Best Bagel & Coffee
Bryan Kim rated this 7.8 in June 2026 and gave 35th Street to Liberty Bagels instead, the shop near Penn Station that puts a bouncer on the door to manage its queue. The bagels here are big, flat and faintly sweet, and they still taste fresh cold. A hanging sign sells a Texas beef sandwich under melted mozzarella and barbecue sauce.
Why go
The counter turns out sandwiches on a production line for the Penn Station and Garment District rush.1 Kim describes the bagel as puffy, chewy, and a little bit sweet,
which puts it with Ess-a-Bagel and H&H on the big classic side of the city's bagel argument. On the other side sit Apollo Bagels, whose bake The Infatuation calls almost closer to a sourdough roll
and divisive among bagel purists,
and Popup Bagels, which hands them over hot with no knives.2 The schmear list here runs from lox to bacon honey sriracha, and the Texas beef sandwich on the wall says what kind of counter this is.
Order this / avoid
- Order: an everything, plain or with jalapeño cream cheese. The bagel holds up when it is no longer hot, which is the useful thing about it if you are carrying it onto a train.2
- Avoid: the assumption that it wins its own street. Kim puts Liberty Bagels ahead of it on 35th.
What locals & experts say
- Bryan Kim, The Infatuation, June 2026, 7.8:
Best Bagel & Coffee, arguably, doesn't even make the best bagels on 35th. There's some stiff competition over at Liberty. But don't let that stop you from checking out this spacious counter-service spot where an efficient production line churns out sandwiches for a breakfast and lunch crowd.
1 - The Infatuation's bagel guide, on the shape:
Big, semi-glossy, and on the flatter side, they always taste fresh even when they aren't hot.
2 - Eater's March 2026 bagel guide runs to 21 shops and does not list this one.3
Good to know
- Booking: none. Counter service, and it is built for volume.
Verdict
could-visit — Kim ranks it against the shop on its own street, which is the only comparison somebody standing outside Penn Station can use, and he puts Liberty Bagels ahead. The 7.8 therefore arrives with its reason attached instead of floating. His description is specific enough to order from and to place: puffy, chewy, faintly sweet, still good cold, which is the classic build and not the new wave's. Eater's March 2026 guide of 21 shops leaves it off entirely, so the two publications disagree about whether it belongs among the city's best.