
Andrew Rubinstein is again with a brand new idea, Hey Bagel, in College Village .
During the last half-dozen years, an assortment of pandemic-era hobbyists {and professional} bakers setting out on their very own have taken Seattle’s bagel scene from a subject to kvetch about to 1 for kvelling about. Even essentially the most dedicated New Yorker should admit that native bakers are creeping awfully near the Decrease Eastside requirements, however there’s additionally a rising motion of sourdough savants, and people round right here undoubtedly know what to do with a aspect of salmon and somewhat smoke. With the return of a departed favourite, a long-awaited opening, and a shocking newcomer, Seattle is rolling in wonderful bagels—and these are town’s best examples.
Bagel Oasis
Ravenna
The eating room could appear to be an Einstein’s that point forgot, however the soul of a New York deli lurks within the counter’s many bagel baskets. Bagel Oasis has been right here since 1988, boiling and baking and incomes fierce love that deserves to transcend the neighborhood. At their finest, bagels are crackly on the skin, comfortable and dense inside. (The store makes a sourdough bagel, a separate creature from its mainstay varieties, and even bialys.) A staggering record of sandwich choices contains fancy omelets, deli classics, and stacks of lox. The comparatively small “egg on a bagel” menu will reward you with a pitch-perfect BEC sandwich.

Oxbow
Montlake
Sea Wolf Bakers, one of many city’s most esteemed breadmakers, opened a meditative bakery in Montlake, a bagel-baking kin to their unique spot on Stone Approach. Oxbow fills its baskets with eight sorts of bagels, together with salt, cinnamon raisin, poppyseed, and a restrained all the things taste the place fennel seeds dominate the dialog. The kitchen even makes a pumpernickel, the delightfully underrated curmudgeon of bagel flavors. The doughy erudition that defines Sea Wolf additionally defines these bagels. A little bit of sourdough helps obtain that elusive “comfortable, however not bready” texture. Sturdy exteriors crunch fairly than crackle. Eight spreads vary between peanut butter and numerous cream cheeses, together with a warming model with Calabrian chilies.
Loxsmith
Beacon Hill, West Seattle

Zylberschtein’s Delicatessen and Bakery
Pinehurst/Northgate
Josh Grunig has boiled and baked a neighborhood anchor inside a tidy, semi-suburban Pinehurst strip mall. Zylberschtein’s is a form of deli-bakery hybrid, serving croissants and chopped liver on rye—and plenty and plenty of bagels. They’re rolled by hand (thus the various shapes) with shiny, darkish surfaces and chewy innards. The kitchen has expanded past its unique repertoire of the classics, including cinnamon raisin, garlic, onion, pumpernickel, jalapeño, and (pattern alert) cacio e pepe to the lineup. Most sandwiches listed here are of the non-bagel selection, however the kitchen has staples like lox, whitefish, and egg-and-cheese on the prepared.

Rachel’s Bagels and Burritos
Ballard, Lake Metropolis
Bagels grew to become such a factor on the former Porkchop and Co. brunch vacation spot that house owners Paul Osher and Raquel Zamora modified the title and simply…went with it. The restaurant nonetheless operates as a (busy) counter-service spot, dishing out darker-hued bagels in flavors like za’atar or togarashi or cherry-poppy, to not point out the classics (all the things bagels make up about 50 p.c of the kitchen’s bagel output). The menu of add-ons is ample—huckleberry or black truffle cream cheese, all the things chili crisp, lox. However a lineup of 10 bagel sandwiches does the heavy lifting for you; combos like roast pork loin with avocado, cucumber, hummus, and sumac onions make it clear, this place was a full-on restaurant. In 2024, an outpost (Little Rachel’s) opened contained in the Elliott Bay Brewing’s Lake Metropolis location.
Outdated Salt Fish and Bagels
Fremont, Ballard
Bloom Bistro & Grocery
Georgetown
The historic Carlton Ave Grocery area acquired rather less candy when Deep Sea Sugar and Salt moved its desserts a half-mile away, however no much less tasty. Chef Marisa Figueroa and associate Randi Ludwig took over the area in 2023, naming it after their one-time White Heart restaurant, and filling the case with the bagels they’d been making as a popup below the title Bean’s Bagels. A sparse choice of groceries and handful of grab-and-go salads give it the texture of a mid-range lunch cease, which belies the impressively good bagels. Massive, spherical, well-formed, and thickly coated with toppings, these bagels veer on the softer aspect, which makes them candidate for toasting. The one draw back is ordering with a schmear nets a hefty slather of sub-standard cream cheese—for those who don’t contemplate it sacrilege, attempt the house-made cultured butter as an alternative.

Typically somewhat little bit of salt is healthier than somewhat little bit of all the things.
Hey Bagel
College Village
Andrew Rubinstein left the eponymous bagelry he based with Ethan Stowell in 2023 and we have now been ready impatiently for his new spot to open since—which it did in early January. It not solely lives as much as our hopes, however exceeds even the early high-standard of its predecessor. Crisp exteriors, mottled with tiny blisters give strategy to a calmly chewy inside. Hey Bagel’s option to forgo toasting and slicing in-store in favor of specializing in baking recent all through the day despatched some Seattleites right into a tizzy. However having eaten one ripped-and-dipped in my automotive and a second sliced-and-spread once I acquired residence 20 minutes later (it was nonetheless heat), no complaints right here. Further specimens reheated utilizing the directions on the bag? Additionally nice. And whereas the bagels are (at minimal) vying for the most effective on the town, I’m fairly sure no one else is doing a bialy at this degree; the rotating flavors embrace conventional poppyseed with onion and artistic choices like cheddar with pickled jalapeños.

The chili oil unfold at Mt. Bagel is simply too good to be obtainable on a regular basis.
Mt. Bagel
Capitol Hill
It’s no secret that we’ve cherished this store since its itinerant supply days: We mourned when it left city, and celebrated its return. Its wild youth behind it, Mt. Bagel is settled into its location, tucked into the slope between Capitol Hill, Montlake, and Madison Valley. Although it does serve espresso, it’s very a lot a bakery and never a café, so, like Hey Bagel, it doesn’t toast or slice bagels. The gently crackly crust provides strategy to a fluffy, comfortable inside. Whereas the store’s rising pains imply they don’t fairly stay as much as the usual it set in these early days, they keep a superb bagel and any flaws disappear below a layer of their highly effective (and powerfully good) scallion cream cheese.