Tasted, tested, and ranked, these top bakeries and shops are making the best bagels in Montreal, hand-rolled and wood-fired.
Bagels are right up there at the top of our list of iconic Montreal food alongside the best delis for Montreal smoked meat—followed closely by the best poutine. They are a cornerstone offering on the best brunch menus while ranking high among the best cheap eats in Montreal. What humbly started with Jewish immigrants bringing hand-rolled, wood-fired rings of sweet, thin, and dense dough in the early 20th century has become world-famous. But don't just take our word for it.
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With a wood-fired oven that’s been burning since 1957, St-Viateur is a veritable cornerstone of Montreal’s bagel-making history. From its original ownership to today’s, this shop has never forgotten its roots in the Mile End, even while garnering international acclaim and adding multiple bakeries and cafés across the city. Open all day, every day, a bite of a St Viateur bagel tossed hot out of the oven is a thing of beauty.
Make no mistake, Fairmount is Montreal’s original bagel bakery, having stood at its location since 1949. The same century-old recipes, traditions and techniques have been used throughout generations to create internationally famous bagels. Open 24 hours a day, eating here is an essential Montreal experience. All you’ll need is a bag of six fresh sesame bagels, and a container of cream cheese (add smoked salmon if you’re feeling decadent) and that’s it. Dig in and be amazed.
Open since 2014, the Verdun-based Bagel St-Lo is a more-than-respectable flag bearer of the Montreal tradition. Long time friends Isa Lora Messier and Émilie Sirois are doing things right with freshly baked daily bagel varieties and homemade cream cheeses to go, and an amazing restaurant doling out breakfast favourites like bacon eggs benedict on bagels.
Since its opening in 2019, Le Trou has been charming Griffintown, where resident and co-owner Alexandra Grenier first began experimenting with making bagels in her home kitchen. In 2023, Grenier and partner Damien Cussac opened a second shop in Rosemont where their unique selection of hand-rolled bagels like the beer and parmesan and chocolate cranberry are local favourites. Don’t miss the bagel holes (aka “bouche trous”), reputed to be dangerously addictive.
Serving up the best bagels in Côte-des-Neiges is this curio shop of a bakery, located right off the Décarie. R.E.A.L. Bagel’s unique menu offers the essential poppy and sesame seed varieties in addition to wilder takes like Oreo and French Toast. Keep it weird, er, R.E.A.L.
The best bagels in the city won’t always be found on the Island proper. The South Shore’s Brossard Bagel serves up all the quality that we expect from the best Montreal bagels shops with a few new twists of their own like their Montreal Spice or Coconut varieties. Handrolled, boiled in honey water and baked over maple wood, these bagels may give urbanites a reason to cross the bridge.
A bakery and deli rolled into one, this family-run eatery in the tony enclave of Westmount draws a steady stream of hungry locals, as much for its fresh bagels and pastries as for its “fusion menu” of delicious takeaway Indian and kosher dishes.
Glen Spence’s bagel shop in Côte Saint-Luc has had a loyal following for two decades and counting. The team at MTL Bagel’s cut and roll out over 5,000 pounds of dough per week to turn out over 2,500 bagels a day. That’s saying a lot when considering the vast amount of flavours available here. Care to try a spicy all-dressed or carrot bagel? Don’t eschew it, chew it; Spence’s stuff is quality.
District Bagel in Mount Royal is where locals have been heading for their bagel and shmear fix since 2008. Both a 100 percent kosher café serving up the usual fresh bagel sandwich and soup combos, it’s also the place to find excellent blintzes, knishes and danishes.
There’s a lot of good and cheap breakfast spots in Saint-Henri, and Bagel St-Henri’s one of them. Off the neighbourhood’s main strip, this spot’s an outlier in the city for how it serves up a fatter, fluffier German version of bagel. While it’s not your century-old bagel bakery, credit’s to be given where it’s due, and this one has earned a spot in our hearts for the excellent prices and love its owners give.
Home of the famed multicoloured rainbow bagel (owner Steve Dizgun won’t blab the secret recipe), Dizz’s also serves up the sesame and poppyseed classics. With fun takes on traditional cream cheese schmears (think: black truffle or birthday cake) and a large array of prepared dinners, pastries and fresh salads, Dizz’s is your one stop shop for bagels with a twist.
If you happen to find yourself North of Montreal in Laval and pining for the city’s classic goods, look no further than Bagelmania. With more than ten years in the bagel biz, their cheese bagel has become a favourite, for both locals and Montrealers looking to venture further afield.
What started with a downtown bakery serving the hungry office-bound crowds of the 1000 de la Gauchetière tower, is now a veritable bagel empire with 7 locations across Montreal (plus one in Granby and another soon to open at Trudeau airport). Serving up traditional kettle boiled and oven-cooked bagels (though not in a wood-fired oven as only the city’s original bagel producers are still permitted to do so), bagel sandwiches of the day or perhaps a decadent spread of bacon and maple cream cheese.
An upstart on the bagel scene, Hinnawi Bros. can be found in four different locations in Montreal. With over a dozen sandwich combinations to pick from, ranging from the straightforward Petit Québec egg and cheese to the Milanais, an escalope of fried chicken with swiss cheese and spicy mayo, this is the perfect spot to grab a quick lunch and an excellent latte to go.
West-enders might remember Nosherz’s beginnings as a man named Solly selling bagels door to door. The demand for bagels and all the trimmings became so high, Nosherz was born, serving up enough baked goods, soups, sides, and sweets to cater everything from a bris to a Bar Mitzvah.
A no frills Montreal landmark in Little Italy: Beaubien offers 11 bagel flavours (blueberry, chocolate and oatmeal raisin to name a few) and a handful of sandwiches on their menu. The crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside texture of the bagels here make them standouts from the crowd.
The only thing we like better than a good bagel fresh out of the oven is a killer sandwich. Introducing newcomer Wellington Bagels, whose sesame, poppy and plain bagels are making a name for themselves on Wellington Street, alongside a slew of kick-ass sandwiches (try the Wellington Beef sammie with roasted peppers and hot, tangy giardiniere). Or have the best of both worlds and opt for a bagel-wich.
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