Restaurant Review: Manhattan Bagel

I live in Forest Hills, NY in the borough of Queens and for someone living in the same building for more than a decade I have certainly seen a great deal of change in my neighborhood. The bagel store on the corner of my building certainly has changed quite a bit. Ownership and the store's name have changed at least 4 times in the past decade. However, after all of the ownership and name changes, I think stability at last has come for this corner bagel shop. Its new name is "Manhattan Bagel" and after 2 full years of prosperity and growth, I think the bagel store is finally here to stay. Contrary to it's name, Manhattan Bagel is actually located in Queens, NY. It originally started its first located in Manhattan.

The restaurant's managers have done a great job of expansion even though the real estate space of the restaurant hasn't changed. Since it is a corner restaurant, the physical size of the store cannot change. However, that hasn't stopped the store from making some much needed improvements and maximizing the space that the store has to use.

Manhattan Bagel is great because it has a wide variety of bagel spreads and its bagels are usually fresh and ready to order. Bagel spreads include a salmon cream cheese spread, butter, walnut raisin cream cheese, cream cheese, tuna, lox, white fish, and many others.

There are also refrigerator door sections that hold soda, juice, milk and other lunch items. You can also buy your own packaged bagel spread.

They have a huge variety of different bagels including cinnamon raisin, egg, poppy seed, pumpernickel, plain and everything. My only gripe is that sometimes they run out of a certain bagel type and don't replace it quickly enough for customers.

Manhattan Bagel also has a great selection of muffins. They even have fat free and low fat muffins in blueberry and raspberry flavored. My favorite muffin is their French vanilla or double trouble chocolate chip muffins.

One of their specials that Manhattan Bagel offers is that bagels are only 40 cents after 4pm. This is because they throw out all of their bagels at the end of the day and bake fresh bagels every morning. Therefore, by 4pm, they want to get rid of what ever bagels are left because they close around 5 or 5:30pm. That's my other biggest gripe about Manhattan Bagel. I wish they were open later. They open at 6am in the morning but close around 5:30pm which is too early for most people who want to grab a bagel after coming home from work.

Manhattan Bagel also has a great selection of sandwiches which the make for you which also have great names which the store came up with. There is also a small parking area for customers which the store shares with the stores next to it in its small shopping center.