Bagel Belly — Restaurant in New York

Sorry, I dont like to give negative reviews I came in and got a bagel with tuna and a salad, now I dont feel comfortable eating anything from bagel belly. I'm really annoyed because I think the workers knew this food is no good but a few cans of tuna and a little time instead of feeding people old tuna fish is a necessity as you already know. It is bad enough we had to watch the demise of our local delicacies that NYC was once known for such as pizza and bagels because you really cant get anything like it used to be...but you dont care so lets not get into that. We make tuna at home, thousands of times in our lives. 1 day, fine, two days, fine, 3 days, fine, four days...well, maybe. I smell and taste it and it seems ok...but tomorrow it goes in the garbage. Now, what I got from your bagel belly must have been really old, left out, mixed with old tuna, something because even though it has lemon it still is old! How many days? Please do not insult my intelligence and tell me that tuna is made fresh each day. It just doesn't make sense. Example, If you came to my house, I would not give you old turned tunafish not fit for consumption and that gets spit out at first bite. I don't take it lightly that I place my faith in you, pack a bagel with tuna (that I was looking very forward to eating once I got 20 minutes to my destination and there was no other food nearby to make up for this...so you pretty much left me without lunch on a hard day of work...Seriously, I'd like to come back and force you to eat this! Don't leave 20 something y o kids unsupervised to run your store especially from third world cultures where the less fortunate are not educated or taught about general food handling. The health department cant go around tasting tuna all day the man would poop his pants. (I'm the only one complaining? right.) I write reviews for about 1% of my business and purchases. Most other bagel belly reviews are "ok" because people don't dig too deep into the menu and order cream cheese or regular tuna (or think pizza hut is good food. There is even a reviewer who thinks the bagels are "hard to bite into" well, my bagel damn sure better be tough to bite into! I suppose the typical person now wants hot dog buns, which if you could, you would sell round hot dog buns and call them bagels, but the NYC bagel industry will likely evolve into round hot dog buns on it's own) Back to my terrible tuna bagel from bagel belly...I got the "spicy tuna" which I suppose just sits for days, I think the kid tried to warn me (looking back he said "just get regular tuna.) but I just wanted something with some zip not just mayo and canned fish (you know, you can add veggies and herbs to tuna and just call it tuna because that's how us Long island raised Jews make it at home. Just get a great recipe for tuna and put good stuff in there and that's tuna. I mean, it really is clear that no thought or care goes into your tuna. I feel that the cook doesn't even taste it. So, bring it (the fishy low tide tuna bagel) back to bagel belly? To bring it back in Manhattan costs more than the time is worth...but I do have time for this. Still..I'd really like to return and make YOU eat this terrible bagel with rancid tuna! The workers were just relaxing too so they could taste it or simply throw it away after some time. I could see this was going to be there another day at least so someone else is going to get a really nasty bagel, or, a child who doesn't know is going to get sick. The food behind the glass. all fixed nice neat, spackled smooth. Really, no excuse. It isn't like you have so much to handle in a small bagel place. I really wanted to eat this, even a little old tasting but truly is too nasty to eat and the only thing wrong is that the tuna is OLD!! Portions are not standard either like the overstuffed of the real bagel place! It's in one of the smaller plates, I could make that in...

Last meal in NYC… 🥲 and we didn’t have much time for it. Plus we had lots of luggage so I stayed in the lobby of the apprtment we rented while my wife went to Bagel Belly, around the corner… because how could we leave NYC without having a bagel? 😇 I had to wait a very long time in that lobby because Estefania wasn’t coming back… She told me there wasn’t so many people but it took them such a long time to make 3 sandwiches!…😤 She also came back with 1 coke, not 2, or 3… she told me there was a lunch special. So I asked her why she didn’t come back with 3 cokes… it turns out she realized there was a lunch special with a free drink after being served and, by chance, one of the bagels she ordered was in the lunch special… but nobody told her that. She had to see the next person getting their free drink. It seems the clerk didn’t care enough to mention it… 🤷‍♂️ My bagel was a mixed pastrami and corned beef bagel. It was very good, very soft… of course, not as good as Katz’s pastrami, but still more than decent. Especially for $10 and such a big bagel. A good option for lunch… but not if your in a hurry… 😜

Quality & taste: 8/10 Quantities: 10/10 Atmosphere: 7/10 Originality: 8/10 Ratio price / quality: 8/10 Service: 3/10 How I felt afterwards: 7/10

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I do have to say that the bagels are quite delicious and I love the food that this establishment has. Unfortunately, Bagel Belly opens on their own time rather than the time their store front says they do, which is a massive disappointment. I waited outside for 10 minutes at their opening time (6:30am) and the cashier said it would take 5 more minutes. By the time I left at 6:43am there were more patrons waiting and the establishment had still not opened. I know this sounds silly but as someone who has to commute over an hour and has a specific train time to take, this is a major upset to my Friday morning. If this were the first time this happened, I wouldn’t be writing this but unfortunately I’ve experienced this a multitude of times.

If you are a early commuter and need to be on time for your commitments, I highly suggest you look for a more reliable and timely place to get your morning coffee and bagel. If you are on a less rigid schedule, I recommend you check out the place as the staff is great and the food...