H&H Bagel

Good bagel, but dayum, at almost $ 2 a piece for a place that provides zero seating and service, that’s pricey.
I came here on a Saturday morning and the bagel wasn’t fresh and hot. It was a good bagel, but it wasn’t THAT good. For being a factory store, I was expecting more. You know, kinda like when the Krispy Kreme Hot Donuts sign lights up and you can get a hot glazed one right off the fryer? This experience was nothing like that. But people still kept coming in here to buy bagels out of the plastic cases.
I don’t get it, I could get the same thing at my local fruit market. Yes, they sell the same H&H bagels at a fraction of the cost. Maybe not as fresh, but it’s fresh enough for me.

Perfect spot to pick up bagels on your way out of NYC. This is a retail counter at an obviously high volume bagel baker. It’s not a café, but that’s not what I was looking for.
Sesame and poppy bagels were wonderful, chewy with that real bagel taste.

We had limited time (and tummy space) so had to pick up bagels to-​go to take back with us to DC.
I loved walking into this spot — bagels galore! Packed in boxes, stacked and stacked up the walls. The staff were working hard, sorting and baking and packaging.
Fortunately for us, this place really is designed to sell to-​go, so anyone looking to dine here, think again. I don’t recall any tables (perhaps because it was so HOT outside and in the store that we didn’t take much time to look around) and I think the only thing on the menu was, well, bagels. Straight up bagels. There are several large refrigerators lined up against the side of the wall packed with different varieties of cream cheese and spreads (including salmon, I think), personal-​size packs of cream cheese and drinks (bottled juices, iced teas, water., etc.), so if you have a knife on you (I didn’t see silverware), you can get all the makings for your picnic right here.
She tossed all our bagels in the same bag; though it struck me at the time that this was not a good idea — mixing everything bagels with blueberry — I didn’t have any other bags on me and didn’t ask her to separate them. Next time I would. (It wasn’t awful, but there was definitely a taste of onion lingering on my blueberry by the time I got to eat it.) The bagels were soft and warm in the bag, and it took all my strength not to ruin my lunch by gobbling one down right then.
The next morning back in DC, when the bagels came out of the toaster oven for breakfast, the everything bagel stole the show. Perfectly seasoned (though definitely strong), crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside, these bad boys were divine with some cold plain cream cheese. My husband enjoyed his second one the next day with some homemade sun-​dried tomato cream cheese. The blueberry was okay, but not blueberry enough for me, and a bit dry by the time I got to it (so after one day it had already reached its limit.) The sourdough did much better and were still great toasted on day three.

If we had any hope of escaping the heat and having a great bagel to tie us over to dinner, it wasn’t going to happen here. As soon as I opened the door, I was met with a wall of heat. My heart sank. It was so hot in there, I definitely wanted to leave as soon as possible. They don’t have any tables set up to linger, so that is probably their intention as well. H&H really captures that stark, industrial feel.
I proceeded to the counter and ordered a garlic bagel, and I asked what kind of cream cheeses they had. Apparently none. They don’t do that. They just sell bagels. Really? Well, since you asked, they do sell individual-​sized servings of plain Philadelphia cream cheese in their refrigerator next to the sodas. Um, okay. Isn’t half the fun to eat an innovative, flavorful cream cheese spread on your bagel of choice? Fortunately, they had plastic knives available to spread the cream cheese on the bagel. I did the necessary prep work on a makeshift counter and walked over to the Hudson River Park to have a go at eating it.
The bagel is fine but nothing worth seeking out. It was on the smaller side, say compared to Murray’s. It was definitely very garlicky in my case, which I liked, but there really were no other tasting notes to be made. The zero ambiance and do-​it-​yourself approach to making the bagel with supermarket cream cheese really left a takeaway message of «why bother?». Why bother, indeed? Many better bagels can be found in this city. Pass.

H and H could quite possibly be one of my favorite places on the planet. I love bagels and I love H and H. The everything bagel is loaded with all kinds of goodies and if bagels weren’t so fattening, I would be eating one of these everyday.
The only reason this is not a 5 star destination is because they don’t make their own cream cheese. Or offer it for that matter. I’m stuck with the processed Kraft Philly which really brings me down. There is so much potential here for obsession. Bummer.

Yumm. Love their bagels. Soft, chewy, a bagel with actual flavor. They add some sugar to get that great flavor in their plain bagels, but hey I’ll take it.
Problem is I haven’t really liked their flavored bagels. It’s just all about the Plain.