Critic's Review
The first mistake made by the Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Company is that their name is way too long; a faux pas in modern times. It's important to note that this is a franchise operation; the idea is to convince people to buy into the concept in exchange for centralized marketing. Larry King is the front man for the operation, which now has 22 locations throughout the US.The concept here is that bagels are better in New York because of something in the water, and they claim to have reproduced the water from brooklyn with their machines. Anyone from NY know that's just an old wives tale; the idea here is really that they've automated the process so that you don't have to know anything about bagels to buy a franchise. All of our choices down here are basically chains with the same concept; so we don't have a lot of choices. One of the gimmicks here is that they have their water processing and bagel making machines behind glass; much like the old microbreweries that showed off their apparatus.
Brooklynwc machine
At the end of the day, it's all about the bagels. This place is a lot smaller and less impressive than the Delray location; they have no tables inside and it's a very narrow storefront. They claim to be adding some tables inside, but this is never going to be a sit-down place to eat.
Brooklyn Water Bagel Co Hollywood Interior
Their menu says that bagels are $1.05 and that a "smear" of cream cheese is $2.19; I asked the counterperson if the CC price included the bagel or if it was an add-on; she said it was extra, which seemed too much to me for cream cheese. I ordered a garlic bagel, toasted, with plain cream cheese. Of course the girl was wrong; the $2.19 includes the bagel, which makes a lot more sense.
Bagel from HollywoodBrooklyn Water Bagel Co
Unlike my bagel in Delray, this was toasted, and they also used better cream cheese. The bagel in Delray has what seemed like whipped cream cheese, which never cuts it. This bagel was smaller, but it had the same annoying quality of being way too chewy; to the point where finishing it was getting painful. A real workout for your jaw. The bagel was good, and the cream cheese much better than Delray, but I'd still avoid coming here again; it's too much work to eat one of these "authentic" bagels.
I think the fact that 2 places using the same "water" and machines produced substantially different bagels is enough proof that this is nothing more than a gimmick. There are a lot more factors to making good food than just the water. So don't be fooled. They're opening another location at the Airport later this year; Frankly I like the Dunkin Donut bagels I get there better than these.
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Anthony
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aside from what anyone wants to say about poor service .. that I can forgive if the bagel was good......the bagels have no taste!!!!!!!!!! it makes me sad im from new york so ive had the best of the best in bagels ... attention mr watertown please add eggs and maybe some sugar to your recipe
Administrator
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My guess is that they don't proof the bagels properly. This is an automated procedure performed by people who know nothing about baking.
Leonardo Ripalda
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The service is very dreadful. I have eaten here multiple times, and my order has either been handed to someone else, or it was not done properly. Today (7/6/15) I ordered a chunky chicken salad with avocado, spinach, tomatoes, and onions. When I go to open my order, there was only one slice of tomato and some onions. I go to speak with the manager (I believe his name was Michael), and he told me that my order is too messy to create, and will always be messed up because of how messy it is. With all due honesty, I believe that one should not have things listed on the billboard to then tell a customer that your order is "too messy" to make. This was one out of four times that this occurred. At first I was letting it fly by because people make mistakes, but with the response that I received, I will never eat here again. My suggestion is to go eat somewhere else if you want to receive what you order, and not be charged extra to then open your meal hungry, and not have what you have been craving all morning long.
Gloria
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It's ironic to me that so many Gentiles have decided that 'authentic' bagels are not what they like, and counterfeit bagels taste much better. If you like those air-filled, un-chewing types of bread, fine. But don't call it a bagel, it's not. Bagels have always been famous for hitting the stomach like lead, working great for teething babies, and giving you a real work-out chewing them up. When one didn't want to work that hard, it was sliced and toasted. Bagels soaked in water to become dense are not a gimmick, they are the real thing... becoming more and more rare, as the copy-cats want it, and then want to change it so it's not what it was to begin with.
Administrator
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All bagels are soaked in water; that's what makes it a bagel. The "gimmick" is claiming to have reconstructed Brooklyn water, as if anyone can make great bagels if they have the proper water. They sell franchises to people who know nothing about bagels or running a restaurant and give them a machine that lovingly cranks out bagels. I don't care if they're authentic or not; with food, the proof of the pudding is in the taste. And they don't taste that good.
Anthony
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coming from a new yorker.. the texture is on point but they have NO taste .. who can we talk to about this lol
Cal
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Bravo dude.
bagel Maven
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Agreed, the concept is a major "gimmick" with larry King as the ring leader...The fact that for a chain Delray differs from its sister is unacceptable no matter which location is better. The fact that this chain set up too small a store in Hollywood, when there was a much larger space available adjacent to theirs (which was a former bagel deli restaurant may I add) is where they took the cheap road out...Not too mention their claims about the water and the established lawsuits pending...Gimmick is an understatement..Hollywood still needs a real bagel deli, who will step up to the plate...??