Absolute Bagels has fantastic bagels and friendly people. Located near Columbia, this place has a huge cult following and you can expect to find students and other neighborhood residents waiting for a long time on weekday mornings and weekends during the school season. We went during off peak hours (winter break, Wednesday, mid-afternoon) and the place was still consistently busy, though not much of a line. There is a small seating area (maybe 7 tables), but the place is mostly for take away.
Good bagel variety, including the awesome egg bagel, and a standard variety of cream cheese (not as many as some other shops, but all the standards). Bagels are a good size (not small at all, though not the largest there is) and they put an ample amount of cream cheese.
Egg bagel with garlic and chive cream cheese on one side, jalapeno cream cheese on the other plus fresh tomato and onion. The egg bagel is my favorite and a dying breed, so anywhere I can get one, I do. It was a delicious bagel – soft, fluffy, chewy and for an egg bagel, it was a tiny bit on the sweeter side, but in a good way. The garlic and chive cream cheese was delicious, but the jalapeno cream cheese was not the best. The guy nicely warned me, too! He told me he didn’t really like the jalapeno one, but that the garlic was great, and I got half and half anyway. He was right and I totally appreciated his honesty. I love it when staff members can honestly assess what is good and what is not at their restaurant.
Poppy seed bagel with scallion cream cheese plus fresh tomato and onion. Delicious bagel and solid cream cheese. Scallion is such a common cream cheese option and some can be pretty mediocre, but this was a good one. Again, tons of cream cheese and the poppy seed bagel was bigger than the egg (the egg does tend to be the smallest).
We asked for both toasted and the toasting is quite light, which is how I like it.
Really good bagel spot and the only great bagel spot for at least a 30 block vicinity. If you live anywhere in the area, don’t go to another bagel shop – make the trip to Absolute Bagels because there’s nothing else like it in the Morningside Heights/UWS area.
Cash only.
