It makes me sad to have to write this negative review. We had not been to this Elaine's in quite some time. Unfortunately, the quality of the bagels, coffee and service has really gone downhill. The bagels do not have much flavor. My coffee tasted like it had been sitting in the pot for hours. The counter staff was crabby. I hope they read this and make the changes necessary to improve the quality of the food and service. The only reason I didn't give it just two stars is that I was friends with the daughter of the woman who started the company (she sold the business) and it still carries her name. read more

Great bagels. These are true bagels. I'm no New Yorker, but the son of one. Lox bagel comes loaded and with quality salmon. Service is whatever, who cares - its a bagel shop that's never busy. They can have the thickest accent and grumpiest attitude. Yes their muffins are probably from Costco, their cookies off a factory line. This is a bagel shop with great bagels the rest means nothing and won't obstruct your experience. read more

These are hands-down my favorite bagels in the world. Even when living in New York City I could not find a bagel that could hold a candle to Elaine's. They are huge and perfectly crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside like a bagel should be. They are also super cheap. A lox & bagel sandwich costs like 5 bucks and is loaded with salmon, cream cheese, capers, and veggies. Maybe this is just me, but I'm also glad that they have a soda fountain that has Cherry Coke so you can mix the Cherry and Diet together. This drink combination and salt bagels fueled my high school years. I am seeing a lot of complaints about the staff on here, but the one young lady who has waited on me every time has been extremely pleasant and friendly. Here's why I am not giving 5 stars: The bagels used to come in a huge array of flavors, but the last time I was there I didn't see some of my old favorites (spinach, cinnamon-sugar...) The interior of the store is also looking a little bit rough, verging on depressing. I opted to eat in my car, it was so sad in there. But I think with just a little bit of cleaning and painting the decor could reflect the awesomeness of the bagels. read more

I would love to give 5 stars but we've had some less than amazing bagels from time to time. That being said, we continue to come back. Today's bagels were wonderful!! We had 2 everything bagels, sliced in half, bought some cream cheese to do ourselves at home. Also grabbed a cherry fritter. The cherry fritter was OK once was enough for me. The bagels were excellent and delicious. we will continue to go back read more

Used to be a favorite if mine but the quality has dropped significantly. Coffee was cold selection was lacking and service was adequate

I got an iced mocha. It was 2 inches of syrup, ice, and hot coffee. She did not stir it and I couldn't get it to mix. It was not good.

The positives: The bagels are good. Not great, but good. The coffee is ok. The place is depressing, quiet, no music and no noise if there are no customers. The display cases obstructs the view which bothers me as I can't see my bagel throughout the process. Cleanliness could be better. I also think the packaged muffins and cookies could be replaced with some local or fresh stuff. Overall: ok. Maybe slightly below par. read more

It had been some time since my family had bought bagels from Elaine's but despite the negative yelp reviews (and shrinking bagel size) we decided to go there anyway simply because it has always been our go to bagel place. We bought half a dozen bagels and a small cream cheese, marked on the menu as $5.99 and $1.78. At the cash register, we were charged $9.99. At first we walked out despite that this number seemed high, then realized they must have charged us for a large cream cheese (approx. $3) and decided to see if we could exchange our small one, since we believed we had payed for it. My dad went into the bagel store and was informed that the reason we were charged more is because we bought a parmesan bagel, which is a special bagel and would cost an extra $0.60. This was not marked on their board but according to the lady behind the counter "everyone knows they're extra" (not us), and when my dad mentioned that they should add the additional charge to their board the lady behind the counter, who said we had been charged correctly (despite that she wasn't the one who checked us out), told us that she would not change her board. It is worth mentioning that even with the *specialty* bagel, which was quite similar to regular priced asiago bagels at other bagel places, we were still overcharged by over a dollar, and the lady behind the counter was unwilling to admit her mistake. I do not see myself returning to Elaine's in the future, and if you go there despite the negative reviews, be warned that their menu is not up to date, or maybe they just make up prices on the spot. read more

I still can not figure out why it took me over 4 years to eat here. I have lived in berkley for quite a while and this place is so so good. I wish that i would of discovered it sooner. It is my favorite place for a bagel and a sandwich. My mother and husband are really big fans and we were so sad when we tried to go after 3:00... We just did not know the hours. I can not wait to go back. So so good and great service every time!! read more

I have been coming here my entire life and i am starting to wonder how are they are still in business. Over the last few years their bagels are not fresh and the employees are rude. They open 2 hours later than their sign says and Today they charged me 4.20 for 2 bagels with nothing done to them. This will be my last visit read more

Great local bagel shop for good prices! Homemade cream cheese too! My favorite is the all star (everything) bagel toasted with green onion cream cheese! read more

I think it's the California Veggie sandwich that I really like here. It has everything on it and it's slopp-ily delicious! They even have old bagels for dogs. Nice! :) read more

I'm very sad to see how far this place has fallen. When Elaine's was owned by the Shifmans it was the best in the area and competed easily with some of the best New York bagels I've had. When they sold the business it tanked big time. The service is awful, the coffee is wretched and the bagels have become ordinary. And man, the place is disgusting, it never used to be this way. Steve and Andy kept the place clean and the service great. Warrens East side bagels is far better and will get my business from now on. It was a good run, Elaine's and I'm sad to pass you by. read more

I stopped in here this morning to pick up bagels and cream cheese for my office. It had been years since I had gone to this establishment. The woman behind the counter was friendly and efficient. The bagels were the biggest disappointment. I bought Parmesan Cheese, Onion, Salt, and Egg bagels as well as 3 small flavored spreads and one large plain spread. The spreads were very nice and I would recommend them to anyone. We had people in our office take varying flavored of the bagels. NOT ONE person was able to say they liked their bagel! Every bagel was dry and tasted like it was two-day old bread (even the blueberry). I will NEVER go back here. read more

my favorite go to bagel place! so fast and so good! great service super nice workers. for sure recommend

We heard great things about this place and were excited to try it out. We walked in and walked right out, the lady behind the counter was so incredibly rude the the customers in front of us and it ruined for us. read more

If you have a bit of a sweet tooth and enjoy elephant ear's at carnivals, try the cinnamon sugar bagel with honey walnut cream cheese. Never had a bagel like this before. It was excellent! Service was fair. Have to spend at least $5 to use credit card otherwise bring cash. There is no seating available. Not very busy at 8 am but not somewhere I would go if pressed for time. Only one person was helping customers with the bagels and ringing them up. I would go back to try more of their offerings but was not blown away. read more

I am torn between 2 and 3 stars. They get 3 stars for the bagels and cream cheese, but the coffee was not good and that is dragging down their rating. I stopped in the other day and got a salt bagel with veggie cream cheese. The veggie cream cheese has actual chunks of veggies in it and was yummy with the salty bagel. They have several coffee pots with different flavors and the coffee is self serve. They had a milk machine thing that had french vanilla creamer and half & half. The half & half didn't have a spout attached and so I assumed they were out, though I wasn't sure. But I figured with flavored coffee, I could skip the cream. I chose vanilla hazelnut, but it did not taste like vanilla or hazelnut, pretty much like regular coffee. Maybe I'm being too hard on them, I compare my vanilla hazelnut to Einstein's, which is delicious. But even the flavored Keurig K-cups tasted better than this. I think all I really tasted was the plastic from the coffee cup lid, or maybe their coffee just tastes like plastic. Either way, next time I'm skipping the coffee. Though when I get my weekly bagel in the a.m., I need coffee to go with it and there's a pretty good chance I'm not making two stops in the morning, so I'm going to go to a place with good coffee and bagels, so unfortunately I probably won't frequent this place too much. read more

Elaine's Bagels are big, doughy and delicious. The cinnamon sugar bagel is much closer to a donut than a bagel (minus the fried part), but is heaven with cream cheese. New York Bagel is the place to go for hard, small, thin bagels. If you want big, delicious carbs, Elaine's is the place. read more

Stopped in two bagels toasted with cream cheese, and while taking our order the counterperson see a regular coming in and starts getting his order together, in the process screwing up our order. Plus over $8 for 2 bagels, a pop and a milk is a bit much. read more

omg!! was visiting my hometown of Oak Park from Phoenix, and my daughter asked me to bring home 2 dozen bagels. what happened to the large doughy bagels? I totally wasted my money and will never ever go back here. I don't even understand how they stay in business. Elaine would be mortified that they have run her business into the ground! read more

My husband is from New Jersey and was in search of a good east coast style bagel. For some reason he got it in his head that this place had those kind of bagels. He picked up some bagels on a Sunday morning and some chive cream cheese. The result was not good. These bagels were terrible, and the cream cheese had a strange taste. Our son loves cream cheese and bagels, and he took one taste of the cream cheese and made a yuck face. The cream cheese went uneaten. I love to support local businesses, but will be supporting other local bagel places in the area in the future. read more

In my early 20s when my friends and I were all back for the summer, we'd go here in the morning after a night of drinking and get bagels with cream cheese and coffee. Great bagels, good cream cheese, and the coffee's not too shabby. Great place to talk (and laugh) overly loud about inappropriate things while families come and go. read more

Average bagel shop. I would not go out of my way to go here. The are often slow on service. They do have a variety of bagels and cream cheese available. The inside of the place is very dull and very minimal seating. read more

I tried to go there this morning, I really did. No lox cream cheese. Ok, so maybe I'm spoiled, but here in Detroit having that available is "industry standard." At 10 am on a Saturday they had no onion bagels and a few other missing varieties. If they had said hey they're in the oven and will he out in 5 min that's fine. But fir real, sold out of onion bagels at 10 on a Saturday? Unacceptable in a bagel shop IMHO. I can get past their doughy bagels if everything else is on point. Unfortunately, it's not. read more

My experience here was below average. The few times I've been in no one is even there to take my order just an empty counter. The employees were rude and our order was messed up when we asked for them to change if they acted like they were offended and when we got our food back there was a hair in it. read more

Bomb bagels, great cream cheese!!!, Lox, mini cini's! First timer.. This will b my usual bagel spot! Ty for freshness!!

Could be the worst bagel I've ever had. I'd rather have a frozen bagel from the grocery store. The food is wrapped packages which means really what do they even make there anymore? Used to be such a nice place. read more

I used to LOVE this place - what happened. Had lunch here today and the service and food were HORRIBLE

I've been going to Elaine's for over 10 years now. I fell in love with their bagels in high school and still think they're the best! I love how big, soft, and doughy they are. Plus they have delicious cream cheese! They're better than Tim Hortons, Panera Bread, etc by far in my opinion! read more

Went to Elaine's for the first time today and my family and I really enjoyed it. The bagels fall somewhere in-between Einsteins and New York bagels in terms of consistency. This is great because my wife and I each have different preferences and Elaine's satisfies both of us. We thought the veggie lite cream cheese was great too, so I wonder if the other yelper just out a bad batch. Had to knock off a star for rudeness though, staff made me feel like I was interrupting their day. read more

Worst place ever!! Deceitful and dishonest. They are a rip off!!!We came in this morning , my boyfriend and I , and were planning on ordering just a bagel with cream cheese each which is advertised as $2.49 each, (total should have been over $5 with tax) instead we saw that a half dozen bagels was $5.99. After talking it over out loud with the two counter ladies about our plan, to get the half dozen but take two now and add cream cheese and the rest wrapped to go, (which the ladies acknowledged that was fine we could do that) she packed up our bagels and prepared our two with cream cheese to go. We proceeded to check out , that is where the second lady rang us up telling us our total came to $13.39 or something like that. Confused , I asked how it came to that price. That is when the lady proceeded to tell me we couldn't split up the half dozen that way, so we got charged for two separate bagels with cream cheese, then 4 individual bagels on top of that, in addition to an extra charge because two of the bagels we choose were extra because we chose Asiago " and it's extra for the topping". Not once was this mentioned in the initial conversation when we were discussing what we were going to order with the counter ladies. Then I asked her well how much would it cost for the half dozen with the two extra bagels with cream cheese. Some how she came to a price that rang up $14.**And some change. She asked if we would rather have it that way, I said yes, definitely rather have two more bagels for $1 more. No where on the menu or in the store is it posted that the Asiago bagels are extra in price, nor is it posted or were we told that you couldn't add cream cheese to two of the bagels in the half dozen. What a joke. You can get a dozen bagels with two cream cheese tubs at Panera or Einstein bagels for practically the same price if not cheaper. These ladies were very dishonest and misleading , let alone argumentative when I was questioning their pricing. Very rude. I would never purchase anything from them again. The bagels though they tasted decent, they were nothing special. Mediocre at best. read more

They have good service and good bagels. Parmesan is a favorite of mine. It's not as great as it was with original owner, but it will do. I am a once per week visitor and I've always had extremely friendly service. Lox, cream cheese on a Parmy bagel...large coffee....I'm happy. read more

I have not been to Elaine s in awhile but needed bagels for a mtg and they were my first thought as they were always delicious and usually a different variety choice. Unfortunately they ended up being a little disappointing. Several were rather hard and dry requiring to be thrown out. Only good if you could microwave or toast them. This was at 730a so I don't know if they were a bit old already or how they are now? Maybe they need to be kept in something that covers them a bit so they don't sit there drying out. Hope it was an off day. read more

Done with this place. I was starving and in the area so I thought, "one more time." Ugh. I asked for a plain bagel and got something that was anything BUT plain. It wasn't oatmeal. It looked more like farina. I'm so over it. It's a shame. I remember 10-15 years ago there was always a line waiting to order. Today, often times I'm the only one there when I came in. So unfortunate. read more

So incredibly stale. I asked her: which bagels are fresh today? This was at 9:00 AM on a weekday morning. She said: really, none. And I said well ok at least you're honest on the weekends their bagels are better. read more

Don't look anywhere else, Elaines Angels are "Superior" to anyone else. The All Star, or Everything bagel is truly addictive. Slice & toast, smear with cream cheese or butter.....you'll be in Heaven !!!! Paul Pulte Rochester read more

Back in the day it used to be great! New owner took over and went down hill. Thought I'd give it another try. Was there at 9 am and the bagel was cold and hard, along with no heat for the workers. This place is in shambles. Surprised the doors are still open. read more

The bagels are fine -- big, with a hard crust, and lots of flavors. The staff ranges from helpful to sleepy to downright rude, and they'll scream at you if you don't have small bills. read more

We prefer the Elaine's on Rochester -- apparently they have different owners and the jalapeno cheddar bagel on Rochester is awesome. But we have been to the one in Berkley a couple of times. Their lox bagel (YES, I SAID IT AGAIN) is pretty good, comparable to Einstein's but not as good as Rochester's bagels. I think the main flaw is the attitude from the folks who work there. They always seem cranky at best and standoffish at worst. For example, we stopped in this past weekend and I asked for a lox bagel with an everything bagel. The person behind the counter started arguing with me that there was no such thing as a lox bagel and that I wanted an everything bagel with lox. Semantics, whatever. But she pushed the issue and was so rude about it that we left (and went directly to Einstein's, where I ordered 3 lox bagels on various types of bagels and no one gave me any trouble about it). I think next time we'll just pass on this place and find one of the many other bagel sellers in the area. read more