Absolute Bagels is one of many no frills, grab-and-go spots for bagels in New York City. They put more effort into their bagels than they have on their website, don’t worry. It’s also not the most picturesque of places so excuse my limited pictures.
Despite this menu board looking extremely simple, you might want to step out of the queue to make up your mind as it moves very quickly. Allow some of the less usual bagel fillings to sway you from the norm and you just might enjoy it. You can have your bagel toasted if you wish; we did.
With there being a very large Jewish community in New York, I assumed most of the bagel shops were Jewish owned like the ones local to me in London. Absolute Bagels appears to be run by a Thai family, so the commands being shouted around the open kitchen weren’t with the New York accents the movies had led me to expect.
I wanted to order something weird and wonderful. You only live once after all. After carefully considering all the bagel options and filling combinations, I settled with a cinnamon & raisin bagel filled with blueberry cream cheese. Writing it now, it doesn’t sound as impressive as it did when I thought up the combination. There are a very limited number of tables in the shop, one of which I managed to grab as Mum waited on the bagels.
I looooooooove bread, and bagels are no exception. At home I would just have my bagel toasted plain with lots of butter, so this was an experience for me. I’m not big on creamy textures so Mum was surprised I had chosen the blueberry cream cheese filling. After taking out some of the cream cheese (come on, that’s a lot of cream cheese for even the most cream-loving person) I really enjoyed it!
Mum kept it traditional: toasted sesame bagel, smoked salmon, and a chive cream cheese.
As you can see, they’re a bit cream cheese heavy in there so if you’re not particularly keen just ask for less. The smoked salmon combinations are the most expensive sold in Absolute Bagels at around $10 each, but the majority come to about $5. You can also buy single bagels for $1 each. The shop is right near Columbia University so expect to find it filled with students on their break if you plan your trip around lunch time.
As with pizza in New York, there are areas of the city where you can find a bagel shop on every corner so read a range of reviews before you make your decision. Yelp is a review website, similar to TripAdvisor, which seems to be really popular with New Yorkers so look out for the yelp sticker on windows or Yelp reviews on their websites.
Harleigh Reid
I write about food and eat a lot.
Find me on:
