Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I am the Executive Chef at the Bridge Cafe. We are offering our Popular Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner again this year. In a very comfortable and homey enviornment. Everyone is family at the Bridge. The Cost is $58.00 per person/$25.00 for children 12 and under. We are serving a three course meal including an all natural organic, free range, hormone and antibiotic free turkey. Our menu can be viewed on our website. www.bridgecafenyc.com. We wish everyone one a Happy Thanksgiving.

I like Area Bagels in North Park Slope on 5th Avenue, which makes a very respectable bagel - not too big, some crunch to the crust and soft inside. The owner learned bagel making from a place out in Little Neck on Horace Harding Parkway that dates back to the late 1940's when the bagel baking union controlled the business and its quality. I will have to re-try Bagel Hole although I remember not being too impressed years ago.

Maybe my preference of getting a plain buttered (not toasted bagel) let me enjoy a fresher bagel in the store, rather than taking it home, missing out on the short freshness life.

Personal Favorites:

Brooklyn: Montague Street Bagels
Manhattan: Ess-a-Bagel

Favorite used to be Bagel Zone (Ave A between 3rd St & 4th St), until they changed their name and stopped baking their own. Was the perfect bagel -- crisp on the outside, soft and bready on the inside...I'd pay a ridiculous premium just to taste one again.

I agree that Daniels in Murray Hill is pretty good. My all time Manhattan fav though, is Jumbo Hot Bagels on 56th and 2nd Ave. They are boiled, baked and delicious just like a bagel should be.

@NY: Non - foodie friendly? This site is not exclusively for foodie type places or meals. And cooking at home is not an option for me, it is too small and I wanted my few family members and I to meet in a location that isn't a 2-3 hour travel. I will not go into more detail - but cooking at home for either of us is not an option.

I understand the scientific urge to use the plain bagel as one litmus, but that just aint the whole tale of the taste. And I don't get the animus all the tasters apparently have against size, especially in the rising-price world, if the maker can deliver all the qualities of outer crunch, inner chew, and flavor balance. What, we want a LITTLE bagel? Hard to take that seriously. If you can experience the fresh pumpernickel at Ess-A-Bagel and not immediately comprehend how the combination of rye-and-carraway tartness and the kiss of malt create a tension that is absolutely thrilling--the single greatest bagel experience in NY--then you aren't paying attention. This is an art object. I live down the block from Rolen and Bagel Corner in Riverdale, and every weekend I travel down to 20th and First; there isn't even a serious comparison. Incidentally, Ess-A-Bagel appears, uncredited, in the poem "Creed" by contemporary poet Meg Kearney--to my knowledge, though they have satisfied many writers and appear as props in literature , these are the only bagels actually to be celebrated in a serious work. Here's the link: http://www.megkearney.com/creed.html

@Anapowell try any of the above with the exception of Lender's or Dunkin. They are all better than La Bagel.

"Please put to rest immediately the myth that Montreal bagels are superior to New York City bagels"

http://www.seriouseats.com/talk/2007/03/montreal-bagels-exposed.html

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/653172
--Guttergourmet

As a self-respecting Texan I will never step foot in that place. Sorry, just can't do it especially with other places as easily accessable (but admittedly more expensive). The chicken looked dry - I would have liked a description of the actual meat because I can bet it's dry as a bone. THAT is what separates the real from the fake in fried chicken.

I have to agree with everyone else and say good on you for reviewing somewhere as overlooked (whether I think that is a blessing or not) as Dallas BBQ.

Hello,

I just want to thank Carey Jones, Ed Levine and everyone else
involved with this article. It is an honor to be called the best!!

Sincerely,
Philip Romanzi
Bagel Hole
Of Park Slope

I guess none of the commenters live on the UES (I know, no longer chic...), because no one mentioned Tals. I live almost next door to one, and my open windows overlook and capture the almost constant lovely smells of fresh bagels baking in this neighborhood place (the onion must be baking right now - making me salivate). There are a couple of others around - mine is 86th bet 2nd and 1st, another is Lex and about 83d, another First and 54th. I live close to the H&H east side branch, and I used to love them...but too often these days their bagels are soft, pale and puffy - no bite to the crust and not dense enough. I've been to Absolute several times, and they are indeed delicious.

Bagels are a New York institutions. Unfortunatly they are no long made by New York Jews and have become mere rolls. I used to swear by Fairway until they decided bigger is better (and more expensive). H&H is highly overated. Lately I have found that Eli's comes closest to the bagels of my Broooklyn childhood. I buy them at Zabar's where they are already several hours old and eat them the next morning. They are nice and chewy, the way a bagel should be, and the perfect foil for cream cheese and lox.