Rubinstein Bagels Capitol Hill

Second edited review, original below: I hate giving a 1 star review and decided to give this place another shot at 1:15pm on a Tues - they were open and had bagels. The QR code on the door for ordering went to a non-functional website but I was able to order on their website. So far so good. But...when I went in to get my bagel, they were out of the one I had ordered. They offered to cancel or use a different bagel, so I had to get a plain bagel. (I'm sure it's hard to keep these systems updated with available stock, but still a disappointing.) They made it quickly (given that it was started late) and the servers were friendly. The bagel itself was nice and chewy with a good flavor. The egg seemed to be one of those pre-cooked egg-patties (this was $13 and change after tip). Not bad, but not great. Original review: Sold out of bagels. It is a bagel shop... you had one job. No sign to indicate why they're closed, but the employee at least let me know and was apologetic. When it is open it is too crowded. I have a hard time finding the in between hour when I can get service, sit down, and there is food. Edit: Based on the kind response to my earlier review, I gave this place another shot. They had added a helpful SOLD OUT sign to the door. This was at noon on a Sunday.

Clean quiet store. Counter worker was really nice, Had a cinnamon raisin, and my friend had a rosemary. We’re good- nothing too fancy. I was pleasantly surprised w the rosemary salt one. It was really good!

Go to this place every couple days because I love less than maybe 150ft away. The staff here are all kind and awesome and idk, it's a bagel. All the negative reviews tend to be about their egg not being cooked perfectly or a misshapen cinnamon bagel or something, but that's just the imperfections of scale. Cheap tasty bagels, queer friendly, and fast.

This place is… ok. I got there around 11:30 and they only had jalepeno/cheddar and pumpkin bagels left. My fault for getting there “late” I suppose but to be out of at least a sesame bagels is weird. The bagels themselves are ok, nothing like NY but I will take what I can get in this city. The service was honestly kinda poor. There was not a huge line but we still waited 8 minutes for two identical bagels. The staff were talking most of the time and there didn’t seem to be too much urgency in getting orders out. The person who took our order was pretty quiet not very helpful. Also, it was $13 fo two small/medium sized bagels? This ain’t NY and those are way above NY prices. Whateva. If you NEED a bagel this will do.

Great place, great people, good bagels fresh, my fav bagel everything bagel toasted with lox cc and add capers so good. Plus I love the Healthcare worker discount 15% the bagels in the pic 1st one is the avocado 🥑 toast it was amazing today, 2nd pic jalapeño cheddar bagel with onion and chive cc added pickled onion 🌰 amazing. My favorite is a an everything bagel lox cc add capers it will change your life .

When adding cream cheese to my to-go order I didn't realize the $4.50 was for such a small amount of schmear. $4.50 is crazy for an amount that barely covers a single bagel. Very disappointed after many good in-store experiences.

Been looking for a good bagel place and this was just perfect!! I ordered their “Double Down” on poppyseed, which is essentially a traditional New York-style bagel with cream cheese, salmon lox, capers, onions and tomato. It was super yummy and decently large, and they gave a lot of toppings! I only wish the prices weren’t so high… For the bagel + a small bag of chips I paid $15 which was about twice as much as I’d expect for a bagel sandwich somewhere else. But heck, I’ll probably still be back. I want to try their breakfast sandwiches next time!

Great bagel sandwiches. My new favorite is the hot turkey sandwich on a toasted salted rosemary bagel. Drip coffee is good too.

Excellent food every time. I've had the matzo soup delivered when I was sick - perfect! I recently had the lox and bagel plate, also delicious. Prices are the going rate for Capitol Hill - $$$, but for one of the few places in Seattle with Matzo ball soup and good bagels, I find it worth it. The lines at their brick and mortar aren't as long as they used to be and they have a big deli case with meat, also a dessert counter - where everything I've tasted has been great. Friendly and fast service. A handful of tables inside. Parking is Capitol Hill tricky but sometimes you get lucky. I'm so glad to have this in the city!

Super cool place in my old neighborhood. Love bagels, but abit disappointing with 2 things. First customer service seems cold. I was the only one there at 7:30am on Saturday morning and no greeting no smile on the face, just plain, unfazed face. After I ordered she just walked away and worked & chatted w/ the coworker, then just call my name and turn away with no thank you and come again, instead me saying "morning & thank you & have a nice day" to her instead...Second, I ordered egg & avocado on cheese jalapeño bagel. The bagel is abit hard, in-toasted and the egg is abit overcooked...but its well make. The place is cute and airy with lots of morning sun. They do inside and outside seating areas.

Stopped by here to grab a bagel sandwich. I got the Double Down sandwich which has lox cream cheese, lox, capers, and tomato. I got a poppy seed bagel. The bagel was a good texture: crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside. Obviously, this sando is a classic combo of flavors and ingredients. It had to be good. The lox were delish and real lox which I appreciated. The ambiance is ok. There aren't many places to sit down inside. It's more of a grab and go kind of situation. Service was quick.

Unfortunately, the worst bagel I have ever had in my life. I tried the cacio e pepe bagel (toasted) with plain cream cheese. The bagel was very hard and took extreme force to bite into. It seemed like it had some type of outer coating that made it stiff. It was also pretty oily. Finally, it was hardly toasted, so I would ask for double toasted if you choose to try this place. They do give a 15% off discount for healthcare workers.

- delicious bagels to go- I came here on a Friday afternoon, and there were two customers waiting for their orders when I entered. I only waited less than 3 minutes to place my order, and the cashier was friendly. There were two groups of people eating in the store as well. No music was playing in the background, and there wasn't much decor either. I ate my bagel at home after it's been my air fryer for 8 minutes. I added avocado and cream cheese to my bagel, and it was super delicious. I haven't had a bagel in years, so I didn't have a high expectation. However the bagels were good, and I especially enjoyed the garlic and everything bagels.

Went here at around 12:20 and there was only one person infront of us line but a pretty decent line of people waiting for their bagels, it ended up taking 20 minutes for us to get our bagels. The tables were all full inside and outside when we got better but by the time we ate we were able to snag a table outside. Overall both sandwhiches were fine, the bagel itself was alright. I didn't find either of them special or especially good but maybe as we got standard sandwhiches. They ran out of avocado before we got there so that was a bit disappointing as I love avocado. I thought this place was mid and kinda slow but maybe I'd try it again on a less busy day when there avocado, I wanna try their huckleberry sauce on one of their lunch specials I saw.

Rubinstein's has always been the bagel spot for me, and I'm so glad they have this location now! I went for the rosemary sea salt bagel with garlic and herb smear and lox and they whipped it up in no time! I love that everything is made from scratch because can really taste the quality. They also make good coffee too. Not too busy for a Thursday around 10am so i had my food in under 4 mins. Also i love being able to sit down outside, they only have 2 outdoor tables so be sure to grab one once you're here.

Super yum bagels. Daughter has been on the hunt of worthy bagels and this is a great choice. She insisted there wasn't a decent bagel outside of Manhattan but has relented that Rubenstein is changing her mind. Small quaint seating area. Bagels worth the drive.

Got some pretty decent bagels here! Came on a sunny day and sat outside with my dog. They give a lot of lox which is a bonus! The open faced lox was a little better than the double down. Also got a pizza bagel which was super yummy! The line and wait was pretty long but I came on a weekend during peak rush

Been looking for a good bagel place and this was just perfect!! I ordered their "Double Down" on poppyseed, which is essentially a traditional New York-style bagel with cream cheese, salmon lox, capers, onions and tomato. It was super yummy and decently large, and they gave a lot of toppings! I only wish the prices weren't so high... For the bagel + a small bag of chips I paid $15 which was about twice as much as I'd expect for a bagel sandwich somewhere else. But heck, I'll probably still be back. I want to try their breakfast sandwiches next time!

This used to be a go to bagel spot, but unfortunately in the last 6 months it's gone quite downhill in terms of food quality. The service is still fine, great people and decently faster now (maybe because there is less demand?). Price is quite high, kind of ridiculous for the quality. The bagels are much flatter than they used to be. Not as soft, and with a very crispy exterior. The sandwiches don't have as much flavor either. The cream cheese is still good but that doesn't matter if the bagel itself isn't landing. I miss the fluffy interior bagels. We've tried to come back a few times in case these issues were one-off, but unfortunately Rubinsteins will no longer be in our rotation. There have been numerous new bagel establishments in Seattle in the past few years that I will be going to instead.

The food and ambiance were great. The everything bagel, toasted with cream cheese was fantastic. The large fireplace created a cozy feel.

I got the Double Down on Shallot Bagel. It was nice and hearty, filled me up for my lunch and then some. I expected slightly more salmon lox, and the salmon lox was a tad on the salty side and I don't think it needed the tomato. The smear was nice. It was around $15, but I am ordering salmon lox so I expected to be around that price, but more salmon lox would be preferred. I ordered it online and it was ready exactly at my pick up time. Service was efficient, no complaints. There were a handful of people there eating for lunch, this was around 11:30am.

Had a double egg, ham and Gruyère cheese on a toasted evening bagel. Fantastic in every way. Service was low-key and (maybe but...) professional. I ordered online and picked up as scheduled. Def would go again.

I was so excited to get home and bite into my open-faced lox on a garlic bagel. I popped in there this morning after fasting for blood work down the street at Kaiser Permanente and was so ready to eat. I know, I know, too much information. I did not get the garlic bagel that I ordered but the quality and generous helping of lox made up for it. Friendly folks work there as well. Just check your order before getting out the door. For the hefty price, and the array of great flavors, there is no way anyone should get out the door with a plain bagel!

Stopped in on a Sunday morning. Service was good, however the jalapeño cheddar bagel I ordered was not good despite the generous cream cheese spread. It was dry and hard. Maybe a bit longer toasting would help but ended up tossing most of it. Unfortunate because bagel + cream cheese was priced higher than it was worth. I won't be back.

I kind of did too much of a good thing when I lived next door to Bagel Oasis. I also have a fondness for Eltana bagels, because they are Goldilocks-sized, just right. So bagels have been a rare indulgence for me. I can never can score parking to try Rubinstein Bagels at their SLU/Belltown location. So I decided to try the second site over on 15th Ave E / Capitol Hill back on 10/23/21. I was able to get street parking and joined the sidewalk line. Nice collection of merch to look at once I got into the front entrance. Friendly, efficient crew at the register and also on the prep line. I decided to try a breakfast bagel and two additional ones to go, cinnamon raisin and jalepeno cheddar. All indoor and outdoor sidewalk seating were occupied, so I ate half of the breakfast bagel in my car. It was a quite the greasy handful, glad I had napkins at the ready. Tasty gut bomb with egg, cheese, and bacon - good thing to only eat half! Unfortunately, the other two bagels were tough and hard the next day. Clink clink against the kitchen counter hard. Bagels as food great, bagels as weapons not so much. Sadly, they couldn't be revived and had to be composted. I'll just stick with bagels from Zylberschtein's in Seattle's Pinehurst neighborhood.

I love the capitol hill location of Rubinstein. They close at 3 pm so you cannot order coffee after 2:30 pm which kind of bums me out. Anybody have the 3 pm coffee hour. I love the bagels here. The sesame is a hit, i've had it with the truffle smear and jalapeño smear both are good. The service depends on who you get, a couple of them look like they hate their job which is a bummer. The price is a bit on the high side, but they offer a good amount of cream cheese. $10 for the cheese & egg bagel is steep to me. The store inside is cute and clean. They give the bagels away at the end of the day to businesses on the strip so that's extra fantastic! I picked some up on the snow day and gave them to the local tent city. The worker seemed a bit bothered but it's hard out here. I spend nearly $20 on two bagels so I just didn't come with my hand out.

Bagels were good, but music was cranked up so loud, it was difficult to carry on a conversation. It was over an hour away from closing time but they had cleared away the water jug, and were doing closing tasks (with techno music so loud) it was weird. I should have just asked if they could lower music, that's on me. But we just ate half our bagels and left.

They are just ok. They are a bit overhyped as lines can get pretty long. I do enjoy their rosemary bagel with lox schemer, which is my typical order. However, the bagel gets a bit harder the longer you wait to eat it in a day. The staff are friendly enough but a bit too pretentious for my liking, I guess that's Capitol Hill for ya. The cafe is super tiny with a limited amount of seating, they do have outdoor seating as well. Their coffee is ok, it's doable when you need something to drink with your bagel. It is a bit spendy for what you get.

They took away the spicy everything bagel. While their other bagels are technically proficient and have good toppings (like the rosemary, caraway, Parmesan pepper, and chocolate cherry), the spicy everything bagel was the pinnacle of bageldom and its loss cannot be overstated enough. Staff at Rubinstein's remain as wonderful as always in this difficult time as our tears of sorrow scatter like poppyseeds on the counter.

Call me old-fashioned, but since tipping is practically required, couldn't the cashier at least show a minimum friendliness? I was nice to her! I'm leaving three stars because the guy who came in behind me was very rude to the cashier. But because he was a man, they treated him very respectfully.

I got the Double Down on a Shallot Bagel. It was really delicious. Pretty expensive for a bagel... like $16 after tax. Service was fast and friendly. At 11:00am, it was pretty slow inside.

Went on a Saturday at around noon. They run out of the good options early. However, I felt like the bagel I got was a little stale which is not what I'd like to have at a place that you go to for bagels. Overall good options and enough seating

Solid breakfast/brunch bagel spot with lots of unique bagel options! We got a rosemary bagel with tuna salad upon the recommendation of our cashier, and this was an amazing combination. The bagels were not as toasty as I was expecting, but still warm enough.

Great chewy bagel that is nicely blistered. SO MUCH cream cheese... ask for light cream cheese if you don't want a 1:1 ratio of bagel to cream cheese The lox cream cheese has lots of lox in it and is super tasty. Perfect on an fresh everything bagel. They do not include caraway seeds in the everything mix, and I missed that flavor a bit, but a solid bagel!

I was at Kaiser for my partner's surgery and wanted to find somewhere to eat lunch. This was a few minutes walk away. It was really easy to get to and there were multiple crosswalks with lights to use. I had the ham and cheese on the rosemary bagel. It was really good. All the ingredients were a good quality and there was a good amount of everything on it. I also had a latte with oat milk. It was a very smooth tasting coffee, not bitter at all. Very good! I wish they offered a whole wheat or whole grain bagel. That would be great to have as a sandwich. There is a little bit of seating inside and outside. At 11:30ish on a weekday there were still some tables open. Everything was done efficiently and all the staff were busy working. I got my sandwich and drink quickly. They were also friendly. I would love to come back and try more sandwiches!

Is this harsh? There were two total customers in the store. I ordered a BLT. Because I was just back from the dentist, I asked if they could cut it in quarters. The person at the desk said "sure" and even drew an X to be clear... I picked it up a couple of minutes later, and my BLT was not cut in quarters, it was cut in half. Several bites into my sandwich, I realized there was no bacon. Just lettuce and tomato... When I finally approached, the staff was very apologetic and made getting my refund easy, but it's still hard to believe the lack of focus. The place was almost empty.

Had the smoked salmon bagel sandwich on an everything bagel. It was delicious. The bagel was chewy and moist and they put a good amount of salmon in it! It costed $13. I would recommend ordering for pickup since it seems like customers are very indecisive when ordering and so it takes a while to order.

super good double down sandwich with the lox. bagel was just a little bit hard it kind of hurt my mouth biting into it tbh. would still get again. the cream cheese was so good. coffee was mid.

When I saw this place listed among Seattle's top bagel-o-mania spots, I was super curious to try it out. It is conveniently located next to the Spheres and offices nearby. The place itself is in the lobby of a building and is not remarkable vibe/looks-wise. I was running on fumes after meetings, and more meetings, so enjoyed my Double Down sesame bagel with salmon overall. It's a solid work lunch option for sure if you find yourself in the area, but I would not say it is a destination bagel spot though.

Good bagels are hard to find. They are almost impossible to find in Washington State. My everything bagel was really good. It was dense, and crusty, and chewy, and delicious. I tend to not like whipped cream cheese. A bagel is firm enough that it can smoosh whipped cream cheese out all sides as you take a bite. This can be a near disaster when operating a car on capital hill. Cream cheese everywhere all at once. I managed, I should not have attempted this in the first place, and my bagel should have been cut in half. This place is set up to be franchised. It has the look of a chain, and there is two. The outside was attractive, the inside was clean and ok, nothing spectacular. The people were friendly and I got my bagel fast. Oh... $4.80 might be on the almost pricy side for a bagel and the sandwich bagel they have are $10 plus, but everything is expensive now so I don't know if this is a complaint about them. Though when I lived in NY getting an egg and cheese bagel and a cup of coffee at a corner stand was delicious and cheap. Oh well. I will go back to try more at some point. I might just get bagels from them sometime.

We really love being able to get a good lox bagel sandwich for a good price on Capitol Hill. Rubenstein's always has good portions and the crew is friendly and swift. Unfortunately, twice this year, we have arrived before 10:00 a.m. to find out they are out of lox. Both times, they told us they had just filled a big order with lox bagels. I know times are tough and people have to keep their orders and margins close but this is a major item at a Jewish deli and disappointing to bump into this problem repeatedly here.

Seattle has historically been a hard place to find a good bagel. After moving from New York State, I was sorely disappointed in the options I found here. So much so that during the pandemic I learned how to make my own bagels. Here's the problem: it's really time-consuming to make your own bagels. Then Rubinstein's set up shop in the neighborhood and all my troubles went away. I've worked my way through most of the menu by now. The bagels are authentic. The toppings range from classic (plain, everything, sesame) to unique (rosemary sea salt, shallot, caraway sea salt, Cacio Y Pepe, salted chocolate chunk). All of them are good and certain ones are situationally perfect (for example, try the caraway bagel with a Pastrami Sandwich). I'm a big fan of the chipotle schmear that comes on the Chorizo Sandwich. One thing that really sets Rubinstein's apart is the staff. Every employee is friendly, and the owner, Andrew, is there almost every day to make sure things are running smoothly. And he's not afraid to jump into action when the breakfast rush arrives (and boy does it arrive!). From what I've learned in talking to the staff, they put a lot of thought into where they source their ingredients, especially their pastrami supplier. Rubinstein's is the kind of place that values its customers and as a result, they've created a loyal fan in me.

This was such a cute spot to get bagels! I loved that everyone was so welcoming when I walked in and greeted my friends and I with the biggest smile on theyre faces! I got the lox bagel on the rosemary salt bagel and thought it was pretty good! They give you a generous amount of salmon and cream cheese which I greatly appreciate. The rosemary salt bagel, combined with the capers, however made everything a bit too salty. But overall it was still good!

They're literally always forget to toast the bagels. The bagels are just okay. HOWEVER, The ham, egg, and cheese bagel would actually be incredible if they would just toast the bagels.

Cold bagels, undercooked bacon. Bland and room temp overall. Two sparkling waters and two breakfast sandwiches for over $40. Not worth it.

Yummy but every egg sandwich is listed as coming with a fried egg and an employee of this store told me they just cook the eggs and however they come out, they come out, which in my case was hard boiled, and slightly less hard boiled when he remade it for me. Ditch the false advertising and you could have a pretty good thing going here.

I always try to give Rubinsteins the benefit of the doubt but today they really got me enough to write a review. If you don't ask for "light schmear" on your order you end up with way too much cream cheese ratio for the bagel. If you do ask for less, you get 0 cream cheese where it's slightly damp and just a bunch of vegetables between a bagel. Not to mention I paid EXTRA for lox schmear only to get none. They consistently are out of bacon, bagels, eggs, you name it. They could be a good bagel place but they are constantly disappointing!!!!

Wifey and I were pretty excited to try the bagels that Capitol hill was waiting for. Went on the first weekend and luckily the line was not too bad. Good spacing outside and clearly marked spots inside as well. The service and courtesy were excellent throughout. Also quick as the bagels were all well stocked. We got the jalapeno/cheddar with fried onion/chives and that combination was excellent, with the jalapenos actually having a nice kick to it. Also got the sesame seed with black truffle. Additionally picked up the salt caraway, salt rosemary, everything and Cacio y pepe. At the time of this review, I tried the black truffle schmeer with salted rosemary and that seemed like a much better combination. Overall flavor wise we really liked it, but the bagels were all very dense and chewy. It was a tremendous mouth workout and I'm not sure it's supposed to be like that. Personally this might be blasphemy but I'd prefer westmans etc. Where I clearly don't recall any mouth gymnastics. This texture did not work for us. Looking forward to seeing other reviews, so will give them a 4 for now to defer on the side that I might not be the expert here.

I was so excited to try Rubinstein's since I've heard great things but unfortunately was quite disappointed. I got the avocado and egg on an everything bagel, and it was really mediocre. The bagel was small, not fluffy, and quite chewy and there was barely any avocado. I was also expecting a fried egg since that's basically how every bagel place does it but I think theirs are baked and the yolk was completely cooked through which is not my favorite. Overall, not too impressed but I also went during their opening weekend so maybe things will get better!

Gets the job done, but not the best bagels by far I've had (but I'm from the East Coast). The vibe of the Cap Hill shop is okay, but pretty lacking in terms of selection and service. The poppy seed bagel was pretty disappointing - not very flavorful and not properly toasted.

First time trying the bagels so I ordered 3 different ones (to go). The cinnamon raisin was flat as a pancake. They said the entire batch was like that today. (I don't understand why these were even sold.) Taste was OK for all but the texture was off for the flat one. These bagels weighed around 160g which is too heavy/large for me. I had to cut them each into 4 servings. But if you like large-ish bagels, you'll like these.

Best Cinnamon Raisin bagels in town because they have golden raisins! Crisply toasted. Olympia drip coffee not as robust or rich as I had expected, but I keep coming back for that CR bagel.

Bagels are great! Sandwiches are even better when they actually include all the ingredients you ask for. The people who work here often seem very distracted and frequently leave out ingredients that were requested on the sandwich. Generally great service, the place is nice and clean. I'd highly recommend this place despite the menial complaints.

The food is very over priced for what you get. Could've overall been better tasting as well if not bigger portioned.

The matzoh ball soup was meh. It was very bland and the matzoh were oddly sweet. The rest of our order was great! Delicious bagels, chewy and flavorful. I really enjoyed my bagel sandwich with egg, bacon and cheese. Skip the soup, eat bagels!!!!

So excited to have a bagel sandwich spot over here on 15th. I ordered 2 bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches. The bagel was smaller than expected. The bacon on the bagel was good. For 2 bagel sandwiches and a tip it was a little over $28, so I probably won't go back, unfortunately. The service was superb and everyone was so friendly.

The bagels are on point. The business itself is starting to try me. Downtown store closed today - no reason. Just a handwritten sign in Sharpie on the door. At the Cap Hill location I explained my order in words of one syllable - and repeated the order when the counter guy read it back to me wrong. "No lettuce - yes red onion!" Sandwich came out with lettuce, no red onion. Despite my repeating it TWICE. And it not being an outlandish request. For fourteen bucks and change you would think they would at least be able to get your flipping order right.