NY Jumbo Bagels

Every time I visit the city, I have to make a pit stop here.
Been going here since 2009. Delicious bagels with delicious spreads.

I came here on Memorial Day to pick up a bagel before my adventuring of the day, and I got a toasted everything bagel with lox cream cheese. It was delicious! The bagel was very crunchy outside and chewy inside, and the Los cream cheese was creamy and lox-​y. Delicious! The people here were quite friendly too. It was somewhat pricey though, for a bagel with cream cheese, it was $ 5 including tax. Wow! But would recommend, it’s close to the Roosevelt Island tram and a metro stop as well.

I didn’t come here at 3.30am for a bagel, but I could have as this joint is open ²⁴⁄₇. For those of us who forget to hit up Barney Greengrass or Ess-​A-​Bagel before six pm on a Sunday, then Jumbo Bagels has our backs. Whew!
Jumbo boasts a decent selection of schmears (vegan, too), soups, deli sandwiches, salads, bialys (‘baby’ bialy given with soup order), hummus, falafel, baba ganoush, and a few desserts. I’m a sucker for crumb cake and they’ve got it.
The young man who helped us was courteous, efficient & quick. To be honest, I didn’t experience a lot of peppy service during my week spent in nyc, but the young man at Jumbo had it in spades. He was the kind of person I’d like to work with, so a HUGE thanks to him.
Were the bagels totally top-​notch? Maybe not (Brother’s down in Brooklyn on Court St. is a tad better), but Jumbo is tidy, has a decent selection of food, and is open 24 hours a day, everyday of the week. I’d go back.

I’m enjoying an everything bagel, lightly toasted, with veggie cream cheese as I type.
To be honest, I ended up here because Ess-​a-​Bagel was closed for Passover [this was written a while ago and is only being posted now, hence the Passover reference on May 9]. Jumbo NYC is pretty much the closest location to E-​a-​B, so I imagine that they see a lot of spillover from wannabe Ess-​a-​Bagel customers dissuaded by the line. But when I stopped in at 4 pm on a Sunday, I was served immediately. This place has absolutely no frills whatsoever, so do not come for the atmosphere. Rather, if it’s a nice day, take your bagel a few blocks south to enjoy at the beautiful Greenacre Park.
I was also a little bummed by the cream cheese selection: While there were plenty of regular, lite, and tofu options to choose from, the offerings were pretty standard. Still, the veggie CC that I tried was almost perfect, and while the bagel was actually on the thinner side, it had a soft, chewy, mouthwatering consistency.
The guy at the counter also allowed me to pay with my credit card, even though I apparently didn’t meet the minimum. When I asked if they had a minimum, he shrugged as if to say, «We do, but you’re close enough.»
This is an excellent spot for residents or those who happen to be in the neighborhood. UES-​ers, rejoice!

Never thought I’d say this, but Ess-​a-​Bagel has some local competition. Don’t get me wrong, Ess-​a is superior in bagel size and flavor, but considering the ease, wait time and general quality of NY Jumbo, it wins serious points for experience. The bagels are pretty good too.
Though I typically construct a two-​pronged test for bagels (BEC followed by a return trip for a regular cream cheese sandwich), this time I opted to go straight for the everything/​cream cheese situation. Not a disappointment, either. I wouldn’t say the bagels are actually jumbo (ahem false advertising) but they have great texture and pleasant flavor. The service — as well as delivery — is quick and efficient. Their prices are on point too, definitely cheaper and less time consuming than the aforementioned rival on 3^rd Ave. NY Jumbo also has a $ 5 egg sandwich with tons of options (think meats, customized cheese) and I bet they do great things with a breakfast sammy.
Two notes/​words of warning about NY Jumbo: if you’re on #TeamToastedBagel, it’s not nearly as good as the untoasted variety here. And if you order a Greek salad, there’s a chance a plastic twist tie will end up lodged in a piece of feta cheese. Seriously folks, it happened to my friend. While very disgusting, it wasn’t enough for me to knock down my own rating. But a reminder that this slightly divey-​seeming bagel place can indeed be a little skeevy.

my bro and i were both up early-​ish and dressed already so we decided to take a stroll for something to nosh on. bagels with lox and a schmear! blerg! after walking nearly a mile from our hotel over to ess-​a-​bagel on saturday morning only to find out they closed for Passover, i was like WTF, man! haha. Unilocal to the rescue. another bagel joint i had bookmarked was within «walking distance» away. so away we went.
from the outside this place looks like some ratchet deli. from the inside it looks like a ratchet deli… that just happens to hand cut each order of lox for you. woot! being from the PNW, i loves me some smoked salmon (especially lox) and this stuff looked legit. not sure if they get these smoked some place else or do it in house but judging by the 4 HUGE fliets they had there, they must go through quite a lot of this stuff. haha.
i just got onion and a few plain bagels. they were dense and chewy and the perfect vehicles to transport my cream cheese and lox.
When you need a bagel but a holiday has dashed your original bagel plans, this place is a solid option in my opinion

Love this place! Great bagels early morning, afternoon and night. My favorite is their veggie tofu cream cheese.
It gets 4 out of 5 stars, as sometimes the staff spends more time goofing around than taking your order (although they are very friendly!)

First of all, the place is open 24 hours– but can’t deliver at 7am for a breakfast meeting? On top of that, we ordered ½ lb tubs of cream cheese and only got ¼ lb tubs! Cream cheese shortages (when you have 3 dozen bagels) are not fun! Bagel-​wise, the texture of the bagels was way too doughy/​chewy. It just wasn’t my best bagel experience.

We had stopped in here on our way to Central Park. It was fast & the food was good. We grabbed a table & devoured our food & then headed out. I would stop here again.
Visited Sept 2015

Great bagels! We were visiting and wanted to grab a quick breakfast! We will be returning!

The bagels. toasted perfectly. Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside! Heaven.
I always come here when I’m in the area. Just for a raisin bagel toasted with cream cheese!

Decided to try a new place that was not Ess-​A-​Bagel. The line isn’t as long as Ess-​A-​Bagel which is nice when you are in a rush.
I had a whole wheat everything bagel, toasted, with veggie cream cheese. It was nice that the bagel was warm, but it caused the cream cheese to become soft and dropped all over my sweater. The bagels seemed to be a little thinner here, as in not as much bread, as the ones in Ess-​A-​Bagel.
The coffee was standard, average.
Its ok.

Bagels are amazing but NEVER order eggs. I received the worst «omelette» ever known to man. It was so gross even looking at it made me nauseous!

They are soo nice here, the bagels are good and they are SUPER nice.

Fast service and friendly, not to mention a giant serving of lox on my bagel. I’m a happy girl.

Zero stars if I could help it. My boyfriend was a loyal regular here. We came in on an occasion in which a particular employee’s conduct became awkward. He stared me up and down and told my boyfriend that he’s a «lucky guy». This was in July, and we wrote the compliments off as harmless.
Fast forward to tonight. My boyfriend and I stopped in for a late night snack. I perused the menu, told my boyfriend my order, and went to a wine store a few blocks down to grab a bottle of wine. (No, we were not intoxicated, as evidenced in the wine store’s willingness to sell to me.)
I returned to this venue, where my boyfriend was waiting for our food. He was stationed to the rear of the facility, due to the large influx of late night customers that were occupying the front portion of the available space. In other words, our choices were limited in terms of places to await our food and not be obstructing the flow of patron traffic.
The same employee who had complimented me almost 3 months prior came out from behind the counter and told my boyfriend to «get out of the way» (evidently, saying «excuse me» is not in style). My boyfriend politely and promptly obeyed this order.
…but it wasn’t enough. This employee continued to verbally berate my boyfriend in the presence of other customers, insulting him for «taking up my work space», among other statements alluding to a suspected lack of intellect.
We cancelled our order and went to Pizza Park on 67^th and 1^st, where we were received in a courteous fashion and treated in a dignified manner.
We are good people who are mindful of others and were unaware of our intrusion into the employee work area, since we simply avoided the cordoned off food preparation area AND lacked options in regards to where to wait, since it was crowded and we were trying not to interfere with other customers’ ability to approach the counter and place orders.
You lost a loyal customer of over 3 years tonight, something that is difficult to do when you’re serving someone who is a member of the food and beverage industry themselves, thus likely more sensitive than most when on the customer’s side of things.

I ordered a bagel and lox.
Then I threw up in my mouth a little bit when the owner frantically and angrily came running up from the basement steps to behind the counter, failing to whisper to his staff that «the fish cannot sit out on the basement steps like that! It is not sanitary!»
Multiple times.
Um, hey owner-​manager-​guy. You know what’s worse than your staff setting the fish out? Shouting about it loud enough that all of your patrons can hear it.
Cue the ew.

I stopped by to grab a quick dinner, and it was a little disappointing. I’m just thinking maybe I didn’t get the right thing. I had actually ordered an everything bagel, but I think the guy misheard me and gave me a sesame bagel. I got the cream cheese, unaware they had all these various flavors (in the display, but didn’t know they were cream cheese). The menu was extensive so it was a little overwhelming.
I also got the Black and White cookie, but because they don’t accept credit cards for anything under $ 7, I got myself a box of their small cookies.
The bagel was decent, but nothing special. It wasn’t warmed up, so it tasted a little stale. To be fair, it was toward the end of the day, but still… the cream cheese was also generic. The black and white cookie was not good, stale. The small box of cookie was also relatively flavorless.
I’m hoping to try some of the other items when I go back, like the heroes and the cream cheese.

Stopped in on a Sunday morning after the lines elsewhere drove me away. I’m glad I made it! The everything bagel sandwich with eggs, lox and onion (all cooked together) was reasonably priced ($ 7) and just perfect — crunchy with enough topping. The bustling business must be due to the friendly, prompt service and the beautiful array of bagels and cream cheese varieties. I’ll be back!

Delicious bagel. I got an egg bagel with plain cream cheese. The bagel was perfectly chewy and flavorful, the cream cheese a perfect complement.
Guy who works here hit on me :(
Would go back for the bagels though.

After reading the Unilocal reviews if this place, and facing a line down the block at Essa-​Bagel, I walked up the Avenue to see if NY Jumbo really delivers.
My verdict: The bagels here are better.
They aren’t as big, and they aren’t as covered in stuff (like Essa’s everything bagel), but they have more flavor and chew.
The downside: not nearly the same quality and selection of fish. Good bagel though.

1. never ask for a toasted bagel
2. feel free to ask which bagels are the freshest
3. enjoy the best bagels in midtown east
these are the best bagels i have ever had. their cream cheese is good. falafel isn’t worth it. just get the bagels. coffee is decent. you won’t be disappointed.

My bagel was good and did live up to being jumbo sized, as it was much larger than bagels I’ve had elsewhere, but I just wish they had toasted it and didn’t put quite so much cream cheese on it. I ended up wiping a considerable amount of cream cheese off on the waxed paper. However, I loved the taste of the bagel. I would have preferred to have it toasted but before I could say I wanted it toasted they already had started to put cream cheese on it and didn’t ask me whether I wanted it toasted, unlike when my friend ordered and they specifically asked her whether she wanted her bagel toasted or not. It was a short walk from our hotel and a good place to have a NY bagel for breakfast before heading out for the day. Plus, give the size, the bagels kept us full until lunchtime.

NY Jumbo Bagel
NY Manhattan UES
12pm BagelSunday 7^th June 2015
Four Stars
I hoping this place had comically large bagels. They didn’t but they did have large-​ish bagels with plenty of deliciousness. Plus it’s open ²⁴⁄₇. I had a toasted Black Russian bagel which is a pumpernickel with the everything seasoning. You could really taste the contrast of warm dense rye flour, slight sweetness from the brown sugar against the savory salt, garlic, sesame, and poppy. The bacon was crispy, the eggs were freshly cooked and the American cheese was melted. The price was super reasonable at $ 5 ish dollars per bagel.
I also had a small cannoli which was amazing.

«This place is Jumbo in heart»
I usually visit this place after a night of drinking because it is one of the few places open after 11pm on the UES. I guess it would be considered midtown, because it is below 59^th street ;).
The guys working the late night shirt are pretty nice and full of suggestions with regards to the 20 something spreads that they have. Some days the baklava is out of this world amazing.
One thing that I do not like is that they give you waaay too much cream cheese. You can tell them easy cheese but I often forget due to my inebriated state.
Oh, one other cool thing about this place is that the bagels are really fresh because they bake them on site. However, the dining area is pretty small (4 – 6 small tables) and is pretty straightforward.
Try the onion bagel with the scallion cream cheese.

Excellent bagels here, but I would Rank it #2 (along with Murray’s) among bagels in Manhattan. In my opinion, Ess-​A-​Bagel is the #1 bagel in the city, followed by #2 Jumbo/Murray’s and then #3 H&H/Tal/Zuckers/Davids. And if you like everything bagels, try Zaro’s in Grand Central… not that the bagel is the best, but they put a ton of ‘everything’ toppings on both sides, not just the tops, which I love.

Lots of people working the counter, but even without other customers they took a couple more minutes than expected to prepare my bagels. Although the shell is still a tad hard, the insides of the bagels came out so soft. The plain bagel didn’t have as much flavor as I had hoped (and yes, I have had plain bagels with flavor!).
Prices are reasonable for New York, but they have a $ 7.00 credit card minimum. So bring cash.

Bagels were good (fluffy, big) and gave a good amount of cream cheese. Toasted it correctly.
Have been here twice and both times the staff were not quick to help… There are other places closer to me that I would rather go to.

Staying nearby, I needed to find me a bagel place that would quell my desire for a fond memory of cream cheese, lox and bagel.
Small place with cramped seating (as most places in midtown, they had a constant line but had enough workers to keep the line moving.
The bialy I ordered was good, not jumbo and not the best I’ve ever had, but the lox was plentiful and sliced fresh off the salmon! Wow! That’s what gave this a four star rating!
Meant to come back to bring a dozen home but got sidetracked. One of many reasons to plan another trip back!