Finagle-A-Bagel
- Nearest Transit:
Park Street (Green, Red)
Downtown Crossing (Orange, Silver, Red)
Government Center (Blue, Green)
- Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
21 Reviews for Finagle-A-Bagel
A bagel is a bagel is a bagel. Correct? No. Some bagels look good and taste good and some are fresh and some might as well be paper weights. I suppose it serves me right for coming to this shop after 5:00 pm but it was there and I wanted a BLT. This is a simple sandwich, made extra hearty by a fat bagel. Can you blame me for wanting lettuce, tomato, bacon, mayo all at the same time on a crunchy bagel? No, you can't. Well, they screwed the pooch. Crumbled bacon, soggy tomato cut too thick, strangely overly veined alien lettuce, a stale bagel burnt in the toaster (yes the bagel buzz saw is cool) all topped with about a solid cup of extra thick mayo. Ack. I scraped everything off and tried to make the best of it but well what I had in front of me was destined to be 1/2 pound of rat feed.
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Finagle A Bagel is great! Stayed at a hotel a block away and loved having this place nearby to quickly grab breakfast. It was great that it is across the street from Boston Commons so you will always have an entertaining view out the windows.
Bagels are good, good fountain soda and pretty quick even when there was a line.
I really like watching the bagels move down the conveyor and get sliced through the spinning blade. The second they slice apart, they fly down the rest of it.
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Not terrible, but not great. I got a whole wheat sesame bagel, and it was really sweet. I don't know if it was actually honey wheat (I wish they'd told me) or sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. Either way, it was far too sweet for me, especially with an egg sandwich. Coffee was just fine, but not great. All in all, it was adequate and filling.
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ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzziING!@ #$!! I've actually flinched due to being startled while standing over the counter here while my bagel gets zipped across the conveyer belt through the spinning razor blade.
That's cool and all, but what about the actual bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich that was placed in between this bagel? Above average as far as fast chain stores go, but there's plenty of other local non-chains that serve a much tastier breakfast treat if you're not in too much of a rush.
The coffee tastes like liquidated cardboard, if that's possible.
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This place is a perfectly adequate breakfast or lunch spot if you work in the greater Downtown Crossing/Common area. It's better for you than the junk you'd get at McDonald's and served to you in roughly the same amount of time.
My standard is a salmon and cream cheese on a whole wheat bagel, and they do it just fine. No complaints at all, and I've been here a bunch.
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The place itself: too brightly lit, somewhat depressing.
The staff: Polite, but not friendly and somewhat curt and bland.
The prices: Not worth it, for certain items. Especially salads. A pre-packaged feeling salad with dressing out of a packet should not cost as much as they charge for it.
The food: Salads are ok if you need to fill the void in your belly, but otherwise quite bland. Rather go into Pemberton Square v. nearby, and get one of the flavourful, tasty, bigger, very reasonably priced ones at Plaza Deli instead. The bagels, however, I really enjoy. They are juicy, never dry (well, thats if I get my bagel in the morning), smell and taste fresh. The cream cheese is good and easily spreadable, I like that it doesn't taste too bland or thick or chunky like some others, and generally prefer it to some others. Just get them in the morning I guess!
The perks: It's conveniently located. The lines move relatively fast, and even if it seems full of work people during lunch hours, there is a faster turnaround than it seems, usually.
The fun stuff: The conveyor belt your bagel gets sliced and travels down to get to you, all prepared and yummy, is fun. Also, not a regular occurrence, but we were once there as smoke billowed out from the back kitchen. Funny how the staff didn't notice the burning smell until after we did, but it was quickly resolved. Oops!
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The best thing about Finagle-A-Bagel is watching your bagel travel down the conveyor belt and get sliced at high speed. My boyfriend was fascinated by the process when I took him here. The bagels themselves are decent and good for a quick breakfast. I like the bagel sandwiches the best. This location was very convenient when I stayed at the Omni Parker House. I think we came here almost every morning.
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Not cheap. How can two bagels with cream cheese and 2 juices come be so expensive?
I had a chunky vegetable bagel with jalapeno cream cheese. It was just ok. Brueggers is much better.
The location is a plus. It is close to many hotels and across the street from the T.
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I get food here because I work down the street and have a half hour lunch.
i wouldn't call eating here finagling; "obtaining or achieving by indirect, usually deceitful methods; cheating; swindling."
It would be finagling if I was able to get some real bagels downtown, ie. like the ones at Kupples in Brookline or back in Queens.
I've had some lonely dirty sit-downs here in this joint that faces the Commons and I wouldn't recommend sit-down unless you had the frost-bite or the diabetes.
Any hoo, one of my work goals on Winter Street is to try everything at Finagle's! Aim high! I used to be partial to their Egg Salad Bagel Sandwich but that has been off the menu for years possibly due to contamination problems.
I kinda dig the Turkey Sandwich, with over ripened 'cados and kinda good slimy processed turkey on a softy bread lump. I also kind of dig the Tuna, also with 'cados. Tasty and packed but somehow not satisfying.
You can get some fancy ass drinks here like real OJ, fruit smoothies, etc.
This place works in a jam; be nice to the hard-working Brazilians. Imma be a semi- regular so I appreciate my fast and friendly ladies on the line.
I always get the plain or raisin, but there is also french-toast bagels and others. I like the crisp little apples they give you to digest all that fake bread!! Everyone at work has those tiny little apples on their desk. So cute!
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Everyone, rejoice! Finagle-A-Bagel's orange juice are DELICATELY squeezed (as advertised on their label). Boy, as a chain, they really take care of those little orangies.
Now if only they'd put in a bin for recycling, instead of having multiple ones for trash, and have a friendlier attitude too, that would be great. But I'm afraid it's too much to ask since the rotating blade of DEATH is on their side!
And I do NOT recommend using the bathroom here. Scary experience.
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Crusty on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside, and just a tad bit sweet- the plain bagels here remind me of those at the fabulous bagel store near where I grew up in NY.
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Two stars because they were open in a neighborhood that closes before dark. One star because these bagels suck really bad. This is not a bagel deli--this is a cafeteria freak show.
They were Stale. They lack character. The cream cheese tastes like it has chemical stabilizers in it. Should I go on? This is an EMERGENCY PIT STOP before you catch a late show at the nearby theater.
Not sure if this is the case at all Finagle a Bagel locations, but this one has a rotating buzz saw that slices bagels as they zip past on a conveyor belt. Other than that, you know the deal, decent bagels, decent coffee, local chain, etc.
ROTATING BUZZ SAW
CONVEYOR BELT
I go kind of regularly for those two features.
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I would never compare Finagle with an independent bagel shop, but I would definitely compare it to other chains like Dunking Donuts and Starbucks. And when you do that they aren't half bad. They're boiled which is the most important part. I don't usually get them with schmears since I'm not really a fan of their cream cheese but they do make for great sandwiches. The soup they have at Finagle is quite good and they have it all year round. One of my favorite things about this location is that you get a blast of yummy fresh baked air as you walk by....it makes me think of the Rockland Bakery back home in NY.
Meh. Bagel sandwiches. They used to come with a small apple, which I enjoyed. I used to go here a fair amount when I was in the neighborhood because there wasn't anywhere else I knew of that was cheap, fast, and appetizing, although in general I prefer Brueggers.
I haven't been there in a while for two reasons. The first is that I moved to California. The second is:
The last time I was there, I had to use the restroom. As I walked up to the bathroom, a homeless-looking guy told me to wait because someone was inside. So I waited my turn. When I got into the bathroom, I noticed the lock was broken, which explained the door monitor outside.
Suddenly, midstream, my view of the closed door turned into a view of Boston Common!
The woman who opened the door screamed, I screamed, and everyone else in Finagle a Bagel (and possibly passersby) looked up at Exhibit A: Liz taking a whiz.
The homeless man had fallen asleep.
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In a hurry, OK, maybe I will stop by, I like the belt they use to transfer the bagles and the saw to cut them...
Other than that, they are too chewy, never toasted fully, and there is way to much cream cheese on the bagel and it has a weird flavor...
bruggers is much better, but not as prevalent in the city... damn you finagle...
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They got rid of the pushcarts outside on Winter Street for who knows why but they let addicts, insane people and general homeless sit inside and waste table space. Go figure ,but the food is great. I love the bagels and the Aegean Sandwich is awesome. The help is off the boat but adequate. Top of the local bagel list......if you ask me.
stuck downtown after work between meetings, absolutely starving, before I knew there was a au bon pain 2 blocks up open till 7-ish, and since dunkin, bk, or mcd's are not even options for me, I decided to stop into Finagle-A-Bagel.
something about the place being on the corner of tremont makes it a prime spot for the um.. activities of um... the residents of the boston common. so the junkies lined up along the building outside - I didnt mind so much. the guys who block the door & expect you to pay them for opening it? fine, whatever. but the food here, if you can even call it that - oh man, its AWFUL!
how badly can you screw up a turkey bagel sandwich, you ask? go here if you really want to find out. the bagel was dry, tasteless. the turkey seemed kind of slimey? I dont know - it was gross. and whatever horrible extra stuff was in there, I'd rather not know. this may be the only time in my life that I ordered food, paid for it, took one bite, spit it out immediately then threw the whole thing away.
I remember when I was a little kid & some household items would have this green "mr. yuck" sticker on them, which for some reason always just made me MORE curious to try whatever it was stuck on... anyway the consequences would always be regrettable, much like my experience here.
a couple of other patrons (who I noticed were NOT eating - they knew better!) just kinda stared at me as I stormed off in a huff. but I had a right to be angry! that was $8 right in the trash! thats two gallons of gas! a weekend's worth of 40's! what a waste.
next time I will just stuff a goddamn whopper junior in my face & hate myself for it the morning after.
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a pretty good bagel to be made in a bagel chain store. they are crunchy on the outside, and airy on the inside, as they should be. but like everyone else, i pretty much go to watch my bagel zip by on the conveyor belt with rotating buzz saw. the cream cheese is good too. whipped and airy, not like the nasty solid crap you get at Dunkin Donuts. Ick.
i also used to grab the veggie flatbread pizza here for lunch now and then when i worked in the 'hood. you'll def get your 5 daily servings of veggies on this momma.
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This store was my first Finagle experience. I was visiting Boston a while back and had not yet been introduced to the Finagle slicer-thrower-bagel-mower. It's incredible! They throw your bagel on a conveyor belt and you get to watch as it inches toward certain slashing, then it comes in contact with the blade of death and it's catapulted down to the end of the counter where it will be loxed, cream cheesed or buttered to your taste. Great bagels and entertainment too! What else could you ask for from a bagel place?
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I absolutely love bagel sandwiches and this is probably the best place in Boston to get one. The pure volume of the types of bagels you can get can be pretty mind-blowing, even to the point where that is a much larger decision than the kind of sandwich you want. The sandwiches are very good themselves. Try the buffalo chicken, not the hottest you'll ever have but the sauce and the blue cheese are both so tasty.
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