Brookside Bagels

This is one of my stops when I come back home. And if some people are lucky, I’ll play bagel fairy when I come back: p (edit — no one got lucky because bagel fairy forgot she was bagel fairy)
The kind of bagels I’m around are dense, compact bagels. Yuck. But good bagels, such as Brookside, are dense but chewy and fatter than your corporate bagels. Pair with a schmear or make it into a breakfast sandwich, there is not right or wrong way. Take some home for later or get it delivered (within the area, of course).
The coffee is pretty good too. It’s Green Mountain coffee and I’ll snag a cup or two of that as well.

Today was my first time visiting and I had a great experience! The layout of the restaurant set up in a logical manner. It was clear where the customers go to order and pick up.
The counter displays the bagels. I couldn’t stop staring at all the options to choose from! I decided on a everything bagel with cream cheese, while my husband opted for a breakfast sandwich on a everything bagel.
I was impressed with how fast the order was ready. They had just the right amount of employees to manage the crowd efficiently. Each employee I encountered was very friendly and had a great attitude.
The bagels looked and tasted awesome! The dough was light and not too dense. I almost went back for seconds!

The best place to go for breakfast– or when you want breakfast for lunch or dinner! I’m a huge breakfast-​for-​luncher and this place never disappoints. All bagels aside– their home fries are to die for! Honestly the best I’ve had in a long time. The bagel selection is huge and whether you get cream cheese or an egg sandwich, they aren’t skimpy with filling your bagel. Generous with the cream cheese and eggs. Besides the endless breakfast combinations they also have a great looking lunch menu– just never ordered from it. This place gets packed for good reasons so I recommend calling ahead if you’re going on a lunch break or are in a hurry. Also have witnessed them mixing up orders before– common mistake in a busy atmosphere!- so check before you drive off!

I’ve been here several times now as the location is very convenient to my daily commute. I know I’m in the minority, but I’m not impressed. It’s always busy.
Counter service is always awkward and inefficient at best, and you’ll have to restrain yourself from just making your order yourself. Young untrained employees don’t know their role, Orders are handwritten by one, collected by a second and rung up by a third team member, translated by a fourth. By the time your order is delivered by a 5^th team member, they are asking the other 4 what the name on the note is and what the order is, because they can’t read it. Oh, and that’s just the first half of the order, the rest is still being made, duh.
Breakfast sandwiches are really greasy, but the eggs are real. Bagels themselves are fresh, but unremarkable in both flavor and texture. Cream cheese also lacks flavor.

Pretty small place which is almost always busy that serves some pretty good bagels, breakfast sandwiches and a few lunch items. From my most recent experience, I’d have to recommend the cheddar cheese bagel as it is super soft and doughy with a very great cheddar flavor. Although my egg is usually a little more brown than I’d want, I think the bagel quality makes up for it.

I can only comment on the bagels. They are more like a grinder roll than a bagel. And maybe some people will like this. They are not dense or chewy like a NY bagel. They are very light and fluffy with air pockets. They don’t have much flavor. My family felt like they were eating a piece of bread, not a bagel.

Rolls shaped like a bagel 1.5 stars
My Saturday morning started with a dozen bagels from Brookside. The store is really neat and their bagel offering looks pretty good. For that I give them 1 star. The bagels however were not so good. For starters the bagels are not chewy and dense, but more of a roll like texture and weight. There were air pockets throughout both large and small, they were much lighter than a NY style bagel. Flavor was actually more similar to that of a sandwich roll rather than a bagel. I can’t quite pinpoint what they did wrong but my hunch is they do not use high gluten flour. High gluten flour is essential to a good bagel and what is used by all good bagel shops. If not that, they are not boiling or steaming the bagels properly. I hope this was an isolated incident and will give them another try next week, but will sample 1^st and buy only if chewy, dense, and flavorful like a bagel should be.

Best bagels in the area. Not those overly large and hard Dunkin Donuts ones but soft and tasty and multiple real flavors. The cheddar bagel is delicious as is the cinnamon sugar for a sweet bite. The specialty apple or banana ones are dripping with toppings and a wonderful indulgence. The salads and wraps are also delicious. You can’t go wrong with this place.

This is one of those little town bagelries that you go to on a weekend for a good egg sandwich, which we have. The bagels are tasty and when you add eggs cheese and bacon they hit the spot! Somewhat greasy so I wouldn’t say a health conscious choice but definitely a mouth pleaser!

Brookside bagel definitely provides a solid bagel/​breakfast sandwich in a timely manner, for a reasonable price. The bagels were good, but I think I’m still going to default to Goldberg’s in west hartford.
I went on a Sunday morning and brookside was busy, but not packed. There were lots of bagels to choose from. I ended up trying two things: an egg and cheese on and everything bagel, and a cheddar bagel with scallion cream cheese. The bagels were chewy on the outside and soft on the inside. Unfortunately once I got back to my car I realized my egg and cheese was actually a sausage/​egg/​cheese. I’m currently pregnant and not eating sausage so rather than go back for another I just removed it.
The cheddar bagel was good, lots of cheese… maybe too much combined with the cream cheese I ordered. I think the scallion cream cheese might have been my favorite part of the whole meal. They have quite a few different homemade cream cheeses which is a good selling point. They are tasty!
The service was good and I like that they have a little seating area and coffee bar.

My go to destination for breakfast sandwiches. Keep it up

Alleluia. Best bagel I’ve ever had. My son and I had the cinnamon apple — baked gooey apples centered inside a delicious raisin bagel. Finger licking good. We’ll be back again and again I’m sure!

After four years of ordering bagels for dorm feeds at my daughter’s high school, we’re here for lunch. The interior is homey, warm and full, so we’re on the shaded patio, which is pleasant but adjacent to a very busy main street.
The bagels look and smell amazing. This is a time to really feel for people with gluten issues because there’s no way these rich, plump gems wouldn’t hurt for at least a week if I were foolish enough to eat one. I’m not, so I’m enjoying the show, which looks amazing.
It’s not a super efficient counter ordering to food pick up service, but it’s charming and the foods looks delicious. If my husband and son are to be trusted, the bagels are outstanding, far surpassing west coast bagels.

Love me some Brookside! By far my favorite bagel place. Highly recommend the garlic bagel, the Dutch apple bagel, and of course the famous Brookside!

SO SO SO SO GOOD

Solid. I don’t think the bagels are that mind-​blowingly guitar-​shreddingly rip-​your-​clothes-​off awesome but they’re good. BEC bagel sandwich + small coffee = a little less than 7 $ I guess that’s cheap (???) seems pretty average to me. As in: I would not be happy to pay more than that and less than that I would consider cheap.
Yeah overall I would stop here again for funny people watching and a pretty nice ratio of cost: # of hours I am full for.

I’m so torn between a four or five on this one but if we’re talking about just the bagels, it’s definitely a five. Brookside bagels are the best I have had in Connecticut and maybe anywhere. I am so glad Harvest had a 30+ minute wait today and I declared (loudly, I might add) to my boyfriend that our time was much too valuable to be wasted waiting in line, because otherwise we wouldn’t have come here today and I wouldn’t have come to the conclusion that this is even better than my other CT fave.
I’d had Brookside bagels several times but they were either brought home or a few days old that no one else wanted, but even still they were mighty delicious. There is just something that is lost, though, by taking any food to-​go. Today I got the full Brookside experience by dining in. It made all the difference. My cheddar everything bagel breakfast sandwich and the scallion cream cheese on a cheddar bagel (we split both) changed my worldview of what bagels should taste like. The cream cheese was probably the best I’d ever had, too. I literally talked about how good they were for the next hour. No joke.
Where this place is lacking is the customer service. The extremely awkward girl at the counter made the ordering process unpleasant and uncomfortable. When the cheddar bagel with scallion cream cheese arrived room temp and untoasted, another young staff member (more competent) took control of the situation and made me a brand new bagel to the correct specifications while letting me keep the first one which we inhaled after our 30min drive back to West Hartford and after we had already eaten the other two bagels.

One way I measure the years I’ve lived here is the proliferation of certain types of food establishments. Pizza, bagels, Asian food, hamburgers and frozen yogurt joints come to mind immediately.
Brookside Bagels has been around ever since I can remember. They have survived the test of time and have become a popular and beloved institution on Hopmeadow Street.
They have like 18 different kinds of bagels. When my kids were real small, we used to get bagel sticks for them here. The have all kinds of cream cheeses and get bonus points for stocking a salsa jalapeño variety. Breakfast sandwiches with eggs, deli sandwiches for lunch, wraps, gyros, salads, anything you want.
The bagels are wonderful– chewy, with great taste and as fresh as can be. They are smaller than the gargantuan types you see at other places, but that’s fine with me.
Service is provided by an army of friendly and smiling high schoolers. It gets pretty crowded here in the mornings, as the commuters line up for their bagel and coffee before heading into Hartford.
They have quite a few tables and chairs, so you can sit and relax if that’s your preference.
Just be aware that they close at 4 every day.

Awesome bagels! Great little bagel shop also sells salads and sandwiches. Small and comfy inside only around 9 tables. We love the Everything Cheddar Bagel so soft and has great flavor. Great plain or made into a breakfast sandwich. They have some really inventive bagels like the Dutch Apple which is basically a raisin Bagel with Apple Pie filling and a sweet crumb topping. Or the Banana Chocolate Chip which has a banana chocolate chip and crumb filling on top and in the hole. If you love bagels you need stop in and check these ones out!

I’ve been a loyal patron here since I moved here in the 90’s and while the employees have changed, the bagels are still fresh and yummy. I will say that their breakfast sandwiches are slowly going downhill as they seem to be a lot more sloppy and greasy than ever, but I still order them and still a fan.
If it’s busy, make sure to speak up as it gets pretty loud and my orders have been messed up too many times to recall. The plus side to this is that my now favorite mess up breakfast sandwich is a bacon egg and cheese on a dutch apple bagel. I really ordered a dutch apple bagel with cream cheese, but was pleasantly surprised at the sandwich I got after the shock wore off and I actually tried it.
All in all, a fav when it comes to breakfast sandwiches and bagels. Not a fan of their home fries, in fact, I think they’re pretty gross and their lunch time sandwiches aren’t really that impressive. I will, however, always be a fan!