The Works Bakery Cafe

Very fresh salad. Great atmosphere. But you must bring your parka, gloves and mittens year round. The place is kept around 50 degrees. You will freeze if you attempt to sit in and eat.

The Works was the first and best experience I’ve had with a salt bagel bacon egg and cheese. It’s now a favorite of mine and I get it where I can, but I haven’t found a place I like as much as The Works. I also like that you can get Mexican cokes here, a favorite drink of mine. I’ve had a few other bagel sandwiches here, enough to say this place is good, if you are in the mood for a bagel sandwich, I don’t think you’ll find a better option.

The bagels here are pretty good when fresh. My favorite is the everything bagel with veggie cream cheese. On the weekends the popular bagels often sell out early in the morning (9 am). The flavored hazelnut coffee is good iced or hot. Kids love the French toast bagels with honey butter. Serving size of cream cheese on the bagel is inconsistent.

Disgusting. I had been a few times a few years ago for breakfast and stopped going because it was disgusting. Back then the egg sandwiches seemed like fake eggs microwaved. I decided to give it a try again since it t had been a few years and get a chicken salad. Hands down disgusting. The chicken was half frozen, but soggy and rubbery — that weird fast food poor quality type. The carrots were also half frozen. I seriously can’t even eat this. On top of that the place is as filthy with handprints etc. don’t bother — just go somewhere else.

I wanted to give this place a rave review after trying it this week for lunch. I hadn’t been here in many years (since they rebranded it The Works from Bagel Works).
I had the chicken panini on sourdough which was really delicious.
It was made well, and the ingredients were fresh and tasty.
I did notice (since I chose to eat there) that this place needs a team member to get out on the floor regularly and wipe down tables, sweep, and remove crumbs and god-​knows-​what-​else from those homemade «couches» covered in cloth.
There is no excuse for not keeping the dining area clean — none.
Based on another review I read here, today I tried the bacon egg and cheese breakfast sandwich on toasted sourdough.
The girl who took my order popped up from behind the counter out of nowhere and appeared to be slightly brain-​dead.
After taking my order, she immediately took the sandwich order of the next person in line (which turned out to be a long, complicated order with ingredient specifications). Instead of getting my order going (which really is just dumping eggs bacon and cheese in a styrofoam bowl and nuking it in the microwave — absolutely horrifying to observe and never again), she started building this woman’s sandwich.
That’s when I approached the counter near the area where you pay and just watched her.
She finally got the stuff nuked, dumped it onto one slice of bread (I note that she didn’t bother to butter the bread, which I assumed would be a part of the process), and then sliced the one piece of bread with the sandwich material on it in half.
I observed her pause for a moment, look at the slice of bread that should have been on the top of the sandwich, place it there, and slice it again.
The whole process was a waste of time, and employee training should dictate that they focus on each order separately so that they do it correctly.
Microwaving the ingredients absolutely ruins them — the cheese turns to plastic, the bacon becomes rubber, and so do the eggs.
I was disappointed and would not order another breakfast sandwich here because of how they are prepared.
I will say that generally the employees are friendly and pleasant and if they get the new people trained better and start cleaning the joint, it will improve.

Fast and friendly service with food at reasonable price. Five stars for the service but the bagels we ordered were just okay so that’s why I gave it three stars. I ordered a tomato & basil bagel toasted with cream cheese, but it was served luke warm if that. The quality of the bread is not that good either, which is odd because the bagels are made fresh daily.

On two occasions I have eaten here and had extremely rude and impolite service. The first time I gave them the benefit of the doubt, but when I went back and it happened again it was obvious that I was being discriminated against because I am transgender. The first visit this included being called «sir» even though I am not a man. In addition to looking at me like I am a «freak,» two of the young women whispered about me to each other. While I said my pleases and thank you’s they just gave me the rudest stone-​faced glare. This was ended by the person at the register saying the total was 7, and then the register saying I owed 11, and him not even correcting himself. Since I ate in the store, I noticed how the other gender normative customers were treated in comparison, and I can assure you it was with much more respect and politeness. I would put the entire GLBT community on warning that this establishment is not a safe space if you are «different» in some way. I will certainly never return to the Portsmouth store to have to deal with these obvious bigots.

Skip the bagels: get the sourdough. I mean, the bagels are good, but the sourdough is insane. My super picky fiancé spotted my sandwich and had order regrets. I got a sausage, egg and cheese on bread, and it was incredible. I would love to try it toasted with their other sandwiches!
Expect it to be busy on the weekends or a holiday, they aren’t slow but the line can take a while.

The service was incredibly quick and cheerful, and the pricing inexpensive for the quality. The employees were willing to deviate from the written menu without pause, and the food was delicious. The atmosphere was likewise pleasant with a view of the main thoroughfare and a scenic church across the street.

Great bagels. I live the fact that they actually parboil them which gives them great taste and texture.
The olive cream cheese is made with kalamata olives. They are a bit skimpy on these, and I miss the pimentos that are in real olive cream cheese.

Amazing garden salad. Fresh fresh. Had tuna with it. Fresh. Dolphin free!
Groovy relaxed place. Just go

Great flavorful bagels. This place gets a huge thumbs up for offering tofu cream cheese. Thank you! They could definitely update this location. Feels dirty in the seating area, especially on weekends. They should have someone walking around now and again to check up on it. Prices are fairly reasonable. Coffee is good, .50 extra for soy milk.

Always nice to find a local café & bakery. With Starbucks & Panera Bread taking over almost everywhere this was a great find. Nice vibe, very friendly and beat of all good food.

Stopped in for lunch on a Thursday afternoon. We had the Hearty Hummus Wrap, the Thai Chicken Wrap, a Greek Salad, 3 drinks, and 2 chips. All of our meals were tasty and a decent size. We thought it might have been a bit overpriced. We paid approximately $ 33. We’ve paid less in New York City. When we cleaned our tables to leave, the recycling can and garbage can were overstuffed and you couldn’t put anything else in them. We didn’t even try and we just left the on top of the counter. It was slightly after lunch hour and the place could have used a good cleaning. Service was good and friendly.

have to agree with the other low score reviewers
It stays open by default, its in a great location with lots of passing trade
«Ok bagels» but serious issue’s with all other area’s of service and cleanliness

The Works, which is apparently this place’s name (I’ve called it Bagel Works since I can remember…) is a pretty solid three star joint. They have sandwiches, bagels, a variety of cream cheese, but they don’t really go above and beyond in any way. Especially with so much competition, it seems bagel works is always a later (maybe not last) resort. The bagels are tasty but on the smaller side, they have different flavor cream cheeses which again is a plus, but they aren’t very generous with the shmears, and even the ambience is just … okay. Not great. With that said, they are open late which is great for me because I can eat bagels for breakfast lunch and dinner; and they do also offer some good lunch options. Super randomly, the super chicken is one of my favorite sandwiches in Portland. If I worked in the area, I’m sure I would frequent this place more for lunch. (Or if Smoothie King was still right next door but I don’t think that’s coming back).
So if you’re thinking of going to this place– go! It’s not bad food! It’s just not great. And if it’s before 2pm, I’m probably gonna go to mr. bagel.
My recommendation– Super Chicken Sandwich.

In what universe is it okay to charge $ 6.49 for a bagel with ham and mozzarella? How is that acceptable? The guy at the register told me I got a «Make Your Own Sandwich.» The breakfast sandwiches cost two dollars less but they come with egg. I walk in and say, «I’d like a bagel with ham and mozzarella — no egg.» You’re charging me two dollars to NOT have egg put on my sandwich and invoking a technicality? There should be no technicalities in breakfast sandwiches. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’d rather go to Dunkin’ Donuts.
Here’s a tip if you do decide to eat here: When you get any cheese other than mozzarella, make sure you tell them not to melt the cheese. They microwave it in a bowl which turns it into get an over-​nuked, hardened slice of cheese that ruins the sandwich.
Bummer, because the food is good, just not for the price or the technicalities.

I’ve never walked out of a place until I came here. Wow! What a bad experience to say the least. The floor hadn’t been swept since the morning and there were 5 girls standing around doing nothing. That’s not why I walked out though. It was at the point that I realized they didn’t have the capabilities to toast my bagel that it started going south. The deal breaker for me was when they took raw eggs in a bowl and microwaved it. As foodie as this town is, I was flabbergasted to say the least. The staff seemed nice and the décor want anything special at all. But seriously, stop microwaving everything.

So rather than respond to my review or change their policies, The Works plants a fake 5-​star review saying the place «does not smell like urine and is not dirty»? Oh, well in that case…
It really is too bad, because Portsmouth needs a deli like The Works — but it needs one that takes the concerns of its customers seriously.

This place is awesome. We came here for lunch and it does not smell like urine and is not dirty. The service is awesome and it is clean.