Last week I met up with one of my friends from NYC, who makes it a mission of his to find Seoul’s best bagels. He recommended two spots to me that he said were hands down his favourite places and I couldn’t wait to give them a try. One of the spots he mentioned was near Yeonnam-dong, one of my favourite neighborhoods to hang out in, and as it was the weekend I decided to drag my hubby along with me and go on a bit of a food crawl.
Everything Bagel is located on the far side of Yeonnam-dong, in fact in regards to the subway its kid of in the middle of nowhere. You will either have to trek a bit or get a bus. Thankfully the 110A goes almost directly there from Itaewon. Then it was just a short walk to the store. This area is kind of a bagel hot spot as SF Bagels is not too far away, and an old departed friend of mine MTL Bagel used to be close by too. However it is not just bagels around these parts, there are a lot of cute restaurants, bars, and cafes nearby, and it is is not too far to walk back over to the main part of Yeonnam.
The bagel shop itself is small, there are two small tables, so I’m guessing that take out is encouraged, although we rocked up on a Saturday lunchtime to find both tables unoccupied, so you may well get lucky. They offer 8 different kinds of bagels (Plain,Onion, Everything, Poppy Seed, Cinnamon Raisin, Wholewheat, Pumpernickle & Rainbow). All of which are are made from scratch in house, then kettle boiled before baking. Most New York style bagel shops in Korea import them frozen from NYC and just finish them off by baking them. So to find a place making them from scratch is quite special.
The menu offers classic style toasted bagels with a selection of cream cheeses, along with some sandwich style bagels. It being brunch time and all, we decided to get the Egg Bacon & Cheese Bagel (5,000). You get to choose which flavour bagel you want, and we got the everything. The bagel was filled with scrambled egg, bacon, and cheese. With one bite I could already tell this was a superior bagel, it had that chewiness that one looks for in a good bagel. The cheese and bacon added a nice saltiness, and the egg made it super filling. We washed it down with a cup of their Coffee (2,000). This is proper deli style coffee, strong as an ox and blacker than Darth Vader’s heart. It was everything I wanted in a weekend breakfast and more.
For our second choice we decided to get the Onion Bagel (2,000) with Scallion Cream Cheese (1,000). To me this one was the stand out. I’m not sure if it was just this batch, but this onion bagel was fluffy and chewy, and it had a good onion flavour. Coupled with a decent amount of cream cheese it ticked all the boxes. In fact it was so good we both got two more plus some cream cheese to take home for later and still have been wanting more. I’m counting the days until I have time to go his them up and get another one because I just can’t stop thinking about it.
Overall we loved our bagels, they are by far the best ones I have encountered in Seoul, or possibly anywhere. Being British I’m no expert, but I have certainly eaten my fair share and I know what I like and this place is 5 star and well worth the trek across town. The prices are also really good, a bagel is not something I want to pay a lot to eat, and this seems to be one of the cheaper places I have found. Quite a feat when you consider the quality. I’ll be heading back there very soon to try more of their menu.
Everything Bagel is located at 29 Yeonhui-ro 11-gil, Yeonhui-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul. To get there take the train to Hongdae Station (line 2) and come out of exit 3. It is a bit of a walk though and you’ll need to just follow the map. Otherwise if you want to get a bit closer take the 110 A or 153, Or of course you can take a cab. If you put the address into Google Maps it will tell you the easiest way to get there. For more information you can check out their Instagram account. There are open from 7:30-16:00 Tue – Sat, and closed on Sunday & Mondays.