This is not the bagel that garnered national acclaim any longer. It is now a refrigerator aisle…read morebagel. We ordered a half dozen plain bagels and the pink label cream cheese. The bagels were pale with uneven color that edged into greenish brown in places. When you bit in, there was no crust to speak of. It gave way to an interior that was chewy but not in the classic bagel sense of low moisture dough. Rather, it was enriched with oil or some kind of conditioner like the kind used in grocery store bagels so they stay fresh for longer. The bagel's one virtue was its flavor: it had a strong malty taste like a classic NYC recipe. The "pink label" cream cheese, however, was delightful. It had a rich flavor -- like a spoonful of yogurt, as opposed to milk -- but the effect was subtle and not overly tangy. They were the best freezer bagels I've ever had, but in the future I'll put their schmear on a fresh dozen from somewhere else.

If the NYT says this is one of the best bagels around, you gotta try it. The hubby and I visited…read moreBerkeley for a concert and picked up bagels before heading back home. My favorite bagel in NY is an egg everything with scallion so I ordered an eggything with chive. Glad I did because the egg and egg everything bagels were being discontinued the week after I left so the lady helping us encouraged us to buy in bulk. The bagel was delightful and chewy and the chive cream cheese was tangy and flavorful. We brought back half a dozen eggything bagels to freeze and savor on the weekends. If you're in Berkeley or the Bay Area, make a stop to check out the town and grab a bagel.

Boichik Bagels and I got off on the wrong foot back when they opened their first location on…read moreCollege. I'm very happy to report that this location has completely changed my mind and now I'm a Boichik fan through and through! I love that the first thing you see when you walk in is a giant window that lets you look into their processing area! It's great to be able to see where and how your food is being made. They also designed their customer flow very well. You walk in, turn right, and order then you circle left to the tables and pickup counter. I got a tub of their Pesto & Sundried Tomato Cream Cheese, a variety of bagels, and also a lox bagel to go. The lox serving was generous, the cream cheese to bagel ratio was just right and the capers weren't too overwhelming. I cannot wait to try more!

Boichik Bagels Factory is such a special spot off Sixth St. For our family, it's the perfect…read moreweekend spot to grab a bagel, entertain the kiddo with the bagel-making machines, and truly enjoy a great bagel, delicious cream cheese options, Yoo-hoo chocolate milk, Mother Tongue coffee, and a nice break. On a recent adventure, I was in pursuit of trying to find any place in the East Bay that had the "dot cake" trend and Boichik is running a special called "Sprinkled with Pride" for Pride Month. Essentially for your matcha or cold brew, you can have it with a strawberry cream top and rainbow sprinkles. So naturally, I did a cold brew this way. In the spirit of seasonal items, I also tried the sun-dried tomato and pesto cream cheese on a toasted bagel. Highly recommend! Boichik is also doing pizza bagels I noticed which is so fun and very nostalgic for us 90s kids. Would love to try one of those on my next brekky journey out. They also offer frozen bagels, seasoning/spices, merch, and more. All in all, just a great spot with friendly smiles, quick service, and ya can't beat watching your bagels being made through the looking glass :) Street parking can be found in the area, although pending the time of day, you may need to walk a street or two over.

Delicious bagels, friendly staff, great music. The drinks are also very tasty. What else could you…read moreask for?

The platonic ideal of a New York bagel. When your East Coast family comes to town and wants a…read morebagel, bring them here. These bagels check all the boxes and make it look easy. The crust is crisp and crackles as you break into a fresh one. The flavor is deep and malty. The crumb is very chewy and provides enough structure to support a sandwich. One tasting note: the crust in today's batch was had caramel notes that started to recall pizza crust. Less time in the oven would dial that back -- but it gives the bagel character so maybe you want to keep it! But that's the level we're on here. I'm giving subtle tasting notes in a Yelp review. Hella has unlocked the New York bagel for us on the West Coast.

Honestly, I really like this place! It's one of the few affordable options if you need a quick…read moremeal. My only complaint is that they don't tell you that you have to salt/season your sandwich yourself. To be fair, there is a little counter equipped for it, it just isn't intuitive that you need it if you order a meal with fixings.

Sometimes commenters will say to me on YouTube, "Why are all your reviews on YouTube positive? I…read moredon't trust your reviews because you never have a negative review." This however is not true, because I only highlight places worth highlighting on YouTube. Which leads me to Bagel Street Cafe... I ordered a bagel dog and a pastrami sandwich on Dutch crunch. The bagel dog was ok for $5. Average. The pastrami sandwich however had 4oz or less of meat, the rest of the sandwich was vegetables including a boat load of sprouts. The vegetables even had a bitter flavor. One of the worst sandwiches I've ever had. So while I think it's appropriate to leave a Yelp review regarding how bad the sandwiches are. It would be a huge waste of my time and energy making a video about the dreadful food at Bagel Street Cafe. On top of that it was $38 dollars. Not worthy of reviewing or returning to. Hard pass. Never again.

This is one of the very few proper bagel shops in the East Bay. It is not just a fancy sandwich…read moreshop on circular bread. Rather, it is part of an older generation of storefronts for specialized bakeries. Bagels are baked throughout the day and poured into bins, proudly located for the customer to view and choose. And it doesn't hurt that they make a respectable bagel. The bagels proclaim themselves as New York style, and they fall on the softer end of normal variation. We ordered poppy and onion bagels today. The dough in the poppy was malty and chewy, though it did not provide much structure. You can spread cream cheese over it and tear off pieces, but it won't support an open-faced sandwich. The crust was glossy and toothsome but not crisp. The onion bagel was similar in texture but notable because the bakers roll (rehydrated?) sautéed onion into the dough. The crumb is a bit softer as a result and the flavor is sweet and complex from the onion. It's definitely worth trying here. Berkeley Bagels has been around forever and feels like a real institution. It is not part of the SF bread scene, nor the new wave of modern sandwich-focused shops. It is a dependable, better-than-average bagel made by your neighbors. What's not to love?

Unfortunately we were disappointed. I remember loving this place a few years ago, but I think the…read morequality may have dipped a bit :( We ordered a mocha, Thai tea, a bagel, and a kebab plate. The coffee and tea were WAY too sweet, it felt like we were drinking liquid sugar. The bagel was alright, but the slices of tomato and cucumber were very thick and it wasn't appetizing as they kept falling out and making the bagel mushy. The kebab plate had a melted salad dressing container in it, and the melted plastic got on some of the chicken, which made it inedible. I'm not sure if they were just having a bad day or if staff was overwhelmed, but overall it was a bad experience.

The *best* chicken and waffle in Oakland. That sounds crazy, but it really is. The chicken is a…read morejuicy, crisp schnitzel that's seasoned with some sort of chili oil. The waffle is thick, crunchy on the outside but soft on the inside, and sweet! It pairs beautifully with the spicy chicken. It comes with a side salad that's bright and helps clear the palate. You can't go wrong with their house potatoes or latkes, but be sure to use the sauces given for each one because that's where all the amazing flavor comes from. I've started going every week after a hike. It's THAT good.

Better understood as a Jewish-deli-themed restaurant than a proper Jewish deli. That goes double…read morefor the bagels. We ordered a half dozen plain bagels and cream cheese. The bagels appeared to have a crispy crust but biting into it revealed the crust to be an illusion. It gave way to a dry interior with the flavor of white bread. This was the proverbial "roll with a hole" and a scratchy one at that. The cream cheese was, however, entirely successful. It is a rich, smooth spread with only the mildest tang. When you need a cream cheese that sticks to the middle of the road -- guaranteed to offend no one -- this is the ticket. Proper bagels can be found just a few blocks away, so you may wish to look elsewhere.

The Seasonal Veg bagel is incredible quality and unfortunately addictive. Yes there's a line, yes…read moreyou will have to wait. Don't go when you're starving or have a snack first. I like sitting on the cute back porch.

Modern bagel shop with delicious bagels on offer…read more The bagels here have the familiar features of some east coast ancestors. We ordered a half dozen plain bagels and cream cheese. The crust makes a noticeable crunch when you bite through and the taste of pretzels comes through clearly. (The shop must add a liberal splash of lye to the water bath.) The dough inside has a salty flavor which can be too much on its own -- but as a result it complements the slightly muted cream cheese to make a tasty pair. The one issue for the bagels is their structure. The crumb loses its shape under any tearing or bending, which makes it hard to support a sandwich. We also noticed that the cream cheese had a slightly grainy texture. All told these are great bagels. Pair them with a cream cheese you like and rip in.

I really wanted to like these bagels. I saw that Market Hall started carrying them instead of…read moreAuthentic Bagel. Organic, boiled, 48-hr fermented...they're talking my language! But unfortunately, these are dry, flavorless, overcooked, and just miss the mark. And I like big holes in my sourdough, but not my bagels. I'm a New Yorker, but I really don't care if these are "NY style" or "Montreal style", I just want a bagel that doesn't taste like cardboard or like it was baked a week ago. Perhaps the quality has degraded over time, since I see so many positive reviews. Hope the owners read this review and continue to iterate, because the Bay Area really could use more good bagel options.

I came by early early one weekend morning (before they actually opened) and awaited those special…read morebagels to be delivered to their deli, Saul's. $1.50 a bagel.. i bought 5 with my change purse.. that's $7.50 I had to dig up. On Tuesdays, Panera sells you 13 for about $7. Einstein Bagels a la Costco sells you like 12 for $5. Berkeley Bagels has a great chew on their bagels. Here you're absolutely paying for artisan. Imitating the NY style of baking and boiling, effectively resulting in a tough and drier outside, with a hearty chew on the inside. I love the seeds and spices on the everything bagel. Theirs are more pronounced, more pungent, sharper salt... difficult to explain. Definitely for the occasional splurge. Perhaps it's not fair to put a price on an art of a bagel. In the end, though, I felt, after eating one, that for the difference in texture, whatnot, it was not worth the steeeeep price. Weren't differentiated enough for me. And yep, I surely did read that NYT article as well.