Bagel Factory

Poor customer service. Make sure you ask for a receipt when checking out or you will be over charged. Got an egg and cheese on a bagel and a salami, egg, and cheese on a bagel; checked my bank account two days later and I was charged $ 10 total… hmmm when I checked out I remember the guy telling me it was $ 8 and something (which is still over priced as it should not have cost me more than $ 6.80 +tax for both when looking at their prices). Not to mention, the egg and cheese bagel turned out to be extremely burnt, the salami egg and cheese bagel only had one thin slice of salami, and they were both sloppily made. Not worth the time and money to go here.

Holy Cow!
I had a Dr. s appt right across the street from the Bagel Factory and when I walked in I was instantly greeted and the smell was amazing. Fresh baked bread, bagels and donuts were in front of me. I could hear the machine that makes the dough behind the counter (not frozen!) and everyone was so nice. I ordered a turkey, bacon and lettuce on a bagel with a Matzo ball soup. I took it back to my office for my lunch and everything was amazing! Especially the soup! It was probably the best soup I’ve ever had in my life. The broth was real chicken broth with bits of celery and chicken with a huge Matzo ball in the center. It was heavenly.

I stopped by at about 7:30am on Saturday morning for a couple bagels and cream cheese. I was missing one of my favorite breakfast treats as I haven’t indulged in them since moving here from Chicago. They had been open about an hour but there was stuff that belonged in a store room on some of the tables. Someone was mopping around me constantly and there was a rolling rack filled with Christmas cookies in the middle of the floor. It’s pretty drab and the 3 boards with their offerings are really hard to read. The chalk is really light and it’s really dim. It’s hard to know where to go when you walk in or what you’re supposed to do. I didn’t really feel all that welcome honestly. There were some old salads in a sparsely supplied case. The bagels were in another. I thought about getting a breakfast sandwich but didn’t see a flat top or gas burner. I did see a microwave and assumed the worst. Microwaves take the micronutrients right out of your food. I don’t go out and pay restaurants to throw my food in a microwave. There’s no place for them except Panera!
I ordered an everything bagel and a sesame bagel with cream cheese. I’m giving this place 3 stars because for Pittsburgh, these are good bagels. They’re better than Einsteins or Bruggers by a long shot and I don’t ever recommend you go to Panera. I support local businesses so this place gets my vote as the best of these but it’s not too much to choose from. They don’t have that nice thin crisp crust I like, they are chewy but a little light for me. The flavor was a shade doughy. I’m not sure they have the space to retard them overnight or exactly how they’re being made so I can’t go into their failing in specifics. The everything bagel doesn’t have everything! Where’s the salt? Where was the onion and garlic? It’s not an everything bagel. The 2 bagels and cream cheese were $ 6. Seems like a lot to me. Not really counting it against them exactly but I did notice it. Meh.

Thus place has great bagels and breakfast sandwiches. Everything in here looks delicious. I’ve not had any of the deli products or sweets but the seem to be popular.

Seriously the best bagel in Pittsburgh. Which, to be honest, isn’t saying much. We ain’t a bagel town. I will say the cream cheese is straight bomb dot com. The coffee is also pretty great in my opinion. My partner always gets the lemonade and is a bit addicted to it. It is incredibly refreshing.
The main dude that everyone seems to have difficulty with based on these reviews is a bit eccentric but we’ve never had an off putting experience with him. He’s just a bit socially awkward, not intentionally malicious. I find the staff to be downright pleasant. I don’t know, we’ve always been nice there and we’re always treated well in return. Additionally whenever I’ve seen situations where someone’s order was wrong/​not what they wanted, the staff addressed to problems with great professionalism.

Unfortunately, there are basically no bagel options on the east end of Pittsburgh, so we were forced to come here a few times. The food is decent and there is a large variety of bagels. However, the last few times we’ve come here the service has been terrible. The man working at the cash registrar at the end was shouting at his employees from across the room and made fun of us for using a Groupon. After we got our food and realized that one of our sandwiches didn’t have cheese on it (which we ordered) we proceeded to tell the man at the registrar and he responded by accusing us of lying and charging us an extra .80 Cents for a slice of cheese. Unreal. save your money and go somewhere else.

I’m not totally sure why I keep going back here. The place is tiny and dirty. It was super busy and only 2 employees were making food. The owner was on the register but kept leaving to do other things because they were so short-​staffed. I felt bad for how overwhelmed the staff must have been, but they worked as fast as they could.
The food’s okay and overpriced. The coffee’s terrible. The seating area is crowded. The location on Craig street has had mice and roaches.
There aren’t many bagel places in Pittsburgh, but Brueggers and Einstein’s win.

Great local place for bagels and breakfast sandwiches. I have been to delis in NYC and the food at the Bagel Factory is much better. If you can get your hands on it, the cinnamon bread is great for french toast.

We’re huge fans of the Squirrel Hill location for the great prices, huge menu and fresh bagels. The Ellsworth location is even better because it has all those great features and is way less crowded. Outside seating and super friendly staff make it my new favorite place to stroll on weekend mornings!

This place runs very closely to par in regards to quality of food, experience, and employees. This is definitely a good place to stop in mornings for coffee and a bagel for breakfast. It tends to be more of a get-​your-​food-​on-​the-​go place rather than a Panera or Bruegger’s where you can sit and maybe work. The first time I came here I purchased a Groupon for maybe $ 20 worth of food. This may be a Groupon policy, but I had to purchase the entire Groupon’s worth in one visit– which is actually difficult when bagels run a buck each. Otherwise, I have no major complaints about this place– except I do remember that it closes very early in the afternoon– so no late night snacks, coffee, or a place to work here.

The one has blueberry tastes amazing

Okay bagels though a little overpriced. Been to squirrel hill location and Ellsworth location once each. Have consistently had rude customer service. Really turns me off. Won’t be going back even though the bagels are okay.

A little overpriced but the bagels are always good and fresh. The cinnamon French toast (made from their cinnamon log bread) is also very good!

Don’t come here from NYC looking for a good bagel and lox, stick w the ice cream.

I was waiting for my laundry on Ellsworth last week, when I decided to kill some time and find nearby food. A bagel sounded good and the Bagel Factory felt like an appropriate transition from the Laundry Factory. I’d never been to the Bagel Factory before, but figured they’d have decent bagels and their coffee had to be better than Crazy Mocha.
The place was kind of a mess. When I entered, I saw stacked boxes topped off with cartons of bottled water and individually packaged goodies stacked in front of the bagel case, which seemed sloppy and strange. It felt like a regular storage place for new merchandise, not a new shipment in active transit. I wondered how an establishment like this could afford to exist on Ellsworth Ave, a neighborhood that is trying to exude upper-​class image. Once I looked up from the hoarded pile of shit blocking the counter, my eyes skimmed over the mass of individually wrapped frosted cookies covering the other counter. My mind was taken to the memory of an off-​roading experience a few years back; those times when you’re driving down the highway in say western Illinois, and you end up at some shabby mom-​and-​pop bakery, like this one, and you think to yourself «I’m having a unique experience…»
Given that I was coming from the cleanest laundry facility I’ve seen in my life, these first five seconds at the Bagel Factory were perhaps moderately surprising. The woman behind the counter had several projects going on and I waited for about two minutes until she asked me what I’d like. These two minutes were a fascinating two minutes, as the man behind the register was chatting up some eight to ten year old girls. They might have been neighborhood kids, or not. There was a familiarity to their conversation, which was only subtly uncomfortable as his tone was sordid at worst, belittling at best. When they got around to paying for their bagels he asked, «are they naked or do they have cream cheese?» My head turned as the elder of the two said, «cream cheese.»
By now I’d ordered my bagel and approach the register to pay for it and he says to me, «got a lotta earrings there, bet you set off all sorts of metal detectors.» I responded with «not really,» as I handed him my credit card and he handed me a coffee cup. He printed my receipt, tore it from the spool and said in a sleazy tone, «paper trail…» I typically would have reacted to that, but lacked the energy after my first round of finals week. «Be safe out there,» he said as I turned to walk away, which triggered a spine-​tingling sensation up my back. Had i just been sexually assaulted or blatantly judged for wearing a few hooped earrings on each ear? I was wearing Abercrombie and Fitch, skinny jeans and sperries. Seriously?
In the end, it makes no difference. This guy is a creep, and my feeling is that he holds some sort of managerial role at the Bagel Factory, which leads me to conclude this place belongs out of town ten-​twenty miles where this man can find animals to harass rather than little girls and college students. I generally go out of my way to support small business and family owned operations, but this place is the exception. I will never step foot in this establishment again.
The bagel with cream cheese was alright and the coffee was okay but not worth $ 5.19.

Bagels were okay and they had the usual assortment of flavors. Cream cheese flavors seemed lacking– not much flavor.
I like that it is a local bagel place.
However, I find it in bad taste when an establishment changes their prices for those using a Groupon or other coupon. I am using the coupon (which your store issued) to save money and then they increase their prices for those using the Groupon!

The food at this location was about the same as at the Squirrel Hill location on Forbes Avenue (not bad, not great), but I thought the service was far worse. One of the male employees helping us referred to one of the females as an «old hag» which I thought was extremely unprofessional and uncool. I’m sure he was joking, but that’s still not something he should have said around customers. This tainted the whole experience for me and I probably won’t be returning. My dining partner agreed.

I am not sure what makes a perfect bagel but after eating at Bagel Factory I am pretty sure I am darn well close to it. Don’t let the drab décor of the store fool you. Bagel Factory churns out delicious perfections of bakery like no one’s business and we were told that the Penguins get their bagels from here too so we know we are in the right place. I’ve ordered the lox sandwich, and egg ham and cheese sandwich — both on everything bagels. The lox I think is my favorite and I’d love to come back to try a Cinnamon one. Soft and fluffy with a bit of crunch. Watch out, you’ll find this tasty bit gone within seconds.

Best bagels in PGH! I usually bring bagels back with me when I visit my parents, but since moving to Pittsburgh and finding this place, I have no need to anymore!
If you get there first thing in the morning the bagels are still warm and the cookies are still on the cookie sheets from baking.
The cream cheese tastes great, but does have a mild off-​putting smell. Kind of more a sour smelling cream cheese.
They periodically put 50% off coupons on Living Social/​Groupon sites. I always snatch up a few when I see them. I can’t get enough of these yummy bagels!

First thing, service is extremely good. Folks behind the counter and register were very helpful.
The bagels a smaller and more dense than what I am familiar with, so they could be more authentic, ala NY variety. Personally I am accustomed to and prefer the Noah’s, Einstein’s (OK I hate their use of corn meal as nonstick at stores but not Costco), Bruegger’s bigger airier variety (Costco being one of the best places to procure these in bulk Noah’s or Einstein’s depending on geography, Einstein’s in Pittsburgh).
I had the daily sandwich which was chicken salad on a croissant ironically. This was very good. Unlimited self-​service coffee refills (at least no one asked me to pay) was good too with two regular varieties and one decaf.
All in all I suspect opinion on the food will be what you think a bagel should be like…
Metered street parking…