Rosenfeld Bagel

Rosenfeld's might look like a humble basement bagel shop from the outside, but it's a veritable institution that's been going strong for 50 years. It's known not just in Newton but throughout the Boston area for its authentic New York-style bagels, as Marc, the founder and owner, grew up in New Jersey and learned the craft at a bagel shop there.

You'll find 20 flavors and almost as many spreads. As for the bagels, I tried two: the onion and the egg poppy. Both were satisfying and even nourishing, as they were super dense and chewy without being tough or hard. There weren't many onion bits on the onion bagel itself, though, and I probably should have gone for the Boursin spread as opposed to the sun-dried tomato and dill.

The bagels won't come cheap, though: they're $1.95 each, and $5.05 with spread. Service was rather brusque, but super fast and efficient given a steady onslaught of walk-in and pick-up orders. An excellent resource to have here in Newton, especially if you live nearby.

Pro tip: you don't need to shove your bagels into the photo with your bare, moist, wrinkly hands and dirty fingernails. Keep all body parts, distracting backgrounds, and "action shots" out of the photo and focus solely on the food. #stayclassy #stayuseful

Holy bagel prices here Batman....
1.95 a single bagel. I ordered a chocolate chip bagel toasted with just butter... charged me $3.42...wow. Bagel was lousy too... overcooked, few chocolate chips and didn't even taste like chocolate chips? No melted chocolate?
I don't see reason to return... over rated and expensive...

We ordered bagels ahead of time here. It was really easy to do online. We did it first thing in the morning.

The bagels were really crunchy and didn't taste fresh which was a bummer. The lox we ordered were good, but i don't think we would get bagels from here again. Very bummed

Always expect a great bagel. Pumpernickel is my favorite there. Specially when it's still warm fresh out of the oven. The cream cheese is awesome! Only thing is the portion of the cream cheese container is never the same I asked one of the workers and they acknowledged they eye it. No big deal.

Excellent bagels. I got one the first time to try them out. The next time I got six! The Boursin spread is very tasty (it gave me the idea to make my own from now on.) I don't know how to get into their parking area, but there's a town lot close by.

I purchased 1/2 dozen everything bagels. They had almost no "everything" on them at all. They were also tasteless and undercooked. I purchased some lox spread too. It was lux-less and devoid of flavor. The disengaged, morose staff are a perfect fit.

The best bagels I have found in New England. They are the real deal.
An oasis for all native New Yorkers.

I ordered delivery from Uber eats, so this review is just for the bagel.
I had an everything bagel with chive cream cheese, nova salmon, tomato, onions and capers. It was delicious! I'm always on the hunt for high quality bagels, and this is definitely up there on my list of favorites in the Boston area.
It is a bit pricey. Tomatoes, onion, and capers were an additional $1 each on top of $12 for the nova salmon bagel!

Excellent. The real deal. Got salt bagels and cream cheese. Worth traveling for! It's a little difficult to find, in a basement.

I ordered a dozen bagels for pickup, but the story actually begins the day before. After reading everyone else's reviews about the rudeness of the workers, I think I need to share it because my experience was consistent with everyone else's here it seems.

I called the day before, around the 11am hour to see if I could pick up a dozen bagels. I was trying to place an online order for a dozen but one second it was an option, and the next, the website was only showing 2 dozen bagels as an option. So I called, and the woman just yelled "we don't have any bagels" and then hung up on me. I thought, that's weird. Maybe they're having an off day. I noted that they don't close until 1pm....and wondered, what do they do if they're already out of bagels and have another 1-2 hours of being open? Part of me thought, maybe they're really good bagels.

Anyway, yesterday morning first thing I placed my order and went in to pick up. I noticed it's quite busy and a small place. Definitely pickup and go. Several other people were going in and leaving with their big bags of bagels. It smelled amazing when I walked in. It's definitely bustling. I was able to walk right up and ask about my order, but the woman took a while to find it. In the middle of looking for my bag, another customer was trying to wrangle her bag of bagels from the shelf next to us, and the worker demanded "tranquila" of the customer. Overall, I got a pretty abrasive vibe from this woman (same as the day before on the phone, not sure if it was the same person).

And the bagels? They are good. I tried it fresh, and while crispy on the exterior and very chewy as others describe it, I found it to be TOO chewy, and actually made my jaw tired. I tried another today and found it to be better, toasted. So yeah, they're decent and better than any grocery store bagel, but I'm having a moral dilemma of supporting a business that has horrible customer service. The price is nice at $15 for a dozen. So, if I really want a better bagel I MIGHT return, but I'm certainly not a guaranteed customer.