It seems that under the new owner the only art left is that of skimping on the ingredients and gouging the patron. I guess if you are on a mostly carb not much else diet this place would work for you. However, if you expect more than 2 ounces of turkey in a wrap, well better to avoid these artists on most days you feel peckish. I say most days because on the weekends the crew is more as it was under the old regime. So out of the 7 days 2 are good and the rest are bunk so 2 stars seemed fair. These 2 days for $8 a sandwich you got a fair deal. It also seems the freshness matters depending when in the week you go. On the weekends fresh. This day, I watched as the sandwich-monger went out of his way to skim the browned guac onto my leathery tortilla. He was quite generous with the 2 slices of tomato and the 3 leaves of lettuce, the good chap. The short of this tale is that I don't think I'll be returning here for and overpriced display of miserliness for a workday lunch. read more

Bagel Art Cafe - Mostly lettuce with a smidge of guac and a touch of turkey. - Bakeries Near Me - Evanston, Illinois

Always kind service. Their bagels and sandwiches are consistently delicious. Love this place before and during the pandemic. Allergy friendly too, if you have a question about an item, they don't make you feel bad for just inquiring. read more

So I stopped going because the wait was unbearable. Waiting 10 mins for a plain bagel as much as i want to support local gave anxiety. I recently went back and holy cow i don't know what happened but new owners really revamped this place. Fact, efficient, friendly kudos to the new owners. read more

Stopped in here this morning for a quick breakfast and sandwich to go. The name is kind of deceiving - I would say this is more of a cute coffee shop than "Bagel Art." Most bagel places I've been to are all about the bagels and have a ton of different menu options to choose from. This place has a small menu. They have good coffee and a lot of space to come relax or do some work. I got a bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich. It was good but not amazing - the bagel itself was way too greasy from the grill. I will probably be back for the coffee! read more

Bagel Art Cafe - Cute spot. - Bakeries Near Me - Evanston, Illinois

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Love this place!! Fast and friendly service. Great breakfast sandwiches. Would be a 5 if their were better coffee options. Just the one drip coffee.. no signs or telling what the brew is or where from, etc. Add a pour over station or a better drip and it's a 5 no doubt. read more

Super swift service. Remember: my charge is to find the best chai in Chicago. Today, I rode out of my way for Bagel Arts chain+decaf combo. As a Rogers Park native this is the only place nearby who can put this together at a digestible price. And, for a gal whose sensitive to caffeine the combo is sublime!! : ) ( : read more

Bagel Art Cafe - A pretty flower to admire - Bakeries Near Me - Evanston, Illinois

Terrible. The $9 Vegetarian wrap was nothing but iceberg lettuce and unripe tomatoes. A hint of hummus but nothing more. I had to eat something extra when I got home. First and last visit there. read more

Decent bagels. Not everyone's kind of scene but i quite like the atmosphere. The bagels are not like out of this world amazing but they do hit the spot when the alternative is Einstein's. They did over steamed my milk on my lattes but I'm a picky coffee drinker. read more

Bagel Art Cafe - They do put a thick layer of spread on! - Bakeries Near Me - Evanston, Illinois

This is a perfect spot. The bagels are the real deal. The coffee was so delicious, I got another to go. Music playing in the background is soft enough to hear my friend as we chat but loud enough for me to enjoy it. The staff is so personable. I felt like I was a regular. Great for meeting a friend or having some quiet time. read more

The employees were really nice. The everything bagel was great. The lox cream cheese was fresh and delicious, but I do wish there was more lox in it. They have intelligentsia coffee. The ice coffee was great and they have simple syrup so you don't have to use grainy sugar in the iced drinks. They had plenty of seating, and it was nice and clean inside. read more

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-customer service is good -coffee is average -difficult to find a parking space -bagel was very good I will not be returning because i rather find place where i can purchase a bagel and coffee in one spot. I believe i can find that elsewhere. This is the reason for my 2 stars. read more

The best bagels loaded up with cream cheese! They also have intelligentsia coffee which makes amazing lattes. We go at least once a week and it never disappoints! read more

Have driven by this place for years. We finally stopped in to try it out. Adorable space and great service. Bagels, unfortunately, not great. They are okay. I wanted this to be a new go-to bagel place for our rotation on the weekends and sadly won't be going back because the bagels were forgettable. New York bagel and bialy and once upon a bagel are just setting bar too high. read more

My new go-to place for bagels! The people who work here are so friendly, and the bagels sandwiches are amazing! Even though they usually seem to be busy, they are always able to complete my order quickly and correctly. Bagel Art's prices are also pretty reasonable, especially compared to some other places on the North Shore. read more

They have the best BEC bagel I've ever had!! I got BEC on an egg bagel and it was incredible--so flavorful and tender. I can't wait to come back! read more

I eat here roughly once every week. That's how bad the bagel scene in Chicago is. The bagels are serviceable. They're a little too much like French bread without the crust. There's no sweetness. I don't think they boil them in any malt syrup. Sometimes they run out of plain. How do you run out of plain? But you can have them slap a load of cream cheese on it, with a generous helping of lox and capers, plus some thinly-sliced tomato and red onion, and voila, you have yourself a pretty good breakfast. And the only other game in town is Einstein Bros., where the bagels taste like the inside of a floppy disk, the cream cheese has the consistency of toothpaste, the lox is barely there, the onion is sliced so thick you tear up from biting into it, and the tomato frequently is cut from the top, so you have the woody stem to deal with. Bagel Art commits none of these sins. There are about a thousand bagel places better than this in New York (or Montreal if you're one of those people), and one bagel place a thousand times better than this in Virginia (shout out to Bodo's!). If you want a decent bagel and you live in Evanston, go here. If you want a really, really good bagel and you live in Evanston, don't live in Evanston. read more

We so enjoy the sandwiches from Bagel Art! We've been going there for years and when we recently approached them to be in-kind donors for our 'Small Business Saturday' event they supplied us with a slew of bagels and cream cheese to bestow upon our visitors. Thank you Bagel Art for supporting our community- and thank you for creating a wonderful space with great food and ambiance we continue to enjoy visiting! Jennifer and Fern, Bon Events read more

Great food, smiling employees, quick service, dank OJ. The place is a tad pricey though, it's a bagel for gods sake.

This place has mediocre food and awful service which is not a good combination at all. I always drive by this place and have wanted to try it forever, but it is really only open during hours that I am working so finally on my day off I got to try it out. From the moment I walked in, it seemed like the person behind the counter could not wait to get me out of there. I thought this was a little odd as there really was no one else in the place. The baskets of bagels behind the counter were pretty empty so I asked which bagels they had, since sometimes at places like Panera they have some in the back. The response I got was just this incredulous look, like I had asked for a basket of shrimp or something. I guess my question was not even worth them using actual words. Finally I just decided to order. I ordered two bagels with different spreads. Generally I get asked if I want the bagel toasted, but I guess they don't have toasters or they just wanted me to leave as the second I ordered they did not give me the option and just started throwing the spread on there. Not to worry though, they did manage to charge me $7 for my order. I really like trying out these little shops as I have had good experiences with them in the past, but times like this make me wish I just stuck to the Paneras and Einstein's of the world. You can keep your snooty service and overpriced food, I'll stick with the heavyweights of the bagel industry. read more

A mediocre and overpriced bagel sandwich. The good thing is, that the bagel itself is terrific and they have a wide variety of flavors. I just wish they would use them to create a more balanced sandwich. Nothing too great about lox overpowered by too many salty capers or roast beef with onions that results in dragon breath that could clear a room. Still, come here if you're in the mood for a good bagel. Maybe just stick with the cream cheese. read more

After a crew change, I am back as a customer here! Level of service and professionalism is at the top! Food is amazing as always and done the way you want it! :) read more

Bagels are great and coffee is fantastic. Fun bagel shop in Evanston, super friendly staff. The bagel sandwiches are simple but the ingredients are so much better than what you're going to get at any of the bagel chains. read more

It kills me having to write a rough review of this place. I really used to love it but it seems that the management has changed and it hasn't been beneficial. What used to be an extremely wide array of bagels and cream cheese has been cut down pretty thoroughly to bagel standards. They're down to 3 cream cheese flavors (Does plain even count? Isn't that just assumed?) and great ones like spinach and artichoke got the ax. Scallion? Oh boy, excuse me while I go wild with that one remaining choice of savory flavors. The sandwiches have remained (mostly) unchanged in both name and form but some of them have been reduced to simpler forms. No more Tuna Meltdown with two veggies. Now it's just "Tuna" on the sandwich board, one veggie included. Points for keeping the Green Mountain and Lox and Key in both name and form, those are damn fine sandwiches. That brings me to my final point: The removal of character and spirit this place had. New management, new staff and the new owner practically gutted the place. No more Readers around, everything is very clean (Read: sterile) and not as welcoming. How the Hell do you keep the store's bookshelf and leave it completely empty?! I've seen other reviews saying that the line run's faster now (Because it wasn't fast before? It's bagels, dude, relax.) And that the prices are cheaper now, but I really don't think that's true. If it is then it's barely noticeable and at the cost of the frills that made the place great. Place with a great environment turned into "Cheaper" Evanston Yuppie stop. Great. I used to LOVE coming here and admittedly, I still go from time to time but the desire to go isn't there anymore. It's just a place that's open early in the morning. Also, my coffee was kinda burnt last time. Just kinda throwing that out there. read more

As a Jew, I was skeptical. This place is walking distance from me but seemed less authentic than traditional Jewish delis. Why is this place so fancy? It probably can't have a good Jewish bagel. I was so wrong. So, so very wrong. First of all, their bagels are sent fresh daily from NY Bagel & Bialy, which is a very big deal. Secondly, they have scallion, not chive, cream cheese. If you're in the mood for a true New York Bagel experience, the difference is a game changer. They have all the veggies and meats you could want. The lox are outstanding. They have whole wheat and whole wheat everything bagels. To top it off, they have Intelligentsia coffee and an adorable cafe atmosphere. I went there twice today and plan on living there this summer. So basically, this is one of the most important discoveries I have made in my whole life. Take it from a true Jew bagel connoisseur, this place is perfect. read more

I go to Bagel Art all the time (probably about once a week) because it's right around the corner and a nice place to stop for lunch or a snack. I love the new space -- it's a huge improvement in terms of places to sit, and I think the bagels taste much better too (in the old store they were often burned). The downsides are that the service is almost always slow, and some of the servers have a really bad attitude (baseball cap, I'm talking to you). They're also always running out of about half their bagels, so it's rare that I get my first choice. But, I will keep going back because even on a third choice bagel, their sandwiches are really tasty. read more

New management cut all of the life out of what Bagel Art used to be. The variety has been cut by at least half. I'd say save your money and go to Cosi for a bagel. Tip to new management: Add variety back in read more

I went here for the second time this past weekend and I was really disappointed with the service. I ordered my food and paid right away. The guy making my sandwich put my bagel in the oven to toast and then forgot about it. He was too concerned with going on his lunch break and making his own food. As this guy is eating his lunch I had to go up to the counter and ask someone else to finish getting me my food. What I had was good, but I think it's ridiculous that someone would no complete an order before going on break. I also think the bagel sandwich size is a bit small for the price. read more

Bagels are good, but not worth the frustration I've been going to Bagel Art for going on 5 years, so clearly i think the product is good. I also like supporting the local business, but this place kills a weekend morning mood in a heartbeat. The service is awful! I've worked in many a cafe, and this place needs some organization STAT! They randomly take the next person waiting and that employee waits on you from start to finish, which makes the whole process extremely slow and totally disorganized. There is hardly any room behind the counter to go back and forth, so they are constantly bumping into each other, and they try to ask you questions while your playing musical chairs with the other people in line. It's maddening! Haven't they ever been to another place where one person takes your order, and the next helps to make it, then the next rings you up? (ah la Pot Belly, Starbucks, Subway or Einstein?) Or maybe you have some sort of ticket system where someone takes your order and rings you up, then they pass your written down order to the person making your bagel. The first ringer can also get your coffee or whatever! (ah la, Panera, Cosi, etc.) Also, while the Bagels are good, the final product is totally inconsistent. Sandwiches are ever-changing on how much and what they give you. The eggs are often still cold in the middle, then the last time i got a cinnamon bagel with their special Pumpkin Cream cheese, there was hardly any cc at all! That's the whole reason I got the bagel was to try the cc!! I really want to like this place, but I am in a foul mood EVERY time i go. Might be time for a change. No matter how good the Bagels are, the frustration isn't worth it. read more

Try their catered lunch! We do a team lunch each month and they nailed it for us. The wraps were fresh made, and plenty of food. We added the caprese salad to top it off. For a good healthy alternative I'd suggest giving them a try! (And the cookies were delicious) read more

Their lox bagel is really solid, hope they toast their bagels though. I really hope they offer the breakfast selection 24/7, because egg bagels are really delicious. They also use intelligentsia beans which means their espresso drinks are quality. Nice. read more

Noticed yesterday that they are using greens from the local Montesorri school a few blocks down grown by the youngsters themselves. Now this is grassroots, local if I ever saw it and what a fantastic message to send to young school children. Thanks for being so awesome! read more

This is absolutely my favorite cafe/bagel bar in the Chicagoland area! They have great service, an interesting and comfortable atmosphere, and dope live music(currently listening to it, provides a good cadence for bagel chewing). Anyways, if you've been here before you already love it and if you haven't then I STRONGLY encourage you to check it out! My recommendation is lox on an egg bagel although based on the level of remaining salt bagels everytime I come here those appear to be pretty awesome also. read more

Been looking for a house-baked bagel place since my move to Chicago and finally found it. I got a veggie sandwich on plain, and despite it's seemingly generic ingredients--it was great! Vegans might want to ask them to wipe the knife before getting a sandwich to avoid any mystery cream cheese. read more

With new ownership, the place is clean, the line runs better, the prices are cheaper.... The bagels are fresh and the staff is terrific - a great local find vs chain living - close to train, so it makes it an easy quick pick up and if you need to do work, they have wifi and comfortable space to do your work - a great spot read more

Bagel Art Cafe - Bagel Art w CTA in background - Bakeries Near Me - Evanston, Illinois

I was so excited to try this place and then I was sadly disappointed. I got a plain bagel with lox spread. The bagel itself was actually really good but it seemed like they really tried to skimp on the spread! I'm used to traditional NYC bagels with a heaping spread of cream cheese. It seemed like they smeared a teaspoon worth of lox spread and called it enough. Not cool guys! read more

Bagel Art Cafe - Where's the spread?! Don't skimp on the spread. - Bakeries Near Me - Evanston, Illinois

I ordered the Rococo bagel sandwich. I enjoyed it, however it really makes a difference which employee makes it. I watched one staff make one for a customer before me and he took the time to evenly spread out the ingredients, turkey and all, which made it look like a better balanced and more manageable sandwich. The staff member who made mine just kind of threw everything on and when I got it everything was falling out of the sandwich and all the meat was in a 3/4 inch thick chunk on one side of the sandwich and falling out of it. Tasted good though. Good ambiance. I'd go back. read more

Honestly, this place is pretty decent. The bagels are solid, the choices are solid, and there's a wide variety of organic stuff to make a sandwich out of. As a guy that loves bagel sandwiches, particularly with eggs, this is something of a joy. On the down side, it's a very simple deli no different than what was probably in your HS cafeteria, only with the ability to toast bagels and with a nicer quality. Still, the pricing is outrageous. An egg and turkey sandwich on a bagel cost me $7.10. Jaw dropping. A bagel itself is $.99, with cream cheese oddly $3.00, and with flavored cream cheese $3.50. Not sure how the cream cheese is worth twice what the bagel is. I am perfectly alright paying for good food, and would wager the bulk of my salary goes to eating out. But a $7 bagel sandwich just feels wrong, particularly when it's a giant square of baked egg rather than a freshly cooked egg. read more

Overpriced and nothing notable (except the no cell phone policy). I ordered the "medieval" cream cheese, roast beef and a tomato -- this one small bagel cost almost $9 w/o a drink. Who are they kidding? Another time I order something like a caprese bagel and again the bang for my buck disappointing. The menu is limited and seating is very limited read more

This is definitely a place I would visit again because I LOVE bagel sandwiches. The bagel was great, however, the service, not so much. I did not get a welcoming vibe from the people working and it made the experience a little awkward. I ordered a veggie bagel which was only 6.50 and asked if they could add an egg. They ring me up and tell me its 9.75... uhhhh why is adding an egg costing this much extra?? So I asked and the guy says "well basically you ordered the egg sandwich with all the veggies". Okay, unfair, I ordered the veggie sandwich with an egg so this price increase is just ridiculous. (the egg sandwich comes with cheese and bacon, none of which I got on my veggie bagel) So if I am in the area craving a bagel, I'll go back, but I was completely unimpressed with the service. read more

Bagel sandwiches are my naughty. The bagels at Bagel Art are delicious, but you definitely need to ask to have them toasted twice to get a nice crisp, otherwise they come out a little on the anemic side. I've never been to NYC, so I don't really have a comparison on whether or not they're NY bagels, but I like the flavor a lot. While the bagel breakfast sandwiches are very good, they're not the best ever. The eggs are a little spongy and not seasoned at all and the bacon can be a little on the floppy side. Also, no sausage option. HOWEVER The schmear is dynamite. I'm a big fan of the chive cream cheese. Iced coffee is on point as well. And the service is SO friendly. They have a help wanted sign hanging in the window right now. I would 100% work here if it would pay my mortgage. ;) read more