A Bagel Tour of New York City

There is a specific sound a proper New York bagel makes when you tear it: a faint crackle of the glossy crust, then a slow, chewy resistance, like pulling apart warm taffy. My friend Dana, who grew up in Queens and moved to Denver for reasons she still questions, had been describing that sound to me for years. Every bagel I’d ever brought her from a Colorado shop got the same verdict: “That’s bread shaped like a bagel.”

So when three of us flew to New York for a long weekend in March, she made one demand. We would spend an entire morning, from 7 a.m. until we could not move, eating bagels across the city. Six shops, four boroughs, a lot of subway, a few heated arguments, and one winner that I still have to defend at dinner parties.

Here’s the route, how to order like you belong, and the honest ranking. Plus the pizza slice that “counted as lunch.”

In this story6 sections

1. First, the rules of the New York bagel
2. The route: four boroughs before lunch
3. The ranking, and the controversy
4. The slice that counted as lunch
5. Planning your own bagel morning
6. New York City

First, the rules of the New York bagel

A real New York bagel is boiled before it’s baked, which creates that shiny, chewy crust. It should be dense but not heavy, with a crust that crackles and an interior that pulls. Locals argue that the city’s soft water makes the difference. Bakers I’ve read tend to credit long, cold fermentation and the boil. Either way, you’ll know it when you taste it.

Ordering is fast and unsentimental. Lines move quickly, and the person behind the counter expects you to know what you want before you reach the front. The formula is: bagel type, then spread or filling, then toasted or not. “Everything, scallion cream cheese” is a complete sentence. A few more tips:

• Don’t ask for it toasted if it’s fresh. A warm, fresh bagel needs nothing. Toasting is for day-old bagels, and some shops will gently push back.
• A “schmear” is a spread of cream cheese. Many shops pile it thick; ask for “light” if you want to taste the bagel.
• Lox vs. nova: traditional lox is salt-cured belly and quite salty; nova is cold-smoked and milder. Most people actually want nova.
• Budget about $3–4 for a plain bagel with butter, $5–8 with cream cheese, and $15–25 for a full smoked fish sandwich.

The route: four boroughs before lunch

7:00 a.m. Queens

We started in Dana’s home borough, at a corner bagel bakery in northeast Queens where she used to stop with her dad on Sunday mornings. No sign worth photographing, no seating, just a long steel counter, bins of bagels still steaming, and a line of contractors and grandmothers. She ordered a sesame with plain cream cheese. I ordered an everything with scallion. They were, I am sorry to report for the rest of this post, astonishing.

8:30 a.m. The Bronx

From Queens it’s a longer trip into the Bronx, and we added it mostly to say we had. A family-run bakery in a quiet residential neighborhood gave us a plain bagel with butter that was solid but soft-crusted. Nice people, fine bagel, and a good reminder that the borough matters less than the baker.

10:00 a.m. Manhattan, Midtown

Next came Ess-a-Bagel, a Midtown institution since the 1970s known for enormous, doughy bagels. These are big enough to feed two people, and the line and the bagel are equally intense. I ordered a pumpernickel with lox spread. Heavy, satisfying, more bread than crust. Dana called it “a bagel for tourists who love bagels,” which is both a compliment and an insult.

11:00 a.m. Manhattan, Lower East Side

We rode down to the Lower East Side, the neighborhood where so much of this food arrived with Jewish immigrants a century ago. At Kossar’s, open since the 1930s, we skipped the bagel for its cousin, the bialy: a flat, chewy roll that isn’t boiled, with a dimple in the middle filled with toasted onion. Eaten warm, with a smear of butter, it was one of the best things I ate in New York.

Two blocks away is Russ & Daughters, the “appetizing” shop that has been selling smoked fish on East Houston Street since 1914. Take a number, look at the gleaming cases of salmon, sable and whitefish salad, and order a classic: a bagel with cream cheese, nova, capers, tomato and red onion. It’s expensive, around $20, and worth every cent. The fish is the reason to come; the bagel is excellent.

12:30 p.m. Brooklyn

We finished at a newer, sourdough-leaning bakery in Brooklyn with a long line of strollers outside. The bagel was small, darkly baked and very crusty, with a sour tang. Gorgeous to look at. By that point, though, I could barely taste anything.

“Everything, scallion cream cheese” is a complete sentence in New York.

Maya Collins

The ranking, and the controversy

1. The corner bakery in Queens. The perfect balance of crackly crust and chewy middle, fresh from the oven at 7 a.m. Dana cried a little. (She denies this.)
2. Russ & Daughters. If you are judging the whole sandwich rather than just the bagel, this wins. It’s a New York experience you shouldn’t skip.
3. Kossar’s bialy. Technically disqualified for not being a bagel. Ranked anyway.
4. The Brooklyn sourdough bakery. Beautiful and crusty, a little too fussy for a purist.
5. Ess-a-Bagel. Big, fun and very New York, but the softness cost points.
6. The Bronx bakery. A good neighborhood bagel, and that’s not nothing.

The controversy is obvious. A small corner shop that most visitors will never find beat two of the most famous names in the city. When I posted the ranking for friends, several New Yorkers told me I was wrong, and each one named a different shop as the true best. That’s the real lesson: the best bagel in New York is the freshest one from whatever bakery is near you, eaten before 9 a.m.

The slice that counted as lunch

After a morning of bread, my plan was to eat salad. Instead, Dana marched us to Joe’s Pizza on Carmine Street in the West Village, slinging classic slices since the 1970s. The New York slice follows the same rules as the bagel: no fuss, fast, and eaten standing up. Order a plain cheese slice (about $4), fold it lengthwise so the oil doesn’t run down your wrist, and eat it on the sidewalk. Thin, crisp underneath, tangy tomato, good cheese. We didn’t say a word for two minutes.

Planning your own bagel morning

Timing: Start early. Bagels are at their best in the first hours of the morning, and popular shops draw long lines from about 9 a.m. on weekends. Weekdays are calmer.

Pacing: Share. Three people splitting six bagels is a joyful morning. Three people eating six bagels each is a medical event.

Getting there: New York is served by JFK, LaGuardia and Newark, with nonstop flights from nearly every major US city. From Denver, it’s about a four-hour flight.

When to go: Spring and fall bring comfortable temperatures in the 50s and 60s°F, which is ideal for walking between neighborhoods. A winter bagel crawl, with steam rising from the bag in your hands, has its own charm.

Where to stay: Anywhere close to a subway line that serves several boroughs. Lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn make the route easy.

I came home to Denver with six bagels in my carry-on and a newfound respect for Dana’s snobbery. She was right. It isn’t just bread shaped like a bagel. Go find your own corner bakery, ask for an everything with scallion, and decide for yourself.