I discovered this place on Chalk Farm road whilst heading to my weekly dim sum fix at Yum Cha only to find it was closed for refurbishment. Now I’ve not been to NY and am no aficionado when it comes to bagels but I can’t recall having had better in London. I was tempted by the salt beef but plumped for the smoked salmon, cream cheese and capers on an onion bagel. The cream cheese was nice and thick with a nice sour tang, difficult to ascertain how good the salmon was as there wasn’t much of it and most of the filling was cream cheese. The capers were a nice touch, adding some bite and cutting through the richness. The bagel itself had a nice crust and the inside had a lovely soft texture and was really chewy but in a good way. The onion flavour in the bagel was subtle, maybe a touch too subtle for me.
Service was really slow though. They were woefully understaffed and I had to wait 20 mins to get my bagel to take away. They have quite a good variety of bagels so maybe just pick up a few bagels on their own rather than waiting for them to be toasted and filled.
Nice to know… thanks. Have you eaten the bagels from the Happening Bagel shop at Finsbury Park?
I just wonder how they compare. So far, they’re the best I’ve found in London. I so do miss the NYC bagels.
I really like the smoked salmon bagel here. Mine didn’t skimp on salmon, so I hope that was a one-time error.
Also, many of the local Sunday breakfast/brunch places open quite late, like 11 or noon; this is the only place I like that is open earlier when hanger strikes at 10.
I was a bit let down by Happening Bagel. I plan on trying it again, just to make sure I didn’t catch it on a bad day. But I prefer Beigel Bake - certainly not as good as a good NY bagel (themselves a bit of a rarity), but good enough in a pinch.
I haven’t been to Beigel Bake (that’s the one on Brick Lane… right?) for many years. I didn’t like the bagels and never went back, but maybe someone else is now the baker. I guess it’s worth another try.
That’s the one. It certainly won’t change your life or anything, but it was better than I was expecting it to be (though I had my expectation set pretty low).
