The Best Bagels in Melbourne for a Breakfast of Champions
Whether you like them sweet, savoury, schmeared or sandwiched, here’s where to find Melbourne’s best bagels.
Melbourne’s love affair with the bagel runs deep, with trendy cafés and humble local joints across the city baking, slicing and filling their own. Seriously, who doesn’t love a bagel? The versatile ring-shaped bread can be enjoyed with sweet jams or salty deli meats alike, offers the textural delight of a soft, chewy interior contrasted with lightly crisp edges, and can satisfy the keenest of hungers for breakfast or lunch.
From thick New York-style bagels filled sky high with pastrami, to wood fired Montreal bagels slathered with vegan cream cheese, there’s a shop here selling every kind imaginable. Here’s where to find the best bagels in Melbourne.
Best Bagels Melbourne: CBD
Schmucks Bagels
Schmucks Bagels goes by the motto that 'carbs aren't evil,' and we couldn't agree more. These carbs, in particular, are absolutely delicious, and are providing Melburnians frequenting the CBD with the fuel they need to go about their day. They have the classic seeded, plain or blueberry bagels, but the one that piques our interest (and taste buds) the most is their vegemite bagel. Once you pick your breaddy base, choose from sweet or savoury fillings on their menu.
Need catering for an event? Schmucks Bagels does that, too!
Guests Lane, Melbourne
9/567 Collins Street, Melbourne
The Bagel Shop
The Bagel Shop is making some of the most innovative, delicious and downright wild bagels in town. Wrap your hands around miso glazed pork belly bagels, balsamic mushroom and vegan feta bagels, Big Mac bagels and even a Thanksgiving-esque smoked turkey and cranberry number. Bagels for dessert? Why not – particularly when you can have a Nutella s’more inspired bagel or one that’s stuffed with poached pear, honey ricotta, strawberries and salted caramel sauce.
339 Swanston Street, Melbourne
Bobby’s Coffee & Bagels
This pocket-sized bagel shop is a perennial favourite with CBD workers for their strong coffee and bouncy bagels. They’re available any way you like, whether that be toasted open and topped with avo, pickled chilli and sumac, in a sandwich filled with pastrami and gruyère or simply schmeared with herby cream cheese.
Rear 57 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
Bricklane
Sit down for brekky at Bricklane and you’ll receive your bagel sliced, toasted and served open – no straining your jaw to fit the whole bagel in here! You’ll have your pick from plain, sesame seed, everything, blueberry and jalapeno cheese bagels, but rather than go OTT with fillings they opt for simple ingredients that let the bread shine, like classic PB&J or Vegemite, to fresh avo, tomato and feta or pesto chicken. The bright and homey café is filled with plants and natural light, making it a pleasure to spend the morning in.
224 Clarendon Street, South Melbourne
Best Bagels Melbourne: Western Suburbs
Hole in the Wall Bagels & Beans
Moonee Ponds has become quietly become the hit spot for some of the best bagels in Melbourne, and Hole in the Wall is certainly one of the reasons why. Tiny but mighty, this bagel shop goes big and bold on flavour, creating carb-filled treats inspired y countries around the globe, all served up in a humble bagel. You'll find it located just across from the Moonee Ponds train station, with a steady stream of bagel-devotees slipping inside for fresh, made-to-order bagels, quality Seven Seeds coffee, cold-pressed juices, homemade treats, good vibes and friendly smiles.
5 Norwood Crescent, Moonee Ponds
Bang on Bagels
These beautiful bagels are bang on (get it?)! Another Moonee Ponds gem, Bang on Bagels is the place to go for soft, pillowy smoked salmon, egg salad, stacked breakfast (always add the hash brown) and big beef (think Big Mac style) bagels that will transport you direct to the streets of New York City. If you shut your eyes as you take a bite, you can almost imagine you're there, chowing down in the middle of Times Square. Okay, maybe that's a bit of a stretch, but to put it plainly, we can't get enough of these.
284 Union Road, Moonee Ponds
Migrant Coffee
We're low-key obsessed with West Footscray's Migrant Coffee, to put it mildly. In fact, this is everyone's favourite westside coffee and bagels - and it's easy to see why. The menu consists of New York style bagels with twists of Filipino, Thai and Island flavours, fusing the owners' love of classic bagels with tastes from home.
More than just a cosy and friendly space for some of the best bagels in Melbourne, Migrant Coffee is also a QPOC (queer person of colour) owned and run business that stands for equality and inclusion. Founded by two best friends who share a love of culture and joy in daily ritual and connecting with people, their history is at the centre of everything they do, as proud first generation daughters of immigrants. Above all, this is a café for people to connect, celebrate and share stories, and it's the beating heart of the local community.
3/576 Barkly Street, West Footscray
Ritzy - Bread, Coffee, Bagels
Oh hello again, Moonee Ponds, fancy seeing you here! While it's true, Moonee Ponds is most certainly a bagel hog, luckily for all Melburnians there's also a Ritzy in East Brighton. Your one stop shop for bread, Inglewood coffee, and bagels, Ritzy offer a large selection of savoury and sweet delights, freshly prepared and always delicious! Go for their crowd-pleasing cheesy chicken and pesto bagel - it hits just the spot.
25 Pratt Street, Moonee Ponds
605 Hawthorn Road, East Brighton
Best Bagels Melbourne: Eastern Suburbs
Hank's Bagelry
This new bagelry is spreading the good word around Armadale about how magical New York style bagels can be. Highlights on Hank's Bagelry's mouth-watering menu include a beetroot and gin cured salmon with herbs, red onion and cream cheese; a bagel packed with grilled bacon, folded egg and harissa mayonnaise; and for veggie lovers, the #8 loaded with harissa roasted pumpkin, almond feta, hummus and wild rocket. Not content with a bagel by itself and want a sweet treat to go alongside it? They're also dishing out homemade cookies, indulgent shakes and Inglewood coffee.
13 Beatty Avenue, Armadale
Mile End Bagels
Mile End Bagels specialises in Montreal-style bagels, which are boiled in honey water and woodfired so that they’re subtly sweet and crispier compared to their New York-style counterparts. Their industrious bakers rise at 4am every morning to make these beauties fresh, ready to be cut and stuffed mile high with sweet and savoury fillings. Go simple with plain or herby cream cheese schmears (they also have a vegan one made from cashews), or bust your appetite with smoked salmon, brisket and chicken bagelwiches. And with multiple stores scattered across the inner north and eastern suburbs, there are bagels to go around for everyone to enjoy.
Fitzroy, Brunswick, Richmond & Hawthorn
Bissel B
This pretty green café is a true master of all things circular – not only does Bissel B bake delicious bagels but they also make killer cookies, doughnuts and even circle-shaped hash browns. Of course the soft, fluffy bagels are the star of the show here, sprinkled with your choice of seeds and available in gluten free varieties. Every menu item is inspired by an iconic New York location, from the decadent Wall Street filled with fried egg, bacon, hash brown and sausage patty to the virtuous Upper East Side complete with spiced roasted pumpkin, feta, baby spinach and yoghurt tahini sauce.
111 Bridge Road, Richmond
312/314 Glen Huntly Road, Elsternwick
Lawson’s Bagels
Never one to skimp on the fillings, a bagel from Lawson’s is the kind you need to hold with two hands. One of these big boys will keep you full from breakfast until lunch and beyond, with popular fillings including addictive chipotle scrambled eggs, smashed avo and cheese and thick beef pastrami.
51 Toorak Road, South Yarra
729 Burwood Road, Hawthorn East
Best Bagels Melbourne: Northern Suburbs
Take Two Bagels
For damn good hand rolled boiled and baked bagels served fresh every morning, every day, don't think twice about checking out Take Two Bagels the next time your cravings hit for these holy goods. Serving up everything, sesame, poppy, plain, blueberry, cinnamon and raisin, and gluten-free varieties to local devotees, all you have to do is step inside, pick your favourite and they'll schmear you up one of the best bagels in Melbourne, every time. Or you could go for one of their beautifully crafted combinations; the #2 - basil pesto, tomato, lemon and dill cream cheese and crispy chilli oil; the popular #3 of mortadella and cheese melt, with dill pickles, herb cream cheese and American mustard; or the always pleasing #5, a bacon and egg breakfast bagel.
105 Lygon Street, Brunswick East
Bagels Baby
Hello, gloriously stacked bagels alert! Sitting inside an old butcher’s shop with a schmancy updated façade, Bagels Baby is where you can expect the unexpected on the flavour front. Of course, there's the usual suspects of toppings, from classic lox to breakfast bagels, but branch out and you might find a new favourite in a vegan-friendly curried eggplant katsu option, a pulled pork and slaw version, or for something sweet, a strawberry and ricotta combo (our personal fave). Served up with a side of pickles and potato crisps, round out this delicious spread with your coffee of choice, or a Yarra-Valley made lemonade from Yumbo.
36 Derby Street, Pascoe Vale
44 Main Street, Greensborough
Bagels & Co
We just found one of our favourite breakfast bagels, and it lives on Sydney Road in Brunswick. Bagels & Co know how to hit it out of the bagel park with their simple array of toppings and oft-Mediterranean twist. We're in love with a simple combination of gooey egg, avocado, tomato and chilli on poppyseed. For lunch, the crumbed chicken is excellent bang for your buck, and their smoked salmon bagel is one of the best in town. The bagels themselves are the perfect balance of soft and firm, excellent for sinking your teeth into. Add chips and pickles for maximum eating pleasure.
627 Sydney Road, Brunswick
Sable
Eat good and feel good at Sable, a 100% plant based bagel shop with branches in Cremorne and Thornbury. Being vegan doesn’t mean missing out on taste and texture, because Sable offers everything from egg and cream cheese to lox and schnitzel – except it's all made from plants. Build your own mile-high bagel sandwich with as many fixings as you like, or pick from their breakfast and lunch combos for a guaranteed winner.
562-564 High Street, Thornbury
3 Railway Place, Cremorne
Best Bagels Melbourne: Bayside
Tuckshop
From lockdown pop-up beginnings to a now buzzing neighbourhood joint, Tuckshop draws a crowd for fab coffee, vibrant salads and banging bagels. Here they’re stuffing luxe bagels with hanger steak and Swiss cheese, pastrami cured salmon, satay tofu and more. Spot the green tiled takeaway window on your Saturday morning walk, or hang out at the outdoor dining tables to enjoy your bagel of choice with a side of pickles, crisps or hash browns.
3 Tuck Street, Moorabbin
Poppy & Seed Bagelry
The thick, chewy bagels at Poppy & Seed are the product of a traditional 18-hour process that doesn’t cut any corners. They’re offered in a whopping eight varieties – plain, dark rye, poppyseed, sesame, everything, cinnamon and raisin, blueberry and even gluten free – and that's before you get to all the wonderful things you can stuff inside them, from dill and vegan cream cheese schmears to smashed avocado and smokey bacon. Eat in or take one to go alongside coffee, sticky chai or one of their killer juices and smoothies.
205 Carlisle Street, Balaclava
Keen for more brekky inspiration? Check out our picks for the best brunch spots in the CBD and favourite coffee roasters in Melbourne. And whatever you do, don’t miss visiting the most exciting new cafés in town.
