In England, one thing I have always missed from the USA is bagels. Proper bagels – pumpernickel – toasted with cream cheese, and fresh from your local bagel shop.
And I’m excited and over the moon to have finally found a bagel shop worth a mini-pilgrimage to in London.
Beigel Bake in London’s Brick Lane has fantastic fresh beigels -boiling and baking right under your nose. Just be sure to get the right beigel shop! Look for the blue and white sign, and avoid the yellow/red beigel shop next door (even though they claim to be London’s best…it’s all lies!).The beigels are ridiculously cheap at just £0.25 per plain beigel, and you can buy by the dozen or half dozen. While I was there they only had a few flavours: onion, plain and poppyseed. I’m not sure if it rotates by the day?
I was recommended to try the hot salt beef beigel with mustard. Heaven! What was hot beef to them was corned beef to me, and the mustard cleared my sinuses right out (a new mustard experience for me). But it was one of those perfect food experiences!
I would recommend the place to anyone who has a bagel craving, or just to hungry people passing through Shoreditch.
The only real downside here is a lack of anywhere to eat. There’s one narrow counter where you can quickly wolf down your beigel of choice, but nowhere to properly sit and savour it – as it deserves to be.
Beigel Bake, 159 Brick Lane, E1 6SB
After living in America and New Zealand, Emma Wells moved to London where she began to cover life, work and travel in and around London on her blog On London Time. She shares advice for newcomers, travelers, and visitors alike. Beyond London, she writes about traveling on the cheap across Europe and around the world as well as food, books and tea.
