To Bake or not to Bake? That is the question facing Londoners who must decide whether to get their takeaway fix from Brick Lane’s Beigel Bake (the white one) or Beigal Shop (the yellow one a few doors down). At Time Out, we reckon the supposed rivalry between the two is a tad overdone – they’re both great, basically – but there’s certainly something magical about that blue, white and red shopfront and all it promises. This place does traditional, chewy Jewish beigels rather than crumbly American bagels – and, oh boy, don’t they do a lot of them. Roughly 3,000 a day, in fact, with the place open 24/7. They come stuffed with everything from smoked salmon and cream cheese to a generous dollop of Nutella, but if you want the quintessential experience, go for the salt beef slathered in mustard with a tangy gherkin on top. Service is perhaps best described as brisk.
Order this
It’s not all about beigels – the sausage rolls are the size of a brick and ridiculously filling.
Time Out tip
It’s off-menu, local resident Laszlo Zsoldos once told us, but the salt beef with cream cheese is ‘the duck’s nuts’.
RECOMMENDED: The chewy, twisted history of the Brick Lane bagel shops.