What A Bagel – Spadina

Nothing special about this place except for how over priced it is. I got a bagel and ice coffee. The set up for the store was very confusing. You have to go get the bagel from the back then wait on line for it to get it toasted and get whatever spread you want on it. Then get on another line to pay for it. Just for a pretty below average bagel and decent coffee.

Went here on the weekend and there were flies crawling all over everything… I see this a lot in Toronto but never in the middle of the winter. Clearly something wrong here.

A very stylish coffee shop on Spadina! I love their to go cups. Nice thick delicious coffee. Nice ambience. Would highly re contend this place to sit and chit chat and drink up.

I’m generally happy with the service and the food here. My only reservation is that there are many other places around that offer something more exciting and enticing for what you pay. I have only good things to say about What a Bagel (I’m a regular, after all) so if you want substantial, decent quality food with good service this place doesn’t fail. It’s also my go-​to for raisin challah which I find hard to get in Toronto.

I agree with Stacey C about the Ritual App 3 posts below! Every single time I use the Ritual app, I am still always waiting to pick up my order, and sometimes my order is all ready, but I still have to wait for someone to approach me just to let them know that I’m there for my pickup, and then my food is already cold by the time I eat it.
This morning I placed an order again through the Ritual app because something particularly on the menu caught my eye; Eggs Only, that also offers a choice of a toasted bagel or bread. So I ordered this, however when I arrived there, I was told that the order doesn’t actually come with a bagel or toast, and that the description given in the Ritual app was false. I was already annoyed at the fact that I thought I had paid for something where I really didn’t, but the tone in the guy’s voice who had to deliver the bad news sounded like I was the one who was inconveniencing him. He said «That’s why it’s called ‘Eggs Only’» and even though he didn’t, I could almost feel his eyes rolling at me from the behaviour he was giving off. Disgusted already with the experience, I asked if I could just cancel the order because I didn’t want to end up paying for something that I felt like I’m not receiving the entire full order for. But he said that it would have to be done through Ritual and that he couldn’t refund me. Annoying, right? Because I paid through the app, they wouldn’t give me a refund under any circumstance. I wasn’t going to walk out empty handed with the ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ chance that the Ritual app would ACTUALLY give me money back. So I told the guy to go ahead with the order. Then to add insult to injury, the guy had the nerve to say to me «You can still have the toast, you just have to pay for it».
That was unnecessary. What was even more unnecessary was his sarcastic «Bye! Have a nice day!» as he gave me my single, stand alone hard-​boiled egg with no toast, and turned around immediately and disappeared to the kitchen like he didn’t want to have to deal with me anymore.
Yes, it’s Ritual’s fault for providing false information, but the customer service from this restaurant is just disgusting. I feel like if this were any other restaurant, they probably would’ve just given me the toast for free for the inconvenience, apologize like they actually mean it and then deal with their loss with Ritual (as I believe what SHOULD HAVE happened at What A Bagel).
I have had other terrible experiences here but if I continue on about it, this will be the longest review ever, so I’m just going to leave it at that.
I can say with confidence though that I will never come back here.

This place is fortunate to be one of the only breakfast places in the area. Food tastes good enough, prices are scaled to downtown living (read overpriced) and service is mediocre. My 5 year old and I come here regularly enough simply because it’s down the street.
Today, we ordered, among other things, a bowl of berries for $ 5.99 to go with our pancakes and eggs. The bowl arrived ¾ full. Part way through the bowl, I found a mouldy blueberry. I pointed it out to the server and said that we wouldn’t be eating the berries. As a mea culpa, somebody brought over a cup of a dozen «fresh» blueberries.
When we went to pay for our breakfast, I was surprised to see that the berries were still on the bill. The server was embarrassed to have asked the manager to remove the item from the bill only to come back to say that the item would remain. $ 6 for a bowl of food with mould in it. The person that said no was 5 feet away from us so I said that I don’t expect to pay for the item. He turned around to ask whether or not we finished the fruit. At this point, another decision maker came in to say that they would remove the charge. Kudos to the server taking our money for not dying of embarrassment.
Needless to say, we’ll be keeping away for a while.
This visit was on October 11 & we cashed out by 10am.

Stopped by for a breakfast bagel after my morning workout. The wait was way too long. If you’re ordering to go you better expect to wait a long time. The bagel itself was fine (BELT bagel) but not worth the wait.

Let’s start off with, the food is decent: that’s not my issue with this place. My issue with it is, it’s a place that leaves you feeling worst when you leave, because when you leave you feel awful and, worst, you knew you would but you still went anyway because you think to yourself, «Self, how can they mess up a sandwich?»
I go to this WAB location out of sheer convince but then the service and food is so slow in every possible way that it is no longer convenient. Dining-​in is slow. Takeout is slow. Catering is slow. It’s all very slow. There’s no justification for taking more than an hr to assemble a tuna sandwich and then somehow still give me the wrong order. Or, when I order a plate of pastries in advance for clients, then get there and it’s still not ready when they said it would. Then they say, it’s still in the oven and there’s nothing they can do, so it will be another 5 mins which naturally means 15 mins (of course) and it still found some way to get cold and hard once you get it.
Your time is too precious, don’t waste it on decent food. Just go somewhere else.

I went to What A Bagel today for brunch. This is a great place for that «classic» breakfast. I got the 2 eggs and turkey bacon breakfast with homefries. It was a good sized portion for the price I paid. There are also many options in the menu which is great for large groups.
My friend ordered the On the Go smoothie which consisted of peanut butter, espresso, banana, mint and chocolate protein powder. She ordered it without the mint though. It tasted like a Reese’s peanut butter cup coffee flavoured smoothie. I definitely recommend it to anyone. It tasted amazing.
The patio is also great in the summer.
This place is a great crowd pleaser especially if you are bringing people that are coming from out of town.

I’m not a fan of their service (not too friendly and sometimes the wait time is long for takeouts), but the food is great and the location is great with nice outdoor patio seating.

Very, very, very disappointed in this place. Not only is it already grossly overpriced, but the waits are often unbearable– both take out and dine-​in. The whole point of Ritual is to avoid wait times, but I’ve always had to wait every single time– even if I go during the time that the app tells me to.
Today was a whole other animal. My colleagues and I went there for lunch today to catch some sun and enjoy our break and this was actually some of the worst service I’ve ever had– not to mention that almost everything we ordered had something wrong with it after arriving over an hour after we sat down.
Lets start with drinks. Mimosas and caesars. 5 minutes go by and only the mimosa comes out because they’re out of clamato as we can see other people on the patios with caesars. I do believe they were out– but that’s when you send someone across the street to buy some.
Next, lunch orders. Pretty simple orders across the board– nothing fancy. Over an hour goes by and us having to ask about it twice (not once did we receive an apology from anyone about it) and the food comes out– either incorrect, cold or not at all. We all made do other than the one that was seriously wrong, but the one hour, twenty minute mark, we finally just had to ask for our bills and for that one replacement meal to just be doggy bagged because it STILL hadn’t come out. The manager said, personally, that he’d go back and whip her up one right then. He also apologized but said they were slammed– understood. I’ve been there many times and have seen that it’s always quite busy– but this is beyond anything that’s reasonable, honestly. Nothing was comped other than the incorrect meal that they brought to my colleague and would have thrown out anyways. 1 hour and 20+ minutes for breakfast food and without an apology from our server– who seemed annoyed when I asked for change when I paid. I have only ever not tipped once before– and I still actually feel guilt-​ridden for doing it again, but I will not pay for such poor service– nor will I go there again. Literally, had she popped over once every 20 minutes just to check on us and apologize for the food taking so long– literally anything other than ignoring us– I absolutely would have tipped her. I’m not sure if she didn’t put our food in or if the kitchen was really that backed up– but that’s an issue that needs to be resolved on their end of things and shouldn’t cost customers any more money out of their pocket for mediocre service and sub-​par food.
We did have one really great experience on the patio once recently– and a girl with shoulder length hair and a nose ring served us. She was wonderful– so that’s why we decided to come back. It’s too bad– great patio otherwise, unfortunately.

This place is my hangover go-​to when I need a quick breakfast before heading into the office. Their breakfast bagels are the most ginormous things you have ever seen and, unless you’re starving, are almost impossible to finish. They’re not something I order often, but when I do I always to go for the flax seed bagel. Plus, they’re only $ 5, which considering the portion size, is a great deal.
As for the standard bagel bar, it’s top notch. You can get cream cheese and a variety of toppings. One time I was standing in line and the girl in front of me ordered cream cheese, tomatoes, pickles and sprouts. This sounded so intriguing I had to try it, and now it’s what I get pretty much every single time I find myself here. Try it, I dare you!
As for smoothies, I’m addicted to the Date Me. It’s a weird name that I don’t particularly like ordering, but it’s really good. I have actually since learned to recreate it myself with great success, but on occasion I still find myself ordering it here.
I’ve never eaten in the restaurant part, but the menu is tempting. Perhaps one day when I have more time I will venture here for a more conventional brunch option.
One last thing to note, this place is always busy! Sometimes you have to wait a bit, but I assure you it’s worth it. Fresh tasty bagels always are.

A beautiful Sunday morning, weather is like summer already and for Canadians, we have been waiting for this weather for months. So of course, today, all the patio seats were packed! I’ve passed by this place numerous time but finally decide to try it out. The place have both a take-​out and dine-​in. There was lots of people standing around waiting for take-​out. We didn’t have to wait long to grab a table. But then, that’s when the waiting begins. There was lots of staff running around, but no one seems to see us sitting here. we finally track down a person but because she doesn’t take orders, she had to go find another person. Finally, probably about 10 minutes in, someone took our order. Waiting for the food was again another long one. We didn’t get complicated food, just eggs and bagels but it took over 30 minutes before the food arrived.
The manager was around later on and probably that made the food order came faster, if not him directing the staff, maybe our food might take even longer. At least he told them to pour us more coffee while we wait. Finally, after starving for awhile, the food came. I had the BLT breakfast on sesame bagel — scrambled eggs, cheddar, turkey bacon, lettuce, tomato, sundried tomato pesto mayo, and the sweet potato fries. The fries was freshly made, still hot off the stove. Very tasty, no ketchup needed. The bagel was good, thick layer of scrambled egg (but it was a little over cooked), turkey bacon (a lot healthier). My friend had the eggs benedict and the egg was poached perfectly soft on top of fresh English muffin.
The food was good but the wait for the food was very long. Might consider just doing take out next time if I come back.

Pro:
+ patio
+ cheap wrap after 3pm
The locale:
During summer it has a nice patio. Inside is clean.
The food:
The wraps and sandwiches are tasty and good. After 3pm they have half of on all wraps, with fires you get a very filling meal for around $ 7.

Maybe I am biased because I am from New England and we have pretty good NY style bagels… but I didn’t like the bagels here. After a couple of bites I noticed it had become really flat and didn’t have much to it. I had the chive cream cheese and it tasted kind of sour or tart. I ended up wiping most of it off the bagel.
The service was really slow, there was only 2 people ahead of us and we waited a while to get our cream cheese. I wouldn’t come back and would rather go to a different bakery or coffee shop nearby.

I was there for lunch today and I was disappointed with the way that the staff handles
their table reservations. It seems like if you know the owner/​manager, you can skip the reservation list and you get the next available table. I was really turned off when I saw this happening with our reservation and I was even more frustrated when the staff admitted that this happens often and that they’re frustrated about it as well.
Even if the food was okay, I am not going to recommend this place to anyone because I wasn’t a fan of the favoritism that’s happening between the owner/​manager and his ”friends”.
P.S Thank you for the Free Coffee promo.

Solid choice as they have pretty much everything you can think of for bagels. With substitutions.
Went Saturday at 1245 — got seated 20 min later, not many tables inside so wait can be long. Staff is excellent.
Bakery: got the creamed horn and raspberry scone ($ 5 altogether) both really good. I’d recommend warming the scone in the microwave and pair it off with a coffee… Deeeelicious.
Food: decided to try eggs Benyamin $ 12 includes poached egg with turkey bacon and hollandaise … Wouldn’t recommend, not enough hollandaise sauce and it mostly tasted yolky. Bagel was still good though, cheese! They also ran out of home fries :(
Friends got 2 eggs with turkey bacon. $ 8 They liked it. Pretty much a guarantee as you can’t go wrong with the simple things. Cream cheese on the side is $ 4 and I’ve been told its heaven.
Coffee is unlimited for under $ 2. Smoothie for $ 6 and delicious.
Overall I’d come back to try other things. Probably not the eggs beni again but the past times I’ve been, its always been good. Make sure to arrive early for seats.

I’ve always noticed the large lineup at this What-​A-​Bagel and wondered what the big deal was. It’s a bagel shop. I’ve started coming here for breakfast because they advertise a $ 5 breakfast bagel (tax included). I was very impressed because it’s a great deal. The breakfast bagel is huge! It’s a regular bagel (you choose which flavor) with eggs, cheddar cheese, and turkey bacon. Yum! They’re also quick to deliver.

I can deal with the absurdly overpriced sandwiches that are passable at best. I can deal with the slow service that is passable at best. What I can not deal with is the way that they butcher my bagel with their horrid knifemanship. It’s not a particularly hard thing to do and I feel like a professional bagel cutter should be able to cut my bagel in a way wherein I’m not currently saddled with a sesame seed twister where 75 percent of the bagel has somehow ended up on the bottom half of the bagel.
Also, if every single person is asking you to run their bagel through the toaster twice may I suggest you turn the toaster from «Hey, is this thing even on?» to «medium»?
Well, it can only go up from here this morning!

I stumbled upon this bagel shop when I was at the Spadina area killing time before my interview. I didn’t eat breakfast yet so I decided to try this place out of curiosity. It was funny walking into the shop all suited up because it has a hipster type of vibe going on (lol).
I decided to order the Jerusalem Toasted Chicken since I was craving chicken at the time. It was delicious! The sesame buns were perfectly toasted with a soft, crunchy exterior. Green olives, mozzarella, tomato salsa, and feta cheese were added to give the sandwich a more flavourful taste.
My assumption is that the rest of the food is good too but I can’t be sure until I come back here and try other things on the menu. Customer service is pretty bad; the manager needs to re-​train the employees. I ordered my sandwich to-​go and waited 15+ minutes! I was almost late for my interview.
The two reasons I mentioned above is why I took away 2 stars from this review.