Ruby’s Bagels at Zócalo — Restaurant in Milwaukee

The cold brew 8.0/10 The full lox on rosemary sea salt bagel. 5.0/10

This bagel truck amongst the Zocalo food truck park is a staple, a cornerstone of this gathering of cuisines. They make great bagels of sufficient size and quality ingredients. The reason I rated the full lox rosemary sea salt bagel a 5.0/10 is because there was enough cream cheese on it to spackle a dam. Each bite was overpowered with the rich creamy cold goodness of whole fat cream cheese. Perhaps I'm the rookie who should have asked them to go light on the dairy. I didn't know they would put the whole 8 oz package on the one bagel. I deconstructed the bagel about a quarter of the way through, scraping the goopy white goodness into a napkin while saving the capers, onions, and dill. It took 7 napkins. The bagel being served cold also did no favors to the texture profile. Instead of having a crispy, light crunch on the exterior complimented by the salted, squishy salmon on the interior, I had to fight the cold elastic texture of the bagel on each bite. But overall, it was very good with the reduced amount of cream cheese. I'll come back and ask for the light cream cheese version with the lox craving grips...

Service stinks. Bought two bagels with cream cheese. The smear is $2.50. They did not toast the first two or ask. Bought two more so I could actually try these. I had to stop them after they barely heated them and there was no actual sign of toasting at all.

Spent $22 just to get two toasted bagels with cream cheese. It took them six bagels to do it. The bagels were nothing special, and I don't think they asked if I wanted them toasted or not, because they don't want to do the "work" to put them in the toaster.

*Edit I was completely calm and polite during the entire exchange, but I knew they would somehow blame my behavior. If they had wanted to give me a "refund" they could have simply replaced the bagel when I brought it back instead of making me repurchase them. And while they did show me after the fact that the bagels were toasted on request, they also saw that was covered up by condensation due to the rain.

Imagine waiting for a review and for a customer to leave, unsatisfied, to then...

Just what Milwaukee needs: homemade bagels! For years I have struggled to find a place with bagels that go beyond Panera or Einstein Bagels. Ruby's is it.

I had the rosemary bagel with cheddar cream cheese and it was everything that I had hoped for! (A little messy, but that's just what happens with dried rosemary, no complaints here.)

I can't wait to go back and to check out the rest of Zócalo Food Park!

The service was great, everyone was very kind. The converted-garage-like atmosphere was everything Milwaukee. And, a great use of the space for people to enjoy bagels all year round!

One thing to note: Now that it is cold out, the garage doors on the front remain closed. The door to get into the building is to the right side (if you are facing the garage) and it's painted purple like the building itself. When I was there there wasn't a sign and we were confused for a minute on where to enter.

Again, can't wait to go back. Thanks for bringing homemade bagels to...