I went with two friends on a rainy Friday afternoon for a late lunch. The cafe is located in an unsuspecting plaza filled with lots of medical and realtor offices. Parking was decently easy to find. Even though we got there around 1, there was still a 20ish minute wait for a table. While you wait, you can look at all the desserts and bagels they have on display. You have the option of dining in or taking out.
Their menus are already at the table and are fashioned after newspapers. I thought it was extremely adorable.
I ordered the homemade matzoh ball soup and toasted asiago bagel with scallion cream cheese. I must pat myself on the back because that bagel/cream cheese combo was so bomb. The bagel had just the right density and springiness to it with every bite. It's no wonder they're called Bagel Cafe. I also snuck a bite of my friend's everything bagel with nova cream cheese and plain bagel with blueberry cream cheese. The nova cream cheese was awesome, and I definitely wouldn't mind paying the extra dollar for it. This was my first time trying any kind of matzoh ball soup, and I enjoyed it enough. It's basically a glorified chicken soup--it got better with every bite.
Given that I have been nonstop complimenting their food, why the three stars then? The service was atrocious. The busboy delivered us our waters right away, but after that, it took forever for the waitress to actually take our order. I actually noticed two tables who were seated after us got their orders taken first and some of their food delivered before us. We had come at the tail end of lunch, and the crowd was dying down. There was absolutely no excuse for the waitress to ignore our table like that. The busboy actually stopped by and asked if our orders had been taken/told us that he'd get the waitress for us. She never apologized for ignoring us/being slow, but she was very fast at giving us our bill.
I will very likely be back for their bagels, but I am wary of dining in again.
4 stars
-2 stars for the awful waitress
+1 star for the busboy