When you think of smoked salmon in New York, likely only a handful of places will come to mind. Russ & Daughters is no doubt one of those places. Growing up with a father who eats lox in his sleep, Russ & Daughters was basically a household staple in my fridge when I visited home. However, I never had actually eaten at their sit-down on Orchard Street, and wanted to see what the entire Russ & Daughters experience would entail – cream cheese, bagels, celeb spotting’s, and all. (OooooOoo dropped a bomb there – keep reading for more juicy gossip details!)

On a Sunday morning my friend & I headed there at around 11:30 only to find out the wait would be around 1.5 hours. We were pretty prepared for this news, and expected no less for a trendy, well-reviewed brunch place. Our wait-time went by pretty fast as we grabbed a cup of coffee from WhyNot (good study café with fun music and the surliest baristas) a few doors down, and window-shopped our way in and out of the LES’ chic, vintage shops.

(Disclaimer: the fact that my friend had spotted Jake Gyllenhaal heading into the restaurant while we put our name down, definitely played a part in our decision to stay). Alas, 1.5 hours later, we received a text telling us our table was ready to go. Praying for a Jake spotting on the way in, we were seated at a lovely booth right next to the kitchen. Update: no Jake 😦

Although not the most adventurous order, we both ordered the classic board – which included lox, onion, tomato, capers, cream cheese, and your choice of bagel. (Not going to lie, after Sadelle’s unlimited bagels I was kind of disappointed I had to limit my bagel choice to just one – but really I should be thanking them for letting me not eat more than one bagel in a single sitting). We also split the Potato Knishes to start.

Knishes: warm, doughy, and delicious. These were a great app. Accompanied with Dijon mustard to give the bite just enough kick.

Board: there’s no doubt Russ & Daughters serves fantastic smoked salmon. In fact, it’s likely that I haven’t had better. But to be totally honest, the bagel & accompaniments were nothing special. Maybe it was the hour plus wait, or the fact that Jake Gyllenhal actually walked by the table when I had my head down, face devouring the lox, but my overall meal here kind of disappointed. The bagel was just okay – a little too tough, not warm enough. The cream cheese was fantastic, very tasty, but yet again was something I had tasted previously at home. All the accompaniments were things I could have easily whipped up at home. Funny thing was, after waiting over 1.5 hours to get a seat, we were done our whole experience in about 35 minutes!

Russ & Daughters, you serve great lox. But your wait for sub-par bagels and tomatoes isn’t enough to entice me to see you again…unless you can guarantee a Jake sighting (picture included).

2/5 stars.