The Bagel Factory

I’ve been here twice and I’m not really inclined to go back. This is good if all you want is a bagel as is, with nothing done to it. Otherwise, everything is overpriced. If their breakfast sandwiches weren’t overpriced, I’d go here more often. At most places, adding butter onto a bagel is free. This place charges you at least a dollar (I can’t remember how much exactly). It would be wise to go here if you only want to buy bagels and put your own toppings on them. There are better/​cheaper options in Oakland for lunch. The good part is it’s in a good location and has a lot of seating and has an upstairs. So far, I’ve experienced good/​friendly customer service, even though they don’t tell always tell you that you have options (like what kind of cheese you want on your breakfast sandwich). If you don’t automatically want American cheese, you better ask. Also, I’m not a huge fan of the bagels. One time I asked for a lightly buttered bagel and it was way over-​buttered and really chewy. I threw it away. Maybe the bagel would have been fine if it wasn’t toasted and buttered. I don’t know.

I am going there because this is the most convenient coffee shop around — there is a Starbucks across the street but prefer to give my business to local shop. This is the only reason I go there. The service is horrible: one lady gives you the feeling you are not even welcome in the place (the other is very friendly). The milk jugs are cracked and broken. There are always something missing (lid, cups with certain size, etc.).
This is unfortunate because with small adjustment/​changes, this could be a very good place!

Been here a number of times. On the plus side, it has a pretty big menu full of different selections, such as coffee, burgers/​fries, sandwiches, bagels, breakfast sandwiches, cream cheese, dips, beverages, and so forth. It’s also a good place for groups as there is plenty of seating on the first and second floor (right above where orders come out). On the other hand, the grub is just about average. There is nothing particularly super great, but it’s also not bad to the point of being inedible. The coffee is a bit on the lower quality side … I’m not exactly sure why though I do suspect it has something to do with the quickness in which the beverages do come out after being ordered (not taking enough time to perfect the beverage). Would rather order a cup of joe/​coffee beverage from the Starbucks across the street.
Furthermore, it is also rather noisy, making it hard for one-​on-​one meetups or if anyone is looking for a quiet spot to meet up.
Lastly, there is a rather large amount of smoke that just rises to the ceiling when the servers are preparing the food off the grill … I ended up coming out of the place the other day smelling like smoke. A couple days later, the smoke smell still lingers.

I ordered a Pitt Burger and fries. The burger was decent despite its tendency to disintegrate. The fries on the other hand were terrible. Soggy, extremely greasy, limp, and tasteless.

I prefer independent coffee shops but the bagel factory has great open space area for working with reliable wifi, good coffee and one of the better quality bagels I’ve found in Pittsburgh. Live music on weds and thurs too.

Where to begin.
I work in the area and love the idea of an inexpensive, quick lunch place. I love bagels (for any meal) and have given this place more than a few chances.
Typically, the service is extremely slow, but the food is decent and it’s cheap, so whatever.
Last week, I waited over half an hour for a pizza bagel. Everyone was waiting over half an hour for their food, and it wasn’t that busy. There was no line out the door. It was unacceptable.
To top that off, the women preparing their food were wearing gloves but kept touching their faces and their hair. It was disgusting.
Then, they made my food for here when it was supposed to be to go. When I told them, they dumped it carelessly into a to go box. When I got back to my office, the inside of the box was a mess. Cheese was all over the place, and it was soggy.
I love bagels, but I’ll never return.

This place has been a continuous disappointment. Overall this great location and concept has been squandered on lack of attention to detail, poor cream cheese application, and generally disappointing service.
I really wanted to like this place. After a series of what I considered small oversights, I stopped going for about a year, in hopes they would get their stuff together. I recently went back to and to my disappointment not much had changed.
This is obviously a bagel place, and as such a good bagel is a must. Today I ordered a toasted bagel and got a bagel that had very little cream cheese, the cream cheese was applied only to one half of the bagel, it was NOT toasted, and had paper glued to the bottom of the bagel (???).
More than once I have had an order forgotten about.
Frequently in the middle of the week they are out of common menu items, including half of the types of bagels they allegedly offer.
About half the time I, or someone I was with, ordered a hamburger only to wait ~25 minutes and receive it uncooked.
The coffee isn’t all that great.

First off, the male cashier here was so rude. When I asked him what the most popular burger there was, and he said «Uh, I dunno» and gave me a «I-don’t-give-an-F» look. I also asked him if they had any more lox cream cheese left in stock because there weren’t any on display. He said «yeah.» Silence. So. Are you going to give them to me or just answer my question? Turns out they didn’t have any left. (Last time I came when there was no more left, the nice lady just whipped up a new tub for me on the spot.) He was just flat out a jerk who ALSO overcharged me a dollar and had to refund it in cash after I swiped my card.
Secondly, the lox sandwich here was just sad. I paid $ 7.99+tax for the lox bagel. It literally contained a bagel, lox, 3 pieces of diced tomato, and 5 sad little pieces of capers (will upload picture). I went up to the man who made my order and told him that this is not what I remember ordering. Last time I had the lox sandwich, it contained red onions and whole slices of tomato. He just simply replied, «we’re out of onions and tomatoes. Sorry.»
Well you couldn’t have told me that when I was ordering? I could have just gotten a bagel with lox cream cheese which would have been only $ 3.
Well overall, thanks to the rude cashier and the sad little lox bagel, my night was made.

Sitting here annoyed. Dirty tables. Under toasted bagel. Had to ask for more cream cheese as I barely had a smear (see pic) won’t be back. Starbucks is across the street.

Nice layout, decent food, moderately friendly people. All good and whatnot but extremely SLOWWWWWWWWW. Don’t come here expecting a quick meal before you have to be somewhere (like work). You will be late or show up to your next destination with full hands of breakfast foods. Furniture could be spaced ALOT better, even when there’s not a line, it feels very cramped because of the layout; the huge chip shelf in the middle of the floor? No.
It seems like they might be a little understaffed but, I understand that it’s not the *staff’s* fault.
First visit: 18 minutes for French toast w/​eggs
Second visit: 9 minutes for a hot bagel.

The chai here is so bad and the WiFi never works. The connection is always so weak that you can pick up Starbucks wifi across the street better. My chai was so bad that it tasted like sweet water, not a spicy Indian drink.

normally I would’ve given a three or four star review because this place is what I always crave when I want a lox bagel, but my visit today was terrible.
When I walked around there were two women at the counter, neither of which greeted me, when I was ordering they had an attitude and had an annoyed look on their faces. Once I had placed my order and sat down to wait it took quite a while to get my food (a bagel with Lox cream cheese) even though the place was pretty dead. I used to make sure every time I came to Oakland I went to the bagel factory to get my bagel fix but next I think I’ll walk the extra couple of blocks to go to Bruggers.

The Bagel Factory is a bagel/​sandwich shop in Oakland that is admittedly not my first stop for a meal by any means. I’ve only eaten here when I’ve been in a pinch; for example, most recently I had a short window of time to grab a late breakfast before meeting friends at the museums across the street. So I ducked into The Bagel Factory, ordered a bagel sandwich and picked up a pre-​made cup of juice, waited for them to make my food, and ate my meal. I was in and out in about 15 or 20 minutes, most of which was honestly just spent waiting for the food. It’s noteworthy that this was on a quiet Sunday morning when the place was pretty empty, so I’m not sure I would count on The Bagel Factory to be a fast eatery once the colleges are back in session.
As for the food itself… eh. It was ok. My bagel was warm and fresh, and wasn’t burned. It certainly tasted fine enough on its own. But at the same time, the toppings in my sandwich weren’t spectacular; the cheese on my bagel definitely tasted like a slice of Kraft cheese, which was a shame, because when I buy breakfast I like it to taste at least a little better than the sort of thing I can make at home. At least the sandwich overall tasted ok (though not delicious), and it kept me full and happy for a couple hours!
Would I avoid The Bagel Factory entirely? No. They’re not horrible or anything like that — they’re ok and provided my with decent food in a pinch, though not particularly quickly. But there are definitely better breakfast sandwiches out there. I admittedly can’t judge their other deli-​like food options since I’ve only grabbed breakfast here; there’s a chance that their lunch sandwiches, salads, and soups could impress me if I was ever in the area for lunch. Maybe that will happen at some point in the future. For now though, I’ll just keep The Bagel Factory in mind if I’m near Craig Street — but admittedly won’t go out of my way to eat here, either.

Just came in for a quick bite, nothing fancy and that’s exactly what I got. It’s not a bad place but can the people working here smile??? If you don’t like your job, get another. I read other reviews that say management is mean to them. I don’t want to support that kind of establishment. But I couldn’t have known that as a drop-​in.
The bagel was pretty good. On the smaller side but not bad. Service was quick but not a lot if people were here. Overall if the employees were happy I bet this would be so much better. People will pay for good service and pleasant atmosphere.

The combination Bagel Factory/​Coffee Tree Roasters on Craig:
I’ve gone here about 5 times in the past 7 months. I don’t know why I keep going back. Oh— Wait– I do know— it’s the location, only.
The only thing this place really has going for them is their location.
Service is slow and the counter staff usually unpleasant. Items are overpriced compared to their quality. The woman who runs the cash register machine and makes coffee never has her hair up like the other employees. She scowls grumpily at customers, and her hair and general appearance are messy.
Most recently I ordered something simple– bagel toasted with cream cheese. It was served in a paper bag. Untoasted and flavorless. They should also take a look at the way they package and present food to the customers. People are paying expensive premium prices and you’re tossing food items without any kid of wrapper into a brown paper bag– lame. I’ve had their plated food dishes in the past, too, and it was never very good.

I’ve tried to give this place the benefit of the doubt but after several experiences I just can’t figure out how they have a business. The food is bland and unimpressive and the service is poor. Recently I bought an omelet and a blueberry bagel– the omelet had no flavor– just a scrambled egg covering some unseasoned toppings. This was a takeout order, so I didn’t realize until i was back at my office that the blueberry bagel they had given me had peanut butter on it instead of cream cheese, and wasn’t even toasted. How does that even happen?
Today I gave it another try. Ordered an omelet, bagel, latte to go. The latte tasted like splenda. When my order was ready, they handed me a plate instead of a take out container. I asked them politely to put it in a takeout container. When I got back to my office, and opened it, it seems the server literally dumped my plate into the container as bagel, omelet and hashbrown were all mixed in together– I guess she was mad I asked her to switch it to take out? The soggy bagel was again untoasted and the «omelet» was flavorless.
Just so unimpressed.

⁴⁄₅ based on my one time experience!
Me and a friend was going to grab a quick breakfast before heading out. He wasnt a fan of breakfasts, while I wasnt a fan of bagels… But we were hungry and Bagel Factory was near hid place. I ordered the corned beef hash and challah french toast.
Our orders took a while because they make it as your order. I was really impressed how our breakfasts came out. They have huge portions! Though we were hungry, we had leftovers. I really liked their bagels, while he liked the french toast.
I highly recommend this place if you’re in the area and IF YOU HAVE TIME TO WAIT :)

I was coming from the SouthSide on the 54C so this was incredibly convenient for breakfast at the Craig and Forbes spot this morning and to get out of the rain.
The Bagel Factory is a nice alternative to your everyday Panera Breads with a bigger selection than Brueggers or Einstein Brother as it starts to border on a Pamela. A selection of Omelettes and Griddles, different Bagels with Shmear or just your plain old Coffee Tree Roaster drinks.
As I am in a Lox mode this week I opted for a warm breakfast of the Lox, Eggs and Onion Scramble, served with homefries and a Bagel with Shmear, an incredibly hefty breakfast. [I’m saving the bagel for lunch]
My hot plate was served quickly and without hassle. They serve your food self-​serve style where they set it ready on a food counter and you have to wander over to get it yourself. Cutlery is found on the other side of the room, individual plastic wrapped pieces and a selection of sauces from hot sauce, regular heinz and mustard to frank sweet ginger sauce. [destined for all day thursday wings].
After being spoiled the previous day, I find that the eggs were so-​la-​la there were too many large pieces of onion that didn’t add to any flavor and the potatoes were flavorless, honestly I couldn’t even taste the pepper which I clearly saw sprinkled across them. I was quickly finished as the location of the former Kiva Han started to fill up with students and day-​time pontinficators. Very disappointed for a $ 12 breakfast. The shining star was the expected good quality of the coffee tree roaster coffee, which I personally just adore.
Will do in a hurry, not a destination.

Terrible service. If I could write 0.5 or 0 review I would.
The business does not give any benefits to its employees and it shows in the service.
People are unhappy about working there. The owner and manager ought to be reported to the better business bureau for their practices.
Holding people after their shifts and not paying overtime and holding checks and other contemptible, unethical violations.
This place is not a good place to eat either. I’ll go somewhere else in the future.

I stopped by here at 6:15 this morning to grab a bagel before catching a bus downtown to board the train. While Bruegger’s downtown may be more convenient to the train station, this place is more convenient to my apt., and I prefer the bagels here. That said, it’d been awhile since I’d had a bagel from here.
Having heard good things about the bagel sandwiches here, I intended to order the nova lox sandwich. When I ordered a «bagel with lox,» the employee at the counter thought I meant the bagel with lox cream cheese. Upon asking her if it had cream cheese in addition to lox and how much it cost, she clarified that it had cream cheese with lox, and that it was $ 2.95, whereas the lox bagel sandwich cost $ 7. Given the substantial price difference, and that I wasn’t looking for a super-​heavy breakfast, I decided to go with the former on a wheat everything bagel. Since there was nobody else there, it only took about 5 min. from the time that I ordered to the time that I left with the bagel.
After having caught a bus downtown and boarded the train, I proceeded to eat the bagel. Although it had been toasted, it wasn’t warm anymore when I unwrapped it – but that was to be expected. The bagel itself was chewier and more rubbery than I’d like, to the point that I found it laborious to bite off pieces, which may have been at least partially due to the fact that I didn’t eat it right away. The lox cream cheese, on the other hand, was great – based on my experience with Breugger’s, I’d expected lox-​flavored cream cheese, or perhaps cream cheese with tiny pieces of lox in it, but it had substantial chunks of lox. In light of this, I didn’t regret my decision to forego the lox bagel sandwich.
Overall, I stand by my preference for the Bagel Factory over Bruegger’s, despite the uneven quality of this particular bagel. I’ve never ordered anything other than bagels here, so I can’t comment on the quality of the other items. Service has always been friendly and efficient, which I appreciate, given that my main occasion for stopping by is occasions such as today, when I have to catch an early morning train or flight.