Black Seed Bagels - Williamsburg — Restaurant in New York

TLDR: Decent fire roasted bagels. Skimpy on the toppings for a $15+ bagel sandwich.

Vibe: 3/5. We decided to pop by their Williamsburg location in the early morning on the 4th of July for a quick breakfast. They had just opened, so no one was there but the staff. Inside is your typical fast casual ordering layout. A main counter, open air kitchen and prep area and several standup counters where you can stand and eat. Unfortunately, there is no public restroom (even for paying customers).

Service: 3/5. As mentioned above, no one except the staff was present at Black Seed during our visit, so it was to be expected that service would be quick and efficient. When ordering, the staff member that was manning the register had the quietest voice known to man. We had to ask on several occasions for him to repeat himself, with each time not being any louder then the previous. A bit frustrating to say the least. Fortunately, our order came out relatively quickly and correct.

Food: 3/5. Tasty bagel, just wish it had more sustenance for the price paid. We went with the Classic 2.0, which contains pastrami spiced salmon lox, scallion cream cheese, pickled green tomato and red onion. The flavor combo of the lox and pickled tomato works nicely, especially with our choice of a pumpernickel everything bagel. The lox was delicious, however the extremely skimpy potion of 1 piece was a bit of a letdown. For the price of $15, I was hoping...

I know NY is known to be a preeminent global bagel destination, and perhaps it is-- I've only ever had a handful of bagels on my trips there over the years, likely not from the "right" spots--, but so far, I've gotta' say I prefer what I've had in my native Toronto, even from our well-known (locally) chain What-A-Bagel, which has admittedly kind of spoiled me for bagels. Anyways, I was recently staying at the Ace Hotel right next door to this Black Seed, and was stoked to see this bagel spot I'd drooled over for years on Instagram was pretty much right in the lobby... so just as when I first land out West and hit In-N-Out from the airport (yes, I'm basic like that), getting a Black Seed in me (does that sound wrong?) was my first order of business. I settled on the Classic 2.0, and was not let down- it was great. Just the right chew and crunch, and all of the toppings worked brilliantly together. The only mildly criminal part of my visit was the $15 it cost for the thing- that's almost $20 CAD. Imagine paying that for a bagel! Yikes. I would probably hit up a Black Seed again on future trips, but won't go out of my way. Good, solid, bagel, but not game-changing or mind-blowing in...

Updated review: This place seems to have two different set of staff. For a while my orders were coming out nicely (since my last review) and it seemed like they had an entirely new team. But it looks like the old crew is back! The one that can't evenly distribute a few cucumber slices I'm paying $1.50 extra for in my bagel. It baffles me how this place can serve this nonsense. Train your staff or get rid of the ones who are trash at their job.

Original review: On one hand, this is one of very few spots in the very expensive neighborhood where you can get a decent bite for under $15.

On the other, there's a good chance the sandwich you order will be made haphazardly.

Why did my tuna salad sandwich have 3 slices of tomatoes stacked one one side of my sandwich? Why was the sliced cucumber all stacked and contained to just a quarter of the sandwich?

It appears as if they went out of their way to make such a lopsided bagel. It's not like spacing the ingredients evenly would take an extra second or two. It's a serious wtf.

Other times I have ordered at the counter and added cucumbers to my bagels, only for the staff to neglect the additional topping, on...