Where To Find The Best Bagels In New York

Where can you find the best bagels in New York? Becky Hughes catalogues the most exciting iterations of the bite in the city.

There are few things New Yorkers like to argue about more than bagels, especially now that we’re at a bagel inflection point.

Bagels have been getting bigger and fluffier for the past couple of decades, with the traditional methods (hand-rolled in ropes, cold-fermented overnight, baked on a burlap board) changing to accommodate new generations of New Yorkers and their tastes. But there are those who would say the city’s buzziest versions are hardly bagels at all.

Some of the choices below (listed in alphabetical order) are true-blue New York versions; others are far from it. Some are great on their own, while some truly shine in sandwich form. Some may be the ones you loved as a kid, and some might be from that shop you’d never set foot in. Of course, you’re within your rights to disagree – what’s more New York than that?

Absolute Bagels

Upper West Side

Bagels have a few origin stories – some more believable than others – but the bagel we know and love came from Eastern Europe to New York’s Lower East Side with Jewish immigrants in the early 20th century. Absolute Bagels represents a later generation of bagelry. The shop was opened by Thai immigrant Sam Thongkrieng, who learned the craft at New York establishments such as Ess-A-Bagel. His hand-rolled bagels are near perfect for devotees of a chewy crust, and worth both waiting in the omnipresent line and taking out cash for.

2788 Broadway (108th St).

Apollo Bagels

Are Apollo bagels technically even bagels? There’s certainly an argument to be made either way. They are none of the things that make a New York bagel. But, made with sourdough and shaped with a hole-poking method that yields a bigger gap, they are the best representation of the new-school variety of taut, tangy, bubbly bagels, with a true shell of a crust. Perhaps to avoid further straying from tradition, there’s not much funny business with the flavours (plain, sesame, everything), or the spreads (butter, cream cheese, whitefish salad).

242 East 10th St (First Ave) and 73 Greenwich Ave.

Bagel Oasis

Fresh Meadows

Right off the Long Island Expressway and mostly bodega-presenting, Bagel Oasis in Fresh Meadows, Queens, has been making excellent bagels since 1961. The crust on each bagel is so distinctive, nearly shattering, that they need no more than cream cheese to shine. The shop also churns out thoroughly seeded flagels (a 1990s invention), and forearm-size braided bagel twists worth picking up. They’re all best enjoyed with a coffee as big as a paint bucket and a couple of scratch-offs for the road.

183-12 Horace Harding Expressway, Fresh Meadows (184th St), Queens.

Bake Shop

Bushwick

Bake Shop, an offshoot of the Little Cupcake Bake Shop chain, is a bit of a sleeper hit for fans of a dense, chewy bagel, without much in the way of topping options. The shop, in Bushwick, Brooklyn, feels like a place where you should stick to a vegan pastry; a sugary smell and an oddball painting of Bernie Sanders preside over the room. But the bagels, baked in small batches behind the counter, have the kind of taut interior and nearly tough crust that evoke the bagels of yore.

Baz Bagel

Little Italy

A bagel shop that encourages you to sit – with real plates, table service and all – is rare these days. Baz Bagels is the most cheerful place to do that, either on a stool at the long counter, or in a low booth beneath portraits of Barbra Streisand and Bette Midler. Order the Pretty in Pink, an open-faced sandwich on a hand-rolled, kettle-boiled pumpernickel bagel with electric-pink beet and horseradish cream cheese, Nova and dill – served, of course, with a perfect pickle spear.

181 Grand St (Mulberry St).

Bergen Bagels

Prospect Heights, Clinton Hill

Bergen has three locations all within walking distance of one another in Prospect Heights and Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, which may explain why the shop is a local favourite. At Bergen, there’s no novel narrative, no generations of family lineage – just good, big, warm bagels since 1999, served fast and constantly to those lucky enough to pass by on their commute. (Special shout-out, though, to Bergen’s oddly refreshing cucumber-dill schmear.)

Multiple locations.

Best Bagel and Coffee

Midtown

Midtown is a neighbourhood that needs great bagels, both to power the minds of corporate office workers and to salve the horrors of the daily commute. Best Bagel is, indeed, the best for those use cases. The bagels are big – a Victorian-era New Yorker would have been stunned by the size – with a wonderfully chewy, twisty exterior and, in some cases, no hole to be found. And the shop, in perfect midtown fashion, is a well-oiled machine with a managed line that moves eagerly to send each patron off with a hot bagel breakfast.

225 West 35th St (7th Ave).

Bo’s Bagels

Harlem, Washington Heights

The raison d’etre of Bo’s Bagels is bringing good bagels to a bagel-less neighbourhood. The first location, on 116th St, Harlem, was opened in 2017 by two locals who couldn’t find great bagels within walking distance. Bo’s is still the only shop making fresh bagels in Harlem, if you can believe it. But the audience is there, forming a line every weekend for modest-size bagels that meet the demand with crunchy exteriors and a bubbly crumb.

235 West 116th St (Frederick Douglass Boulevard), 3750 Broadway (156th St).

Knickerbocker Bagel

Bushwick

Knickerbocker Bagel is one of the better-organised bagel shops, an efficiency that helped solidify it as a Bushwick favorite. The bagels are well suited to sandwiches: big, but not dauntingly so, with a squishable, tender interior and a chewy crust that doesn’t interfere much with a bacon, egg and cheese. It’s a worthy place to take anyone, including unorthodox folks who like quirked-up cream cheese (jalapeno Asiago, for example) and bagel sandwiches with any manner of deli meat.

367 Knickerbocker Ave (Stockholm St), Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Liberty Bagels

Midtown, Midtown East, Financial District, Jackson Heights

Liberty Bagels, with locations in the financial district, midtown and Jackson Heights, Queens, produces huge bagels, bigger than most diner hamburgers, that are shockingly fluffy and easily deflate upon being punctured. They fall squarely in the soft, doughy-interior camp, but with a firm, well-seasoned crust. It’s worth nothing that Liberty also calls itself the “home of the rainbow bagel”, a fad with a longer-than-expected tail, but you shouldn’t let that deter you from an otherwise wonderful, and more appropriate, everything bagel.

Multiple locations.

PopUp Bagels

Greenwich Village, Upper West Side, Upper East Side

The bagels at this Connecticut-based chain are controversial. PopUp’s shtick: hot bagels (directly-out-of-the-oven-into-your-bag hot), never sliced (they suggest you “rip and dip” your bagel in spread), no toppings (but you can get a side of cream cheese, butter and rotating specialty versions of both). These are not New York bagels, by any stretch of the imagination. Writer Charlotte Druckman even called them “chubby pitas” in a recent newsletter bemoaning the current state of the bagel. But they are bagels, they are in New York and they are delicious. And they’re popular. PopUp’s shops are multiplying like rabbits, with locations downtown, on the Upper East and Upper West sides, and soon in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Multiple locations.

Russ & Daughters

Lower East Side, Brooklyn Navy Yard, Hudson Yards

Make no mistake, Russ & Daughters is an appetising shop that makes bagels, rather than a bagel shop. That’s to say that while the bagels are fine on their own, they’re designed to be used for bagel sandwiches, with smoked fish so thinly sliced you can see through it. (How many fingers am I holding up?) The original Lower East Side location is the way to go for the experience, which involves standing in front of cases of fish, clutching your number slip and urgently awaiting your turn to order. When that time comes, go with the Boychik, with smoked salmon and sable and plain cream cheese on an everything bagel.

Multiple locations.

Shelsky’s Brooklyn Bagels

Park Slope

Shelsky’s exists to combat the “shiksa bagel”, as one of its ad campaigns described bagels made without commitment to New York tradition. The owners opened it in 2018, deciding to make their own bagels after six years of buying them for their Cobble Hill appetising shop. The bagels are small, with a strong emphasis on the crust. “I would never do a rainbow bagel. A blueberry bagel is not a thing,” said Peter Shelsky, a co-founder. Even so, they do make a salt-and-pepper bagel “au poivre”, and a tingly, excellent bagel with Sichuan peppercorns, a play on the longstanding relationship New York Jews have with Chinese food.

453 Fourth Ave (10th St).

Tal Bagels

Upper West Side, Upper East Side, Midtown East, Gramercy

At Tal, there’s never a lull in the process of making great bagels. Signs in its stores read “hot bagels (10 to 12 minutes)”, and they really mean it. At times, the bagels come out so steamy, they disintegrate the paper bag they’re served in. As a general rule, all bagels are great when hot, but Tal’s pass the real test. Even after they’ve cooled down over the course of a commute, their crust is thin, bubbly and crackly, giving way to that ideal New York chew.

Multiple locations.

Terrace Bagels

Park Slope

Everything about Terrace Bagels is charming: the location (a block from Prospect Park’s Bartel-Pritchard Square), the logo (a jaunty anthropomorphised bagel), the coffee station (weak hot coffee, but also nitro cold brew on tap). Above all, it’s producing, to my mind, the platonic ideal of a bagel. The size isn’t daunting, the crumb is airy but not bready, the crust is chewy but not a chore. It’s not my local bagel, but it’s a bagel that could make me consider relocating.

222 & 222A Prospect Park West (Windsor Place).

Tompkins Square Bagels

East Village, Flatiron District

Tompkins Square Bagels makes bagels for sandwiches. They’re huge, sometimes so fluffy they lose the hole entirely, and function more like rolls than anything else. The list of sandwiches at all three locations is biblically long and, in many cases, surprisingly delicious – the Weezer, with bacon, chorizo, eggs, cheddar and cream cheese, is perfect, squished into a warm sesame bagel. But if you’re a bagel purist, avert your eyes from the tub of birthday cake-flavoured schmear.

Multiple locations.

Utopia Bagels

Whitestone, Midtown

The original location of Utopia Bagels in Whitestone, Queens, is a scene, and has been since 1981. The line moves quickly, and the people in the open kitchen move even quicker, in a constant state of churning out malty bagels with a remarkable crunchy shell and a chewy crumb. Utopia’s pride and joy is the carousel oven that’s been turning for decades, but it is evidently not too proud to modernise on other fronts. Their TikTok presence is notably active, and bagel flavours include prosciutto, pina colada and red velvet. It also offers vegan replacements for egg, bacon, sausage and cheese.

1909 Utopia Parkway (19th Ave), Whitestone, Queens.

This article originally appeared in the New York Times.

Written by: Becky Hughes

Photographs by: Heather Willensky

©2024 THE NEW YORK TIMES

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