Bagel Art Cafe

Super cute place with quick, friendly service. The bagels are not good. They're more like bagel shaped bread. I guess one of the 3 times I tried them I should've asked for the bagel to be toasted. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Maybe that would have made it better. Nice place to visit for a coffee and a bite (if you're not too picky about bagel texture and authenticity).

Bagel sandwich and iced coffee were decent, but spending ~$16 on what amounts to a light breakfast has made me realize I should probably stick to sit-down breakfast spots in the future that offer better value. I cross-checked prices with a few local competitors, and these are indeed market prices for bagel sandwiches in the Chicago area in 2025. With that said, you could easily get double the amount of food of similar quality at so many other places for this price point...

I was craving a bagel the other day and decided to give this spot a try. The staff was friendly and the service was quick, which I appreciated. I grabbed my order to go, but when I opened the bag in the car, I realized my bagel wasn’t toasted and was super hard to eat—especially with the huge amount of cream cheese on it. The flavor itself was decent, but the texture really threw it off. Honestly, toasting should either be the default or at least something they ask about, because who wants to bite into cold, tough bread? 🤦🏾‍♀️ I also picked up an apple fritter. It was a bit hard as well, but the taste was good once I warmed it up at home. Overall, not terrible, but not sure I’d be in a rush to go back.

Bagel Art is my go-to place to meet friends! You can sit inside in the action (front), inside where it is quiet (back) or outside. I bring my kids there - they have a few games to play in back. It is my go-to place to meet new people! It is conveniently located across the street from the Dempster CTA stop and 1/2 block from Dempster and Chicago. There is a rotation of local art though my absolute favorite piece is the enlarged photo of some guy jumping across to a rock formation (butte?) about 50 ft in the air. Bagel Art is my go-to place for a bagel fix though I'm boring and I just like a long chew on a sesame bagel. Fancy friends like the Lox Ness Monster. It is my go-to place for mocha; they use three pumps of delicious chocolate!!!

Really, really good breakfast. Intelligentsia coffee is well-complimented by a wide variety of bagel-based sandwiches, lots of different toppings, and decent prices especially considering what you get for your money. They have lunch offerings that I haven't had a chance to try but will go out on a limb to say that they'll be very good as well. Ingredients are always fresh and prep time is quick. They're being very careful about covid, so there's no indoor seating as of 8/10/2021. There's great sidewalk seating along Sherman (shaded off until noon, full sun from noon until maybe 4pm).