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| - Maybe I'm not being fair by writing this because I grew up in NYC, across from a real Jewish bagel shop where they retarded, boiled, then baked the bagels in the true NYC style, but I have to be honest. Yes that's how they are really made, and the clerk told me they are not retarded and boiled at Einstein's, at least not at this particular location. So began my first visit to Einstein's a few months ago.
My first order was an 'everything' bagel, untoasted, and served with vegetable cream cheese. The bagel was okay. It did not have the shiny crust and chewy taste of a really good bagel. And the cream cheese spread---hmm---amounted to almost nothing. Right, there was almost no cream cheese in the bagel sandwich. It didn't have even a quarter inch of cream cheese. It was spread on like a thin peanut butter. That is NOT how it's done. The cream cheese should be visible from the side of the bagel, and I think it should be served open-face as it does not say "sandwich" on the menu. Put two sides of a bagel together and it becomes a sandwich. Abysmal. The coffee was good, though--hot, fresh,aromatic, and of good quality.
After a number of months I returned here. It's right down the street from my house. and I decided to try it again. The second time I ordered a pumpernickel bagel, untoasted, with lox spread. Again the bagel was mediocre and looked like a deflated tire on my plate, smashed together with a tiny bit of cheese, like a glutinous cream-starved Oreo. And, again, the decaf was very good.
Ambiance? So-so, but that wasn't too important to me. What I wanted was a sincere effort at a replication of a NYC bagel. I knew it wouldn't be an exact replication, but it could have been a lot better, I wish Einstein's would at least try to make a decent bagel,and be more generous with the filling. This place might satisfy non-native New Yorkers who've never had the real deal, but I was thoroughly disappointed. Maybe the other menu items are better, but that would be like going into a steakhouse and ordering a fish platter instead of meat.
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