Ithaca Bakery

I pre-​ordered an 8″ half & half cake for my mom’s birthday. The cake looked great and was ready when I came to pick it up, but we ate it just a few hours later and it was super dry. The frosting fell off in a solid layer, since it couldn’t stick to the cake. I was very disappointed since Ithaca Bakery had such great reviews, but I’ll be going to back to Wegman’s for cakes from now on.

This was one of my favorite spots in college and is one of my favorite spots to visit whenever I return. Ithaca Bakery has the BEST sandwiches in Ithaca hands-​down and mic-​drop. They are made fresh and their endless chalkboard of options and customizations allows for limitless opportunities to eat your heart out. Vegans, Vegetarians, and Carnivores can all find something to nom on.
There is tons of seating inside and a few tables available for outdoor eating. Parking can sometimes be a bit tricky, but patience is well worth the wait or the walk.

Much more than a bakery, all the food sold there is absolutely delicious. A very special mention to the cheesecake brownie. And such a friendly staff, but then everyone in Ithaca seems to be that way. What a great place.

Awesome bakery/​market filled with all kinds of goodies! You can get everything here: coffee, breakfast sandwiches, grocery items, baked goods, local purveyors food items, etc. It offers a bounty to choose from. We came in for breakfast and it was great. Our breakfast sandwiches were cooked to order. Extremely fresh and flavorful. The focaccia bread was perfect. The service was quick. Definitely would have been back here if we had another morning in town. Highly recommend anyone visiting the area.

Got the veganic wrap and it was just okay. Not very well seasoned and the portion was extremely small despite it being higher priced than an average wrap. I wanted to like it but two bites in I gave up.

My favorite lunch place in Ithaca! The soups are always so good. The sandwiches are delicious.

Grew up in Ithaca, and Ithaca Bakery /​College Town Bagel’s has always been my go to place. Drinks are amazing and pastries are delicious.

An update to my post: I was immediately contacted by one of the owners who apologized and sent me a gift certificate. It is nice to see a business reach out to a customer!

It’s my new thing now to try every sandwich on their menu and highlight my favorite ones on the paper menu I keep in the car. I’m an indecisive person with big eyes, so I am trying to narrow the large selection of sandwiches for less time consuming future choosing. I ordered the New Yorker. It amused me, being a native New York City chick with sometimes FOMO and a deep appreciation for the magazine with the same name. And their food. It’s phenomenal. The flavors scream, «Fuck you until I finish this sandwich». But in the nicest way.

Very disappointed. It took 20 minutes for a hot chocolate that was made from a Swiss Miss packet. An utter waste of time and money. Had a ton of options for food and drinks, but after the less than satisfactory muffin top, I think I’ll take my business elsewhere.

I have been to this bakery several times as a family member goes to college in Ithaca. We always make it a point to stop here. They have incredible sandwiches, and love the products for sale, such as the Karma hot sauces. The fresh, local ingredients really shine in the food. Would definitely recommend.

This is a nice place. Has many options like a lot of places in Ithaca seem to have. Delicious bakes and jams.

Good place to grab a breakfast sandwich and coffee.
I had «The Sunrise» — scrambled egg, avocado, red onion and pepper jack cheese on a plain bagel, along with a latte.
The order is taken at the counter. As others have noted, the menu can be difficult to read and confusing. Part of the issue seems to be with the grouping of the items. (I saw a person with a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon, not a sandwich. I’m sure it had to be somewhere on the menu, but I didn’t see it.) When ordering I was asked if it was to stay or go. Since I was eating there, I was given a number on a metal stand to place on the table. A short while later someone brought my coffee, and the food came a few minutes after that.
I liked the combination of ingredients that my sandwich contained. The scrambled eggs are in one piece (sort of like an omelet) with the other ingredients (cheese melted) stacked above and below. The bagel was reminiscent of an old-​style NYC one — dense and a bit on the chewy side, and not oversized like many currently are. The latte was as good as any I’ve had in the local coffee shops.
It’s more of a take-​out place that has seating, than a restaurant to «dine out.» (Perfectly ok, but no points for atmosphere or comfort.)

I love this place, go to it every day when we’re in Ithaca. Coffee is delicious, staff is helpful and sweet, bagels and sandwiches are everything I hope for. Today I tried their house-​cured ham and it was great.

This bakery is possibly the most over hyped, disorganized and slow place I’ve been.
The menu, creatively written on the walls is more arty than functional, the racks and displays of various packages food items clutter the space. Combined with several places to order and little direction as where to wait for your order — its a veritable cluster to try to get food.
Also It shouldn’t take 15 minutes to toast a bagel.

This should really be a 2.5…it all depends on what you hope to get here which depends on whether or not you would enjoy this place.
The staff are all pretty nice. I like being treated like a human being.
The coffee is good. Not too strong and not too watery-​like. I hate drinking burned coffee and many more places than Starbucks serves burned coffee (industry dirty secret).
The food: depends on what you want. Bagels w/​various toppings are excellent w/​lots of choices of cream cheese if that is your thing and they have nice looking lox.
The breakfast hot bar… I passed on this but my partner got it. Everything is hard. The problem of maintaining a hot food bar is to make sure the eggs are not continuing to cook and the potatoes don’t get hard and form a rubbery crust. We were too late getting here (9:20 a.m.). The two types of local turkey and pork were flavorful but tough to eat. The egg fritatta was hard and dried out. He got the cold German potato salad and the potatoes weren’t cooked right (hard) and the dressing on it was basically oil and fresh herbs but it was lacking seasoning.
I ordered the Melissa’s Egg (egg/​cheese on bagel) but substituted a croissant for the bagel. I think the cheese is supposed to be cheddar but I got Swiss on mine for some reason. The egg looked like an egg product — light yellow and lots of air pockets in the egg that looked like it was poured into a round small waffle press (the indentation of the egg on the top looked that way). A bouncy plastic hard egg on a beautiful nicely made croissant. I ended up tearing the egg off my second half and tossing it. I have a stomach issue that makes eating well done eggs hard to get down. I usually make soft scrambled eggs.
My partner remembers coming here 3 years ago and we enjoyed our lunch here. We are wondering if this little gem was bought out and now become more corporate like. It just doesn’t seem the same now. Think we’ll try to find another breakfast place that is open on a Sunday (which is hard to do in this town) next time we’re passing through. photos to come soon.
UGH…my fears confirmed thanks to a local long-​time resident, Laura, who shared this about the so-​called «local» food supporter, Ithaca Bakery…“Sysco eggs that come in a god-​knows-​how-​old-​gigantic container?! Ithaca Bakery I beg you, get rid of this crap. I can’t be the only person this bothers.” thanks Laura, should have dug more into the reviews before visiting again today. Hope my egg sandwich doesn’t harm me.

I really, really liked this place! If I lived in Ithaca, I imagine I might come here a lot. So many yummy sounding menu items, I’d never get bored. And they had a fresh looking salad bar, soups, two cases chock full of treats, and fresh baked bread!
I had a hard time choosing what to order, but felt like a hot sandwich, so I chose the Parisian Panini. It did not disappoint; it tasted really good and was a satisfying lunch. The 3-​fruit chutney was light and its sweetness complemented the Brie, spinach and turkey nicely. My teenage son ordered the West Willow BBQ & gobbled it all down in a hot minute. He topped off his meal with a key lime bar, which he really liked. I tasted it and thought it was a little gelatinous (thick solid texture vs. light) for my taste, so I gave him the rest of my half. Their other bakery items looked good, so I’d probably choose something chocolate-​y next time. If I’d enjoyed the «treat» part of the meal more, I’d have bumped up to a five-​star.
Wasn’t too crowded when we came for lunch around 1:45 on a Thursday in early June. Friendly, quick service. Highly recommend if you find yourself in Ithaca!

I got to say, I really love this place and I wish it was here when I was in school. There are so many sandwich, salad, panini, and hot bar options that you really can’t go wrong. I’ve made a habit of stopping here every time I come back to Ithaca and I have never been disappointed.
Many of the meats and vegetables are locally sourced and the sandwiches or of a substantial size. The price range on most sandwiches is seven dollars to nine dollars, and I must say it is worth it. Most recently I had the Italian hoagie and it was fantastic — and I’m an Italian sandwich aficionado!
Ithaca bakery is definitely worth checking out if you’re coming through town, or grabbing something to eat to take to one of the many parks in the area. There is truly something for everyone.

Induces instant paralysis in newbies, at least it did for this noob :) The Ithaca bakery makes hot fresh meaty (or vegan!) sandwiches, brews great coffee drinks with Cayuga beans, sells hot fresh food by the pound on a steam table, makes cakes and pastries, and oh yeah bakes a variety of rustic breads like a rosemary salt focaccia. Also offers many NY state cheeses, plus an entire cold case dedicated to cream cheese for all kinds of College Town bagels!
The zillion sandwich choices are spread across more blackboards that I could count, that’s where the paralysis really set in, but I finally chose a fine one: smoked salmon, capers, sprouts, cream cheese and egg on pumpernickel bread. Outstanding but a tad spendy at $ 9.
If you’re lucky you can grab a table and linger. Surprisingly quiet inside considering how busy it can get. Staff is young, friendly and a bit disorganized, but they hunt you and your number down eventually and bring food & drinks right to your table.
Vegetarian rating: solid five stars, they have many veggie and vegan sandwich choices, either on bread, a bagel or a wrap. The hot food bar has more choices, including a bean burrito when I visited.
Has the look of a food co-​op, that kind of crunchy, granola feeling but they don’t sell bulk grains or beans LOL.

The book is still open on this place for me. There were a lot of great looking menu items. I am a sucker for a hot corn beef sandwich so that is what I had. No frills, just grain mustard on rye. It was good, but a little dryer and tougher than I like though seemed cooked fresh. I like my corned beef steamed and juicy. Since I am in town working near here, I will try tomorrow.
One other thing. You may want to check out the menu before you go. It is substantial with coomplicated and interesting choices.