NY Bagel

Profile

Address: 台北市信義路五段 122 號
                No. 122, Section 5, XìnYì Rd, Sinyi District
Phone #: 02-2723-7977
Business Hours: 24 Hours

Website: http://www.nybagelscafe.com/

Price Range:   $$
Accepts Credit Cards: yes

Attire: casual

Good for kids: yes

Take out: yes
Waiter Service: yes
Outdoor seating:  yes
Alcohol: yes

Rating

Food Quality: 3 out of 5
Decor:  4 out of 5
Service: 3.5 out of 5
Overall: 3.5 out of 5
Recommendation: It's a 24 Hour Diner

Review

NY Bagels cafe is an american style diner that boasts a wide menu available to its customers at any hour of the day. They sell breakfast plates, bagel sandwiches, steaks, and even pasta with an average price of 300 NT. Items like steaks will be more expensive (around 700 NT). They have a spacious dining space, and can accomadate groups up to 8 people comfortably. This is one of the late night options available in Taipei, and in that sense is a very good place to grab a bite when other restaurants are unavailable.

The restaurant space is rather wide at this location. This location is also one of two that is open 24 hours. The space is designed very diner-like, with plenty of booths. The ceiling was pretty high, and so it had more of a sense of grandeur to it. It is very unlike how you would envision most diners as being sort of grimey places to be. American food is quite often glorified moreso in Taiwan than in their homeland. The store plays contemporary music in the background to give it a hip feel, but it is not so loud that you can not have a conversation over it. The wait staff here seemed to be either too busy or deaf, because I had a hard time calling on two of them, but eventually someone showed up to help me out. This could have been a rare occasion, but it still affected my impression of their service. Also, I think the layout of the restaurant itself may cause customers in the rear to be less attended to. I felt they did their duties, but not in a stellar way.

I am still looking for a place for some cheap soup and salad action. This place didn't have cheap soup though. I am just looking for something like Panera. Does not have to be high quality, but at least bearable. This breadbowl seafood soup cost 135 NT, which costs about the same as it would at panera, but there is a stark contrast in quality. The bread here was crunchy, flakey, and not sour dough. I like a have a puffy and slighty crispy on the outside sourdough loaf as my bread bowl. This bread bowl seemed slightly stale. If it couldn't get worse, the soup itself was watery, and the ingredients used were not good. It just did not seem fresh or savory, but that is my bad for thinking I could get some soup at a place called NY Bagel. I still have not found a place where I can serve a decent bowl of soup (well, chowder/western soup), Cambell's cans beat out the majority of the western soup available in this city.  

What I ordered was the smoked salmon bagel sandwich. For 280 NT you can get a bagel sandwich, fries, and a drink of your choice. It is not an uncomfortable price, but it might seem like more than you would need to pay for a bagel sandwich. I enjoyed this sandwich, although the bagel could have been a little more dense inside and crispier outside on the outside rather than fluffy inside and scaly outside. There is not much to comment on the fries, they were ok. The food here is just average Taiwanese western food. None of the items here would be good enough to pull me to eat here. However, the fact that western food is available 24 here makes it an easy place to roam to during twilight hours. I have eaten their breakfast combo here before in 4 in the morning, and it is a really good place to fulfill that bacon, eggs, and pancakes craving at late hours. I recommend getting their breakfast sets over their sandwiches or soups. I don't highly reccomend this place as a place to eat on normal days and hours, but when you are wandering around Neo 19 at four in the morning, hungry and reminiscent of Denny's or some other goto diner you frequented in the States, NY Bagel is your place be.