The Great American Bagel is a tiny bagel shop located on 2870, 1101 Essington Rd, Joliet, IL 60435. They are well known for their bagels and common elderly customers. The Great American Bagel provides a wide bagel selection including the following: Cinnamon Sugar, Banana Nut, Blueberry, Cheddar Herb, Chocolate Chip, Cinnamon Raisin, Everything, 7-Grain, Honey Wheat, French Toast, Garlic, Onion, Jalapeno Cheddar, Plain, Poppy, Sesame, Sun-dried Tomato, Veggie and more.

Hours:

Monday: 6AM-4PM

Tuesday: 6AM-4PM

Wednesday: 6AM-4PM

Thursday: closed

Friday: 6AM-4PM

Saturday: 6:30AM-3PM

Sunday: 7:30AM-3PM

Food

Asiago omelet 4.99

Ingredients:

Egg, roasted red pepper, turkey, and parmesan cheese

• bagel is dry 
• no overpowering taste
• Egg is fluffy and neatly cooked
• Everything is in uniform stacked on top of each other 
• Easy to hold and eat
• Pleasing presentation 

The Mediterranean on Asiago bagel 6.59

Hummus, roasted red peppers, kalamata olives, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, onion, and dressing

• bagel is dry 
• overpowered with hummus
• Vegetables were soggy from said hummus

BLT on poppy seed bagel 5.79

Ingredients: 

Bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayo

• very pleasing presentation 
• Bacon is crispy and evenly cooked
• No ingredients fall out of bagel and are stacked on top of each other in uniform 
• Poppy seed bagel is dry
• Tomatoes are a bit too thick and watery. However, the use of a thick tomato allows it to give the full bite moisture with the bagel to prevent choking…you know…because it’s dry 

California turkey on cheddar herb bagel 6.79

Ingredients:

Roast turkey, provolone cheese, cucumber, lettuce, tomato, and cucumber cream cheese

• cream cheese is zesty and refreshing
• Cream cheese is smooth with no extra secretion 
• Too much cream cheese on the bottom and makes the meat on top slide a lot 
• Cream cheese was overpowering the overall taste 
• Deli meat is used for this sandwich
• Lettuce is fresh and does not appear or taste wilted 
• The cheddar on the bagel is not apparent in the presentation or the taste. However, the herbs do look present and take place in the bite along with the other Ingredients 

Small Wild berry smoothie 

• Icy
• Slushy consistency 
• Have to chew ice before swallowing
• Sugary, syrupy taste
• After 20 minutes of sitting it appears that the syrup takes place at the bottom of the smoothie. If anything, it’s just a slushy and no berries are present. 

One thing that is a huge flaw in the smoothie, is that it isn’t even a smoothie, its a slushy. By no means, did I taste the berries, only berry syrup.

Arizona lemon tea 

• It’s Arizona tea, everyone knows that’s the superior tea. 

Experience and Look Of The Shop

Considering it was 10 AM, it was completely empty. It was a little awkward considering I had to lie about getting four bagels and two drinks for friends when in reality I had to buy all those bagels for myself to eat and judge by myself. Talk about depressing. 

Unfortunately, the theme in the whole store does feel a bit tacky and the American flag is overly emphasized with the reds whites and blues. The place is small and there is an easy way of getting around. Tables are small which makes sense for bagels. Sometimes, little cutesy shops like to shoot for a theme. But this shop was not a cutesy little shop. Instead, it looked like thanksgiving and the American flag had a baby, and that baby American-Thanksgiving decoration mutant threw up all over the entire shop and called it cute.

Given, the shop was definitely homey and had a warmth inside with open counter to get sugar and other food necessities, it felt too corny and definitely shot for an older aged generation of customers.

Service

-Whole package came out within ten minutes with two workers

• Workers were friendly and attentive 
• Owner is friendly and attentive and accurately placed in the order in the register with no mistakes 

Overall experience:

To be honest, this place is overrated. I can literally get a softer, not so dry bagel at Dunkin’ Donuts if I really wanted to. Which I did, in fact. No sponsors, unfortunately. Overall, I paid 32 dollars for four specialty bagels, a slushy, and an Arizona Lemon Tea. I feel like I played myself. Big time. And considering I had no friends with me at the time, this was even more depressing on a snowy day. The service was great, they were attentive in taking my order and asking if I wanted my bagels toasted or not.

Bagels? They gotta be right. It’s like biting into a hard baguette sandwich with quality meat. Which ruins the sandwich and causes a sore jaw from chewing Olympics. 

The presentation of the speciality bagels were top notch and wrapped perfectly. Upon tasting, the cream cheese and the hummus need to be in thin layers and not overpower the whole bagel. Otherwise, they might as well have just given me a bagel covered in those toppings instead of meat, veggies, and cheese when I couldn’t even taste them.

Rating scale:

Very low, low, middle ground, good, very good

Final rating: low

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