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Leo's Bagels
Rating Details »
Categories: Coffee & Tea, Bagels, Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt
Neighborhood: Financial District3 Hanover Sq
New York, NY 10005
(212) 785-4700
- Nearest Transit:
-
Wall St-William St (2, 3)
Broad St (J, M, Z)
Whitehall St (R, W)
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- No
19 reviews for Leo's Bagels
If you're looking for some cheap, flimsy breakfast served on a soggy lukewarm bagel with barely a hint of the toppings you ordered, you should just skip right passed Leo's because his sandwiches are the dreams that morning meals are made of.
Bagels toasted perfectly, fluffy fresh eggs and considerable amounts of bacon topped off with the most melty cheese on the planet. Constructed with care and wrapped for structural soundness during transport back to the office/apartment/park (when it's nice out), Leo's makes the AM hours manageable (with a cup of coffee) and carries my belly straight through to lunch without so much as a thought about being hungry.
The never-ending quest of finding good bagels continues down in the FiDi. Frankly, I haven't ventured through these byways for a while and, especially, during the weekends. We ambled upon cobble stones, bumped into tourists seeking the fabled bronze bul on Broadway, a photo shoot flickered away in the corner of my eye. I merely listened to the conversation but my mind wandered to Leo's Bagels.
Brightly lit and decorated, the large menu board behind the counter beckoned me for something interesting. Granted, I was famished that afternoon. My first choice, whole wheat, sold out so I settled with the Everything bagel, with cream cheese and smoked salmon.
Nice and crusty on the outside, creamy and firm in the inside - elements of a good bagel sandwich. Mmm. The garlicky, onionly and poppy-seeded experience exceeded my expectations. I am coming back for sure. Thanks to Anne H. to the introduction ;-)
I'm writing another review because I want to share what I thought was the best bagel sandwich creation...
If you have a propensity for saltiness, this is the sandwich to get:
Garlic Bagel (toasted)
Bacon (they didn't cheap out with the bacon)
Avocado (they didn't cheap out with the avocado, and it was fresh)
Onion
Capers
OMG, it was really, really, good. If you are vegetarian, take the bacon out. If you don't like capers, then try a different sandwich. See the photo...
the bagels are ok. my issue is with the workers who continually and cluelessly try to get out of toasting my bagel: "Are you sure you want it toasted? They're still warm. We just made them."
Do you really NOT get the difference between baking and TOASTING a bagel?
TOASTING a bagel is one of few things on a job description for working at LEO's.
Embrace it and quit being so lazy.
Horrendous customer service. Almost as bad as the Starbucks around the corner.
Whole wheat bagel with Sable and trimmings - $14
Fresh squeezed grapefruit juice - $4
Enjoying a quiet weekend breakfast on a bench of Elevated Acre - priceless
Freshest bagels, delish salads and omelettes, and prompt service. Am taking 1 star away for being a bit pricey for a bagel place and too watery fresh squeezed juices
Finding a bagel in NY is like finding a fro-yo shop in Orange County, CA. Needless to say, they're everywhere. We were craving some fresh NY bagels, and we stopped by here on the way to Battery Park to enjoy the view of the Statue of Liberty while sweating it out in the humidity around 9 am in the morning.
Just like the NY pizza, there's just something about the exterior crust and the interior dough that makes bagels in NY better than mostly anything else on the West coast. Sure, we have our usual bagel chains out here, but nothing beats a genuine NY bagel.
It took me a while to read everything on the menu board. Choices galore. They even have sandwiches, salads, and soups. The employees seemed rushed, even though there was nobody behind us in line. I guess being in NY, they were used to hustle and bustle in the mornings. Finally, I just said bagel with everything. Easy enough.
With a healthy heap of sun dried tomato spread nestled in between two nicely toasted bagel halves, it was a pretty hefty breakfast to say the least. Never mind that there was probably enough calories in that enormous bagel sandwich to satisfy two people. It was totally bagel-licious.
Just stopped in to grab breakfast, this was my second in-store experience. Last time we grabbed bagels and made them at home. I ordered a whole wheat bagel - toasted with cinnamon raisin cream cheese. I got a whole wheat bagel with cinnamon raisin cc. The bagel was doughy and well-done. The cream cheese/salad/bagel selection is great. I was just bummed they didn't toast the bagel. oh well. next time I will speak louder.
i just ordered a catskills with roast beef... i thought it was just ok... it was a bit on the dry side but the bagel is very fresh. I would go back and try again next time.
Great bagels in the FiDi. Not as good as Brooklyn bagels but pretty damn close. They tend to be well-done and not as doughy. Plus, what bagel store do you know of that has a whole-wheat everything bagel.
Pros:
Orchard Street sandwich - Being Jewish, i'm a huge fan of salmon on my bagels. On that note, never did I know that adding sable (the other featured ingredient of this specialty sandwich) would give me such pleasure. Nova Scotia salmon, sable, cream cheese, tomato and onion on a scooped out whole-wheat everything bagel. The nuts.
Cons:
The people working there should pay more attention. Being a resident of the neighborhood and making my weekly trips to Leo's, I can't count how many times they f'ed up my order.
Easy on the cream cheese. Seriously.
No whipped cream cheese. (Temp Tee anyone?)
Egg-salad - simply atrocious.
All in all, a good, yet pricey, addition to the neighborhood. There's nowhere else to go anyway.
Ok I'm a hungover Jew today and all I wanted is a delicious bagel sandwhich, and that is just not what I got at all. And the service was wierd, and I just wan't in the mood. It sort of kind of ruined my hangover lunch (gasp, what a horror... right, cause c'mon when hungover,and lets be real here,even when not hungover, food is like what life was made for.)
Anyway, will I be back? probably, maybe? I hope not. Sort of a waste of $10 hungover lunch when the vietnamese sandwhich cart next door was selling what looked to be banging sammys for $4. Ahh reason to be excited for the next hangover lunch.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
-
1/14/2009
So I'm giving Leo's 3 stars because I am a fan of good bagels in the Wall St. Area. And rest… Read more »
The motto is "Bagels with Chutzpah" but when I ordered a bagel, toasted, with Alaskan Chutzpah, they said they didn't have that. Well, it's their first day so I'll let it slide. This time.
It's been a long, tantalizing wait for Leo's to open, but it's finally here. Thank Jebus.
The whole wheat everything bagel was great. I don't normally get lox but I tried it, and it was good too. It cost me about infinity dollars. I'm already looking for an angle to get cheaper bagels. Any day-olds? Oh right, you have only been open one day. How convenient.
I think this business will make serious money. Sandwiches, catering, coffee, it will soon be a madhouse.
Bagels with chutzpah? Oy vey! There was none to be had in this place.
Having lettuce, tomato, and onion put on added $2 to the price of my already pricey sammich on a bagel with not enough lox.
Granted, the lox and bagel were very tasty - I think I can skip this over-priced joint.
Im going to recommend this place with guarded hope and cautious optimism. They're relatively new and perhaps Im giving them the benefit of the doubt, but once they work out the kinks this place could be pretty great.
So the bagels here are excellent. They're fairly grandiose in size and they taste really fresh. There is the standard variety of cream cheese and toppings all of which are whatever, they're interchangeable, no better or worse than you would find anywhere else.
Now where there are a few screws loose is in the service. There are like 17 people behind the counter but it takes FOREVER to get in and out of that place. I ordered a $5.50-egg-white-and-cheese-bagel sandwich and it took them a solid 15 minutes to accomplish the mission. Orders are being yelled over and across one another and amidst the ruckus details are lost (e.g. cheese on the sandwich, what type of cheese, etc.).
Not to sound all pretentious, but NYC is a fast town and the financial district runs in even shorter/faster segments of time; to have to waste any excess time waiting for a sandwich that you could easily replicate somewhere else doesn't pass muster.
Ive been there twice and the last time I went there the ceiling was literally running water onto the floor. None of the staff, though aware of it, seemed bothered by it and they simply moved around it. In the days of pig flu, herpes zoster and good ol' fashioned bacteria, they may want to address these types of things before opening their doors to the public.
That said, my bagel sandwich was pretty good and despite my bitching Ill probably back.
I just went here, and am eating a sampling of their stuff right now. I like the bagel better than the bialy. I didn't try a sandwich based on all the complaints on this board- and I will admit- they looked pretty disorganized behind the counter...and it is Sunday!!! They need to have a little team meeting, or something, to work out a behind the counter plan. But that said, for a neighborhood that would otherwise have NO reasonable bagels, you can get a pretty good bagel here. It doesn't really beat H&H or Ess-A, so if I had to go out of way to get a bagel I would go to one of those. But if you happen to be in this area, I think you'll be pretty satisfied.
When they first opened, they had issues (see below), but thing have improved. One of the better bagels in NYC, the only thing I wish is that the employees would smile once and awhile!
Original review-
First gave my bagel sandwich away to someone else, then put my second bagel sandwich on wrong bagel and neglected to give me the coffee I paid for. Git home and 2 slices of lox on a $10 sandwich. Bagels are great, but they better fix service and quantities fast or bye bye Leo!!
Two words: bagel heaven. I love bagels and smoked fish, and Leo's delivers the best of both. Literally delivers, as in right to my office door, and they are a joy to speak with on the phone because the person answering is actually paying attention (a rarity, I find, and bless you seamlessweb).
But back to the bagels: fresh, perfectly crisp on the outside and doughy inside. The lox: just the way it should be. Ditto the sable. Fresh, delicious soups (I recommend mushroom barley), and this amazing revelation called the Leo's salad, where they combine not-too-mayo-ed egg salad, red onion, and lox, into one surprising and delicious combination. None of this is cheap lunch fare, but it's great quality.
I could easily eat here once a week if not for the fear of becoming round & doughy myself.
At first glance it would appear there was a bagel somewhere in the sea of cream cheese and since it was early in the morning, assuming they make the bagels there, the bagel tasted like a day-old. I was also the only one in the place. It took 3 people to make the bagel and cream cheese and 2 more to ring it up. The total for that bagel was $3.75! Aren't the bagels around the corner $1?
Was it the best bagel I ever had - no. Murray's still has that one for me, but it was definately the best bagel in the FiDi. My office peers and I have been ordering and trying all the local bagelries since we relocated downtown last year and have been pretty disappointed in the options and the quality. At least today's bagel was tasty and the everything bagel had a lot of...everything.
This is my new work bagel joint.
They have good, but not great bagels. They're pretty massive and true new york style bagels (as opposed to the bread formed into loops at other places). For someone wanting just a simple bagel this the best (and pretty much only) place in the area. I can't speak much to the sandwiches as I just got bagels on their own.
