Boichik Bagels Factory

As a Jersey girl, hard for me to admit that the best bagels are in California, but they are. Pink label is a must!

I really really want to love this place. As a New Yorker for 20 years I was so excited to try Boichik Bagels back when they first opened their first location on College! They were the closest thing to Murrays in the area. I moved to Albany a few weeks ago and excited to frequent their 6th street location, I have been sadly disappointed, not in the bagel itself but the staff is not at all knowledgeable and the bagel sandwiches have been a miss the last 3x I have gotten them. The first couple times I had them in the store so I could get them adjusted, but yesterday we were driving to Marin after we got them and so it was not possible to get them remade. The issues: 1) I ordered two of the tuna specials, that came with red onion and cucumber. I then walked over to the wait area. They were not very busy, so I mentioned to the sandwich maker to be sure not to put on tomatoes on our sandwiches (the special was suppose to have cucumbers not tomatoes anyway but I got insecure when I saw him put tomatoes on someone else's order). When we got to our destination I opened mine and the first issue is that there were tomatoes on both sandwiches, large pieces that were embedded in the tuna and hard to remove, I have developed an allergy to non-organic ones so I do not eat them out anymore. 2) The consistency of the tuna was so wet and runny, which was a stark difference to what we had before, it was essentially inedible as the tuna was second to water and mayo. 3) To top this off one of the bagels was cut so unevenly that the top was not holding any of the sandwich, so again not possible to eat as a sandwich. When you train someone to make a bagel sandwich, and for those who understand the issues and joys of eating them getting the cut right is critical. For the cost of these bagels it is really absurd that the staff is not better trained in making them. Again I have eaten bagels for decades, and these are great, but the sandwich aspect is not a done deal. Not sure I will try the sandwiches again as you want to feel like the staff gets your order right and confident in the consistency of the recipes, inconsistency is a huge negative mark for restaurants of all kinds!

Great bagels, but had hoped that being by the factory might mean warm, fresh bagels, unfortunately not. Being warm out of the oven is half of what makes it so good and is the real magic behind New York bagels. You can get it toasted but it gets cut in half which ruins the softness of the interior.

What the heck did I stumble upon... The best bagel shop ever?? Small lobby area with a little bit of seating. I had never been here but I found my way to the register where there was no line and I had a couple minutes to ask the cashier what to order. I ended up with the eggything bagel with the hatch chili and chive cream cheese and oh my goodness 😋 the bagel was perfectly fluffy but toasted at the same time and packed with flavor. Also loved getting to watch the bagels being made as I waited two short minutes for my order.

Great stop for some of the best bagels in the Bay Area! They have the classics and some! Their coffee selection was quite minimal and very limited outdoor/indoor seating. Parking is street parking only and mid morning on a Saturday had about a 5-10min wait for the line