I’ve now had bagels at the Silver Spring Goldberg’s New York Bagels three times, and they’ve been, in order: decent, great, and mixed.
But when they’re great, they’re great, and out of two Plain Bagels I tried from a half-dozen ($5), one was great (and still warm). And that’s the one I topped with some of their addicting Olive Cream Chese ($7.29/lb), made with both green and black olives; the second one was only in the “decent” category, and was topped with their less-interesting Lox Cream Cheese ($8.59/lb) – and just because the lox is more expensive than the olive, trust me when I say: Get the olive!
Tim Carman wrote a good historical article entitled “The Goldberg Variations,” but the biggest variations I’ve seen at Goldberg’s have been in the performance of their bagels.