friendly and reminded me of one those down-to-earth waitresses in a neighborhood diner. She took our order (3 different bagels with cream cheese and a bagel sandwich - we were hungry, ok?!) and repeated it all back. We took a seat and waited just a few minutes for our order to be prepared.
Some of the highlights:
-The texture of the bagels (not too dry or moist)
-The cheddar bagel (not too greasy)
-The spinach and artichoke cream cheese (like someone took the ubiquitous dip and successfully made it into cream cheese)
Some of the not-so-great parts:
-The blueberry bagel (the blueberries were fluorescent blue and tasted like the kind in blueberry muffin mix)
-The honey walnut cream cheese (overwhelmingly sweet; almost tasted like frosting)
-The breakfast bagel sandwich with salsa, cheese, egg, and sausage (the sausage and egg were cold and kind of flavorless)
I definitely give this place props for being a local bagel shop that still makes their own bagels and cream cheese. However, some of the flavors could use some work, and fresher/more natural ingredients would probably do the trick in a lot of cases.