Apollo Bagels — Restaurant in New York

Apollo Bagels has become the new it girl when it comes to NYC bagels. If you're Tiktok or IG feed is geared toward food at all, you've 100% seen Apollo.

My big bro LOVES this place, and has been urging me to try it with him one of these mornings. Typically, Sunday mornings are reserved for our weekly Black Seed Bagel runs to debrief the weekend and just talk about life, but I agreed to try Apollo instead.

My go to Bagel order is a BEC with no cheese and add avocado, but Apollo doesn't do bagel sandwiches so I had to call an audible.

It seems like their thing is the bagel with cream cheese and tomato, but tbh I'm really not a cream cheese guy. Maybe that shoots all my credibility right there, but I gotta be me.

I got the bagel with butter and jam on a sesame bagel, and it was just a straight up miss. The jam was a bit too sweet for me, but the real issue was the bagel was burnt to a crisp. They forsure forgot about it in the toaster as it was borderline inedible. I couldn't even finish it.

Honestly though, I gotta chalk it up to a bad day. Everyone has off days, even my beloved Black Seed Bagel has an off day every now and then. I think that is the inherent problem with Yelp. You could catch a restaurant on a bad day and your whole opinion is formed based on that.

I will come back and give Apollo another chance and update this review accordingly.

IG @jnov_ Tiktok...

Toasted bagel lovers rejoice!

Their model setup is modern and minimal. Their menu resembles an in-n-out rather than a wall of items. They only have three bagel types, which can be a little disappointing, but they clearly want to stay focused. I decided on the Whitefish salad with pickles peppers, dill, and cucumbers on an everything bagel. It felt the most refreshing with the sweltering heat outside. On a Monday at 1pm, there were 5 people in front of me. These orders do take some time, so don't be surprised on the slower service.

The bagel texture is what everyone talks about here. It's quite crunchy in the outside, yet still has a dense, softness that you'd find from a pretzel on the inside. I wouldn't call this a classic new York bagel by any means. If anything, it reminded me of the simits I had while in Istanbul. Quite similar in its taste and roasted sesame seeds on the outside. The ingredients themselves are top notch. While I wish the Whitefish salad was smoked, it was still moist and full of fish flavor. The pickled peppers were a nice touch, especially since I thought they would have been distracting. They add just a few strips off them. I for sure really thought they would add whole picked peppers on there.

As long as you're aware of this, I think they are a lovely addition to the bagel scene. It's kinda boring if everyone did exactly the same thing,...

The bagels are absolutely perfect - airy and crunchy. I’ve been getting their bagels for months and each time it’s good. My review today is about the cashiers in the front and the system that’s set up by Apollo management.

I usually just get bagels to bring home and then we eat them however we want.

It’s ridiculous that there’s no way to pre-order single bagels & sides of cream cheese for pick up. Online allows only half dozen minimum if you’re not getting a sandwich.

That means having to wait in line for 35-40 minutes just to pick up 2 bagels to bring home. Why can’t they come up with a more efficient system?

After waiting in line for 35 minutes for 2 bagels, my order shouldn’t be wrong. The cashier didn’t convey my request for the order. All I asked for explicitly were 2 bagels (plus sides of cream cheese) — nothing done to them. Not sliced, not toasted.

When I got home after stopping to run another errand, I found our bagels had been sliced open and toasted. They were dry as a result and hard by this time.

After literally wasting 45 minutes of my weekend morning (35 to order and then waiting to pick up), it was ridiculous that we had the most unpleasant...