No trip to New York City would be complete without trying a bagel, just as no trip would be complete without seeing Central Park.
This post can help you enjoy these two iconic New York treasures together!
Below is a list of the best bagel shops near Central Park.
They are all within a 10 to 15-minute walk from the park. Many are within a block or two.
I'm a native New Yorker and I've eaten bagels from stores all over the city so this post reflects my opinions.
But I also asked my fellow tour guides for their input.
The shops in this post are no more than 15 minutes from the park, with many much closer.
- What is a Bagel?
- Best Bagels Near Central Park
- Top 15 Bagels in NYC
- Best Bagels in Times Square
- Things to Do in Central Park
Take a look at our pay-what-you-like food tours to try many of the classic New York foods!
For those of you who are not familiar with bagels, here is a brief explanation.
Bagels are a bread product made with yeasted wheat dough, then rolled by hand into the form of a ring that's about the size of your palm.
After they are left to rise for 12 hours, the bagels are boiled briefly in water and then baked.
I think a good bagel should be chewy inside, with an ever-so-slightly crisp outside.
But everyone has an opinion about what makes a bagel great.
It's one of the age-old debates between New Yorkers, along with who makes the best pizza!
Bagels come plain as well with a sprinkling of seasonings.
Just a few are salt, toasted onion, sesame seeds, poppy seed, or 'everything', which have all of these toppings.
In the best shops, a bagel without a topping is $1 to $2.
But rarely do people eat bagels without some sort of topping.
The most common toppings are cream cheese or butter, but there's no end to what you can put on a bagel.
Think of any sandwich and you can get it on a bagel - though I've never seen grilled cheese on one.
A bagel and plain cream cheese will start at $3, but if you get specialty cream cheese, you'll be paying $4 and up.
For the ultimate New York experience, get a bagel with cream cheese, covered with lox, thin-sliced onions, and a few capers.
TIP: Bagel shops often put a large amount of cream cheese on bagels, so if you don't want too much, ask for a schmear (or smear). Most stores will know what you mean.
BEST BAGELS NEAR CENTRAL PARK
Click on the map in the upper right corner for a larger scrollable map.
- Upper East Side: 1551 Second Avenue at East 80th St.
- Upper West Side: 526 Columbus Avenue at W. 86th St.
H&H is one of the top names in the bagel game. The first store opened in 1972 and since then it has expanded around the country!
Despite multiple locations, I wouldn't consider H & H a chain. Their bagels are always good, no matter where you get them.
Read more about the history behind H&H in our post, 15 Best Bagels in NYC.
TIP: The west side location is one block from the park. The east side location is a few blocks farther but is closer to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
After your visit to see the finest art in the world, why not have one of the finest bagels in the world?
235 W. 116th Street between Frederick Douglass Blvd. and St. Nicholas Ave.
Until Bo’s opened in 2017, one was hard-pressed to find a truly great bagel in Harlem.
Bo’s bagels are the way I (and so many other New Yorkers) like them -- chewy on the inside, slightly crispy on the outside.
They have classic varieties and a few creative ones like pumpernickel cranberry.
As for spreads, all the usual suspects are available, as are some downright non-traditional flavors like Berry Almond.
A bagel with cream cheese at BO's does run a bit higher than in other shops, starting at $6.
But everything’s so good you won’t regret it!
Feeling noncommittal? You can buy a mini bagel!
BO's Bagels is in Harlem, just six blocks from the northwest corner of the park.
Combining a visit to Central Park with a trip to Harlem makes for a great day.
16 E. 58th Street between 5th Avenue and Madison Ave.
Great bagels at a great location!
It’s at the southeast corner of Central Park, which I think is one of the best places to enter the park for first-timers.
Their bagels are light and chewy. The Rainbow bagel will brighten your day.
Add their Oreo cream cheese on top and you can’t go wrong.
Liberty is one of the most popular bagel shops in New York City.
It has several locations, including one in Times Square.
- 314 W. 58th Street and 8th Avenue at Columbus Circle
- 2350 Broadway at W. 86th Street
The bagels at Broad Nosh are what one should demand of a great bagel: chewy and fluffy inside and slightly crispy outside.
While this shop doesn’t have as many varieties of bagel flavors and cream cheeses, what they do have is excellent.
The lox cream cheese is especially good. It’s silky smooth with nice-sized pieces of smoked salmon mixed in.
They also make a great BEC -- Bacon, Egg and Cheese, one of NYC’s classic foods.
Both locations are three blocks from the park.
The Columbus Circle shop is on the southwest corner of the park, while the Broadway location is near the American Museum of Natural History.
1659 3rd Avenue between E. 92nd and E. 93rd Sts.
The bagels here are airy and chewy and your jaw won't have to work too hard to enjoy them.
They are also huge, as is the list of cream cheeses, making it a bit daunting to choose.
Here is a small sampling of the imaginative flavors: Sun-Dried Tomato, Chocolate Chip, S'Mores, Birthday Cake, Horseradish and Matcha. Matcha?
Yes. It’s green. But a delicious green.
This shop is four blocks from the 5th Avenue side of the park on the Upper East Side.
Along this stretch of 5th Avenue, you’ll find three of NYC’s best museums, the Guggenheim, the Jewish Museum and Cooper-Hewitt.
Here's an interesting idea for you if you want to get a cheap skyline view of NYC.
This shop is five blocks from the E. 90th Street dock for the NYC Ferry.
The Astoria route from E. 90th St. to Wall Street is just $4.50 for a 49-minute boat ride along the East River.
You’ll get amazing views of Midtown Manhattan, the Brooklyn Bridge, Lower Manhattan and much more.
541 Amsterdam Ave. at 86th St.
Barney Greengrass opened his first deli shop in Harlem in 1908.
Business grew and Barney moved to the current location in 1929.
As the shop specialized in smoked fish, specifically sturgeon, Barney Greengrass came to be known as “The Sturgeon King.”
Though the bagels come from H&H (read above), everything else is homemade.
It’s one of the best places to get a bagel near Central Park, so get yours to go and enjoy it with a cup of coffee on a bench!
WHAT REDDIT HAS TO SAY
I’ve shared my opinions and those of my fellow tour guides, but it’s good for you to hear from others that these shops are tried-and-tested.
I reviewed Reddit threads to see what others said about the best bagels near Central Park.
H & H is consistently mentioned on Reddit as having the best bagels in New York City.
This Reddit user laments moving to the West Coast because they cannot find any bagels as good as H & H!
BO's Bagels received a lot of praise, despite being relatively new on the bagel scene.
Bagel Shop was a favorite for those living on the Upper East Side. Here are a few of the dozens of votes Bagel Shop received on Reddit.
