Disagree. I live in Maryland and Ive gone all the way up to Manhattan just for a great bagel. Ive even gone to Chicago for an amazing sausage. Some of us are food fanatics...
Russ and Daughters is way overrated and overpriced. In NYC, find a good bagel shop in your neighbor. There was one on 1st Ave and about 16th that when to early in the morning. Get some good lox which is not hard to find in the City and some cream cheese. Add tomatoes and red onions. It is not that hard.
So glad Absolute was a contender. Been eating there my entire life, and in the last few years it’s popularity has skyrocketed (can easily wait on line for 45 minutes if you time your arrival wrong).
It's so weird to see a slice of tomato on every single bagel, I had no idea they did that. Since I saw this video I've been putting tomato on my bagels and it's actually a really good combo, just unexpected.
This was actually well done- I usually don’t like or agree with these evaluations, but because they broke the “dish” down into its constituent parts is the right way to do it. This is an ages old debate in NYC and these two hit the nail on the head. The reality is that there is not a perfect spot for bagel and lox. I completely agree though, if we have guests in town, we take them to Russ & Daughters. However, my preference is to get the lox there and the bagels and cream cheese at either Thompkins Square or Essa and make it at home.
My family, relatives, friends and Scandinavian community all make open-faced sandwiches with gravlox. It's similar to sushi in that the sandwiches are made in so many ways and are arranged as "art". Adding a second think layer of bread (bagel) dilutes the taste of the lox and other ingredients.
Negative Ghostrider... a freshly made bagel does not need to be toasted. If I baked you an apple pie, and pull it out of the oven, why would you put it back into the oven? If it's a day old, then fine, spritz it with water and toast it.
John Caputo the middle layer of a McDonald’s Big Mac is also fully cooked, it’s toasted because it’s the correct way to do it. If you wish to eat your bagels wrong then that’s completely your decision and I don’t respect that.
Well it is served in a rustic looking restaurant wrapped in paper and it’s in New York... so at best it’s probably a little over $15 Edit: it’s salmon, so maybe it’s over $22-$25.
There nothing like a good sandwich, some people like this some people like Italian delicacies, there’s nothing like a nice Italian hero filled with all the imported goodies!
Because people who live in the city know that everything is expensive. It's just standard there. What you're really saying is you don't understand why people would choose to live in New York City.
Agree about Russ & Daughters. Second best bagel, nova & cream cheese is Tal Bagel. Its such a perfect melding of quality ingredients on a terrific bagel. Also Barney Greengrass!
@@tywilliams224 Actually Ty, after careful and scientific consideration, the Tal Bagel Nova, Cream Cheese, Onion, Tomato, Capers bagel is the best in Manhattan...meaning it's the best ever on the planet. The preparation and melding of perfect ingredients is unparalleled.
I love how when they went to absolute bagels so many random people just buts is and says “these are the best bagels” that’s when you know it’s really the best😂
My first time trying bagels and lox was a couple years ago at Barney Greengrass. It changed my life. I liked it so much I had to visit Russ and Daughters and that was incredible as well
I was fortunate enough to find an amazing bagel place far from the hustle and bustle of NYC and that includes the rest of the 5 boroughs and even Long Island. It is called Bagel Emporium in Yorktown Heights in North Westchester they are amazing and they also have incredible pastries. Their chocolate cheesecake muffin is heaven!
So many good bagel places in NYC especially in Brooklyn. That Ess A Bagel place looked amazing. I used to go to Absolute during almost every day in college. It’s amazing.
I went to NY for the first time and I tried a bagel right away. The girl spoke poor English that I can barely understand. She got annoyed and impatient every time I say pardon. So I just say yes to every question and end up with a blueberry bagel with strawberry cream cheese. And it’s so hard and I can’t chew. My mouth hurt at the last bit. I was so disappointed that I didn’t try another bagel. But now I finally know where to get good bagel. Next time I go to NY, I’ll definitely try again :)
OK - my take-home message from these two is they want a big fluffy bagel, with whipped cream cheese, and not too much lox. In fact one of the sandwiches they liked had more tomato than salmon. Hey you two: Move To Los Angeles!!
Ok I have 3 things to say: 1. The best "Bagel" place is definitely Best Bagel & Coffee on W 35th. 2. My favorite is the Nova sandwich from Lenwhich. Nova is salmon that is cold smoked meaning it's not cooked but smoked at a lower temperature in a smoke house. 3. I use to live in a homeless shelter right around the corner from Absolute Bagel. Ok that's it lol 😉😁😏
I live in Chicago and Bagels and Lox is my favorite deli sandwich. I like it with chive cream cheese and red onions on the salmon. I'm a huge salmon fan, I like it prepared all kinds of ways.
Lucas Yee people who don’t like lox don’t order a lox bagel so I get that. But to order a lox bagel and complain about having too much? I don’t think so.
Yo, Piasanos Brooklyn NY on 83rd St. In BayRidge. Best bagel I had in NY. Little Italian family owned shop. Lavazza coffee and bagel with cream cheese and lox. Unreal.
J.B.’s Deli in Chicago. I don’t even have words to tell you how fantastic their food is. Not just bagels and lox, but everything you could ever want in a Jewish deli.
What no mention of Zabar's or Murray's Sturgeon? Both on Broadway in the Upper West Side. Maybe Murray's doesn't make sandwiches? But the lox and other varieties of smoked fish are excellent. I should know, I'm a Litvak. BTW that's a lot of lox and cream cheese. Growing up we never put that much on the bagel, but we used butter as much as we did cream cheese. Also the bagels were chewy if not tough. If someone had dental work, biting into and chewing a bagel were tests of the dentist's work. But this was more typical of Jersey City rather than Manhattan.
In Scandinavia we eat bagels with gravlax (salmon cured with a mix of salt, sugar and dill, grav = grave, lax = salmon) or smoked salmon. It would be interesting to compare our versions of bagels to the lox bagels enjoyed in NYC. Anyhow, If you ever get the chance, try gravlax. Gravlax and other amazing seafood is definitely something that you don't want to miss out on when visiting Scandinavia! Personally, I look forward to visiting NYC. So far, the only part of the US I've visited is Fla. It was a great experience, but I'm well aware there's so much more to see and do in America. Greetings from Sweden!
It is nice to see than in developed countries, you can get this kind of food in a shop. Here, in eastern Europe (Croatia) we can only dream of places like this. But...we do it at home. Make bagels, buy salmon (not even close to your quality, but hey, still cheap imported salmon) and cream cheese. Nice to see that someone in the world can actually buy this sandwich.
Because we, the former eastern block countries are seriously underdeveloped in terms of street foods in general. I believe we're the one of the few regions of the world where eating out is generally not a thing, and Ppersonally I blame communist socialist era. Poor economy , private business made almost impossible, food rationing, poor availibity od exported goods (lacking even so basic stuff such olive oil and leomons) and very narrow range of choice of grocery products at home literally killed the restaurant culture. My grandma knows only one type of cheese, has no idea wtf she's supposed to do with citrus and her choice of spices is limited to pepper and vegeta - because through her adult life she never had a chance to try any other goods, they were simply unavailable. During communist era she'd been to restaurant only once (even though she was big city gal and not dirt poor) they stiil served her what she'd cook at home anyway. My city is the size of 1 million and in the 70s there were roughly 120 restaurants and bars here in total. Now it's over 2000. Now it's changing and little joints and foodtruck parks are popping out everywhere, but I swear that 15 years ago the only place here you'd get a burger would be Mac or Burger King.
I'm bit suprised you guys didn't choose Tompkins Square Bagels... Their bagels are literally the best bagels on this planet.....It made my life a bit less stressful when I was in NYC
@@sarahceekay33 This is why I assemble my own Nova Scotia bagels at home. A warm, toasted sesame bagel, a shmear of cream cheese on both sides, capers, tomato, thinly sliced onion rings, and a side of half-sour pickles - a couple of black olives too! You can't go wrong if you wash this down with a cool beer.
My best lox and bagel sandwich. Toasted bagel, cream cheese on both halves, slices of green onion or sweet onion. After seeing tomato on some of the sandwich I am going to add tomato.
As someone from NYC who has eaten hundreds of bagels & lox in his life, I can say that the first bagel had way too much lox on it. That is like 3 bagel's worth of lox. I know opinions differ but I am very simplistic when it comes to my lox. Good quality bagel, lightly toasted, good schmeer of cream cheese and 1 layer of lox. Eat that shit open faced...not like a sandwich. Put a little salt and pepper on top as well and you will not be disappointed.
So you'll actually never experience the greatest, most famous, most cinematic city in the entire world. Every corner there's a landmark, history & an energy like no other part in the world. You can travel the world but you'll never be able to recapture the sheer magic of NYC anywhere else.
@@AlTheRelic Cities just aren't my thing. I've done the tourist thing in many of them over the years while traveling for work and it's not necessarily a nyc thing, its just a city thing. I know myself well enough to know that i just wouldnt enjoy myself. /shrug
If you love Lox and cream cheese bagel, I would recommend going to Russ & Daughter. I lived in New York most of my life and they have the best lox bagel. However, Ess-a-bagel is my favorite for every other types of bagels. The line is usually long, but it moves really quickly.The lox and cream cheese itself is great, but nothing special. If I could make the perfect lox bagel, I would get the bagel from Ess-a-bagel and the lox & cream cheese from Russ & Daughters.
