What's so bad about Einstein Bagels?

[liberalpragmatist]

A couple of my friends who are native New Yorkers were aghast that I regularly eat at the Einsteins Bagels near my apartment. (I like their coffee, their bagels, and their cream cheese.)

Now, I understand that New Yorkers have this thing about a New York bagel. I've had a New York bagel when I was in New York (H&H) - I liked it a lot and yes, I did think it was better than an Einsteins bagel. But I didn't think the difference in quality was so vast that I couldn't eat an Einsteins bagel.

I will concede that NY bagels are way better than store bought bagels, which, as my friends put it, aren't really bagels but are dry, dough-y, "bagel-shaped objects". But I think Einsteins is much better than a grocery-store bought bagel.

What am I missing? Are my taste buds just not picking up on something that makes Einsteins inedible compared to a NY bagel?

:shrug:

[Kutjara]

1. Einsteins bagels are relatively good.

They get better and better the closer you get to the speed of light, though.

[Orrex]

4. At that speed, I find them too heavy

[Ikonoklast]

12. And very slow to digest.

[rug]

16. Generally.

[TZ]

2. Einstein bagels are okay

But nothing tops a Bagel from a real good NY Deli or even a yummy Cleveland Deli. I can't explain the difference except for Einstein is a chain and Jewish Delis (found in NY and Cleveland) are really good at doing Bagels and other traditional Jewish food....

[liberalpragmatist]

3. Fair enough

There just aren't that many real Jewish delis around here and my experience in most of the Midwest is that even where there are Jewish delis, the bagels aren't as good as NY bagels. For example, a friend of mine in Chicago complains that even the Chicago bagels aren't really the same thing.

[yellowdogintexas]

5. try getting 'real NY bagel' down here. Not happening. So I like Einstein's also

they have great flavors too.

[rucky]

13. I've been told it's the NYC tap water.

fwiw

[KitchenWitch]

6. Lacking the REAL NY bagel here in SoCal - I like Einsteins

[surrealAmerican]

7. It's not about the flavor. It's the texture.

[4 t 4]

8. I think they are OK

i guess if you have those great bagel shops in NY you would think they suck but do you guys have Panera Bread bagels because they are great like Ny bagels only better

[musette_sf]

9. Einstein bagels

are the giant doughy Wonder Bread of the bagel world.

yuck.

Noah's are the same.

[amitten]

10. Einstein's started as a small store called Bagel & Bagel in

Kansas City, I believe. It was a "real" Jewish deli/bagel place (K.C. has a large Jewish community).

The place was bought out by the folks who own Boston Market, and made into a franchise. The bagel recipes have not changed (I've had the originals).

So, it is a "real" Jewish bagel place, you can tell your NY friends. It's just been franchised. I've had NY bagels and I honestly don't taste a huge difference. I think the biggest difference is that the Einstein's bagels probably aren't quite as fresh, due to the way the franchise is run.

[rucky]

11. Because all New Yorkers are bagel snobs.

and granted the best bagels come from NY - Lower East Side (Essa Bagel)

but bagels are like fishing - even when it's bad, it's not so bad. If you won't even eat an okay bagel, then how much do you really like bagels, anyways?

get a rope...

[Brother Buzz]

14. The Brothers Einstein pitch Einstein Bros. Bagels to become their spokesmen.

Mike and Jeff are half nephews to stuntman Super Dave Osborne (Bob Einstein) and Albert Brooks (Albert Einstein).

I went to school with these guys back in the sixties and, well, they were actually funny back then.
:rofl:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NQhHwQG2XY&feature=related 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzffCj4qKWc&feature=related 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpoFKA-Jm6w&feature=channel 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWMyfP32K18&feature=channel 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKreM4jATIs&feature=channel 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVxsAbW_G-I&feature=channel 6

[Rabrrrrrr]

15. I find Einstein bagels the best non-NYC bagels available

Naturally, I'd prefer the real bagels from NYC, preferably Columbia Bagels, but when not in NYC, of all the bagels I've had (that are available around the country), Einstein is far and away the best.

There are no good frozen bagels that I've ever found. And I've not found any "home made" bagel places that are very good, either, outside of NYC.

[Rhythm]

17. Einstein Bro's are o.k., but i prefer Bruegger's

I used to stop by there on the way to work, and get tuna salad on an 'everything' bagel, then sequester myself in my office until i had finished eating, then brushed/flossed (so that the retail public didn't have to endure my onion&garlic breath)

[ThomCat]

18. Real bagels are boiled. That does something to the dough

that baking alone just doesn't do. It gives the bagels a certain elasticity.

If you go to Essa Bagel in NY you can watch the bagels going into the boiling vat, and coming out. And there is nothing in the world like a bagel from Essa Bagel! :9

Outside of NY you're just getting bread that is shaped like a bagel.

[Left Is Write]

19. Nothing.

I used to go to Einstein Bros. for lunch pretty often when I worked in Plymouth, MN, just off Carlson Parkway. There was an EB about a quarter mile down the road from my office.

[harmonicon]

20. they're too bready

I don't like them.... I like my bagels to have a nice crunchy/chewy outside that's pretty thick, with the inside being far more firm than an Enstein's bagel. I don't know that the best bagels are from NY, though I'm sure I've never explored it enough to know - the best I've had have been in Chicago, but I think they're more uniformly good in NY.