Pick A Bagel

My local spot for a bagel & coffee. Great customer service and a pretty big selection of sandwiches and salads if you want something else.

So I have bought bagels and sandwiches from this location more than 200 times — always in the morning, always multiple orders. — expert customer here…
Overall food is ok, bagels are good, menu selection meets the demand but they are horrible operationally — esp in busy morning hours.
In similar busy places you usually order at the cash register, you validate your order on the receipt, and they call your receipt number when your order is ready (e.g. dunkin donuts).
This place is just the opposite… And I do not know why. Here is what you should do to complete and order at this pick a bagel location:
There is no line remember this, first you need to fight with other hungry customers to get close to bagel display and you must get the attention of one of staff who is tall enough to see you (or you should be tall enough to see them) If both parties are below the glass line you will have issues. Assuming that you did communicate with one of the staff on the other side of the bagel cream cheese spread cones who takes your order… Unless they are one of the 2 guys who have been there since the opening, 9 out of 10 the new staff will not get what you are telling them. Yes, they are busy, yes they do not get your accent, yes they started the day before… I think in theory, you can interfere with your order if you know Spanish because their way of entering your order is to shout at the guys/​gals inside the kitchen in Spanish. If you know Spanish you could easily say, hey that is not what I ordered… Unfortunately I do not (I am getting there) … You would think giving order is all that you need for a bagel snadwich, the answer is no… Because there is no line at cash register too, now you have to fight for your place at the cash register line. In the morning there are usually girls managing cash register. One of them is panicky the other one is with makeup… The panicky one is really panicky so you need to calm her down. (e.g. don’t hurry, I am ok, I have time, it is ok etc). At cash register line, there are cookie customers and coffee customers who had not been to the bagel line so be careful they will bulldoze you.
I strongly suggest cross checking your order in the bag because it may not be what you have ordered. Even if you order the same thing every day, you maybe paying a different price because again, their way of passing order (this time to cash register) is shouting so what cash register charges may not the what you have ordered. Lately pick a bagel stopped providing self service paper napkins at sugar stand so you need to remind cash register that you need napkins in the bag /​same for splendas. I guess they are saving money. And starting with last week, now, you have to sign every credit card swipe– yes, pick a bagel is the first place I would use a stolen credit card, I am a hungry guy. that is why they are protecting their business from stolen cards by asking your signature for a $ 5 purchase. As I mentioned before speed is not their thing… While talking about the speed avoid construction crew and heschel school crew times… You may be behind 40 construction workers or 40 kids (both very hungry)
Good luck.

went in there and ordered a large iced coffee. she gave me a small iced coffee. I said ooops! I ordered a large, no biggie. She’s like do you still want it? I have to charge you $ 1 more. Ok! No problem. What she did next was the issue. In front of me. she put more ice in the large cup and moved the small coffee to the large coffee cup and handed it to me. I said um I’m sorry but you didn’t add any coffee! She said, no I put more ice in it and that’s what you’re paying extra for. … *more ice for $ 1. Ok! Well no problem, Ill take the small coffee. That’s when she started screaming at me in front of my coworkers who are shocked at this point that a woman who admitted that she made a mistake, now has asked me to pay $ 1 for more ice would then end up screaming at me, the paying customer. She never apologized. I walked out after paying without the large coffee. This really sucks, because we go there ALL the time since we work 3 blocks away and there’s nothing this far west.

We were in the neighborhood to see a show at ABC. We were early and after a short walk we end up here.
The girl inside the door asks for my order. But here is the thing. You don’t order here. You order in the back. So the item that I want isn’t available that day. Actually a lot of items on the menu weren’t available that day.
I ended up with a chicken parmesan panini. It was tolerable. The staff seemed disorganized. This place wouldn’t bee my first choice.

I must tell my story. Without telling you my actual address I’ll make one up an say i live on 305 w 73^rd. st. between west end ave and the park. I’ll get back to that in a bit… Ok so it took 35 mins for them to bring us a sandwich, a shake and a bagel which was wrong, they did not deliver our large regular coffee that they charged us $ 2.50 for (black) (the main reason I ordered anything at all) but I won’t complain about prices here, this is nyc and it is a service, I understand.
What I don’t understand is having a button on seamless asking if you want extras and if you want your bagel toasted or not and it not come with said extras or toasted and then getting into an argument with a rude person on the phone, when we had to call in. Don’t we order off seamless so we don’t have to talk to people?
I digress, no coffee, bagel wrong. Phone argument. Stress. An hour and two minutes after the seamless order was placed a phone call from a (english as a second language) delivery person telling us he was here but we weren’t. Fyi I am on crutches with a broken foot AND ITS RAINING. So after hobbling outside he was not there. What is likely is that he was at the corner of our block building (remember earlier) which happens to be 305 West End Ave. Not us 305 w 73… Come on man this is basic food delivery stuff here and the guy had a pretty bad attitude to boot.
More Arguing on the phone, more stress. I was out on the sidewalk and hanging out in our foyer for about 5 min, multiple phone calls with the second delivery guy (the first one found us fine) dude finally showed up, no apologies. Being up on a broken foot (in the rain) is more than just waiting around for 5 mins if you’ve ever had a broken foot you’d know what I mean. I’m hurting right now.
Got back into the house super ready for my hot toasty bagel. Well, it was not toasted and soggy…
I hate posting bad reviews but this was a disaster. We will never order from these guys again.
Booo.

BEWARE BEWARE !!
Pick A Bagel you lost a loyal customer. Why? Every day I order the same thing, bagel with CC and a large coffee and its usually $ 4.75. Today I hand over my $ 5 bill and was told the total due was $ 5.25. Out of curiosity I just happened to ask why it was different today and was told, «we raise our prices for the weekend, its better to come during the week”.
Ive never heard of anything like this. Prices are supposed to be consistent and when there is a change its supposed to be in the very least justified.

In matters of taste, there can be no disputes… de gustibus non (est) disputandum:
In times of yore, when the person selling you the bagel took pride in delivering you a great product, they chose not to do abhorrent things to bagels like putting lettuce on a bagel with nova when one didn’t ask for it. These are the same people who put mayonnaise on corned beef. Furthermore, a toasted bagel means warm, not hard, crunchy and burnt. If one pays $ 13 for a bagel with nova, one expects that the person preparing it doesn’t just take one lump of nova and smush it onto the bagel, rather they fold it nicely, and put the capers on before the fish so they don’t fall out. Anyone curious should go to Russ & Daughters to see how a bagel with nova is supposed to look. One more example of a city whose soul is in sad decline.

It was good. A respectable bagel and a nice variety of spreads. They do have sandwiches and salads on the menu, but I was in it for the bagel, and it was just ok.

Had a really negative experience here. Called at 9:30 am for an 11:30 delivery. When nothing arrived by noon, I called the store and they said the bagels were on the way. Long story short — an hour and 15 minutes and 8 phone calls later my bagels never arrived. And I had a party at my house that started already. Each time I called they acted as if they had never spoken to me before. Eventually the manager said if it doesn’t arrive in 10 minutes we get them for free. When I called back 10 minutes later, they hung up on me and then said they don’t have my order in the system and don’t know what I’m talking about. Terrible service!!!

They charge sales tax when you buy a dozen bagels. The NY State sales tax code states that sales tax is only due on sliced bagels. I feel like I was ripped off today.
Here’s the law

I «joined» Unilocal in 2009. This is the first time I’ve been compelled to leave a review. The service here is absolutely awful. I don’t have high expectations, but if an order is prepared incorrectly the customer might expect an apology, no? Especially if the order was taken correctly and written clearly on the paper/​wrapper? Instead, I was lectured. No thanks.
If you still decide to get something here, make sure to check your order before you leave. Otherwise you’ll learn the hard way like I did, when I was already 20 minutes away.

Honestly a good place to get your lunch ! We were looking for something else but finally got in Pick A Bagel to get some food and were surprised by the quality of the bagels ! We both had the BLT bagel on Onion Bread and boy was it delicious ! The cooks do not hesitate to be heavy-​handed on the ingredients which makes it only better, the desserts are all big and really good, and the cashier is really nice too ! Wether you’d like to stay in or take away, Pick A Bagel is definitely a place I would recommend, especially if you are on a low budget or simply if you want to get a quick (and good) lunch without spending too much time or money !

I love this place. Good food, nice people. It’s a normal deli/​bagel place, but excellent quality. Definitely glad to have it nearby!

This store has unhygienic service, impolite and untrained cashiers and stale bagels.
The bagels are left exposed in a dirty environment for way too many hours. The service always asks you if you want your bagel toasted due to how hard the bagels are even if you don’t toast them.
If the cashier who is taking your money isn’t untrained and forgetful of your change/​receipt, he/​she will be extremely impolite.
I would honestly suggest avoiding this store.

Well, they seemed to have turned things around. The spreads are fresh and the butter no longer tastes freezer burned. The bacon scallion spread is particularly good. The bagels continue to be pretty good as always. I’ve amended my review.

I have no real complaints about this place other that they close quite early around 3:30PM. They close the grill an hour before that which is still about lunch time. So I decided to get a cold sandwich and picked Cali Turkey Sandwich from the list. I also bought some black and white cookies as requested by a coworker.
The Cali Turkey Sandwich had turkey, avocado, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayo. I love the combo and they give you good portion of each item — and of course bacon makes everything better! What I would ask them to do next time is hold the mayo or only put a little bit. My lettuce was drenched with mayo which I personally didn’t like. Despite that, I would still highly recommend the Cali Turkey Sandwich.
As for the black and white cookies, it was a small bag of about 6 or 7. That cost about $ 7. That is pretty ridiculous.
As mentioned by others, the cashier lady was very pleasant and nice. I would come back to try other sandwich items and also their bagels and spreads. I just have to make sure I go early!

A much needed addition to the otherwise bagel free area. The guys who work here are super nice and friendly, and I honestly can’t complain about the bagels.
My personal favorite order: toasted whole wheat bagel with sundried tomato pesto cream cheese and fried eggs. Trust me.

When you go to NYC you kind of always expect to have the best bagel anywhere you go. My everything bagel was definitely below my bagel standards and I was a very sad New Yorker…
Oddly though, the cream cheese was good.
They have a huge selection of drinks and I didn’t get to read all through the menus since all I wanted was a regular coffee. They didn’t ask if I wanted milk or not but added it anyway, which is fine because I would’ve wanted it but I can see this would be a problem for others.

Unorganized, dysfunctional! Cannot take SIMPLE order of toasted everything bagel with cream cheese.
The staff can’t seem to handle busy lunch hours and barely make efforts to improve the organization of ordering, paying, etc.
I asked for an everything bagel, toasted with cream cheese. The man taking my order even wrote it down! What I got was a plain bagel toasted with cream cheese.
After ordering, I went to pay. The transaction approved but when I got my bagel, a woman who I assume to be the manager asked if I already paid. She had a very mean tone in her voice. I replied, «yes» but thought it was ridiculous how I waited all that time, got that type of treatment, and ended up with THE WRONG BAGEL.
How hard is it to separate a paid and paying-​in-​process group of people after they have ordered their salads and bagels? How difficult is it to MAKE THE RIGHT ORDER?
For $ 2.00 I expect the VERY LEAST for MY ORDER to be right.

This Pick A Bagel location is relatively new and is a welcome addition to the neighborhood. There is nowhere else to get a decent bagel in the wilds of West End for blocks in any direction, so P-​A-​B is almost always busy.
If you have been to any of there other locations, they have all kinds of cream cheeses and spreads, etc. They make sandwiches and salads, too. Although the menu here is a bit limited as compared to their 8^th Ave location, they cover the basics well.