Lower East Side Bagel Tour

Our tour of the Lower East Side with Ben was like walking the old neighborhood with your favorite Uncle. As a life long New Yorker, Ben shared historical facts and personal stories about the area and at all of our stops. He had photos of each of the stops in their hey day which added context and discussion. It was easy to find Ben at our designated start point and he communicated well prior to the tour. The pace was pleasant and efficient. I highly recommend this tour.

I’ve waited 48 hours to write this review because I wanted time to reflect to make sure my review wasn’t a knee jerk reaction to our tour. I booked months in advance and was looking forward to a food tour so thought the ‘eat everything bagel tour’ would be a great tour for our family. Katz was on my list of places to visit and eat so I thought this tour would kill two birds with one stone. This tour was NOT what was advertised. The title wqs an eat everything tour. Whilst we were given a bagel in the street when we arrived, there weren’t any seated stops apart from the biali place at the end. My husband had to request multiple times if we could get a coffee and only near the end did that happen. When we stopped outside Katz we were told the queue was too long for us to go in. We were encouraged to look through the window and come back in our own time. We shouldn’t have been so British and should have insisted that we went in. I’m furious because we have come back and the queue is easily over 200 people whilst when we were here the other day there were only about ten people queuing in front of us. So so disappointing. I’m actually really angry about it. Ben should have asked us if we wanted to wait twenty mins (because that’s all it would have been) to get a takeaway but instead made us wait on the sidewalk whilst he told us all about Katz. There were many opportunities to make up any ‘wasted’ queuing time along the way. I know Ben will reply to this review and say it was described as a LES tour but I didn’t find the history to be very informative either. Just a description of local shops and how they have changed over time. There could have been a lot more facts and figures. Either advertise it as a food tour and stop at Katz or call it a LES tour. I feel like I wasted a lot of money and more importantly our time when it was at a premium on our NY trip. Would not recommend.

We loved Ben and found the tour to be super interesting and informative. We expected a bagel tasting tour, and we did try some food which was all delicious! But it was more of a history tour of the LES than a bagel tour. I would do this tour again for personal fun, just might have done something different for a bachelor party.

Avoid at all costs!!! Only 2/8 of places were open One of the places had been closed for years Not sure but seemed like a scam as the price was high

We enjoyed the tour but the title is misleading. It says it’s a bagel tour, so we expected to go to several bagel places and try several bagels. That is not what happened. We tried a few different foods… pastrami, pickles, and one bagel. But it was mostly history of the Jewish history of the lower east side.

I have a two star rating because we received a full refund. The tour is, unfortunately, not a good tour focusing on bagels. It is a historical tour of the Lower East side of Manhattan. We expected to visit 4 or 5 bagel shops to taste bagels and get a little history of the area as it relates bagels and maybe the Jewish community. Our guide quickly dove into excruciating detail (which needed editing) on the neighborhoods we were walking through pointing to pictures on an iPad that had chunks is something on the screen). After about 45 minutes on the tour, we asked him about our bagel stops. He said there were none so we ended the tour and he agreed to get us a full refund which was generous.

Great tour, very in-depth and informative. A true native New Yorker who yearns for the LES of the past, and brings his personal story and remembrance to an unforgettable experience. Would of appreciated perhaps a break in the middle (in the new Market) as a respite from the cold, and walking further south into Canal and District streets. Thanks for a great time and fond memories.

As a guide, Ben was great -- he had a lovely blend of personal knowledge of the area and well-researched history. The pace of the walk was really good: a combination of indoors and out doors. Thanks to Ben, the Lower East Side came alive for us, with all its cultures and resilience. Highly recommended!

Ben is the best! If you need to know about the Lower East Side's history, he's your guy. Ben is smart, very well-informed and his tour is beautifully organized to cover the neighborhood with lots of fun (and delicious) stops. We had a great time and learned so much. Thank you, Ben!

I learned a lot from Ben's tour! He pointed out so many things I would have missed going to the neighborhood without a guide, and he had great stories, too, which really brought the history alive. Highly recommend!

We certainly enjoyed the food - bagels, pickles, bialys and Katz's pastrami - but what was more interesting was the history of the lower east side. Ben certainly knows the area and it was great to hear his stories of what the Lower East Side was like and to point out hidden landmarks you'd otherwise miss. A great way to spend a Sunday morning.

Ben provided a great deal of knowledge about the local history and the food that grew out of the Lower East Side. He provides a descriptive picture of what the neighborhoods looked like in the past.

Ben makes the history of the Lower East Side (LES) come alive with his knowledge and stories of this treasured area of NYC. I thought I knew a lot about the LES but Ben provided so much more. It was easy to see that he loved the area then and loves the area now.

If you’re at all interested in the history & transformation of the lower east side this is your tour. It’s personal & informative & fun. We loved it!!!

This was a great way for our family, with 2 teenagers, to learn about the history of the Lower East Side. Ben's knowledge of the area weaved with some personal stories made the information he shared understandable and relatable. The historical pictures he shared on his iPad were interesting to see. COVID made the waits a bit longer to get into places but we were able to try many foods of the area while on the tour.

The tour was what I was looking for and having actually read the description, unlike the negative reviewers, learned a lot about the lower east side and the Jewish community in particular. Ben was a great guide. It is always good to have a tour guide who clearly loves the place they are teaching about. He has a great personality, and a good sense of humor. This was like a history lesson mixed in with some really good food. This was not a bagel making tour. Bagels just played a part in the history of this interesting part of New York.

The main thing I have to say about Ben's tour is that you have to experience it. His knowledge about the neighbourhood is amazing and shared with passion. I can't think of a better way to discover the city and it's mostly food related history.

A misleading tour name but a good tour. The tour was informative, but we were expecting it to be a tour of bagel related thigns (from the tour name). unlike some other reviews state, there was no other food apart from the first bagel before the tour started. Interesting tour of the area but not what was expecting, and more money than i would pay normally

Ben delivers as promised with an informative and tasty tour! We had never visited the Lower East Side and wanted to learn more of the culture and history of that area. Ben kept us entertained with stories and images of how the Lower East Side had changed over the years, while walking and sampling different treats from local shops. Starting with a bagel at the beginning of the tour, we sampled knishes, pastrami, kosher pickles, candy, and bialys. I really enjoyed his passion for the area and the family stories he told of growing up nearby. I would highly recommend this tour to anyone looking to get a taste for or learn more about the Lower East Side!

As a lifelong New Yorker I wasn't sure I would learn anything new on this tour. However, I found it extremely informative! It included some 'off the beaten path' historical places I would have missed on my own. I've even made a note of of some sites to revisit when I have time to explore further.

My wife and I took the Lower East Side tour and arrived a little early. We were pleased to discover that Ben was early as well. We were the only two who had signed up for the tour on the day we went, so we had a private tour. We started with a bagel, but throughout the hour+ we also ate a knish, two different kinds of pickles, and a bialy. Along the way Ben gave us a history of the neighborhood and showed us some of the older businesses and buildings in the area. He had photos on an iPad of the way things used to look, which was a nice touch so we could compare the old neighborhood to the current one. He was very knowledgeable and clearly a life-long New Yorker. I especially appreciated at the end of the tour when he asked if everything was what we expected and if we had any recommendations for him to make it better. I always like someone who constantly aims to get better. I would recommend Ben to someone visiting the city for the first time or a New Yorker looking to learn a little bit more about their city.

I have been going to NYC for years but I am not familiar with the Lower East Side. We started with a real NY bagel, it was really good. We ended up trying a knish, pickles and ending with a Bialy. The tour was very informative. We also stop at a Candy Store that had some old candies that I have in a really long time.

We took the Lower East Side tour and had a great experience. Ben, of Ben & Marty, was our tour guide. He started the tour by providing us each with a fresh bagel. We then went all around the Lower East Side sampling food from places like The Pickle Guy & Yonah Shimmel Knish Bakery. Ben was very knowledgeable and filled with facts of the history as well as the current trends of this part of the city. While this tour was mainly focused on history & the shops from the early 1900s, he did point out a few new spots which he recommended, such as Babycakes Bakery & The Meatball Shop. I learnt a lot about this part of NYC that I didn't know & tried great food that I hadn't tried before. Overall I would recommend this tour to anyone who's interested in the history of the city and food. I do however have one recommendation for Ben & Marty, & this may be something they are working on or maybe they didn't do it this time because we were in a small group. But it would be nice if they kind of partnered up with the stops and had the owners/workers speak to the group & had samples available for the tour (while there were samples on the tour, Ben bought them himself).

We got the Lower East Side Bagel Tour for my in laws and came along. I really enjoyed the extensive knowledge Ben had about the area and felt that his ability, as a life long resident, to share stories from his childhood really added to the tour. My father in law stepped away while we were waiting for our pickles to listen in on one of the other tours in the area at the same time and stated that he felt that our tour was more interesting and informative. The tour included: touring a knish restaurant, katz's deli, trying bialis, visiting an old candy store, a historic market, and of course pickles!!!!! I would recommend this tour to anyone.