Jim’s Bagel & Bake Shoppe

I must admit, the baked goods are outstanding and the coffee is delicious but there are a couple things that drive me nuts. For one, they need to work on their consistency, Coffee and bagel quality specifically. Two, there are only two people that act as if they enjoy their job and make me feel like a valued customer. Three, is the price of the large iced coffee. Yes, the large coffee is very large but if you pour their size medium into a large cup you don’t have much space left. The price of a medium coffee is about 250. A large coffee is 375. So I’m paying an extra dollar and $.25 for not that much more product. On the plus side, I cannot resist their bacon and chive cream cheese. Everyone needs to try it.

Make more cinnamon sticks in the morning, you’re always running out!

The baked goods are original and excellent. Donuts have that freshly-​fried taste, and they are that more dense, crispy donut that I like rather than the light, yeasty donut, though that is a matter of preference they are done well. The coffee is great — so many flavors. This is everything I’m looking for in a breakfast shop! Good donuts and flavored iced coffee which doesn’t taste like DD!

I loved the bagels we got here. Asiago and spinach. Their veggie cream cheese is filled with real veggies. Just really, really good.
My husband also got donuts from here, and they are just how I like them, dense and chewy.
The ordering was a pain in the butt. We had to order everything many times. We ended up with an extra coffee. I don’t think this is the employees fault, but the owners, because it is cramped back there.

How anyone walks into this place, looks around and decides it’s a good place to buy food is beyond me. The place is DISGUSTING! Why haven’t they been shut down by the board of health? The floors in front and behind the counter are filthy. There are flies everywhere. The booths look like they have never been cleaned at all. The last time I went I felt like I needed a shower after walking in the place, and no I did not order anything. I will never go back. YUCK!!!

I have been going to this donut and bake shop infrequently over the years. Their baked goods are excellent; especially, the lobster tails and the coconut donuts. However, in my last three visits, something strange is going on. When paying for my order, I feel like I am playing three card monte. The first incident is when I handed them a $ 20. There was a delay in cashing it out, since they lacked the necessary $ 1 bills. After moving around between two registers, they made change, but the attitude of the counter help during the process was not friendly. The second incident, I presented them with a credit card. My $ 9.40 purchased was entered into the credit card approval for $ 34.90. They would not process the credit, but gave me the cash difference. The most recent incident involved cash again. After my recent credit card experience, I decided it would be better to use cash. A mistake. After ringing up the order, they again played with the cash between and envelope near the register and the second register. Once they had my change of $ 11.10 they gave me $ 11. No big deal right. What’s a dime. Beyond the principle, just image over the course of a week with hundreds of customers, what this could total. Bottom line, the food is good, but watch your change. It had left and uncomfortable feeling and I will not longer frequent this local merchant. I like to support local business, but this will be definitely an exception to my rule.

Recently celebrating 25 years*, Jim’s offers some decent fresh bagels (sadly no egg bagels) & delicious donuts, excellent cakes & baked goods, a variety of freshly brewed coffees, yummy cream cheese blends, & some decent sandwiches. Service is Super S-​L-​O-​OOO-​W & they sometimes make blatant mistakes w/​the orders, especially at their drive-​thru. It’s very frustrating! Check dates on refrigerated items. Jim, the owner, is a great guy who’s very community oriented! There’s an area to sit (booth or counter), read the paper or a swapped book, & watch tv & Jim decorate those wonderful custom cakes. It’s located right across from the Gloucester train station, too.
I’ve updated this review w/​this article:
(You can often find his coupon deals in the Gloucester Daily Times, as well.)

I’m a techie.
I do it for a living.
Nothing is more frustrating than working on a technical problem on an empty stomach. So I’m driving around, ready to jump off the fish pier and i stumble on this place.
The reason I explained what I do is to convey the extreme frustration as I found this place, so anything could have gone wrong at this point.
1. Spinach Bagel with Bacon Chive CC. Wicked, Wicked awesome
2. Cinnamon Walnut Pastry Stick. Wicked, Wicked awesome
3. You’re not doing it right because it used to be that way despite the fact that we’ve changed networks, operating systems, hardware, and Mail systems is completely irrelevant… Not Awesome.

Best coffee (compared to Tedeschi’s and DD). Darn good bagels. Amazing-​looking pastries and cakes (never tasted one). Not finely-​polished counter and drive-​up service. Don’t be in a hurry if you choose this place over the competition. The folks that work here, though, are good of heart and doing their best. So tip ‘em well.

I’ll make it short and simple. Decent bagels (although they are often out of the bagels that you want… go figure), good cream cheese, decent coffee… HORRENDOUS service. If you don’t have at LEAST 10 – 15 minutes to spare just to order, I’d skip it. Otherwise, as mentioned by others, it’s slim pickings around here for a good bagel.

When I think bagels, my standard is Bagel n Bialy’s in Scottsdale or the NYT employee cafeteria. Jim’s and Iggy’s are the only two places I will buy a bagel and enjoy it in Massachusetts. Jim’s vegetable cream cheese is the best I ever had in my life! When, I go to Iggy’s and grab a chive cream cheese, I want Jim’s cream cheese. Plus, they are open by 6am every day, yes Sunday at 6:30 am they were OPEN, woohooo!!!

I had a very berry muffin at Jim’s this past week while waiting on the train. I really liked it! It had berries throughout the batter, and jam in the middle. Not the biggest muffin ever, but it was enough. Carb hounds throughout Cape Ann: Eat at Jim’s!
(On the negative side: their floors are downright treacherous when they’re wet. If I were Jim, I’d be worried about a lawsuit should one of my oldster customers fall and break a hip.)

Been going to Jim’s for years. Some of the best bagels this side of NYC, excellent baked goods and a wonderful attentive staff. What more could you want from a local bakery?

I had a doughnut, a bagel, and a coffee. Forget the fish, the next time I go to Gloucester it will be for these guys’s breakfast treats, it was AWESOME. I consider myself somewhat of a bagel and doughnut fanboy, I’ve been known to drive up to 2 hrs away any given morning for a good doughnut or bagel and these guys definitely make the cut, we swung by here on our way to an early am whale watch and we were not disappointed, the service might have been slow but we didn’t really notice, it seemed par to us but we weren’t in a big hurry. We sat inside so I can’t speak to the drive through speed or service. The coffee was piping hot with the perfect amt of cream and sugar added for me (I dislike having to add my own), the bagel was crisp on the outside, baked to perfection but warm and soft on the inside just the way I like it. They had a great selection of standard cream cheeses but they also had a few house flavors with their own spin (such as maple walnut instead of the standard honey walnut). The doughnuts were terrific as well, I got the boston cream which was similarly cooked to perfection, golden brown outside with a soft inside, the doughnut was cold when I got it so I don’t know if these guys cook in house or if getting a warm doughnut is an option here (my favorite doughnuts are the ones right out of the fryer where the inside literally melts in your mouth). The cream was perfectly spread throughout the middle so there was some in every bite (not just a little line of it going from one side to the other like you get at some places) and the chocolate topping generously covered the top, it was the kind that turns completely solid when it hits room temperature so that it made a type of hard-​ish chocolate shell on top (my preference to the gooey chocolate top you find on many other boston creams which, although tasty, is a mess to eat through)
In sum, I had a terrific experience, I will definitely return and these guys are well worth the 5 stars!

My review is for the doughnuts, which are the most amazing, crackalicious doughnuts I have had in a long time — possibly ever (for me, it’s a tie between Jim’s and Kane’s in Saugus). Robbo is right — there is no comparison between Jim’s doughnuts and the ones at Dunkin’. Jim’s doughnuts are homemade and with love. We live in Chicago, but every time we’re in town, we have to stop at Jim’s. It’s just a must.

I feel the need to warn people about the drive-​thru window at Jim’s. I want to say that when you go inside, the experience is still great. I had an awful experience trying to navigate the drive-​thru and successfully get my order; in the end, it was incorrect and the lid was barely on so that it spilled all over my car when I went to pick it up for a sip.
Anyway, you have to enter the drive-​thru via a street 1 behind the street that the actual restaurant is located on. It’s very inconvenient. Apparently, there is a box to place your order, but I never saw it and it looked like cars were just pulling up to the window. I gave the woman at the window my order and it was painful. I assume she’s the one taking the orders so it probably would have been just as bad if I’d given them at the box (which I never did spot). I had to repeat the coffee order four times and she still screwed it up. Not to whine, but I cannot stand sugar in my coffee. So to get light cream and extra sugar really aggravates me. As I mentioned, the lid wasn’t even on and it spilled.
It is far easier to just find parking on the main street (which has plenty). Don’t waste your time and get stressed out like I did trying to order at the drive-​thru. I will never go to the drive-​thru again and I probably won’t go back for awhile did the bad experience memories wear off.

Jim’s Bagel and Back Shop has great product, reasonable prices and their new location is ideal for commuters and people getting together for a morning cup of coffee and doughnut. I like them, I really do.
That being said, their service can be a bit slow, and at times, I feel like their staff doesn’t listen to what customer’s orders are. I’ve often asked for an un-​toasted bagel with cream cheese on the side and more often than not, they get that wrong. Maybe it’s because the moment they’ll hear the start of an order, they walk away and start preparing it before you can finish telling them how you want it. It’s annoying and not good customer service.
Also, and this is just me being nitpicky… there’s spelling errors all over their menu. For months the spray painted sign on the ground was spelled «Drive TRHU» and they advertise a craMberry walnut chicken salad sandwich. Call me crazy, but If I owned a business, I’d spell check things before I put it all out there for the public to see.
Despite their hiccups, I’d order from Jim’s any day of the myriad of Dunkin Donuts’ taking over my town. And I do.

Being from NY originally, I feel like I know a good bagel. Jim’s has a good bagel.
However, after experiencing multiple bagels being charred in their toaster oven, I refuse to let them toast my bagel anymore. Additionally, I love breakfast sandwiches with egg, but Jim’s «Eggle» freaks me out a little — they microwave the egg in a plastic container.
Bottom line, Jim’s has good bagels and cakes, but they could really bring some of their products up a couple of notches.