Utopia Bagels — Restaurant in New York

I live around the area but finally came to this bagel spot recently. There has been and still is a lot of hype around this place as I waited about 30-40 minutes from ordering to getting my order. I wasn’t in a rush so I didn’t mind but I cannot imagine trying to buy a quick bagel for breakfast before work.

The ordering process is simple enough as you wait in line and one of the workers will call you when you’re next. You place your order with whoever is free behind the counter and you also receive/pay for your order with the same person. This means that while the ordering process is somewhat functional, the payment process is a bit dysfunctional. You can’t wait near the counter where people order but you can’t be so far away that you don’t know whether your order is ready or not. Regardless, these are just things I observed from my time in the bagel shop and do not affect my rating.

The rating is due to my high expectations (many accolades were given to this bagel shop and this bagel shop has a huge following) and the bagels that fell very short of my expectations. First of all, I am a New Yorker and I’ve eaten my fair share of New York bagels. Second of all, I know bigger isn’t always better. However, the staple of a New York bagel is the sheer size and monstrosity of the bagel. The bagels at utopia bagel are quite small frankly, “normal” sized even, as far as bagels go. Their bagels are about the size of a regular sized palm and eating just one will leave you a little hungry.

I ordered an iced French vanilla coffee with milk and sugar (omg, I love unsweetened flavored coffee from bagel shops), a toasted cinnamon raisin bagel with regular cream cheese, and a sesame bagel with the filling of the breakfast burrito. The cinnamon raisin bagel was slightly too toasted but mostly it fell very short of my expectations because I could taste neither cinnamon nor raisin. I’ve had off the shelf supermarket bagels that had more flavor than the bagels here. As a very standard bagel flavor, I expected utopia bagels to make an excellent cinnamon raisin but it tasted like a plain bagel with a few raisins here and there. The sesame bagel was not toasted so it was soft and there was some sesame flavor. However, it didn’t have a proper bite and chew to it as I like my bagels to be. The jalapeños, hash brown, pepper jack cheese, and chorizo were delicious with the bagel but the tortilla wrap that it’s supposed to come with (as designated on the menu) may have been better.

I don’t understand the hype and I think you can get much better bagels elsewhere (and much quicker than half an hour) but I’d come back...

Definitely should be called “Dystopian Bagels” as it would be much more fitting. Unless you want to wait for over an hour, get yelled at by the owner/manager, and still get your order wrong, don’t come here.

We waited over an hour to be yelled at for a minute or two straight (yeah. i’m not even kidding you. imagine a whole 1-2 minutes of being yelled at without pause after a singular question. and it was directed at my older mom) by the owner/manager (he’s the big man on the uhhh heavier side) in front of everyone for bringing up one of their employees working incredibly slow and if they could pick up the pace a bit just because we were worried about missing our flight. Otherwise we would’ve not said anything. And when I say incredibly slow, I mean INCREDIBLY SLOW. 5 minutes per bagel for 5 people. We counted. Nearly half the line got their food before us even though they were behind us. He didn’t even seem like he was trying to work. I’ve never seen anybody purposely work so slow in my life. He wasn’t only talking to his buddies but he was actually moving so. so. slow. Like a sloth. I didn’t realize working like that was even possible/allowed.

It was incredibly disgusting how the owner yelled at us so loud for so long for asking a question. He could’ve stopped at “sorry we can’t” and that we would just have to deal with the wait. But he chose to be so ugly and humiliated us for so long in a room packed with customers silently watching us… for asking a question. And on top of that, all the employees started laughing while it was happening and talking about us right in front of us so we could hear what they were saying about us. And then the employee started working even slower. The owner/manager went up to him and whispered something in his ear. Can’t possibly imagine what he told him to do…

Check other reviews because I trust you will find many experiencing what we did with this same terrible man. In fact, there was a small group of people who were before us who were grumbling about him outside the store when we left with similar frustrations for how they were treated.

Bagels are fine. Not worth it for the wait or service. They also got my order wrong (wonder why…) Owner is the most ugly-mannered person I’ve ever met. Don’t come here. Make the trip to Brooklyn Bagel & Coffee Company with much tastier bagels, generous servings, and hella...

Bagels are very good. Multigrain, my choice, has the same consistency as other bagels and very nice. I got peanut butter and they were not skimpy on the peanut butter. Coffee is good also.

The negatives for me are:

1- this is not a huge one for me because overall, a couple of dollars is not truly a lot, but they charge $2 for regular bagels and $4 for specialty. Definitely the most expensive bagel in the NY area, more expensive than even Manhattan. $5.50 for a bagel with only peanut butter. Also, these prices are before 3% CC charge and then tax so it adds up quickly with 12% extra.

2- I went Sunday morning around 10:30. The line was fairly large and the orders are taken at the cold cut counter, when you enter directly to the left, so you do not get to see the bagels/flavors which are against the back wall on the left. You do not see the bakery goods either which is also on the back wall to the right. After people place their orders, it is very cluttered by the cash registers which are in front of the bagel area with people waiting for orders. It is not a good set up and the flow of ordering to payment to pickup is a failure because it is only after you order/pay where you can see the bakery goods. There are many people waiting for orders so it’s not easy to navigate around the store to see the goods and if you do, you lose 10 places on line.

Lines should START from the right along the beverage refrigerators that lead to the bakery counter and then lean to the bagel bins. At least you can get a good view of all the products sold.

3- Lastly, I hate the fact they make the coffee for you in a store that big. They add the sugar and milk for you and you’re at the mercy of the person taking your order to get it right and they never do. Pouring the coffee is ok but set up a milk station on the customer side of the counter so people can make their own! There is plenty of room in the store. They need to figure that out. There is NO way someone is going to make coffee the same way that people like. I asked for a little milk, and got it lighter than I like and that was the most annoying part...