Bagel Brothers

Lots of excellent sandwich choices… From breakfast to lunch, with optional substitutions. Friendly staff that was more than welcome to provide suggestions. A bonus was getting to watch the bagels be made!
Although the coffee was cold and had to purchase cream cheese separately… A bagel just isn’t a bagel without cream cheese. Lol

We love their bagel sandwiches and stop in whenever we pass through the Olympia area. Good prices and the staff is friendly.

The sell? Probably the best bagels in town. But it’s Olympia, so even then it’s not incredible. The service has plummeted in the last year. They regularly forget my order, leaving me waiting for a while, and the times they do remember to make my order, it takes unnecessarily long. I’m a patient girl and I don’t go to places in a rush with the hopes they’ll accommodate my every need, but it shouldn’t take 15 minutes to toast a bagel and slap some cream cheese on it. I’ve also noticed it’s not as clean as it used to be in there.

Bagels are great. However it’s Sunday. Free coffee day. Both pots of coffee are out. I want creamer. Nope that’s out as well. And so of course I try the pump creamer. That’s out as well.
Your paying six employees to monitor your business. You just charged me $ 18 for two bagels. Get your business in order. I wouldn’t be complaining if the general prices were much lower. Not a pleasant trip.

For Olympia, their bagels are top notch. Of course you can’t compare them to authentic NY bagels, but they are definitely much better than the other bagels they sell here. I had the sesame bagel with cream cheese — the bagel is appropriately chewy but is lacking that nice, thick, dense taste that NY bagels have. Still, not bad and an okay substitute when you’re hit with that «omg I want a real bagel» craving and that bagged stuff from the grocery store just won’t do it.

Perfect to get a bagel and coffee. The bagels are made fresh and it’s easy to tell due to the high quality. The toasted French Toast Bagel with cream cheese is incredible, especially with a little cinnamon and vanilla sprinkled on the top. Never disappointed in the breakfast sandwiches either, always a delight. Staff is consistently very friendly and helpful.

Decided to grab a Bagel and coffee while I was visiting Olympia and a friend suggested Bagel Brothers. Based on the outside I wasn’t super excited when I got there. It’s located in a shopping center that’s a little run down. They did have outdoor seating which is a plus because I bring my dog everywhere.
Inside the place is pretty small and a little older feeling but the bagels looked and smelled fantastic. While not the best I’ve ever had, they were pretty solid. Definitely a good place to grab some bagels to go or if you want to grab a bag of bagels from home and would like more variety and quality then what a grocery store would carry.

Vegans Beware. There are a few sandwiches on the menu in the store that say «vegans may substitute hummus»… this is NOT true. Even if you sub hummus, ALL of their bagels use honey in the recipe so there is no safe bread for a vegan sandwich.

Good bagels. Made however you want them. They also offered other bread lady items as well. We were in a hurry to catch the ferry in Steillacoom so this place was definitely a good choice as compared to a sit down dining restaurant. :)

Very disappointing. The service was downright terrible with rude staff and an obviously dirty store. After an excessive wait, I got my bagel to-​go only to realize they toasted it, without ever asking, and put the wrong toppings on. At that point, I didn’t have the time to deal with a rude employee once more to get it made correctly.

Bagels are consistent, but the service is consistently lacking, and it hit an all time level of rudeness and disgust at our last and final visit. We found a hair smeared into the cream cheese of our daughter’s bagel. I calmly and discreetly took it to the counter and showed it to the cashier. She asked what kind, and asked the staff behind her to make another one. As I stood patiently waiting, the fiery red head tasked with making the replacement bagel commented to a co-​worker right in front of me «she claims it’s a hair but I’m sure it’s sprout» in a tone that suggests I’d offended and inconvenienced her, yet she had never even looked at the bagel that was immediately thrown away when i took it to the counter. And then she proceeded to throw the new bagel on the counter in my general direction without one word or glance of acknowledgement. I’m actually pretty sure it was a hair, but that’s irrelevant. I refuse to deal with insolent, passive aggressive staff who serve up attitude and tasteless service. No thanks.

Been eating bagel brothers since about ’95. Bagels have been fresh and always enjoyable. Buy a dozen or so at a time. They even freeze well. Good stuff.

Very nice place. Great Selection of Bagels and flavored cream cheese too. I never had a problem with service. You can only make a bagel sandwich so fast.
I will be returning.

Food is good – purely on quality of product, they’d get a 3 or maybe 4 stars. But service is some of the worst I’ve experienced. To ensure I wasn’t merely seeing an anomaly, I stopped by for lunch 3 times in two weeks. Each time, staff was lackadaisical about taking orders, and – worse – they seemed to be totally random in the order in which orders were completed. It seems the only people who receive prompt service are friends of the store workers and attractive women under age 25.
A couple other notes: Bagel sandwiches ordered for dining in are served with chips and a pickle. Orders to go get a bagel only. Same price, less food.
On my last visit, after watching the 3 people who ordered after me (one ordered a good 5 minutes after me) get their sandwiches before I got mine, took my sandwich back to my office only to find that what should have been a plain bagel was actually a cheesy onion bagel. Not only did they screw up on providing prompt service, they screwed up the order, too. NOTE: The store was NOT busy at this time– only two other customers were in the store when I went in.
A mediocre bagel is not enough reason to suffer crappy service, so I won’t be going back.

Food is ok but service is questionable. Made it very clear a product wasn’t wanted on my bagel sandwich and they still added it.

I’m from New York. These bagels are not.
Real bagels shouldn’t be toasted because they are boiled, then baked, to a chewy delightful texture. This snobbery is lost on most Washingtonians who take what they get with a polite smile and thank you. Bagels come from a land where smuck, schmooz and smear are comfortable on the lips.
However, Bagel Brothers gets points for their variety of «breads» along with the availability of lox. They serve local B&B coffee that is awesome. Sitting is ample with enough tables to relax. Staff is always friendly and accommodating. They need to work on their early morning hours because a bagel joint needs to be open 6am on Sundays.
Coffee selection is weak. They offer coffee mate instead of fresh milk or cream.

Great bagel store. I came here on a Sunday morning and they gave us free coffee (or substitute some tea) because, as they called it, slow sundays. I had a breakfast sandwich and added a tomato and it was just what I needed. It could have used a little bit of salt but otherwise it was great!
They had a wide variety of menu options as well as specials. You can’t go wrong here if you need a bagel fix.

I’m writing an updated review for this place because I feel like the service has improved tremendously and deserves more than the two stars I initially gave.
The establishment itself has been cleaner, staff has been more friendly (not sure if they replaced anyone or not), and the bagels are delicious. I’m making it a part of my usual routine to come here and enjoy myself.
If you want a good choice, go for a toasted bagel with jalapeño crème cheese and try one of their local apple ciders (which come in blackberry or raspberry). Yum!

Hold on a sec, lemme pick the poppy seeds out of my teeth… Ok! Great little shop to grab a toasty bagel with flavored cream cheese. All the bagels are made in house and there are a variety to pick from. I’ll opt for the everything bagel any day of the week.
The location is a bit of a stinker. It can be found in a strip mall surrounded by shadey foot massage establishments and out of business 1 dollar bargain shops. It would be much better suited in Olympia’s more hipstery downtown neighborhood.
Free drip coffee on Sunday, not bad… If you like coffee with zero body… Oh wait, maybe it’s tea.

So, if this rating was based on my last experience only it would be a 2, but it’s based on my combined experiences (some really great, others blech). That being said:
Bagels: Decent. Tasty. Not authentic bagels, as others have noted, but tasty. Pesto bagel, sun-​dried tomato bagel, and jalapeño bagel = YUM.
But I have to mention my friend, the Salt Bagel. Sometimes when I order the SB it’s perfect, like a salted soft pretzel, and delicious and yumyumyum. This last time I bought it, it was crusted over with salt like someone had wet the whole top half and shoved it in a pile of salt (see photos). AWFUL! If I hadn’t scraped off 90% of the salt it would have been totally, absolutely inedible. WhyyyYYYyy??? Same goes with the poppy seed bagel. The top was wholly black. Why why why? A light coating! Alternatively, the cheese bagel has only a few pieces of melted shredded cheese. What’s happening here?
Staff: Also a little hit and miss. A few times they’ve been pretty nice and helpful, but a few other times they’ve been pretty snarky. I’ve worked in customer service, and I understand having bad days, but don’t don’t don’t take it out on customers. If you have to, fake it til you make it.
Ambiance: Nice! Cute, local feeling, smells nice, clean, sandwich-​shoppy feel.
Price: Yikes. A baker’s dozen is about $ 12. Since the bagels are small, this is a little «yeesh.» Plus, some of the specialty bagels are $.55 extra. $ 1.50 for a freaking tiny bagel? Cooome on. I always feel guilty walking out with a bag of these. Plus, they don’t seem keen on telling you when you’re ordering that some are going to be extra.
UPDATE: I’d like to amend the bit about cost/​size comparison, as the second of my expensive bagels was pretty big. Perhaps the first eensy one was an anomaly, however I’d say still be wary and check which ones they’re putting in your bag.
Having given up my favorite bagel place in DC, I’ve been hunting for real bagels back in WA. Bagel Brothers is OK. It’s not the best, but it’ll do. I won’t stop coming here in the mean time, but I’m still on the hunt for a better bagel place.