"Utopia Bagels—founded in 1981 near the Whitestone Bridge—makes exceptional bagels in a city known for its excellent bagels. They opened their second location just last year in Murray Hill, and now they have a third in Long Island City." - will hartman, willa moore, molly fitzpatrick, sonal shah, bryan kim
"The legendary Whitestone bagel specialist opened a Murray Hill spot serving its oven-warm, notably puffy dough rings. Try one as a sandwich, overloaded with scallion cream cheese and sliced nova." - bryan kim, molly fitzpatrick, willa moore, will hartman, sonal shah
"The Dish: Everything Bagel, Scallion Cream Cheese & Sliced Lox We’re ready to admit that there is good pizza outside of New York. Not the best, but good. That said, we do not believe there’s a single good bagel shop outside of the tri-state area, despite what our national colleagues might think. It’s not their fault—we have a very high benchmark with bagels like the ones at Whitestone’s Utopia. Since 1981, this shop has been making perfectly puffy, chewy, salty but slightly sweet bagels. Their everything is the perfect vehicle for our go-to combo of scallion cream cheese and lox. " - bryan kim, sonal shah, willa moore, will hartman, molly fitzpatrick, neha talreja
"The Whitestone, Queens bagel institution (open since 1981) has expanded to Manhattan in partnership with the Tsoulos family, aiming to carry the legacy bagelry into a new phase." - Eater Staff
"This Murray Hill spot is the first Manhattan outpost of the legendary Whitestone bagel specialists, founded in 1980, and you can expect some classic bagel shop touches, like wire baskets full of a dozen different types. The bagels are made on-site, and they’re excellent: puffy with a thin, shell-like crust on the outside, and subtly sweet with malt flavor. Prioritize the basics here: they overload their cream cheese and smoked fish sandwiches, making them hard to get your mouth around, but rewarding once you sink your teeth in. There might be a wait, which, on a weekday morning, is an experience in itself: you’ll encounter young professionals who are nervous about being late to work, alongside older folks who are stressed out about waiting in line for their everything with scallion cream cheese and lox." - Will Hartman