Boichik Bagels College Ave — Restaurant in Berkeley

Absolutely loved this place when they opened, but now it's just gone soooo downhill. I will not be coming here anymore, sadly. Went over the weekend and was just so disappointed - it was my third visit feeling this way and while I can forgive an off day, I no longer this this is a fluke.

The bagel I got this weekend was super skinny on one side. It should not have passed QC. I was surprised they were willing to sell it. When you're paying $3 for the bagel alone plus another $3 for the toppings, it should be a great bagel. No go, I'm afraid.

I got tomato on my bagel and the tomato was meh. I know it's now the beginning of November, but I can still buy an excellent heirloom tomato at Berkeley Bowl (we are so lucky in California), so I know it's not an issue of finding a good tomato. Just so meh.

The bagels themselves are no longer as good either. I guess that's what happens when you have 8 or so locations now and mass produce bagels. I'm all for them getting successful, but damn they really sold out on quality. :( The bagels just taste bready now instead of having a little of that good bagel chew. So sad.

It takes them FOREVER to make your bagel. There's nowhere to sit while you wait. The lines to order are fast now since they have two registers, but that's it. Once you've ordered, expect a long wait.

They came out of the building during the pandemic and have never returned. They need to put their registers back inside. I actually can't believe the city is allowing them to stay outside. Registers back inside please and then buy some tables and chairs so that people can have a seat.

I hate that I have to bring my bagel somewhere to eat it, especially since there are no parks in the immediate vicinity. The toasted-ness got soggy and it was just overall a disappointment.

Also, the older lady at the register was super rude to the girl in front of us, to the point that my husband and I talked about how shocked we were an hour later when we got home. This young woman had never ordered a bagel before. Instead of walking her through how to order, which seems the reasonable thing to do, she kept snapping at the lady. At one point the you woman tried to just order what her brother had ordered to avoid being snapped at anymore and the lady yelled at her that she didn't remember the order before her. Maybe not, but you could make a guess or kindly walk her through the menu. It was just so shockingly rude. I don't think I'm the only one who won't be back.

Anyways, disappointed that this bagel shop has lost its quality. It was so exciting when it opened. Unfortunately I'll no longer...

Did not live up the hype.

The Good:

It's a good bagel. It's pretty good when you get it with a sandwich right out of the store, and it's very good when you bring it home and toast it. Of the "best" bagels in the Bay Area, it reminds me of Baron's, when they first began, as they are both going for that NJ/NY style.

When you freeze them and toast them the next day, they're very good.

The Not-So-Good

It's a small, expensive bagel, that you would not want to eat out of the bag, on it's own. And if you grew up in the greater NY area, you know you ate at least one bagel on the car ride back to your house. These are not those bagels.

It's dense, has a good exterior, slight crunch, and does well toasted because of the density/moisture.

I'm not going to go into the lack of freshness on the vege bagel sandwich I ordered the wife, for $10, because this is strictly about bagels. Or how they were out of multiple items the first day of the week, the moment they opened...but...

I will say I would not be making repeat visits. At $36 for a dozen, it's a bit of a joke.

And I can rattle off ten bagel stores without hesitation that are FAR better, not only in quality of foods, execution, etc, but the bagels themselves (Wonder, Essa, Tals, Brooklyn, Murray's, Russ and Daughters, Teaneck, Brunswick, Bagel Nook, O'Bagel, Tompkins Square).

I would say, without question, nearly EVERY non-chain bagel store north of New Brunswick, South of Putnam Cty, out to the top of Long Island, is better than this place. And that's not to say it's not good. But it's NOT better than East Coast bagels.

This is not a Chateau Montelana moment, where the wine was literally a complete departure from what the French were used to. This is a very good bagel for the Bay Area, maybe the best, depending on how served, that's undersized and overpriced.

If you just need a vehicle for lox, sable, and whitefish, Noah's will probably be just fine.

Despite the owner's comment, right in front of me, that she plans to "go back to New Jersey next week...and take my victory lap around New York...", I think you may want to...

It took me over a year to get one of their bagels, continuously walking by, hoping they were open, taking pictures of the door to prove something was happening, watching until last month when they finally launched with experimental hours (open early until out). And it was worth pacing College Avenue, wearing down Berkeley's sidewalk for their dense circle goodness. But the door was open mid-afternoon Saturday. And I peered inside, stepped forward into the clean new bakery. Was this the original Noah's my brother worked at in the mid 90s? It's certainly been scrubbed since.

They told me they were closed, that they wouldn't sell me a bagel, that they couldn't sell me one because they were all sold out and only had a practice batch, dark pumpernickel. Me?! To go away?! No. Nope.

My hunger was an insistent arrogance as my voice demanded the goodies, I needed one of these, that I just had to have it, that I wasn't sure if I was leaving when I saw bagels in a basket, jailed behind the counter, taunting me. The staff saw my need, freed up two, refusing my money, and I stumbled out, up the street towards Berkeley, content with a bagel in hand that reminded me of long forgotten special Christmas / Chanukah breakfast, the happier times of my childhood some 30 years ago, carbohydrate loading for the gift unwrapping ahead. Remembering that my brothers called me Bagels. Walking and licking at that little crumbly stuff on the bottom, a nutty burnt wonder of baking. Just tearing into the chewy, I didn't know I needed a good bagel so badly, a joyous breakdown of memories that lived up to my overhyped expectations.

Yes. It was worth the wait, more than the wait, it was an artisan quality. I wish the kind folks of Boichik much joy and successes in the New...