Restaurant Review: Einstein Bros. Bagels

Einstein Bros. Bagels has long been my favourite bagel chain outside the NYC area. They make great bagels and tasty hummus. But I hadn't been to one in almost a year simply because I was all bagel-ed out after my last pregnancy. I had hyperemesis gravidarum, and bagels--specifically Einstein Bros sundried tomato bagels--were one of the very few foods I could reliably keep down!

It was time to return there
for a Mama Date with AJ.
We went on a sunny sunday
for lunch the morning after
changing the clocks to
daylight savings time.



AJ chose a cinnamon-raisin bagel,
as is, nothing on it. He also got a
large fruit cup. What's nice here is
that they have a lot of kid-sized
drinks to choose from, along with
Nantucket Nectars juices and
homemade blackberry lemonade!

I got my old standby sundried
tomato bagel, but toasted with
hummus. Everything here is
very reasonably priced in my
opinion.

I used to buy the baker's
dozen box of bagels on the
weekends before havings
kids and I'd precut and
freeze three-quarters of
them. They're great for
breakfasts, sandwiches,
bagel pizzas and more.

Check out the "Lucky Green"
bagels for St. Patrick's Day:

This Einstein Bros. Bagels is located in Wayland, MA at 44 Main Street (rt. 27), 508-655-6420 . There is ample parking in the plaza it shares with a pet supplies store and a Starbucks. Seasonal outdoor seating, but plenty of indoor tables as well. There is also a wonderful wood play area nearby, the Hannah Williams Playground. (But AJ chose to continue down to rt.9 to visit Pet World instead to see the cats in their Kitty City.)

Restaurant Review: Finagle-A-Bagel

Finagle-A-Bagel

***July 2011 update - restaurant has closed (though there are still other locations in the area)***

It was time to reinstitute "Mama dates" now that Maia is eating enough to spend a few hours at home with Dada. Nate had the first turn so I helped him choose what to do. We knew we were headed to the winter garden fair at Russell's Garden Center, but first we needed lunch.

So we headed a little further in on route 20 to Finagle A Bagel. Nowadays it's referred to as simply "Finagle", but I've been eating at various locations for over a decade and I still call it by its full name. It's a Boston chain that originated in the famous Faneuil Hall Marketplace. Everything is made in nearby Newton, MA.

Nate chose nothing but
avocado to fill his toasted
vegetable bagel. He also
gobbled down most of a
fresh fruit bowl himself. I
swear he ate more than I
did.

All Finagle locations I've been to are unique in that your bagel can ride a conveyor belt the length of the prep counter at kids' eye level, behind glass of course. It zips through the circular cutter and down to the topping station.

I ordered an everything
bagel with my standard
hummus & tomato. The
hummus is always nice &
garlicky.

My only issues with our
visit was being charged $6+
for what was essentially a
bagel with hummus & tomato, not an entire sandwich in my opinion. But a slight language barrier with the sunday staff left me not wanting to engage in a discussion about it...after all, Nate's inherently more expensive avocado bagel was only $2. Go figure.

What's great about this particular location is that there has always been scheduled kids entertainment here for as long as we've lived here. On Mondays from 3-4pm there is music with guitar songs for kids for free. Can't beat that!

Ample parking, conveniently
located on route 20:

54 Boston Post Road,
Wayland, MA
508-358-6282