Bread and Honey

Okay, so not a full fledged café as one might imagine but the atmosphere is great. Bagels are fresh, crispy and high quality. The veggie cream cheese base sizable chunks of some serious veg going on– that was an exciting surprise compared to the dehydrated veg nonsense included by most cream cheese mongers.
. The raw Siberian elm table for 6 is an excellent study spot– competing against the semi sterile metal or plastic surfaces of other cafes in the same tier.
But then: got in w my gal at 2:15 for a serious study sesh– spending the last couple weeks going through several comedic instances of either finding no parking, perennial cases of obnoxious trivia (she is Turkish so it all does indeed seem trivial) or early closing hours and needing to hustle off somewhere else: the closing time I saw on Unilocal was 2:30! Noo! But the kind barista tells me she has a while of breaking down and we can stay until 3:30. Good job bread and honey!

The guy behind the counter didn’t use gloves when handling food. That is unsanitary. Food is also expensive. 1.75 for a bagel? Seriously? No thanks.

I’ve had Bread and Honey’s baguette, purchased from the Honest Weight Food Coop – it was excellent, but a touch too high in price. At the time I figured it was likely due to the fact that it was resold at another store.
Today I had a bagel breakfast sandwich with corned beef hash, swiss cheese, and an egg, along with a small coffee there. The bagel itself was very good, and the ingredients on it were of a high quality, too. The coffee was weak, but this is hardly unique to Bread and Honey; the only way to get a decently strong coffee is to add espresso to it, as far as I can tell (aside from making it yourself, of course). On the whole it was a nice experience, but I could not help resenting the price somewhat – $ 6.00 for the bagel sandwich, on which they went light on the corned beef + 2. xx (can’t remember the exact price) for rather mediocre coffee.
The bakery itself is nice, light filled, and open. A relaxing atmosphere to eat a sandwich, sit and talk for a few minutes.
Bread and Honey is a good bakery with excellent products, but their menu is just slightly too high priced, from where I’m standing. Recommended nevertheless.

Had the everything bagel with bacon scallion cream cheese. The bagel was perfectly cooked and the cream cheese was amazing! My only critique is not having a few more bagel flavors to choose from, but other than that I’m a big fan! Next time I’ll try the bagel breakfast sandwiches which sounded delicious.

Great bagels! Love the oatmeal cinnamon raisin bread and the pumpernickel.

Really great bagels, more my type than Uncommon Grounds — light and flavorful, not thick and doughy. Bonus points for being one of the only places I’ve been to that have kalamata olive cream cheese. And try the scones.

I can’t get enough of these bagels!!! The help knows there bread. The coffee is s must to try. It’s a must stop by, in a great neighborhood.

Bread and Honey offers excellent baked goods, including bagels, scones, cookies, and wonderful loaves of bread in the upper Madison Avenue area. In a neighborhood that has been defined by businesses that cater to the college crowd, this bakery stands out and adds a level of sophistication to the location.
All of the goods offered by Bread and Honey are made in house. The bagels range on the lighter side, in terms of size and substance. This is far from a bad thing, as I find enormous and gummy «New York style,» bagels to be a bit much. Three varieties of bagel seem to be offered daily — plain, sesame, and everything. I’ve sampled the sesame and everything and were satisfied with both. If you’re coming to Bread and Honey looking for huge, overloaded egg sandwiches, you’re likely to be disappointed as they are on the smaller side. Again, this is not a bad thing (remember, quality wins over quantity every single time). Perhaps my favorite item I’ve sampled at the bakery is the sweet potato, bacon, and maple scone. It was simply delicious. One point of critique I can offer is that I’d like for the coffee to be presented with a bolder flavor, as I’ve often found to be a bit weak. This would likely be resolved by a few minor changes to the brewing process. Also, there is plenty of seating at the bakery, making for a very pleasant overall experience.
While I think that Bread and Honey still has room to grow, I think they’re off to a great start. If you’re in the neighborhood, it is absolutely worth your time to stop into the bakery to sample any and all of the treats inside.

For a bakery, they don’t have too many baked goods, aside from the loaves of bread you can purchase for take-​away. I saw 3 kinds of bagels, and an assortment of cookies. No croissants, muffins, scones, or any other breakfast pastries. I thought I might have more luck with coffee, but alas, they didn’t have many options there, either. You can order drip coffee, or drip coffee with steamed milk and Torani syrup (called the Americano). No espresso, latte, or cappuccinos here. I ordered the Americano and it was not very good. They did not have skim, so I opted for whole milk. They put WAY too much of it in (I don’t think it was steamed, either) and my bev was nearly white in color. I should’ve opted for the regular drip coffee so I could put the milk in myself. When I got back to my office, I made a cup of coffee with our Keurig and added the B&H coffee as creamer.
I also want to note that the gentleman who served me was very friendly, and I only had to wait 5 minutes for the coffee (I was behind someone else in line). Despite my disappointing coffee, I would return and try a bagel/​bagel sandwich. To be continued!

I had been dying to try this place. I heard it was great and we do not have many places in the area that offer healthy breakfasts.
My boyfriend and I both ordered the hash, egg, and cheese on a ciabatta roll. The regular breakfast sandwich (on a bagel) is $ 5.95. Apparently when you order the ciabatta roll, it’s and additional $ 1.50! We didn’t realize this until we got the itemized receipt. The coffees were $ 2.50 each. Breakfast to go was over $ 20!
We get the sandwiches home, and there is hardly any hash on them (see photo). I was disappointed by this considering I just paid over $ 7 for a breakfast sandwich. I felt like I was just eating a ciabatta roll for breakfast. I will say the coffee was amazing.
Overall I’m not impressed and am a bit let down.

It was 10am. I had been up for hours but breakfast and coffee seemed to be far out of my reach and then something amazing happened… Friends showed up with a big bag of bagels from Bread and Honey and their hot coffee. Oh my … The sky opened up and the heavens sang. I looked through the brown paper bags and found my perfect match… Mini plain bagels. So cute. So small yet plump. Calling my name. Tried the small bagel with the bacon scallion cream cheese and it was amazing. I was having a mini bagel after all so I slathered the cream cheese on really heavy and went to town. Then when I finished I realized we also had jalapeño cream cheese so alas I couldn’t pat myself on the back for taking the baby sized bagel anymore. I knew what had to be done. I took another mini bagel and tried the jalapeño cream cheese on one side and the plain on the other. Again it was heaven. My husband had the everything bagel (in the traditional size). I had heard great things about their bagels and now I know it to be true for myself. Thank you bread and honey for making the perfect bagel. Albany’s best bagel dare I say.

I would like lo love this place, really I would, but it is coming down to one thing– the bagels. I’ve had marvelous crusty ones here that linger in the memory– and I’ve had flaccid soft ones that collapsed under my bread knife and, while not inedible, reminded me of a better than average Lenders frozen product. For a staple product like this I think consistency is not too much to ask.

I’ve been several times and while the bread and bagels are good, they seem to always be rationing the items that are on sandwiches. I asked for extra cream cheese on a bagel and was disappointed again (see photo). 2 bagels with cream cheese was $ 9+?
The picture was taken on Thursday, August 20^th at 8:30. We were also in on Saturday, August 15^th around lunchtime and got BLTs on a bagel and baguette. Same problem there… just not enough of the sandwich on the sandwich. There was 1 piece of lettuce and 2 small slices of tomato. I understand keeping the costs down for the bacon, but you couldn’t even tell there was anything between the bread.
Thank you for the reply. We sincerely want to support your business because the bread is delicious!

I’ve been back here plenty of times since my last review over a year ago. The bagels are great but there’s something about this place that just irks me. I think it all started with the AOA blog post the owner wrote, pretty much acting as if she was the victim of a crime trying to run a bagel/​bread business on Madison ave. If you haven’t read it, it’s super long:
I’m a flexible person but if you are charging over 4 dollars for a bagel with cream cheese it should be mind blowing and the service should be impeccable (which it is almost never). The service is just super slow, watching a person take over 2 minutes to cream cheese a bagel was painful while 5 other people waited to take an order. I shouldn’t feel bad that my order is holding everyone up. (Really I think this is compounding from the staffing issues mentioned in above article — I’m more aware of it now.) When I paid no total was read to me while the staffer searched for over a minute how to ring out 2 bagels and 1 coffee. This seems odd since you are so used to hearing the price but it was weird to hand over money not know what it was going to cost me. Even the rush of the owner bringing multiple trips of huge baskets to a van parked outside was just ODD. Idk, I live in Troy and coming to Albany just for this place (which I’ve done plenty of times) will probably be off my weekend to-​do list now. I have minor social anxiety and this place just makes my blood pressure sky rocket, really no other way to explain it. Womp womp

Wonderful place to go for breakfast. The bagels were wonderful and the staff were very nice, a woman even came up to us and gave us a blueberry scone to try. (It was wonderful) I’d suggest this place to anyone looking for a nice quiet breakfast.

Solid 4 star breakfast spot. Nice laid back atmosphere with soothing music and minimalist décor, inspires you to stay a while or dine dash. Up to you how you want to enjoy your meal.
The coffee happened to be from Electric City Roasters located in Schenectady. I had the Guatemala which was steaming hot and a great cup of coffee. We had the maple leaf breakfast sandwich which was an egg and cheese on a bagel (french toasted ie– dipped in batter and toasted) with a delicious creamy maple spread. They accommodated egg whites which is always a win for the waistline (and your arteries).
Bonuses: find their breads at local farmer’s markets and the honest weight coop, they serve lunch sandwiches, coffee was great and they serve cold brew (although a bit pricy at almost $ 4/​cup).
My husband’s a frequent flyer and I’ll definitely be back.

Overpriced. Mediocre. Lack of selection. As much as I want to like this place, I just can’t, which is sad because Albany could use a good bakery. Prices are very, very high — but also odd. A plain bagel is $ 1.50 but slap some cream cheese on it and it’s $ 3.50. What is in that cream cheese to justify the $ 2 surcharge? Plus it’s mediocre; nothing about the bagels stands out. If you want anything but bagels the selection is limited — a few meager scones behind the glass sit sadly next to granola bars. The scones themselves are $ 3.75 (!), and not very good.
It’s impossible to not contrast this to similar and better places in Troy which are also somehow cheaper with more selection: Placid Baker, Psychedelicatesson and Nibble, Inc. When I walk into Placid Baker I’m greater by an amazing array of baked goods, reasonably priced made with skill that taste great. Nibble has established itself as a première doughnut shop with high quality doughnuts always fresh with creative flavors (plus they cost between $ 2-​$ 3.50, cheaper than B&H’s bad scones or bagels). Psychedelicatesson makes great bagels with a lot of selection and are less expensive than Bread and Honey.
Maybe B&H can get it together but I’m not going to hold my breath, and you should look elsewhere for your baked goods, too.

After giving up on bread and honey for awhile (see earlier review) because of inconsistency, I have returned recently a couple of times. The two workers I encountered were great. They seemed well aware of providing customer service, and even better — seemed genuinely interested in the food and its quality. (I even had to stop and compliment one of them on my way out). I’ve also ordered the Maple Leaf both times, which I highly recommend, AND they had all the ingredients to make the sandwich.

B&H makes the best bagels north of NYC. This is based on my extensive bagel eating (primary research) throughout CT, MA, and the rest of New England. The cream cheeses and toppings are all top notch. What service issues they had when first starting have since been remedied.
Additionally, their bread selection is excellent, pastries are generally tasty, and coffee really, really wonderful.

Welcome to the neighborhood! Scones are in the oven and the place smells magical. The Gimme coffee (first establishment to offer it in our area) is perfect. We were just brought a blueberry scone while we wait for the bagels (35 minutes to go). Fresh out of the oven and heavenly. Half whole wheat flour. Not vegan but it was a gift so we’ve made an exception.
Naomi is terrific. Today is the soft opening so she doesn’t have everything she means to have. Not that she couldn’t have purchased it all from a restaurant supply, but she wants to buy things from suppliers she knows or can get to know. The right way.
Things are still coming out of the oven. Just had a demi baguette. Another win.
The bagels! Done the right way and done to perfection.
Go already!