Utopia Bagels — Restaurant in New York

As a big fan of the queens location, I wanted to like this spot and for it to become my new go-to bagel. Unfortunately, it has not lived up to the hype on 2 separate visits. I hope my review and some of the other reviews can help provide some constructive feedback to the owners.

The line moves well and inside is very spacious and clean, although the refrigerated drinks are not cold enough. Behind the counter, the employees seem a little lazy and overwhelmed and unfamiliar with how to prepare bagels. I would even watch the employees look up at the above menu to figure out what goes on each sandwich. They also only utilized one register, which I found odd given there was a line out the door.

The cream cheese station is a mess of plastic containers with tops half covering certain spreads and seeds/bagel bits falling all over/inside the containers. It just doesn’t look appetizing compared to other establishments. The fish/smoked salmon section looks very underwhelming and makes me not want to order smoked salmon from them.

The bagels themselves are ok, but inconsistent. Both times one of our bagels were cold, while the other was somewhat warm. Mind you, I asked both times if the bagels were warm/fresh (otherwise I would’ve toasted). They have colder bagels in one section, the fresh ones another.

My first visit, there was a disappointing amount of cream cheese on bagel #1 and bagel #2 was made incorrectly (no cheese), even though the receipt on the bagel was right. The second time the cream cheese amount was sufficient and as expected.

The breakfast sandwiches are disappointing and poorly made (all of the egg was on one half of the bagel, the cheese was clumped in one section, and it was not cut all the way through). I just don’t see any reason to get a breakfast sandwich here versus Chelsea bagels on 34/Park where they make the sandwich in a good and repeatable manner. Plus they give you plenty of egg with evenly distributed meat and cheese.

I did like the seating area and enjoyed the rare indoor dining from a bagel spot.

I hope the Utopia team can get it together as there is nothing that differentiates this location from your average bagel shop. They are FAR away from being mentioned in the same sentence as Tomkins Square, Absolute Bagels, or even the Utopia in queens.

I will try this place one more time (and just get a very simple order) before I cross it off and go back to Chelsea bagels as my neighborhood spot and Tomkins as my wait-in-line spot.

I could see the hype dying down very fast here…

UPDATE

I gave this place 2 more chances since my review and sadly they’ve lost my business. Came in at 12:30pm on Monday and ordered 1 bagel with cream cheese. There was no line at the register, but the waiting area was pretty packed.

10-15 minutes went by and I noticed people that ordered after me were receiving their orders (some clearly more complex than mine). When I asked about my order, he checked the screen and looked irritated that my name didn’t have a last initial (??). I observed this guy get irritated every time he read out a name…he also was barely doing anything. He then asked someone to make my bagel. I watched that person look up my order and I had assumed he started to assemble it.

5 minutes later, a different person came up to me and said they were out of everything and whole wheat everything bagels. Very confused why they didn’t tell me that after I ordered, or when they went to make it 5 minutes prior. It seemed as though the first guy realized they were out and just went on to the next order (someone else’s problem, right!).

The manager (I think) came up to me and asked if I wanted a coffee while I waited, which I appreciated, but honestly they should have just comped the bagel. They had ~3 types of bagels, non of which I was that keen on ordering. Also odd they notified me of this 20 min after my order. The bagel itself was average. Overall, this place is a mess of an operation and some of the people seem very unmotivated.

I gave it multiple tries and sadly can’t see...

Management needs to work with staff on customer service and BIAS training!!!! I've visited this place three times and the treatment got progressively worse. I visited their first day open and had great service.

The second time I visited, there was no patrons waiting to order and two cashiers. I walked up to the register and they continued to talk to each other, no greeting or anything. Before I could interrupt, a man comes in and stands at the register next to me. Before he could even place his feet down, theys topped conversing, greeted him and asked his order. Because there were two of them, the other girl looked at me and asked if I was ready...still no greeting. I placed my order but the encounter didn't make me feel good.

Enter this morning. I enter in 7/23/24 at 7:26am; there are no customers waiting to order but about 4 staff members behind the register talking. I was looking up at the menu deciding on my order when, once again a man walks in stands at the register besides me and IMMEDIATELY the staff stops talking, looks up and acknowledges him with a greeting, then takes his order. The other staff walked away without even a glance in my direction as I'm standing directly next to this man. The first time I brushed it off. The second time nope; I turned around and walked right out.

This was deliberate and it's clear that specific staff/location values a specific patron over others. No need to make it any clearer, I will not ever step foot in a Utopia Bagel again. Thankfully I found out because I used to order from the Queens location via Uber Eats often and don't want to spend any money where I'm...

Murray Hill outlet enjoys prime location benefit. Clean. Boiler & oven viewable through the looking glass. Bakers at work (pics). Self-serve station has sugar, stirrers etc. but no milk/cream (pic); that part has to be mentioned with the order. With plenty if on-prem activity going on, I assumed the 'speciality' jalapeno-cheddar bagel would at least be fresh & warm at 7:35 am on a Saturday morning but it was soulless cold. Which New Yorker would want cold cheddar on a bagel? (Next time I'll surely ask them to toast the bagel). Paired cream cheese was smooth but jalapeno flavor wasn't infused - just chunks of jalapeno; I can tell which bagel barons pay attention to details (certainly not Utopia in Murray Hill). Strawberry schmear on blueberry bagel was a bit tart, devoid of sweetness. Overall it was good, but more style over substance (pic - branded white bagel bag, etc.). Fell short on my jalapeno/everything bagel index {remember... Big Mac index of The Economist?}; my single factor index in this year's holidays bagel crawl. On this parameter, the New York Times rating is not reliable. These NYT guys should try the mystery eater approach to evaluate better. Lavazza coffee was nice and bold. The lady patiently took my cup back three times to increase milk proportion, without a wince. Disclaimer: This review is about bagel experience only. Utopia bagels Midtown also offers other breakfast options and has lunch menu, too (no dinner, though). These offerings might best be for takeout; seating for a dozen or so around small coffee tables, besides another four along curtain wall, does not look like best...