Rubinstein Bagels South Lake Union — Restaurant in Seattle

Honestly, I really want to like this place, but bottom line, Rubinstein’s processes and procedures are very broken.

TLDR; it took 47 minutes to get bagel with lox. And it was on the wrong bagel as well as the bagel wasn’t toasted.

I have given this place 3 tries and it’s been rough all three times. At first I just chalked it up to growing pains and them needing to find their groove. Now I think they need a consult regarding their processes and possibly new management.

I’m a resident in the building and I really want to like this place for the convenience, but every time I go, I regret it because of the unusually long wait times. There’s a woman who I assume is the manager as people seem to report to her (woman with glasses) and she has been rude on more than one occasion to both customers and staff. Maybe she’s just overwhelmed. The staff don’t seem cohesive. No one is happy, smiling, or excited. The manager doesn’t seem to want to be there or be “dealing with anything” and I think that shows and trickles down.

The bagels are as people say. They are small, very tough, and usually way over seasoned. However, that doesn’t necessarily make them bad. They are definitely unique. They have unique flavors and shmears, which is appealing. They definitely don’t taste bad. But factoring that in very long waits and the poor service, there’s less forgiveness and tolerance for quality issues. Especially for a premium price. A very premium price.

It’s to the point now that it’s far more convenient (for about the same price), to order in, than to simply walk downstairs. It’s actually much cheaper and easier or go a few blocks to Einstein’s Bros bagels, than to just go downstairs and wait. That’s saying a lot.

I hope this place figures it out. There is potential. But right now, it’s pretty rough. I’ll try back in a few months and hopefully they have taken some steps to correct the inefficiencies and issues.

I can’t see a scenario where almost an hour wait for a bagel with nothing cooked or heated, is understandable or justified. It just highlights how broken the...

I can give Rubinstein’s 2 stars for their truffle cream cheese alone. It was the only good thing to come out of my experience. I came in on National Bagel Day. I found Rubinstein Bagel’s on a New Jersey bloggers list of the best bagels in Seattle. Having lived in NYC for 5 years with the BEST bagels in the country I trusted her judgment and recommendations- she listed Rubinstein’s as #1. First of all there were maybe 4 people ahead of us waiting for their orders and we still waited 10-15 min for our order- 2 bagels with cc and 2 bagel sandwiches. The first thing I noticed when I unwrapped my bagel was how SMALL it was. Basically it’s small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. Then I bit into the bagel. It required so much chewing that my jaw was uncomfortable. I don’t know if that’s because my bagels were made first and sat for 10 min while waiting for my husbands bagel sandwiches or not... but still no excuse for hard bagels. One of the bagels I ordered was the chocolate chip. The salt was so overpowering in the bagel that I couldn’t even taste the chocolate chip flavor. My husband’s sandwiches both had the skimpiest amount of meat on them- see picture. Basically half of each sandwich had almost no meat entirely! Save your money and time and try a different bagel place. So...

Oh my goodness. So the place looks fantastic, staff is friendly as heck, the bagels are tasty, chewy without being rubbery, and the toppings on the bagels themselves are thick and hearty enough that a "jalapeno and cheddar" bagel (for instance) isn't just a HINT of jalapeno and cheddar, but a real good taste of it. The schmear is thick and whatever you have them add is - like the bagels themselves - a big, flavorful helping of it. The lox is high-quality, I encountered none of the occasional stringy bits that pull a whole slice out while you're trying to bite it. I didn't SEE some of the additional toppings they use on specials (capers, red onion, etc) as being available a la carte, which is sad if I'm right, but I might have just not been looking hard enough. Special mention to the matzo ball soup, which you really shouldn't miss out on. It's absolutely amazing. Definitely a 5 star experience.

Edit: after the last few times here, I'd say if the soup is what you're after, then pass. It's only ever been available on 25% of my visits. Delicious when here, but...