The jalapeños, hash brown, pepper jack cheese, and chorizo were delicious with the bagel but the tortilla wrap that it’s supposed to come with (as designated on the menu) may have been better. However, it didn’t have a proper bite and chew to it as I like my bagels to be. The sesame bagel was not toasted so it was soft and there was some sesame flavor. As a very standard bagel flavor, I expected utopia bagels to make an excellent cinnamon raisin but it tasted like a plain bagel with a few raisins here and there. I’ve had off the shelf supermarket bagels that had more flavor than the bagels here. The cinnamon raisin bagel was slightly too toasted but mostly it fell very short of my expectations because I could taste neither cinnamon nor raisin. I ordered an iced French vanilla coffee with milk and sugar (omg, I love unsweetened flavored coffee from bagel shops), a toasted cinnamon raisin bagel with regular cream cheese, and a sesame bagel with the filling of the breakfast burrito. Their bagels are about the size of a regular sized palm and eating just one will leave you a little hungry. The bagels at utopia bagel are quite small frankly, “normal” sized even, as far as bagels go. However, the staple of a New York bagel is the sheer size and monstrosity of the bagel. Second of all, I know bigger isn’t always better. First of all, I am a New Yorker and I’ve eaten my fair share of New York bagels. The rating is due to my high expectations (many accolades were given to this bagel shop and this bagel shop has a huge following) and the bagels that fell very short of my expectations. Regardless, these are just things I observed from my time in the bagel shop and do not affect my rating. You can’t wait near the counter where people order but you can’t be so far away that you don’t know whether your order is ready or not. One of the biggest reasons why the shop is so popular is because the restaurant bakes up to 15,000 bagels throughout the day. This means that while the ordering process is somewhat functional, the payment process is a bit dysfunctional. One of New York City’s most iconic foods is the bagel, and Utopia Bagels in Queens, New York has been a destination for both locals and tourists for over 40 years. You place your order with whoever is free behind the counter and you also receive/pay for your order with the same person. The ordering process is simple enough as you wait in line and one of the workers will call you when you’re next. I wasn’t in a rush so I didn’t mind but I cannot imagine trying to buy a quick bagel for breakfast before work. There has been and still is a lot of hype around this place as I waited about 30-40 minutes from ordering to getting my order. Watch the full video to see more of what goes into Utopia Bagel’s process.I live around the area but finally came to this bagel spot recently. For the last 41 years, Utopia Bagels has been slinging perfect, hand-rolled New York bagels out of its Queens storefront. “The one problem you’re going to have with my bagel, is once you eat it, you’re just not going to want any other bagel.” It takes an individual to be at the top of his game to make it good,” Spellman says. “ any craft, making it by hand is special. View 266 reviews of Utopia Bagels 1909 Utopia Pkwy, Whitestone, NY, 11357. And rollers are a dying breed.It’s not like there’s a school for bagel rollers,” he says standing over one of his employees, Henry, who has perfected the art of bagel rolling during his 27 years at the bakery. “It’s the rolling that really keeps it soft. A machine, he explains, pumps the dough over and over again, tightening it up. Spellman attributes his shop’s notoriety to two things: Having skilled workers make bagels by hand, and keeping everything - from the ingredients, to the kettle, to the oven, to the baking techniques - the same as they were 40 years ago when the shop first opened.Īnother element that Spellman believes is absolutely necessary to making a good bagel is hand-rolling the dough, versus having a machine create the round shape. It’s those techniques that make our bagels what they are.” The wildly popular Queens, NY shop is famous for its fresh bagels with soft, airy dough and a crisp crust. “Those are the things that are not talked enough about. It’s how much water you put in, it’s how much, when you proof, you let in the air,” Spellman says. “If water was the main thing that happened to a bagel that makes it great, there are about five bagel stores around my store here - they would make as good of a bagel as we make,” says Utopia Bagel shop co-owner Scott Spellman on the myth that New York City water is what gives its bagels the reputation as the best in the country.
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