Only place in Madison still serving breakfast after 11am, this was a great find. Hand rolled bagels, courteous staff and fresh squeezed juice. Had a wonderful everything egg bagel and lox sandwich (next time I'll request open faced) which came quickly.
3G service is weak in the area and I found an open WiFi AP but couldn't get strong enough signal. Their card machine was down so had to pay cash. Glad I had some.
Best bagels in town. Family owned, friendly service but mostly just amazing bagels and full sandwiches
This spot has great service and enjoyable menu. One of the best restaurant in the area. The food came out fast and the prices were inexpensive. Highly recommended.
Hands down the best bagels in Madison. Their bagel breakfast sandwiches are made with real, fresh ingredients, putting Einsteins to shame. You'll really taste the difference.
These bagels are soooo good. So cheap, filling and delicious. I get the everything bagel with the Chimichurri cream cheese and it s to die for.
Great bagels - sandwiches and hipster drinks. Needs to be a tiny bit cleaner. Parking very limited. I recommend.
If you are going to spend calories on bagels, these authentic NYC-style bagels are worth every single bite. Spreads are incredible
Overpriced, and the bagels aren't true new york style (nor are they very good). Since Madison lacks quality in the bagel scene, this place seems to be the default for everybody's bagel cravings, but unfortunately it is overhyped. The store's hours are limited, too - closes very early in the afternoon.
Best bagles and options in Madison, by far. The O.M.F.G. is to DIE for!!!
Best bagels in Madison. Everything bagel with lox and cream cheese really hit the spot. Friendly, efficient staff.
bad bagels, worse service. You d think for being the only bagel place in Madison they would have decent bagels, but you would be wrong. Staff are rude and made me feel unwelcome in the store
I eat here way too often, usually at least once a weekend. They make a lot of solid sandwiches, but my go-to is the super egg bagel with scallion cream cheese. The wait can be fairly long, but this is still my favorite place for a relatively quick hangover meal.
Delicious smoked salmon sandwich hit the spot. Will be back again soon.
Would rate this even higher if I could! Overall, great atmosphere with great food!
I got a special called Arthur Ave with bacon, egg and italian sausage topped with onions, peppers and mozarella on a sesame bagel. It was like a breakfast philly and I loved it! My wife got the "Mexican" special. It had chorizo, egg, and guacamole. She got it on an egg bagel. It was also fantastic. And so was the coffee cake and grapefruit juice.
Will definitely be back when we visit again!
I've always passed this place with it's long lines while on my to work. I finally decided to take the plunge and see what the big fuss was about. Its true that there's one large line as well as a huge menu with some of the bagels. I got the Greek Freek and I enjoyed it. Hot lamb combined with garlic bagel I got. Holy cow.
Laid back atmosphere. If you don't care how long it takes to get a simple bagel order or if it is correct when you get it - this is the place to go.
Amazing food and atmosphere! Have to go! I get it every time I'm in Madison !
Didn't have onion bagels at 9:30am on a slow weekday, lox was nowhere on the menu and when I asked if they had it the cashier person looked at me like I was an idiot. Then I had to pay $7 for a bagel with too much cream cheese and just enough lox. No onions, tomato, capers, etc as is standard at other places. I can get all that for about $3.70 at forever bagels. :(
The jalepeno garlic cream cheese is possibly the best cream cheese I have ever had. I hope they keep it around as a permanent menu item.
Bagels are easily 5-star for the Midwest.
Delicious in every way. Always crowded, but that's because the food is worth the wait. Reasonably priced for what you get, and for being right downtown. Get the real New York experience right here in Madison!
I tried to order a half dozen cinnamon raisin bagels, was told that they were out, and suggested to buy their cranberry oat instead. As I was waiting for the bagels, I noticed that there were 2 cinnamon raisin bagels in the basket behind the counter, and requested if I could get those two bagels. The cashier said she had to ask her manager, who came over and very rudely told me that I could have one of the remaining two cinnamon raisin bagels. I told her that had I known there were two cinnamon raisin bagels available I would have ordered them, and she said "I'm offering you one, you can take it or leave it!" What is this, the Bagel Nazi?! What do they care if I buy the two bagels, or if I buy one and someone else buys another? The woman who I dealt with was super rude and argumentative, and made me feel embarrassed for even asking for the bagels. A week or so later I actually saw the owner walking into Heritage Tavern, and told him about the episode. He was dismissive of the whole occurrence and didn't even offer an apology. This is not how you treat your customers! Finally, the bagels at Gotham are mediocre at best. I lived in NYC and these don't even come close to what's on offer in the Big Apple. Bagels Forever are the best bagels in Madison.
Amazing bagels and sandwiches, plus they make fun and great spreads in house!
My family got catering from here today for out Chanukah celebration. It wasn't a fantastic time and my sister left a very truthful review of her experience. Unfortunately for us the owners did not take very kindly to our review and called up my parents to yell at and harass them about it. I don't know what kind of business does that but apparently Gotham Bagels is that type of business.
Not tasty. Fake chicken, very hard bagel. Slow service.
Good bagles and coffee. They are frequently busy but still normally offer fast service.
Truly New York style bagels, sandwiches to stuff Yourself with, and lots of great spreads
I want to be clear that I love the actual food here, but also had one of the worst dining experiences of my life here. The Madison chef's network week event was a complete disaster. I had been looking forward to it for a month. Start to finish we were there for 2 hours, 5 minutes of which we actually had our food.
We waited in line for 15 minutes which is fine. We ordered and were told it would be another 20 for our food. 1 hour and fifteen minutes later we received our sandwiches! But we were served two completely different sandwiches from what we ordered. We took them back because they clearly belonged to another customer that had also chosen their brunch spot poorly, and in the off chance that they hadn't died or left to complete a master's degree, we wanted to make sure they got their food.
We gave them back to the line cook who rolled his eyes, looked at us suspiciously, and double checked that we had the intelligence to know what sandwich we'd ordered, since obviously that's the most likely scenario. He then disappeared with the sandwiches and was never heard from again. We were left with no apology, no update as to if our sandwiches even existed in the physical plane, and most importantly, no sandwiches.
We waited an additional half hour to contemplate our bad life choices before our names were called. We got our sandwiches. They weren't on the right bagels, but they were apparently ours. We ate them. They tasted like food which is about all we could process at that point, and left hungry for lunch since breakfast had long passed us by.
Like so many others have said, I waited for probably at least 20 minutes to get a bagel sandwich; the owner took our order and was rude; I witnessed him be disrespectful and short to his staff and many other customers; and the general feeling in the place was stressful, negative, and weird. You aren't in NY...you are in Madison, WI and we are kind and pretty chill here. I'd rather take my business elsewhere.
Best bagels in town. Would recommend their brighton beach bagel: salmon, cream cheese, capers...so good! They're not open all day, check their hours.
Can be very crowded on weekends. Bagels are fresh and dense and good.
Just found this place yesterday and HAD to come back today! Be prepared to wait but it's worth it :) Honey tart cherry cream cheese is SO good!
Best sandwich in town. Be prepared to wait, particularly during the lunch rush.
I've heard that this is the best place to get bagels in Madison, and I couldn't agree more. They have some great bagel sandwiches. I highly suggest anything that has salmon on it. Coffee is pretty good too.
Had a great experience in this place with my kids. The food came fast and the customer service is just excellent. Prices are fair.
The virus is not a valid reason to be rude to customers.
Gnats flying everywhere..you can't eat to crowded and smells ,unorganized wrong orders ,your not missing anything special just some down town place. They had another shop in Sun Prairie it went out of business.
It's really good for the area just the service is a little slow.
Great bagel shop. Can't go wrong with a super egg bagel sandwich.
Definitely my favorite bagels in the Madison area. Have occasionally had to wait a long time in situations when they weren't busy but otherwise have experienced friendly staff and great bagels on every occasion.
We ate there three times in one week during out trip. It's incredible for breakfast bagels.
My absolute favorite place for bagels. Love love the super egg everything bagel toasted with jalapeno and garlic cream cheese, might need a few breath mints after but damn if it isn't worth it.
Super great! They've messed up my order a couple times now but also my bad for not checking before I leave! Super delicious, so never a problem anyways.
very bad service, the man there is always in a bad mood, never buy again there
So delicious, the bagel with lox was super fresh and tasty.
Gotham Bagels really came thru for us this past Sunday. We live in Missouri but needed to send a Shiva Tray to the family of a dear friend in Madison. It needed to be a Lox, Bagel, Cream Cheese tray. I found Gotham Bagels, the only place online I could find that listed lox rather than smoked salmon, and could handle the size trays I had to order. They came thru including delivery on Sunday morning before the family left for the cemetery. And,a we received lovely "thank yous" from the family commenting on the quality and nice presentation of the food. Go Gotham!!
Taken me a while to come to Jesus, but I've seen the light. They have Madison's best bagels, hands down.
the owner is always in a bad mood like you re ruining his day or something. You could have the biggest smile on your face and order a glass of water and he would have an attitude .
These bagels are good as hell. Highly recommend the OMFG and everything bagel with the jalepeno garlic cream cheese. Expect to wait in line for a while if you go at peak brunch time. The visible assembly line is cool too and fun to watch for a while. If you get it in a basket it comes with a few bagel crisps and pickle spear
If you like obnoxiously loud Italian Opera and and having someond yelling over it while you're eating, this is the place. Service was fine and the food was great, however expensive for bagle sandwiches. Three stars for creativity and taste, minus two for cost and bad ambiance.
Everything here is excellent. The everything egg bagel with any cream cheese rocks. Highly recommened ordering a dozen and keeping them in the freezer so they are always handy.
Only giving a 3 star because I actually liked the food. The service on the other hand....I m from Wausau so when visiting my boyfriend I like to try new places. We went here and yes the food was great! After waiting a little to long for the food we got ours and definitely enjoyed it. As we were leaving a man (based on research and other reviews I know it was the owner) we were throwing away our trash and he came up to us and said something along the lines of don t bring outside drinks in here again (we had a bottled soda) neither of us had ever been there so we didn t know this wasn t allowed. While the food was great I feel that making customers who have already ate and paid feel belittled is a jerk move. Ive worked customer service many years and know that there s times to pick your battles...this man needs to learn that same concept.
I went hoping it might be more of a general bakery (still looking for good bear claws) and found it to be exactly as the name suggests. Bagels. They are really good though, and not to pricey. Utterly packed with cream cheese.
Great bagels and sandwiches. Wait times can be a bit long sometimes.
Pretty excited to try this place, but found it busy to a fault.
I get breakfast here on average once a week. The bagels are SO GOOD and the in-house-cured bacon is incredibly good. Their meats in general are so delicious, and they have some really creative rotating/seasonal cream cheese flavors as well as all the typical ones you might find in a classic New York bagel shop.
(Reviewing Sun Prairie location)
Tasty chicken salad bagel sandwich. Just a simple bagel and cream cheese is always a tasty option too. One other menu item I really like is the Greek yogurt parfait.
Great place for a filling breakfast. Lots of unique flavors, and vegetarian friendly! I would definitely recommend their cranberry-rosemary juice.
Closest thing to East Coast bagel shop with creative sandwiches. Never been disappointed with the food, only when they are out of a bagel flavor I'm craving!
Delicious every time. Be careful though, these will ruin you for all other bagels.
This is the best bagel place in Madison. Their specials are always amazing and changing, but their normal menu is also worth it every time!
Excellent as usual . Best bagel place in madison hands down
This place is definitely a must try. The O.M.F.G is to die for
The bagels are incredible and the service is great. Highly recommend this place
Been here numerous times and never dealt with the owner, but today he was working register and was not only blatantly rude but outright aggressive. When I got my order I checked through the bag while he snarled "everything is there"... Well, it wasn't, he forgot my cream cheese and when I said as much he blamed me for not telling him (I had) and berated me in front of other customers who looked as confused as I was. He proceeded to grab me my cream cheese, sealed them in their little containers and then just as an extra "screw you" he wrapped it in eight layers of Saran Wrap, charges me $5 and tells me bug-eyed and super condescendingly "YOU have a GREAT day now". Chill.
Best bagel shop in Madison! Although the wait can be long during rush hours on the weekend, it's definitely worth the wait! Try the OMFG a spicy aioli, fried chicken bagel!
Loved their salmon bagel. The egg bagel is so good.
I love the extra bagel chip you get to scoop up the extra cream cheese. I had a special artichoke and parmesan cream cheese on a garlic bagel. It was so delicious! I can't wait to come back!
Great bagels and creative sandwiches. Real flavor of New York.
From a few months ago but the manger and worker were so incredibly unkind.
Crowded, busy, loud, delicious bagels, it's like being in New York. Bonus points for having several vegan bagels and spreads. Just go already.
gothambagels.com