Ess-a-Bagel — Restaurant in New York

This review is for arguably one of the best (if not THE best) sandwich joints in NYC. I am in a very unique position because you see... Ess-a-Bagel is literally my downstairs neighbor. The piping-hot, crayon-melting floor of my apartment is the restaurant’s kitchen ceiling. As much as I’d like to brag about how fast I can walk to the restaurant, I’d rather share how amazing their bagels and sandwiches are. They have the perfect bagel, spread, or fill-in-the-blank to satiate your current mood and hunger. Want to keep it light? Go for their everything bagel and 1lb of scallion cream cheese (a glutinous portion for the bagel connoisseur). Feeling hungry? Bacon or sausage, egg, and cheese on an onion bagel. Feeling adventurous? Their signature bagel is their primo-wich stacked with the most amazing combo of scallion cream cheese and smoked salmon. Feeling spicy? Five-pepper cream cheese (or tuna) to light up your GI system. Whatever you are feeling, you cannot go wrong. Don’t forget to say hello to their amazing team and definitely pick up a black and white as a final treat on your way out. I am so sad to be moving away from the inferno that is our apartment. I won’t miss the heavy sweat inducing winter nights, but I will definitely miss the 20-second walks to one of my favorite restaurants in NYC. Cheers to...

Hands down the best bagels in Manhattan. Large, crispy shell and doughy interior, a savory Mentos. Lox and bagels are a weekend ritual for me and I'm all about indulging in that ritual, but they put way too much cream cheese on, so i tell them "easy scallion cream cheese" which turns out is the perfect amount for a lox bagel. But, hey i get the whole schmear concept, but I don't think the cream cheese should overpower the lox. Their lox lox is nice and tender, not stringy. My goto is a salt or everything bagel with easy scallion cream cheese, red onion, capers and onion. I haven't had a better configuration of that order except maybe at kossars now that it's under new management (it went downhill for a while, but now it's at it's peak).

They also have a nice whitefish spread, tuna, chicken and egg salad. Unlike Black Seed Bagel, which happens to get their bagels wrong even though they're boiled and baked and draws a bunch of off brand college kids, at essa you'll find old timers coming through, which I appreciate. They have a bunch of pies for dessert, but I've only had the cheesecake. I can't tell you how happy I am i found these bagels. Ive been searching all over Manhattan and this...

A very solid bagel, crisp outer shell with a chewy dense crumb with some air pockets. The place could use a reformatting to make the worker’s lives easier, tho. There was an odd ordering process that seemed to require lots of moving back and forth and a ton of communication between frantic workers. I was the only one there.

I’ve not had a pumpernickel with raisin, and it’s marvelous. Generous and good quality cream cheese. They didn’t offer to toast the bagel, and it would’ve been nice a tad warmer/fresher. That said - it’s 9:30am on a Monday so I can’t fault them. I’m gonna give them 5 stars, but hope they’ll address these lil things.

Also - kinda pricy to charge $3 to add cream cheese to an untoasted bagel, but I get the labor and material costs add up… and most places do charge hefty amounts when you add cream cheese. It’s like a bottle of wine costing double at a restaurant. I get it as a means of assuring profit but it feels like the worst aspects of capitalism. The bagel I got plain, however, was only $1.95. A great price for this quality of bagel. They know what they’re doin here - far superior to the...