It's not the food. There's no way. It couldn't be.
MInd numbingly predictable and served with an exclusive sulk of indifference. Your order arrives mere moments after it's placed. It's underwhelming and expected. People eat the same thing, almost as if by rote.
Sure, there are those who swear by the pea soup here. But their competitive set probably doesn't include many restaurants without the word 'bagel' in the title.
But this is the spot that you come to for the community.
It's the defacto town square for a specific set of folk. It serves this role better than anywhere else in the city. Booths are low. There are mirrors on the ceiling. You can scan every face in the room from any seat in the place. And that's what it's all about.
This is an environment where you can kibbutz and hear all the gossip on one side while listening to kvetches complain about their problems on the other. You risk your life in the perilous parking lot just to wait in line as you're scanned by a thousand eyeballs, each with a loudly expressed opinion.
Someone once told me that more business deals get made at UB than any other place in town. I believe this to be true.
Definitely an experience.