Brad’s

Horrible service. Every single person that works there is insanely rude and they’re always understaffed. You wait forever just to buy a bottle of water. I hate this place and their coffee is terrible too.

This place has decent food but is dirty and service stinks. Too bad they don’t have much competition on campus. Workers don’t care about customers and often make weird comments. Guy who runs the place seems lazy and always has the place looking like junk.

I’m writing this review to voice my concern about an experience I had last week (February 2016). I have not contacted management about this, as there is no contact information available from the Brad’s website, aside from ordering food items.
My boyfriend and I often get drinks and snacks at Brad’s and eat food that we bring from home. We are aware of the sign that prohibits outside food, but we never sit and eat there unless we buy something and as paying customers, we feel as though this is a fair deal.
Last week, my boyfriend, who is black, was confronted by a member of management and said that he would have to leave or cover the food that he had out on the table. We tried to explain that we had bought items at the restaurant, but he insisted. We packed up our lunch and finished eating outside.
While I may be able to respect the fact that management has a sign that prohibits outside food, and the manager was merely enforcing this rule, I cannot and will not accept that the manager did not confront me, sitting at the table with my boyfriend obviously also with food from home out on the table NOR did he confront two other patrons, who were also white females, eating food out of tupperware containers, obviously not purchased from Brad’s.
I want Brad’s management, and other patrons of this restaurant to be aware of this completely unequal treatment of Brad’s patrons. If you’re going to have a rule, it applies to everyone, not just certain demographics.

Good place to sit and have an impromptu meeting. Subs are reliably good, and if you get the large ones, quite filling. Service is friendly. They have a range of drinks, hot and cold. Subs are much better than Subways, although not as good as Sub-​concious, but that is much less conveniently located.

Brads just redid their menu to have some premium more expensive supposedly better sandwiches. Just ordered a Cuban from here that had 2 pieces of ham, no mustard, and no pickles. Very disappointing for a 10 dollar sandwich.

Not a bad place to grab lunch and compared to other places on campus, a lot cheaper. The location makes it a nice spot if you don’t have a dining plan but are craving a sandwich during a short lunch break. The sandwiches I’ve gotten are good, but nothing special — it tastes just like Subway but you can feel a little better supporting a small business (at the expense of higher prices) if that’s your thing. Be sure to get the larger size since the shorter sandwich is way too small. Ordering can be a little confusing as your sandwich is assembled by several people and it’s easy to lose track of whose sandwich they’re working on. Overall, it’s convenient, but I’d rather walk up to Subway for a tastier and cheaper lunch.

Food was surprisingly good, definitely comparable to a better version of subway. Didnt feel that the reviews accurately portrayed the place– was expecting something much better. I am giving 3 stars because its good for a quick on the go bite and the cherry pepper relish was amazing and the staff were super nice. Also a little expensive but hey its new york

I would like more than 2 slices of turkey on my sandwich, and I would rather avoid precooked eggs heated up in the microwave. Overpriced and very medicore.

I was really dissapointed with the bagel we got. I would have expected better than the pre-​cooked eggs

I’m super grateful that Brad’s was able to nourish me this morning with a delicious bagel breakfast sandwich and fresh coffee. Beats waiting in line at Starbucks, including save a couple of bucks. I should mention the morning — noontime staff today were great! From the cashier to the sandwich artists, I felt welcomed and left well-​fed.

Brad’s is like a less corporate version of Subway with better food. I love grabbing a sandwich here when I’m on the Columbia campus. They have great quality/​quantity for the price and it’s tasty.

Why such a low review?
— Expensive — You get a little 6 inch sub for $ 6. That isn’t cheap (as Erik thinks). You could go to Subsconscious, Subway, or even Ham Del and get cheaper sandwiches.
— Bad attitudes — The servers there always seem to think they’re doing you a favor by giving you those sandwiches. They’re mean and they don’t even respond when you speak to them.
— Bad sandwiches as a result of those attitudes — As a result of some shitty attitudes, my sandwiches are usually 100% lettuce with one tomato chunk, a sliver of a pickle, and one chick pea. Unfortunately I’m not kidding. It’s ridiculous how crappy the sandwiches are made.
Don’t go here. Sure, if you’re a freshman living nearby or a J-​School student, it’s convenient, but it’s a rip-​off and they’re rude.

I work incredibly close so it’s sometimes my only option when I need a coffee. By the way, the coffee is horrible, like they might have someone dumpster dive old grinds (grounds? grinds?) from the Starbucks across the street to use in their coffee.
The sandwiches are OK, probably the best thing here. The toasty bread is good and I’m kind of a sucker for shredded, cold iceberg lettuce on my sandwich. The bagels are decent but if you tell them which one you want they just look at you like you don’t speak English until you physically pick up and hand them the bagel you want.
That would lead to the 2 star part of the review: the staff and service. I don’t have kids but asking the employees (particularly the female employees) of this establishment for anything, just your order even, gets a reaction like I imagine the one you’d get from telling your 14 year old goth kid they have to give grandma a sponge bath. I truly believe all employees are required to take some sort of mind-​altering drug at the beginning of their shift that makes «May I have a large coffee» sound like «Hi, you’re ugly, I just screwed your mom and knocked your baby down a flight of stairs, go fuck yourself.»
Not sure what the deal is with this place but they seem to have an odd, rotating cast of managers more oblivious and apathetic than the last. I’m sure I’ll continue to patron this customer service catastrophe out of pure convenience but if there actually is a Brad, I think he needs to get his shit together.

The Best Subs Within 500 Meters of Columbia Journalism School
Brad’s is actually attached to the J-​School, which means that you either eat at the tables in its own dining room (enclosed in glass and a little chilly in the winter), or sneak onto a couch the journalism lounge if you’re nice about it. A sub joint is a sub joint, but there’s something in the gestalt of Brad’s that makes it better than most. It’s the combination of the slightly-​crunchy looking handwritten menu, the sometimes devastatingly unhealthy options (I’m consuming a double meatball right now), and the panopoly of languages that Columbia students speak that gives Brad’s a unique ambiance. I should say they also have healthy stuff, like salads and freshly-​squeeze orange juice.
If you’re hungry and in a rush on campus, Brad’s is probably your best option. It’s as close to the center of Columbia’s main quad as any eatery. If you need to load yourself with energy prior to a massive studying session, I recommend the combo menu — 6-​inch sub, chips, and unlimited fountain drinks. The sub will fill you with protein and carbohydrates, the chips your starch, and the fountain drinks your sugar and caffeine. Taken altogether, Brad’s combo menu can amount to quite a rush.
It’s cheap. Really cheap. Completely fill yourself, food and drinks, for under $ 8. That’s about as good as you’ll get in Manhattan. That’s also incredibly important, because a large proportion of Columbia students are broke. (And journalism students aren’t necessarily going to become millionaires anytime soon.) Whoever this Brad is who founded the place (actually the history is written on the café’s wall), he did everybody a big favor by opening a cheap sub joint in the middle of the campus.
The one odd feature of Brad’s is that they have an electronic ticker-​tape with news headlines running along one wall of the dining room. All day long, the news of the world, over and over. But I’ve actually never seen anyone reading it or even looking at it. It’s just rolling out information that nobody ever receives. It’s a tree that’s falling in a forest with no one there to hear it. One of the campus’ many quirks, that makes the café, and the school, so lovable.

Columbia’s Cobb salad with raspberry vinaigrette is simply delicious. Good iced coffee: although they don’t have soy milk, it’s decent enough if you don’t have time to go to Oren’s or Joe The Art of Coffee. If you are a TV news channel junkie, you’ll love the uninterrupted transmissions free of charge if you get a place to sit.

Ordered the Waldorf salad, was not a fan because the apple slices and lettuce were salty!!! Tasted really awful, I had to pick at my meal and basically throw it away. I definitely do not recommend the salads, but I hear good things about the sub sandwiches.

Went there to meet someone the other day.
I do not know whether café’s inside a university campus have to be like these or not.
We ordered ice coffees for ourselves. I didn’t like mine at all as it was cold so no chance of getting the ice mixed with it.
I won’t go back here again.

There are plenty of cafeterias on Columbia’s campus that offer mediocre sandwiches for $ 6 or $ 7. For $ 4.50 plus tax you get a 6″ sub stuffed with any combination of meat, cheese, and toppings you want. $ 6 plus tax and tip gets you a 9″ super sized sub. They are great and the best option on campus for anyone that didn’t pack a lunch.
The staff could use some happy pills but otherwise this place is great.
Tip: One of the many toppings you can pick from is potato chips. It makes any sandwich amazing. Add it.

Great sandwich shop on the CU campus. Cheap, fast lines, and friendly people. You can get toasted subs, soups, and salads. The prices are reasonable and I was surprised that they allow you to add chips to your sandwich. I really enjoyed my sandwich but I was also really hungry. So we will see how I like it the next time I return.

If you’re looking for an upscale yuppie eatery this isn’t it – however Brad’s fills a very badly needed niche in the neighborhood: Years ago on the same block there was a nice hippy sandwich joint called Eddie’s which was a low budget no frills beer and burgers spot catering to students who just wanted a place to hang. Sadly Eddie’s closed but thank goodness that Brad has come into the hood to fill a badly needed gap.
Brad’s is perfect for a lazy long lunch where you don’t wanted to be bother by wait staff trying to get rid of you because you are reading a book or surfing the net. The food is good for the price range, the staff is friendly and low key and there’s beer on tap. The menu is subs and pizza. and as a vegetarian I found that there was enough on the menu.