Bagel International

Stick to a bagel with cream cheese. Everything else is hit or miss. Service stinks, system is haphazard, and physical set-​up is not conducive to great service.
The staff are a bunch of high school kids who don’t really understand ‘customer service’…but that is bc the «old school» owner seems to run his business on Jimmy Carter-​era economic strategies and scotch tape. Way too much scotch tape.
With that said… still the best bagel in town… which isn’t saying much. Call ahead, buy a dozen bagels, and prepare at home for the least frustrating experience.

They have enormous bagels that are decent. However, they put one small egg on the huge bagel, which is silly. You end up getting egg in less than half the bites. Also, the staff is laughable. A bunch of caddy young girls that argue and eat while they butter bagels.

Update: just a few days ago, I decided to give this place another try. I ordered a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich on a bagel and I requested extra bacon, since they add way less meat than they used to in previous years. I received my sandwich and was charged $ 6.99 for a very sad sandwich. The lackluster amount of ingredients get lost in their big doughy bagels. I asked for my bagel toasted, but it wasn’t. The cold bacon and eggs were not even warm enough to melt the cheese on the sandwich! Not sure where they think they are, but there is just too much competition to be charging $ 7 for a sad, poorly-​made bagel sandwich. I added a pic of this sad overpriced sandwich in the photos section.

No idea how this place is only rated 3 stars. I’ve been going here for over 15 years and even though I’m not near enough to go regularly, I still go a couple of times a year when I’m in the area.
The bagels are huge and delicious. Perfect consistency. They’re perfect as a sandwich, with butter, or even just to eat on their own. These should be held as the standard of bagels.
They may be pricey, but only bc they can be. There business is always booming. The place is jammed on the weekends, even in the winter when they don’t have the beach traffic. They’ve hired teenagers since I can remember but I’ve never had an issue with that. They’ve always been attentive and well trained.
My favorite bagel shop.

They never seem to be able to get you’re order right. Something is always wrong. The bagels are huge but when you order a breakfast sandwich there’s never enough on them because of how big they are.

Breakfast sandwiches are no good but they make a good bagel with cream cheese… that’s pretty much the only thing I’ll order anymore. One time I corrected them when they were preparing to cook my order and they still messed it up. Also very cramped inside on weekends.

Really good bagel. Will stop in again.

Didnt care for this place at all. I liked that it had tables outside and enough seating inside. The atmosphere is enough to make someone have ADD, there are signs everywhere — didnt care for it. Its cash only. Some of the staff was rude, others very nice. Price was moderate. Most importantly the bagel was horrible — like white bread with seeds on it. Order egg whites on a bagel is one egg white — SERIOUSLY! i got double but then they put two slices of cheese on it. Wasnt good. one of the worst egg white sandwiches ever.

This place used to be the best but their bagels aren’t as good as they were 15 years ago. The men who run the kitchen are very rude and unaccommodating. The older man who owns this should really consider making some changes starting with the staff. You’ve lost my business after 15+ years.

Yesterday I ate the worst breakfast bagel I’ve ever had. Huge (stale) bagel, one egg, cheese was not melted. Gross.

One star off for being cash only. They do have an ATM in the place, but still…
The bagels are big and really soft. Their bacon, egg, and cheese is delish, the perfect hangover food. Keep In mind, the line does get really long, so do yourself a favor and call in your order for pick up.

I do not know how this place doesn’t have a 4 and a half star rating. Most of the complaint come from the fact that young kids are getting the order wrong. They’re probably training and the fact that this place creates A LOT of local jobs is awesome!
VERY good bagels! VERY good prices!
This place doesn’t need Unilocal blessing the line is out the door every morning in the summer but thats just a sign that its GOOD!

These aren’t bagels they are huge loaves of bread.

A little late on this review (one year) but everyone needs to be made aware…
I used to visit Bagels International pretty much daily, at least 4 – 5 times per week. I’ve looked past some of the issues they have (service time, lack of staff training, poor attitude, etc.) but one day the most ridiculous thing happened.
I was sitting with a direct view of the bathroom and the tall bald guy (never seemed all there mentally to me) that works there was about to walk out. Barehanded (no gloves on), he proceeded to wipe the top of his head with a paper towel, THEN WIPED THE TOILET SEAT and walked out of the bathroom to head back behind the counter. Being the outgoing individual I am I called him out in front of everyone in the store on it. Absolutely disgusting. I brought it to Ed’s (the owners) attention and he went on to tell me «I have to tell these kids 100 times to wash their hands.» In my mind I say, «YOU ACTUALLY HAVE TO TELL THEM!?»
Have not returned since. Found a new bagel spot in my hometown of Belmar (although slow, makes a pretty good bagel sandwich)

I’ve been here a few times since I moved into the area, and have found that this place’s only issue is that it’s a Hit or miss with the staff
Aside from that they have a pretty good sized coffee selection and make an amazing pork roll egg and cheese

I hate that this is the closest bagel shop to me. The middle school aged workers never seem to get the order right, weekend after weekend after weekend. Why ask if I want a toasted bagel, if your never going to toast it? Why charge 1.50+ for cream cheese spread and forget to put it on. It’s frustrating that it’s consistently wrong and I’m forced to pay full price for items that’s aren’t what I ordered and when the food is mediocre at best.
Please try another local bagel place that hires compitant and better trained staff who ensures your order is right and sells a better product.

As I stand here, waiting for my order, I contemplated saying forget it and walking out. The woman got nasty with me bc I wasn’t giving my order in the right order!!! It’s not my first time here but will DEFINITELY be my last! What’s worse is the owner was standing RIGHT beside her and didn’t even wince!!! They usually get my order wrong… last time they delivered it to the wrong table, the guy had it for a few minutes before realizing it and they still tried to give it to me! Their only saving grace is they have decent bagels but for what you pay and how you get treated, NO THANK YOU!!! There are other places that the owners put their heart & souls into and deserve to thrive!!!

I’ve been coming here for years and they bagels are solid but the way the business is operated is lackluster at best.
The layout is terrible and makes the place seem crowded with only 5 customers in the whole place.
The place isn’t very clean and the nasty fish tank on the deli counter is off-​putting.
The teenage girls that run the counter work hard but often wear flip flops and sweat pants which is extremely dangerous
They don’t accept credit cards which makes the long lines even worse.

Wish there was a negative star option. I’ve never experienced such disrespect to a customer.
They give orders out by number system, and my number kept being skipped. I ordered a pretty big order so it’s understandable that it took some time but 30 minutes? I could’ve waited 30 minutes sitting down at a restaurant and would’ve received my food earlier.
Ticked me off but the wait isn’t my main complaint. so I’m standing there aggravated. asked a tall male employee POLITELY if he could please check on my order and that I’ve been waiting 30 minutes. A fellow employee next to him also said «yeah, she’s been waiting a while», but his response?
«what do you want me to do about it»
me: «check.on my order?»
«no. you’ll have to wait»
me: «…seriously?»
“ya, seriously. «[mocking me]
i look around in disbelief, look at a waiting customer behind me, they shrug as if to say «i have no idea»
«just kidding, i’m just joking yeah i’ll check the order»
JUST KIDDING??? you see one of your customers obviously a little antsy of the wait and you try to sarcastically and in an extremely demeaning way, joke??? Is that in ANY WAY how to speak to a customer? You want to joke with a customer, joke in a funny way where it wouldn’t offend them and leave with disgust.
Oh and to top it allll off — My order was wrong. I doubt a WHEAT bagel TOASTED is hard to mess up but judging from the type of employee I had to deal with — not surprised.

Ok, this place would get a 4 star rating but, as a new customer I was unaware that I should have picked up at this boy (stupid stupid stupid… always do pick up from a bagel place on a weekend). This place straight up needs a redesign. You walk in and there is this HUGE coffee station in the middle of the space, diving it into two so not knowing which line to get in, I steered to the left. Which indeed was the correct line as the right side is for people waiting for their orders. This place was also crazy crazy busy.
Squinting to see the menu, I ordered a turkey sandwich with bacon on a whole wheat everything bagel. I ordered some other orders for friends along with some iced coffees. The young gal in the front hands me 3 empty cups for the iced coffee and tells me I do it myself. Errr ok. Back to that horrible coffee station. The ice is melting in a cooler. I «fill» up the cups and empty some cold coffee from a pitcher into the cups. Not too delicious of an iced coffee but, not as bad as I expected it to be.
On to taste. The food itself was delicious. The bagels were good, the turkey and additional accoutrements were fresh and delicious. It came with some side chips and wrapped up in cellophane. The chips were stale but, I still ate ‘em. Never met a chip I didn’t like.
Overall, this place fills the need and of a great bagel sandwich especially on one of those mornings where you need a little sustenance to wash away the bad decisions from the night prior (a lady of my size and stature should not be drinking more than 10 beers, which totally happened… I swear I’m not an alcoholic). I’ll be back but, for sure for sure, I’ll be calling my order in and hittin’ up Sbucks for a real iced coffee.
** Cash only… for reals?