Great bagels and some unique varieties in addition to the staples you would expect. Getting Rubenstein bagels delivered for breakfast/brunch is such a treat. I’ve ordered a few times when hosting breakfast with friends, and delivery has been right on time with hot, fresh bagels. Delish.

I am a regular Fri morning bagel guy, and the bacon, egg, & cheese on the cacio e pepe bagel is fantastic. The staff is really friendly, the line always moves pretty quickly, and the food is good! That said, I'm not a bagel connoisseur, so I can't speak to the specific quality, but I enjoy them a lot.

My son brought me here. I tried bagel with salmon and cheese and lt was very tasty. The coffee they serve is also very good.

+3

I was looking for a good bagel for breakfast and remembered Rubinstein's. I ordered the ham, egg and cheese on a Cacio e Pepe bagel....OMG! I believe it was the best bagel I've ever had! The egg was prepared to a rich creamy, slightly runny, silky perfection and the ham was a plenty with the cheese holding it down. But, with all of that said, the bagel was the star! Definitely a go to spot!

Rubinstein Bagels !! Got this delicious bagel the other day. When I got there they were, unfortunately, out of lox which is my go to bagel. While I was definitely disappointed, the person ringing me up was SO helpful. They let me know what they had in stock, explained what chorizo was to me 😅 and let me take my time and didn’t make me feel rushed at all. Which is amazing cause often times when there is a line and you’re confused people get annoyed. But every time I’ve come here I’m always met with the nicest staff! I ended up getting the chorizo and fired egg sandwich. And I’m glad they were out of lox cause this was amazing! Definitely a go to bagel spot for me and can’t wait to go back. Maybe I’ll try something new next time too :)

Amazing bagels, place is busy on peak hours but the staff works very hard and fast to get the orders out, seating is somewhat limited but believe or not awe always manage to find a table, neighborhood is calmed and quiet, free street parking around the corner.

Good bagels, though they definitely aren’t like the ones I am used to. I like the assortment of types and look forward to trying more of them. I enjoyed the salt and the cherry and chocolate bagels today.

Our family loves these bagels and their bagel sandwiches! And employees are so kind and customer service oriented.

Their bagels are maaad solid. I’ve gotten their bacon egg and cheese as well as their sausage egg and cheese, and it’s all so good. The absolute best breakfast food in my opinion. You gotta get it with the fried onion and chive schmear! So so good

Really good and fresh bagel sandwiches! Got the egg bacon cheese bagel with fried onion and chive schmear

Savannah

Go to this place every couple days because I love less than maybe 150ft away. The staff here are all kind and awesome and idk, it's a bagel. All the negative reviews tend to be about their egg not being cooked perfectly or a misshapen cinnamon bagel or something, but that's just the imperfections of scale. Cheap tasty bagels, queer friendly, and fast.

Daisy

Great bagel sandwiches. My new favorite is the hot turkey sandwich on a toasted salted rosemary bagel. Drip coffee is good too.

Sean Kuhlmeyer

After living in NYC for three years, and living on bagels from small spots, I can say that Rubinstein’s could have been teleported from Queens, with a Seattle Capital Hill flavor. Nice place. Clean. Friendly staff. Unusual, unique, and delicious flavors, in addition to the standards expected in a bagelry. I particularly enjoyed the chocolate and cherry, fresh garlic, and of course I had to have the lox’s with capers on a plain. Enjoy!…

Ciaran Robinson

While I haven’t had a bagel in New York, this is the best bagel I’ve ever had. Was in Seattle for 3 days and came here every morning. All the bagel flavours are banging and the cream cheese is out of this world. Herb and garlic cream cheese is a personal favourite. If you’re a sourdough fan you’ll love these bagels. I hear they are New York style but cannot confirm (see above)

itscolleenk

Been looking for a good bagel place and this was just perfect!! I ordered their “Double Down” on poppyseed, which is essentially a traditional New York-style bagel with cream cheese, salmon lox, capers, onions and tomato. It was super yummy and decently large, and they gave a lot of toppings! I only wish the prices weren’t so high… For the bagel + a small bag of chips I paid $15 which was about twice as much as I’d expect for a bagel sandwich somewhere else. But heck, I’ll probably still be back. I want to try their breakfast sandwiches next time!

Michael Kyle

Great spot for bagels. I got the double down (lox) on a toasted sesame. There’ll probably be a bit of a line no matter what time you go, especially in the morning hours. Probably took about 10 minutes of waiting in line + waiting for the bagel to be prepared. Limited indoor seating with a bit more outdoor seating. I walked mine 15 minutes home and it was still great. Expect to pay $14-16 for most bagels (including tax+tip)

Phil Simon

Rubinstein has the best bagels in Seattle. I moved to Seattle from NYC and I have searched high and low. There are a lot of good bagels in Seattle. A few great bagels. And then there’s Rubinstein. If you’re looking for your fix, this is the place. I’ve tried quite a few of their bagels. My personal fav is the salted rosemary, but you can’t go wrong with any of the classics. My girlfriend loves the cacio e pepe bagel. Make sure your read the customization options—there are a ton of ways to make the bagel yours. I will say that this place often has a line, which can be slow. That’s because the bagels are delicious and they are making it to order. There wouldn’t be a line if it wasn’t worth it. They are also on the expensive end for bagels. So maybe don’t come here when you’re looking for quick and cheap. I think they’re well worth the spend when you can, however.

Vanessa Arndorfer

I'm really surprised by all the mediocre reviews because I love the bagels here (especially compared to the other bagel shops in the area)! I tried the cacio e pepe bagel which had a nice, crisp exterior and fluffy interior. I got it as part of a lox sandwich which came with a hefty smear of cream cheese and deliciously fresh lox on top. They serve Olympia coffee too which is awesome! Very limited street parking in the area so I'd recommend going early or be ready to park more in the residential area and walk a bit.

Solid bagel offering. They are more compact than I prefer but that is just my taste. They were fresh too so no real complain. Would come back and be regular if lived near by but not drive across the city to get them.

Smaller than the downtown location but just as good bagels. If you get there at opening time, you could even find parking on time. Everything with the fried onion cream cheese is our personal favorite.

Awesome bagel! Chewier than some others I’ve had in the city. The cream cheese was delicious. Glad Seattle bagels have become a thing!

Not the best bagels in town, and a bit overpriced, but it's a solid option. Their bagel sandwiches are good.

Got the everything bagel with salmon lox schmear. It was just okay - a little bit too salty and tough to chew, but I did appreciate the bits of real salmon in the schmear.

*Update* After seeing a response to another review with a similar complaint to mine, I noticed the restaurant had removed the service fee in response to customer feedback. It's great to see a business listening to its customers and addressing deceptive pricing practices. Because of this, I've updated my star rating and have begun visiting the restaurant again. Original review is included below for reference. Original Review I have been going here a while. I like the bagels and have always had good service. I was thoroughly annoyed though with the change to a mandatory 18% service charge. Unlike some other commentors I was explicitly told about it and was told I didn't need to tip although I still did have to go through the tip screen (it at least defaulted to no tip at the time). Although I couldn't imagine for all customers going forward they were going to go through that whole schpeel about service charges and not needing to tip and based on other reviews it seems like they already stopped. When I asked about it I was told it was because customers were starting to tip less, especially around Christmas. Which for a restaurant where we do our own bussing and picking up of orders I guess I am not sure why people would feel the need to tip as much. But regardless, if the goal from the owner is to compensate your workers more with the guaranteed 18% of sales then PLEASE just raise your prices 18%. You can then promise that 18% increase in price as a profit sharing with your employees and remove the tip option all together. I don't need to be involved or explicitly told about the inner workings of your business. This is an issue between the owner and workers no need to involve customers. Just show me the actual price I am going to pay and don't make me feel like the bad guy as to why your workers aren't making as much. Almost certain to go less often as a result of this change.

I love the produce isle sandwich. Rubinstein does not have my favorite bagles in the area but they do have my favorite bagle sandwich. It's a bit messy to eat but that's cause they absolutely load up that bagle with all the topings plus, they wrap it all in paper so it's honestly not that big of a mess as long as you don't mind getting some hummus on your hands.

This place is tasty, but it is also pretty expensive for what you get. It's an Ethan Stowell spot... I usually get the Everything with Lox Schmear or a Ham, Egg & Cheese... The service is always spotty. Can't say they are super welcoming and smiling. They know you're paying a price and act like they don't have to earn that tip they consistently demand from you. It's as though they count on you getting that "tip guilt".

Very fresh and a good variety of bagels, spreads and toppings. Making your own bagel is much more affordable than choosing one of their options, so look out for that. Would go back.

All in all their bagels are delicious and the service is great. However, when I was there this morning, standing in line w/ my family, an unmasked homeless man was allowed to enter the restaurant unmasked, coughing all over the place. No one did or said anything. It was like he didn’t exist. I felt bad for the guy but with Covid running rampant in the homeless community right now and the fact that the employees just let the man stay is unacceptable. There were already a lot of people, including an infant inside waiting in line. They should have just given him a free bagel and some water and asked him kindly to leave. Not a deal breaker for me I just think they should have dealt with the situation rather than ignoring it.

Food and atmosphere were incredible. I got a egg, bacon and cheese on a Jalapeño bagel and my friend got Avocado and Toast. Their ice machine and espresso were not working but their drip coffee was still food! Will be coming back again!

Good bagels, but at least once a week there's something that interferes with their ability to fulfill morning orders. (Like late delivery of their bagels in the morning, broken equipment, late start, etc.) It happens so consistently that I almost expect it and am pleasantly surprised when I'm able to place an order when they open. Would be nice if they were regularly prepared for regular early customers, but good bagels!

The people here are absolutely lovely! I pop in at least once a week for a rosemary sea salt bagel with the herbs and garlic schmear, which is just delicious. Tried their coffee once, and I'm not a fan as a coffee snob, but the food is great!

Seattle 4/5, So Cal 3/5, NY 2/5. I’m a Jew from California originally and I’ve been chasing the bagels of my childhood ever since we came to the PNW. Seattle especially has pretty terrible bagels, even worse south of the montlake cut. That being said. Rubinstein is my favorite bagel within walking distance to me, and that stands for a whole lot honestly! I’m not going to take an hour long bus for my breakfast bagel, ya know. Although slightly chewy, their bagels are tasty and my sesame bagel had the right amount of sesame seeds. I had the lox breakfast sandwich and I added cucumbers which made it perfect. Generous and really nice lox. Perfect amount of onion, really thin cut and not too much. They serve it open face WHICH MAKES ME SO HAPPY. Although not a deli, it’s a solid bagel shop which has LOX that’s a welcome addition to the neighborhood and outperforms anything else on the hill, and I’ve tried them all. Cute little shop with good coffee and nice staff. No inside seating due to Covid but on a nice day there’s a ton around the neighborhood or a short walk to the park would be a great spot to eat a bagel. If you’re looking for the best bagel in Seattle maybe try Zylberschtein’s or Rachel’s Bagels and Burritos. Or order from Russ and Daughter’s for a special occasion. But rubenstein outranks Eltana, Westman’s, dingfelders, all the cherry house coffees, and Seattle bagel bakery by a mile in both flavor and price.

I got the Double Down on a Shallot Bagel. It was really delicious. Pretty expensive for a bagel… like $16 after tax. Service was fast and friendly. At 11:00am, it was pretty slow inside.

LR L

My to-go order was a little messy, but the ingredients were fresh and delicious! I ordered the bacon and egg sandwich on an everything bagel and substituted the cheese for some plain shmear. The bagel itself was chewy and obviously baked fresh, the bacon was thick cut and the egg was fried over medium and super tasty! They went light on the cream cheese though and since I paid extra for that topping I hoped to get a bit more. This place is a little spendy, and they usually run out of everything bagels by 11am (their most popular bagel!), but the service was great and I will definitely be coming back to try more of their yummy bagels and topping combos!

Joel Gombiner

Note this business does not accept cash any more. This is the reason for a downgrade to a 4-star review. One of the best bagels I've had in Seattle, but the bar is low. A more open crumb and a crispier crust would earn 5 stars. Prices are on the high side. UPDATE: I came back a few months later and the crumb was more open, so I'm standing by my word and upgrading to 5 stars. Great work bakers!

Jamie T

Great place, great people, good bagels fresh, my fav bagel everything bagel toasted with lox cc and add capers so good. Plus I love the Healthcare worker discount 15% the bagels in the pic 1st one is the avocado 🥑 toast it was amazing today, 2nd pic jalapeño cheddar bagel with onion and chive cc added pickled onion 🌰 amazing. My favorite is a an everything bagel lox cc add capers it will change your life .

Overall, my experience at Rubinstein was unremarkable, the only lasting memory I will have is the chewiness of their bagels. As others have said, the bagels are chewy, but not in the good way. I've had my fair share of east coast bagels, and the chewiness of the bagels I've gotten from Rubinstein is on another level. Ever get a stale starburst, and chew so hard your temples hurt, that was my experience at Rubinstein.

I got a salted rosemary bagel with herb and garlic cream cheese. It came toasted which was nice. Overall was good but a but expensive; it is Seattle where everything is expensive, but $2 to get cream cheese on the $2.50 bagel felt excessive.

Nothing is special about the bagel. More importantly the phrases like “good morning”, “thank you” seem to be not part of their vocabulary. Come on people, it’s not that hard to be friendly

they are literally always out of something. i’ve been here multiples times, early enough in the day and ordered different things and something is always out of stock. no eggs, no deli meat, no bacon, no lox 🙃 I don’t get it. it’s just comical at this point 🤣 eventually i’ll get desperate enough to come back, but it will probably be the same experience.

Rubinstein gets an A for effort, but the results are just ok. The bagels are not terrible, which equals great by Seattle standards. I don't understand why everything has to be so fancy, with all the flavors and sandwich fillings. Since the bagels aren't that good it's basically putting lipstick on a pig. I also got the matzo ball soup, which was very tasty but completely over the top considering the matzo ball, which is supposed to be the jewel in the crown, was oddly super dense and chewy. I don't even understand how they got it that way. Did they use leftover bagel dough for the matzo ball? I grew up getting my matzo ball soup from Grabstein's in Canarsie, Brooklyn, and it was nowhere near as fancy but miles more palatable. I also make my own matzo balls from scratch, and I have never had this problem. I guess if I want bagels in Seattle I will have to learn how to make those too.

Preface: I am an east coaster and grew up eating very good bagels so my standards are somewhat high. That being said, I think these bagels leave something to be desired. I don't think they toast the bagels if you order a "sandwich", which leaves the texture soft and bready. They're thick-style bagels too, so could really benefit from having a crunchy exterior and soft interior. Today I ordered a double down (lox with lox cream cheese) which comes with red onion, capers, and tomato. I added cucumber to the sandwich for an upcharge and got 2 tiny slices of cucumber. There were barely any red onions and I also did not get any capers. It's the second time I've tried this sandwich and the capers were missing. I do like to give multiple tries to places just in case someone had a bad day, but no dice and no capers. They do give generous amounts of lox and tomato, however, for $12+ I do expect something at least toasted and with all the ingredients accounted for.

I’ve gone here twice in the past week and have been let down both times. I got a salt bagel with lox schmear that was egregiously salty, even for a salt bagel. Additionally, the bagel was strangely both chewy and burnt. When I went back the second time I got the everything bagel with plain schmear and pickled onions, which did taste a lot better. However, it still had that same chewiness. I’m aware that bagels should have some chew but these over-index.

The space felt cramped - especially the passageway where you pick up pre-ordered food or the order you just placed. The bench style seating was comfortable, however, just contributed to the feeling that the Cafe space wasn't being optimized. I really enjoy Olympia coffee yet the drip coffee I ordered seemed to be weakly brewed. The bagels are so-so. They look good and the flavor options are wonderful. I just found my bagel to be dense and not the fluffy consistency I prefer in a bagel or bialy. The goat cheese schmear was good.

I have been so anticipating their opening on 15th near my home. I have walked by regularly to see if they were open yet. Today they were. I got a sea salt bagel with a schmear of cream cheese. So disappointed. Way too salty. Tough. Outer crust is hard to bite through and then the inner is chewy and doughy. Also small but that was an advantage as I could barely get the whole thing down and I do love to eat and never give up but seriously considered it. Having spent some years in Jersey and New York, I have some experience with a good bagel. This is not a good bagel. Westman's is way better and it's a longer walk but that's where I'll continue to go for the closest thing I've found here for an authentic NY bagel. I'd have given two or even one star but the staff were excellent so kudos to them. I'll also say that I will return because they have just opened and I know what that's like and maybe they were just off. I'll give them another try but not optimistic. I am so sorry to leave a negative review but maybe that will help to improve what you're offering and make a successful venture. I don't mean to be mean.

Good bagels, awesome coffee, mediocre to terrible customer service at best. Employees could not give two sh!ts if you stayed or left. On a good day, they’ll get your order right. On most occasions, it’s an inconvenience to let the employees know they effed up your order and your name. And then to be told there’s nothing they can do about it (?) what do you mean, you literally work here and you made me the wrong sandwich. Make another one. How is that complicated? What a shame overall because the product is good but for the price, at least hire employees who act like they care about the customers. I’ll go elsewhere, thanks.

I’ve been to Rubinstein a few times and each I leave feelings “meh” about the bagel. They aren’t terrible but they just don’t hit the spot when it comes to texture or flavor. Maybe I’m just not getting the correct things.

I think their bagels are really good but I am turned off by the mandatory 18% tip they put on all orders even for those ones where you buy a half dozen bagels and the cashier just bag them for you. I stop going since they implemented this.

The bagels were really tasty, service took FOREVER though. Like 35 minutes for a few bagels. Id like to hope it was just a lot of new staff? We enjoyed our food when we got it though!

I have been excited to try these bagels for a while. I consider myself somewhat of a bagel aficionado (more just a lover of good bagels). I stopped in and grabbed a dozen for $28, which is high but not horrible. I was however completely turned off by the 18% service fee, and then asking me to tip as well. Putting bagels in a bag is certainly not worth a $5.04 tip. I can understand if a sandwich was prepared for me, and someone brought it out to me, but this feels egregious. I tip often, more often than I should, and probably more than I should, and this was insulting.

I got a breakfast bagel and they put wayyyy too much butter on it. Breakfast bagel was ok after wiping 3/4 of the butter off of it

We tried a few different bagels and schmears here on the 3rd day after they opened on the Hill. Was excited reading the reviews of their SLU place. While the flavor was really good, the texture not so much. Very very tough. We tried them both toasted and untoasted and they were really hard to chew.

Rubinstein’s has steadily been declining in quality of product and service for a couple of years now. They consistently get orders wrong and have poor interactions with customers. Orders often are completed on time but when you show up to pick up they don’t engage with you to pick up your order. They also under-toast and over cream cheese their bagels. Overall average.

Coming from New Jersey, these aren’t my favorite bagels in Seattle. They have a pretty heavy sourdough profile, which is off-putting and atypical for the bagels I’m used to. They can also tend to be a little on the chewy/tough side. They are also on the more expensive side.

Second time getting bagel sandwiches from here. The toppings all fall out and it is super messy. Also the poppyseed bagel only had a handful of seeds on the outside. The bagels themselves are very yummy with good texture, I would recommend sticking to a bagel instead of a bagel sandwich.

Adrienne Paul

Clean quiet store. Counter worker was really nice, Had a cinnamon raisin, and my friend had a rosemary. We’re good- nothing too fancy. I was pleasantly surprised w the rosemary salt one. It was really good!

Yü Wu

I checked out Rubinstein a couple of weeks ago on their grand opening day. Overall the experience was mediocre. The avocado toast tastes good although for $10 (after tax) it's quite overpriced. I also had a salted rosemary bagel with black truffle schmear. I enjoyed the interesting and unique flavors of both the bagel flavor and the schmear, but the bagel was so hard that my jaw hurt afterwards. Service was friendly and the store atmosphere is warm and convivial.

+1

Service was fast and friendly but the bagel was very disappointing - flat and painfully chewy (also weirdly misshapen but that doesn’t bother me). Most of the other bagels I saw looked better so guessing it was just a bad one that didn’t get filtered out.

Great food but unreliable. Have been three times. They were out of bagels once and had a broken oven another time. Would be a regular if I could count on a bacon egg and cheese

Tried to order from here but the service was a joke. Website said online ordering was down. So I called in and they told me they can't take phone orders either - they said to go to the website. I shouldn't have to explain to their employee that their online ordering is turned off. At that point i was told it would be impossible for them to take a pickup order of any kind and i would HAVE to come into the store to order and wait. Why make it so hard to pick up a bagel??

Great food but 15$ for bacon egg and cheese on an everything bagel is a crime. If I could get that for 10$ I’d be here every day to get that bagel. As it stands I probably will stop by twice a year or so. Update 11/22/25: idk what happened but this is a strikingly different product... I suppose there was a restructure or something as half the menu is gone and this is the most disappointing BEC bagel I've ever had. It borders on straight up bad. Really sucks as I used to defend Rubensteins to all my bagel snob friends but this actually does suck.

The bagels were just ok. Way too expensive. The person behind the counter was very unfriendly

*This review is not based on the workers who I’m sure are doing all the work and provide great service.* This is on the owners and the people in the back who have nothing to with the people they serve yet are making all the decisions. I have been going here since they opened as I live very close and it’s great to be able to get a quick cheap bite. The old owner had some organizational issues and as I think he finally figures it out he sold it to the stowell group and it has gone down the toilet. Tryin to order on the site is a joke and not user friendly at all, rewards with toast app are gone. I believe this is the 4th or 5th ordering app this place has used. The price is just gone up significantly but I don’t see anything getting better just worse. If I was sure this increase was going to workers that would be one thing but the management is what is actually driving away the customers who provide those funds to pay the wages of those workers. Please try to make it better for the customers and maybe ask the workers who deal with customers all day, in my experience they usually have a better idea how to help.

not horrible. not good. LISTEN. I'm from the east coast and my partner's Jewish.... we wanted to love these bagels. I love me a bagel with smear and fixings with a good cup of coffee! We tried going several times. The bagels are either rock hard or too chewy to swallow down. The add-ons never seem fresh, the lox is farmed, and I swear to you, they get my order wrong every time. The only reason I'm leaving this review is that I just ordered a bagel with fixings and they forgot the smear, my partner took it back to get the smear- they ended up making a brand new one that AGAIN wasn't my order. I now have two whole bagels that weren't my order. Listen, I didn't need or want another bagel, I just wanted my order!

Friendly staff and a nice neighborhood vibe, but the bagel was basically a think, round piece of bread. This was my 2nd attempt for this chain, hoping for a better result but disappointed. No real flavor or proper “bite” telling me it’s something unique.

Coffee tasted like motor oil, I literally stopped and questioned if it was coffee. SEC was very standard. Only thing that was good was that the garlic on the everything bagel tasted fresh. Very expensive for subpar, dunkin donuts quality food. Go to Westmans bagels 2 minutes drive away, u won't regret it.

i just want a toasted bagel. please just toast my bagel. i ask every time and no matter what i walk away with a cold, chewy bagel. i don’t know if it’s a toaster issue or something else but i really just want a warm bagel without my partner having to scrape everything off at home and retoast it. please, i want to give you my business just toast my bagel.

If I wanted round bread masquerading as a bagel, I could pay far less at Blazing Bagels or Costco. The texture is all wrong, with no discernible difference between the crust and the interior. Also deeply unseasoned. The caraway bagel has so few caraway seeds that you’d think they were a precious and expensive spice like saffron that could only be used sparingly. I had high hopes for Rubinstein, but it seems like I will have to continue driving down to Tacoma to get Howdy Bagel, which are still the only truly great bagels in this godforsaken state. Two stars because the employees were very nice. It’s not their fault that the bagels are like a photocopy of a memory of someone describing a decent bagel.

I gave this place a chance despite the 3.8 star review and am sorry to say the rating is justified. The staff were sweet but my bagel was barely toasted, no crunch at all... slathered in way too much cold sticky cream cheese that only stuck to one half of the bun... so it was basically a cold, undercooked, very disappointing chewy waste of calories that was not worth finishing.

Neil A

Second edited review, original below: I hate giving a 1 star review and decided to give this place another shot at 1:15pm on a Tues - they were open and had bagels. The QR code on the door for ordering went to a non-functional website but I was able to order on their website. So far so good. But...when I went in to get my bagel, they were out of the one I had ordered. They offered to cancel or use a different bagel, so I had to get a plain bagel. (I'm sure it's hard to keep these systems updated with available stock, but still a disappointing.) They made it quickly (given that it was started late) and the servers were friendly. The bagel itself was nice and chewy with a good flavor. The egg seemed to be one of those pre-cooked egg-patties (this was $13 and change after tip). Not bad, but not great. Original review: Sold out of bagels. It is a bagel shop... you had one job. No sign to indicate why they're closed, but the employee at least let me know and was apologetic. When it is open it is too crowded. I have a hard time finding the in between hour when I can get service, sit down, and there is food. Edit: Based on the kind response to my earlier review, I gave this place another shot. They had added a helpful SOLD OUT sign to the door. This was at noon on a Sunday.

Ben Mcalonie

This place is… ok. I got there around 11:30 and they only had jalepeno/cheddar and pumpkin bagels left. My fault for getting there “late” I suppose but to be out of at least a sesame bagels is weird. The bagels themselves are ok, nothing like NY but I will take what I can get in this city. The service was honestly kinda poor. There was not a huge line but we still waited 8 minutes for two identical bagels. The staff were talking most of the time and there didn’t seem to be too much urgency in getting orders out. The person who took our order was pretty quiet not very helpful. Also, it was $13 fo two small/medium sized bagels? This ain’t NY and those are way above NY prices. Whateva. If you NEED a bagel this will do.

Mitch Pohlkamp

When adding cream cheese to my to-go order I didn't realize the $4.50 was for such a small amount of schmear. $4.50 is crazy for an amount that barely covers a single bagel. Very disappointed after many good in-store experiences.

Zachary Williams

Ordered a couple of bagel sandwiches for delivery through Postmates, one was a BEC (for my partner) and one was the Double Down lox sandwich (for me). The bagels are pretty standard, nothing special. What really concerns me though, is the fact that they clearly used the same knife for cutting everything. There were fragments of egg on my lox sandwich (see photos with yellow egg on the bagels) and while this was not a huge deal for me, it can be a really serious issue for people with allergies. A similar issue happened at Rubinsteins in Eastlake, where I ordered a lox sandwich and my coworker ordered a blueberry bagel. Her blueberry bagel tasted so fishy because they used the same knife for both bagels, she had to take it back. She is also vegan, so that is a big deal. I think the workers at Rubinsteins need to be a bit more knowledgeable about cross-contamination since this seems to be a recurring issue.

Emily Danielson

We used to love Rubinstein bagels, but the bagels have really gone down hill in the past few months. They are much denser and more bread-like than bagel-like. The outside no longer has a good crunch it used to. Plus, their baker's dozens are now $35! I'm all for raising prices instead of mandatory service charges, but I can't justify that price for a mediocre product. Luckily there are a lot of new, local bagel spots that scratch the itch for a good bagel. Unfortunately Rubinstein's is no longer one of them.

Bruh!! No cream cheese? What the heck? Who’s running this circus?? TOTALLY RIDICULOUS!!! I feel real bad for the lady running the counter having to tell people about the no cream cheese situation. Not sure why management doesn’t get off their keesters, go to cash and carry to get the most basic bagel spot stuff CREAM CHEESE. SMDH

The bagels are kind of on the expensive side, which is fine. The problem is that the restaurant - a take out restaurant, mind you - adds a mandatory 18% gratuity on every order. Period, full stop.

I have just seen it all, as my service person at Rubenstein's, shared Ethan Stowells new 18% mandatory service charge on Bagels in a Bag!!! Not a sandwich, not a cooked meal, nothing more than bagels in a bag that now carry a ridiculous added charge, of $3.00 on a half dozen or $5.00 for a dozen, just to put the bagels in a bag. I would suggest Bagel Oasis for a better bagel at a better price.

Delicious bagels. But the staff is clearly incapable of delivering accurate orders. This has happened on multiple occasions. If you take an order to go. You are assured of throwing your money away. Come on, ESR -- I know you can do better.

Ehhhh. NYC native, Hassidic Jewish bagel regular when I lived (on the wrong side) of Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn here to say that these bagels are hard, overpriced, and made of sourdough. All of these factors make them not only unpalatable but also nowhere near as good as where I come from. Sourdough? Icky. Also. And this isn't this baker's fault, is their lack of NYC tap water to boil. NYC's water is literally mountain spring water tapped in the Catskill mountains and the best anywhere. I had to look up why this matters: its low concentrations of calcium and magnesium, which makes the water softer. I would have paid a premium for bagels that were similar to what I grew up with. But I might as well just buy the bagel shaped bread from Safeway because at least it can be chewed and tastes decent. Also there is a frozen option from Amazon Prime now to get H and H bagels directly from Manhattan that are made with New York City water so that's a thing too and they're way less expensive.

Less than Zero! I know my bagels and these rate with the worst. I visited the CapHill location for a simple sesame bagel with a light schmear of cream cheese...to go, of course, during pandemic era. The bagel itself was a tasteless mound of hard to chew shell surrounding equally tough dough; and no light schmear but a gob of goo. Only the amount of sesame seeds was light, really just a couple of sprinkles. Here is the kicker. I didn't ask for toasted but that's what I found in the bag Now who puts a load of whipped cream cheese on a hot bagel...recipe for a mess and no easy task to eat and stay clean! And,of course, with each bite of the hard shell bagel, the cheese oozed and oozed...I ran out of napkins, then gave up the fight .tossed the half eaten bagel in the trash...not worth it. Ironically, for many years, just across the street and a few doors down, one could buy Seattle's best bagels ever at The Bagel Deli. Yes, there is a plethora of bagel shops in town...but quantity does no automatically equate with quality. Rubenstein's is not one that I would visit again. .

The service is fantastic, bagels not so much. The comment about letting a person experiencing homelessness is irrelevant to anything going on in store. These people get kicked out of wherever they are all of the time and the staff are not trained in or paid for dealing with shuffling folks in crisis out of the store. It could be dangerous for them, though most of the people i see on the streets are harmless. If you have an issue with the way the city is handling the population of people without homes, do something about it instead of bashing a store trying to show compassion

I Ordered A Bagel with Lox and tomato , I specifically asked the guy to make sure it’s toasted. He replied as if he understood me. I get home about five minutes away and noticed it was kind of cold which is to be expected when traveling food I opened it up and they’re not toasted. This is the second time this is happened to me here last time I drove all the way back and had them do it again, getting a lot of side-eye , I chalked it up to them being really busy but today they were not. They had about eight people behind the counter. Maybe that’s just the style of bagel here. I ultimately scraped everything off and then just toasted it myself at home, the bagel themselves are quite small ,I will not be coming back. #verydisappointed

I went to get a bagel never been there before and was told that butter is considered a shmear and is 2.50 extra on top of the bagel. So I just got a naked bagel . The bagels are good so I ate it unadorned. But I was puzzled that butter would be 2.50! I finally talked to a different cashier and she said butter was 50 cents not 2.50 and told sorry. I didn’t want to be a Karen so accepted it but if I were Elaine on Seinfeld I would have asked for a complimentary bagel with butter.

Incredible bagels. It’s crazy seeing people give bad reviews to a bagel place that simply makes a style different from their personal preference. Stop the bagel wars. Update 11/2024: bring back the bagel wars - somehow these great bagels went south. The last few orders have been underwhelming at best. We didn’t even finish our pastrami bagels (pastrami was dry and flavorless, bagels themselves are now supermarket quality). They somehow refuse to toast the bagels?? Why??

I used to like coming here but the last few times I've been, the staff have been rude and the bagels have been so tough I could barely chew them. Today, I ordered a bagel with lox cream cheese and received plain schmear instead. I went in to see if they would remake it and the staff was extremely rude in response. They were clearly busy but with how expensive these bagels are, I wanted the lox schmear that I paid for. They ended up giving me a side of lox schmear but overall I had a very bad experience and won't be coming back.

I really tried to love this place because it’s soo close to me. Sadly, after 5 visits here I must give up. Workers are so rude, they just chat the whole time with each other, complaining loudly about customers and life. As someone around their age this is just not appropriate at work! Say hello to people when they come in! Don’t say “what do you want” I got that welcome at least 3 times from different workers. Bagels are pretty overpriced compared to other bagels in the area. I’d recommend mt bagel or westman bagels over this place!

Not as good as the 6th ave location. Slower service too. Bagels were good, but I’m not sure why they charge for cream cheese if they are going to put the *tiniest* amount. Really disappointing and dry.

Straight trash. This was my cut in half bagel, thanks for totally quiet quitting as you make my breakfast. They also forgot my truffle cream cheese. So like 9$ plus a tip to get totally screwed. I should get five stars for not cussing and swearing in this review. Also this place doesn't accept cash which is a class based move to keep out the homeless and underbanked (re :the poor). This place is trash.

Rose C

Been coming here for years. All of a sudden extremely skimpy with their lox lol. Like. A 2 inch skinny piece of lox. I literally laughed out loud this time when I got home and saw the sad situation they handed me. Might as well have gotten a regular bagel. Thought it was a one off but seems it’s a new rule for them, as this is the third time it’s happened. Not worth $20 for a ~whisper~ of lox on an “open face lox”. At this point it’s just an extremely overpriced “open face” bagel with some capers 😭 inflation is wild. Won’t be returning unfortunately.

EC

It was a bit depressing in here. Got sort of stared down by all of the staff. 10am completely out of basically 90% of the bagels, but you could see it was because someone had online ordered like 5 dozen bagels. Come on that shouldn't be allowed! Anyways, the bagel was terrible and others complained about a hard boiled egg on a sandwich that was meant to be breakfast style. The ambience was industrial and unpleasant, the fridge was basically empty, it was just a bit sad. Maybe it was an off day but I've never really enjoyed these bagels.