Best bagel in London
My search for a great London bagel took me to bagel bakeries on Brick Lane and in areas of north London – Golders Green, Hendon, Finchley, Stamford Hill – with large Jewish communities.
I was not seeking something as tough, doughy and bloated as a New York bagel, nor was I expecting a lighter ring of dough with the old-world character of a Montréal bagel. If a London bagel meant middling size, sweetness, chewiness and crispness, so be it. But to be truly great a London bagel needed to have something more at its core than a hole. It needed to show a baker’s pride and craft.
I failed to find a great London bagel. I didn’t even manage to track down a great London beigel. But I did locate a superior one at Happening Bagel Bakery in Finsbury Park (284A Seven Sisters Road, N4).
Happening was opened in 1994 by Isaac Cohen, an Israeli who learned the bagel business at various bakeries in north London and through bagel reconnaissance missions in the US. His hand-rolled, boiled-and-baked bagels are plump but not airy, with just enough tug to the chew.
The Happening edge is due to two factors: freshness and two-sided seeding. Rather than bake in large batches overnight, when electricity is cheapest, the Happening crew bakes in small batches during the day. No bagel (other than perhaps those stuffed as sandwiches) sits for long. Instead of saving money by coating only one side of its bagels with sesame seeds or poppy seeds, Happening covers both sides with a thick layer. I need reading glasses to make out the spaces between the seeds.
I like the sesame, poppy and onion bagels, but it’s the caraway seed variety that really gets me excited. I know them as kimmel (Yiddish for caraway) bagels from my days in Montréal and I love how the seeds add a sweet, tangy flavour and a gritty crunch to the bagel shell.
So why isn’t a Happening bagel a great bagel? One big reason is that it’s slightly under-baked, a bit raw in the middle. Isaac agrees. He says his clientele won’t accept harder, darker bagels and so they’re removed from the oven when they’re still pale and before they’re cooked through. They need to be halved and toasted to completion.
I have a glimmer of an idea how to go about baking artisan London bagels in an old-world style and Isaac is willing to give it a try. Because the Finsbury Park faithful seem to be resistant to darker bagels, we may need volunteers for our experiment. If you’re intrigued and might like to participate, be sure to send in a comment.
Posted: May 22nd, 2009 under London.
Tags: caraway seeds, Finsbury Park, Happening Bagel Bakery, Isaac Cohen, kimmel bagels, Montreal bagels, New York bagels, north London
Comments
Comment from FoodStories
Time 22 May 2009 at 6:34 pm
OK! So here it is! I would very much like to get involved in the quest for the perfect bagel 
Comment from Dan
Time 22 May 2009 at 6:51 pm
robertolov – I wrote that I need reading glasses to see the SPACE BETWEEN the seeds. It was another way of saying that the bagels are thickly coated, more so than typical. Regarding your thoughts about jaw-aching bagels I appreciate you are speaking for many. Thanks.
Comment from nylondiner
Time 23 May 2009 at 12:20 am
In my mind New York and Montreal bagels are two distinct species, both great in their own right. I would love to participate in the quest for a great London bagel, count me in! I bought a bagel and a bialy in Stamford Hill the other day; decent and satisfying, but nothing I would travel there for. A great bagel would be worth a bus journey at least.
Comment from Dan
Time 23 May 2009 at 7:42 am
@nylondiner No holes at all in your argument about NY and Montreal bagels being distinct species. They are SO different.
Your understanding of the bagels in those cities as well as in London will be a tremendous asset as we support Isaac in his quest.
Comment from Dan
Time 23 May 2009 at 9:26 am
@foodstories Thrilled you’ll be joining our “great” London bagel project. “Perfect” might be asking a bit much.
Comment from Polas
Time 27 May 2009 at 6:07 am
Forget baqels. Bialys, bialys, bialys (and, sometimes, a pletzel)
Comment from kristainlondon
Time 28 May 2009 at 10:27 am
I’m curious about the quest for a perfect bagel. A year or two ago, I went to all the places in Golders Green and decided Carmellis was the best. Haven’t been to Daniels yet. Or this place. Am desperate for a salt bagel!!!
Comment from Dan
Time 1 June 2009 at 8:54 am
@kristainlondon – Hope you have a chance to try a Happening bagel soon, as I am eager to hear how you think it compares to a Carmelli bagel. Your evoking salt bagels adds a new dimension to our quest for a great London bagel. Just imagine what a bagel coated with the crunch of Maldon sea salt crystals might be like.
Comment from Ruth
Time 14 July 2009 at 3:18 am
I ate there few times, the perfect bagel. I went to all the places around because I love bagel but I decided The Happenning Bagel is the best bagel in London. If you want to enjoy a good bagel it’s worth to go there.
Comment from Felicity
Time 16 August 2009 at 11:58 am
I would love to take part in the bagel experiment. I cart pumpernickel bagels back from Murrays in NYC whenever I go along with whitefish salad – why can’t you get those in the UK? I personally love the doughy texture of the Happening bagels but the cinnamon raisin ones at Carmellis are the best sweet kind.
Comment from Dan
Time 16 August 2009 at 7:51 pm
For the sake of your fellow passengers I’m glad it’s Murray’s pumpernickel and not onion bagels you’re taking back to the UK, Felicity. The onion bagels could “perfume” the entire cabin of an Airbus A380. It will be great to have you taking part in our bagel project. Meanwhile, I will work on a smoked fish salad recipe that will approximate New York whitefish salad. But the pleasure of succeeding will be diminished by the absence of toasted bialys upon which to sample it.
Comment from Felicity
Time 22 February 2010 at 10:12 am
Any moves on the great bagel project? This year I brought back a multigrain Murrays bagel which kept surprisingly well on the overnight flight and was fantastic with PBJ for lunch when I arrived home. I also managed to take home 2 boxes of whitefish salad from Chelsea Market which kept for 4 weeks in the fridge. Do you have an approximate recipe for anything similar?
By the way – Banksy’s Bagel bar on Roseberry Ave, on my way to work looks like a hole in the wall but has really decent bagels – not a great range of fillings but they are very generous with what there is.
Comment from robertolov
Time 22 May 2009 at 6:22 pm
You needed reading glasses to see the seeds? You didn’t need reading glasses New York. Don’t rhapsodize about Montreal bagels, they are dry, need salt, and better winter wheat. A good bagel should make your jaw ache slightly after eating.