Top 5 bagels in Toronto
Published October 21, 2024 at 4:15 pm
Bagels vary in style here in Toronto, but you can still get some darn good Montreal-style bagels if that’s what you’re after. We also have puffy New-York-style bagels, and some places make a style of bagel all their own.
Bagels are a hallmark of Jewish food, but they’re enjoyed by everybody. They’re also most strongly associated with breakfast in the morning, but are undeniably great any time of day. They’re equally delicious toasted and open-faced with a spread or salad as they are made into an infinite variety of sandwiches.
Many of the top bagel spots not only make their own bagels, they produce them in full view of customers throughout the day. They also often offer much more than bagels: many places whip up their own flavours of cream cheese, offer other baked goods and Jewish goodies like latkes, and even help you stock your pantry with items like smoked fish and pickles.
Here are some of the top spots in Toronto where you can grab a great bagel.
5 – Bagels on Fire
Multiple locations of this bakery pump out wood-fired Montreal-style bagels that are chewy with a crispy exterior. They offer many varieties and make them into all kinds of sandwiches. One of their most unique items is their coconut bagel.
All bagels made using their own special recipe are hand-rolled, poached in a honey-infused water bath that gives them their signature density, and baked in a wood-burning oven on traditional hardwood planks. Bagels on Fire has been in business since 2013.
4 – The Bagel House
This bagel maker has been around for over 25 years and has multiple locations across Toronto that are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. There’s a maple-wood-burning oven at every location so bagels are guaranteed to be freshly made throughout the day.
Their bagels are hand-rolled and boiled in honey water, and are a larger version of a Montreal-style bagel. The masterminds behind Bagel House, Sat Chouhan and Jessie Sahdra, learned their craft at famed Montreal bakeries Real Bagel, Fairmount and St. Viateur.
3 – Kettlemans
This Ontario bagel brand has become beloved in the province, and has locations that can be visited in Toronto. This might be one of the most visually impressive bagel-making operations, with production of dozens of bagels taking place at one time in full view of customers from start to finish.
This shop might have some of the zaniest seasonal bagels and cream cheeses with limited edition options like pumpkin spice bagels and candied apple cream cheese. They also do lots of epic sandwiches with over-the-top seasonal creations for those as well, like a holiday turkey sandwich.
2 – Primrose Bagel
Hand-rolled, malt-boiled bagels are baked fresh daily at this kitschy bakery on Oakwood. They’re fluffy and airy on the inside and crispy and golden on the outside, leaning more towards a New-York-style bagel but with a flair all their own. If you love poppy seeds, opt for their poppy bagel as it’s absolutely coated in them.
They’re great any way you choose to eat them, but the signature bagel sandwiches are a must-try at Primrose. There are options like the Lox and Sas with beet cured lox, scallion cream cheese, pickled red onion, cucumbers, capers and dill mustard sauce, the Lower East Sider with smoked whitefish salad, scallion cream cheese, cucumber, sliced red onion, capers, dill and wasabi crema, and The Yossel with pastrami, coleslaw, Swiss cheese, Russian dressing and dijon mustard.
This bakery located in the Jewish neighbourhood of north Bathurst has been the reigning bagel champ for over 100 years. Their bagels are pillowy and almost bun-like with a thin crispy crust and barely any hole in the centre, all the better for maximum surface area for spreads. They say they make neither New York nor Montreal bagels, but their own unique style.
At Gryfe’s you can find varieties like extra poppy, coarse salt and flat bagels, and they’re especially known for their addictive flat pizza bagels with sweet sauce and ooey-gooey cheese. But that’s not all: Gryfe’s makes other excellent baked goods as well like their popular blueberry buns.
