ARK Bagels — Restaurant in New York

Chef Duqueroix Letter Code: B Final Review

4th visit: BLT, Rye toast with mix berry cream cheese, pumpernickel bagel with mixed berry cream cheese. All delicious.

I was particularly hard on this place because I wanted to become a regular here and 3 stars is exceptional by my standards. I definitely recommend this place. (1pt loss for the coffee (it’s disgusting in the AM you can get good coffee from the street cart on 8th and 13th. The other point deduction is for not having fresh (or store made) breakfast pastries.)

You should patron this place. The food is about 50% fresh on observation (spreads and possibly bagels). Ambiance: they should remove the candy aisle it’s tacky and the candy has been there for months nearing expiration. Also take the chips out of the manufacturing boxes and merchandise them on the shelf. Are you a bagel shop or a bodega? Have some pride and class in your shop.

Edited: 3rd Visit in 30 day period hoping to increase stars. Purchased breakfast items this time BLT on White and an almond pastry (which they do not make in house but should).

The BLT is delicious and has the right proportion of bacon to lettuce and tomato and the bread is not soggy like some other places. It’s also not overly salty. The location makes their own assortment of cream cheese spreads and cures their own salmon—which looks great and will taste on a different visit.

The coffee is horrible and they should change the brand—perhaps buying it from Pecoshitas in Jackson Heights Queens. The location almost earned an additional star but it remains a 1 star on the fact that they do not make their own breakfast pastries (which they should) if you can make bagels you can make other baked goods. There was also several flies in the pastry case which the cashier had to fan out and was offended when I contemplated purchasing the pastry product.

Flies equate to filth and as a chef and respected member of the culinary community I would recommend a health department visit to the location. Perhaps they should utilize measures to protect the location against an infestation of flies.

If they fix the fly situation and offer some in-house baked breakfast pastries then they would earn an additional star.

I’ve visited this location on two occasions and both instances the bagel and the pastry tasted like they were made millenniums ago on the ark. Literally the driest pastries one could ever consume.

2 stars because it’s highly probable that they bake the bagels onsite but surely all other pastries are bought from a mass produced warehouse.

Areas of improvement would be to rework the bagel recipe to accommodate the filling. It’s not standard to bite down into a rock hard bagel and all the contents burst out of the sides onto your clothing. Bagels should have a soft inside. You should also remove those large bagels from the bottom of the case as it looks plastic (probably are) and you need to develop your own signature sandwiches—and jump off the me-too train of serving the same crap as the mainstream corporates—even though that’s what your company strives to be and it’s a shameful endeavor.

I believe in traditional New York business—if your food is good people will put in the effort and travel to eat it—and at current this food is not...

⚠️ Scam alert—You HAVE to watch what they charge you for. I can confirm what others are saying: they try to overcharge you on everything. 3/4 of the times I’ve been, they’ve scammed me or tried to charge me extra.

Today they double charged me: Avocado for $2.95 and also a “custom item” for $1.99. I asked what the custom item was, and they said it was for the avocado. I pointed out they had already charged me for the avocado. Then, they printed out a receipt without prices, and tried to tell me “avocado was only there once”. But the checkout kiosk had the prices, so I stood my ground. They sheepishly gave me $2 back in cash.

An earlier time, I ordered a “Chelsea special” (bagel with lox, cream cheese, tomato, capers & onions) which is listed for $13.95 and I paid more than $19 out the door. I thought that was expensive but wasn’t checking. That made me wise up to this place and I caught them today. My girlfriend has caught them multiple times trying to charge for specialty cream cheese when she actually got plain.

It’s not just a mistake because it’s happened 3/4 of the last times I’ve been there and it’s with different cashiers all the time. Scamming must be a policy.

I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt because I was happy to have a bagel place in the neighborhood—but enough is enough. 3/4 times is a pattern.

Go to Bagel Pub on 6th or Murray’s Bagels instead. They don’t try...

I’ve been here twice. The poor quality of food never destroys an establishment, the staff on the other hand can kill it. Great food, horrible staff.

Today, the staff is very obnoxious. If you’re not ready and clearly still reviewing the menu they get annoyed and passively aggressively attend to the next customer. When I finally figured out the menu and the toppings, the staff would not acknowledge me until no other customers were in line.

Something else that happened on my first visit was so rude. I ordered a half dozen of egg bagels to send to my friend in San Diego. They literally gave them to me in generic plastic bag. I had to beg the cashier to put them in a box or something that will keep them fresh, to over night them to San Diego. She became arrogant but another person stepped in and took care of the matter that took maybe 5 minutes to compete. He got a direct $10 tip from me for his generosity and the cashier snickered at that too.

In conclusion, I was also overcharged for my order. When I brought it to the attention of the cashier she just callled the next customer and completely ignored my request to review the charges that did not match the menu.

I will be reaching out to my bank to discuss the charges because this business seems to have no interest in maintaining...