When it comes to sinking your teeth into Sydney's best plain, seeded, stuffed, and blueberry-dotted rolls with holes, it pays to know where to look—and that’s where we come in.
In this bagel bible, you can expect a whole lot of chewiness, secret bagel recipes, gluten-free bagels, and more schmear than you thought possible, as well as pastrami, smoked salmon, bacon and eggs, and maybe even some chopped liver...
These are the best places for bagels in Sydney.
Small Talk
Dulwich Hill and Glebe
Not your regular coffee shop, Small Talk is one of the best bagel makers in Sydney. This bakery cafe slaps combos like BLT, lox with chive cream cheese and capers, and pastrami with kraut, pickles and mustard between its house-baked bagels, or keeps things simple with a fresh bagel and flavoured cream cheese (the chive is out of this world).
The Bagel Co.
Rose Bay
When a secret bagel recipe can sail its way through three generations and two continents, you know you’ve struck some serious bagel gold. The Bagel Co.'s owner Barry Kluwgant has spent his whole life around the good stuff, learning the ropes in his grandfather’s bakery in Melbourne. Barry says the most popular bagel pick is the classic, with simple and tasty fillings including house-cured salmon. Other Jewish faves like challah rolls and rugelach are worth adding to your order, too.
Brooklyn Boy Bagels
Marrickville
Brooklyn Boy Bagels’ mission is to bring those Big Apple vibes our way, with a traditional combination of baker’s flour, sea salt, malt, and fresh baker’s yeast delivering a rich flavour that's a step up from your supermarket variety. Expect all your usual bagel and schmear flavours, plus an epic selection of bagel sandwiches stuffed with everything from bacon and eggs to the classic lox if you visit them in store, or at one of the markets they frequent. Bonus points for a great gluten-free bagel.
Wellington Cake Shop
Bondi
We'd be remiss to skip out on the holy grail of Austro-Hungarian goodness: Wellington Cake Shop. This small family-owned patisserie has been a big fixture in Bondi’s gastronomic scene since the late '70s, and their bagels have a reputation as some of the very best in Sydney.
Lox In A Box
Bondi, Coogee, Manly, Marrickville
Inspired by traditional Jewish delis, Lox In A Box serves some of the most loaded and stunning bagels in Sydney. The bagels themselves are sourced from the legends at the aforementioned Wellington Street Cakes before being filled with the best of the best, like LP's Quality Meats pastrami, a huge vegetarian stack pumped with jalapeno schmear, and the best-selling lox, with fresh tomato, red onion, capers and herb schmear.
“We have the freshest lox in Sydney,” says owner Candy Berger. “It arrives from Mount Cook in New Zealand on a Thursday, we then start the curing process and one week later it’s cured, crusted, and hand-sliced in-house."
Lox In A Box's Marrickville location on Shepherd Street is set to open mid-May, 2023.
George St Deli
Redfern
Modelled on the mid-century delis of NYC, George St Deli has a lot of love for the humble bagel, drawing inspiration from renowned spots like Katz’s and Russ & Daughters. All your usual suspects are on the menu, served on house-made, chewy bagels, plus a breaky pick with bacon, egg and Swiss cheese, and some sweet toppings like ricotta with a seasonal fruit preserve. You'd better grab a pretzel or babka for later.
Iggy’s Bread
Bronte
Iggy’s Bread is as much a part of Bronte as the ocean water, making one of the best sourdough loaves in Sydney, and home to a solid bagel selection that will bring you all the brownie points for a breakfast worthy of the carb gods, with sesame bagels, poppy, multi-seed bagels topped with organic flax seeds and sea salt, raisin bagels, onion bagels, and garlic bagels all with a tonne of flavour and satisfying chewy texture.
Barrel One
Manly, Cromer, Brookvale and Potts Point
Known first for their smooth roasts and single-origin brews, the bagels at Barrel One have come to be equally beloved by the locals who start their day with the combo. Built on a base of Brooklyn Boy bagels, fillings here look like smoked trout with cream cheese, lemon and dill, a Reuben with pastrami, sauerkraut, American cheddar and pickles, and satisfying egg and cheese.
Lox Stock And Barrel
Bondi
We love choices, and it's safe to say Lox Stock and Barrel offers loads from their European-inspired bakery and all-day restauarant. You can grab a selection of fillings including a Reuben with Wagyu corned beef, swiss, pickles and sauerkraut, lox with onion, caper, rocket and cream cheese, and old-school chopped liver (trust us) on your pick of bakery-fresh bread or a bagel. Bagel options are plain, sesame, poppy, seeds and spices, onion, wholemeal and the locals' pick: cheese.
Image credit: Small Talk, Brooklyn Boy Bagels, Lox in a Box (Kitti Gould), George St Deli, Barrel One