Kupel's Bakery — Restaurant in Brookline

Came in for an early morning breakfast. I ordered the “Kenmore” a double egg sandwich with cheese, tomato and onions. I also ordered a croissant and a chai latte.

I don’t really know what I was expecting, but raw onions wasn’t it. Luckily they were extremely easy to remove, indeed the biggest problem with the sandwich was that the eggs and the tomato were so slippery that both halves of the sandwich were basically constantly sliding around and threatening to fall apart as I ate it. I had to squeeze together the bagel and it was definitely an extremely tricky sandwich to eat.

The eggs, as far I could tell weren’t seasoned, and neither were the tomatoes. That being said, the bagel was knockout and the sandwich overall left me satisfied.

The croissant tasted much better than it looked, very buttery (almost too buttery), but it was just clearly underbaked. I’m not sure if that’s always how they make their croissants but there was no flake, no golden brown crisp, anything. But again inside it had layers and the flavor was there.

Chai was better than average, though overly sweet.

There’s barely any room in the shop itself so I enjoyed my breakfast outside. The service was also not great with another customer coming and bringing me my sandwich because they barely call out the order so even though I was standing feet away from the pick up counter I hadn’t heard when they were finished. Same with the chai.

So I know that sounds like a lot of quibbles and they are. So why the four stars? Why not lower? Because this place is a bagel shop and it was clear that the bagels they offered were handmade freshly made and definitely the everything bagel I had was the highlight of my meal.

If I were to go back, I would only order a bagel with cream cheese, or grab bagels for a morning meeting. I think in some degree the restaurant should be judged by what they primarily do, and as a primary bagel place I thought the...

I had heard from friends that Kupel's is one of the very few kosher restaurants in Boston, so I was looking forward to trying their offerings. The bakery was bustling around lunch time on a Sunday. The menu is quite fun -- each sandwich is an MBTA stop name colored as its respective MBTA line. But, as I experienced, perhaps the fun naming scheme leads to mixups in making the orders.

I ordered the Hynes, which is supposed to have egg salad, lox, tomato, and onion. I ended up having tuna salad in my bagel sandwich instead. The tuna salad was pretty unremarkable. I liked the lox (wish there was more of it), and the bagel was fine. When we went back to ask for the egg salad, they kindly gave us a small tub of egg salad as a replacement. However, I didn't enjoy the egg salad either -- it was not creamy and the egg white pieces were very tiny.

I also got the elephant ear pastry, which had some weird discolored speckles on it. One bite that I had tasted like mold, so I ended up tossing it. I wouldn't try their pastries again -- it doesn't seem like they're guaranteed to be fresh.

Overall, Kupel's is a very affordable option with a wide array of bagel sandwich combination options. Perhaps too many options...my friend's order got mixed up as well -- it didn't have any of the ingredients it was supposed to have -- and I've heard of more mixups in the past. I think Kupel's is a very important establishment that caters to many dietary restrictions at a reasonable price, and the employees are very nice about making up for wrong orders, but based on my experiences, I probably would not come back. I definitely do not recommend trying...

I ordered the Washington Square on an everything bagel, which has lox, cream cheese, capers, lettuce, tomato, and jalapeños. The bagel itself was chewy and dense, and seemed to have a more complex mix of “everything” than I typically see on an everything bagel. I think for control purposes, I should have gone the bagel and cream cheese route, rather than a sandwich. Nonetheless, it was quite good, even if I’m not partial to lettuce on a bagel. Given the chew and density of the bagel, the filling kept threatening to spill out, making for a somewhat messy experience. For $11.99, it was somewhat steep, though the ingredients were clearly quality and certainly filling. The fact that the sandwiches with fish come with a bottle of water does lessen the sting somewhat.

I also ordered two croissants and just under a half lb. of the chocolate rugelach (rugelach being sold by the pound). The croissants are saltier than I’m used to and the texture somewhat chewier. However, I did purchase the croissants in the afternoon, so perhaps the expected flakiness and butteriness one expects from a croissant are more present when they are fresh from the oven.

The rugelach is tasty, but softer than I’m used to (but I’m no expert). At $12.99 a pound, one section from the display can be a bit pricey.

I am definitely willing to give Kupel’s the benefit of the doubt, as today was very warm and humid. In any case, it’s clear that great care is taken in the menu at Kupel’s and if one doesn’t mind spending a bit more to get baked goods from a specialty baker, I do think that it’s worth...