Best Bagels in NYC: Where to Get the Real Thing

Open since 1914. The Nova lox is silky, barely salty, and nothing like packaged smoked salmon. The everything bagel is baked fresh daily — the seeds are toasted, not raw. This is the gold standard for a bagel with lox in New York City.

Ess-a-Bagel makes the largest, densest bagel in the city. These are not for the faint of appetite. The scallion cream cheese is made in-house and is one of the best in the city. The bagel is chewy in a way that requires actual jaw effort.

Murray's is the Greenwich Village standard. The bagels are hand-rolled and boiled before baking — the traditional method that produces the chewy exterior and dense interior that defines a real New York bagel. They do not toast here. If you want toasted, go somewhere else.

Absolute Bagels is the Upper West Side institution. The bagels are slightly smaller and more tightly formed than the Ess-a-Bagel style. The lox spread — cream cheese blended with smoked salmon — is one of the best value items in the city.