One thing my New York BFF American Girl in Asia was always looking for in Seoul was a good bagel. We spent so many days travelling all over the city trying to find the best little round bread roll with a whole in the middle. Now I always loved the bagels best at Everything Bagel, but Mother in Law Bagel came a close second for me, and was top of the list for her.
MILB is located over by the Ehwa University. This is not generally a neighbourhood I often visit, but I did notice that most of the places we spotted were cheap because its a neighbourhood full of students. The shop itself is pretty tiny with seating for only a lucky six people. Whilst we sat there, people streamed in constantly getting bagels to go and by 2pm they seemed to be sold out, so be sure to go early.
The bagel shop offers quite a variety of different bagels, all baked in house, and following the recipe learned while MIL was living in New York. They have a nice variety of hot and cold sandwich fillings and cream cheeses. Since it was still early we decided to give the Egg and Cheese Bagel (5,900) a try. You have your choice of bagel and we got the everything bagel. The first thing I noticed when biting into the bagel is that it was super chewy, when teamed with the egg and cheese it was very tasty. It made the perfect breakfast, especially when teamed with a Black Coffee (3,200).
The real way to test the muster of a good bagel is the cream cheese version, and they have a huge selection of cream cheeses to choose from. We decided to get my favourite combination of an Onion Bagel with Scallion Cream (4,500). This was equally good as the breakfast bagel, if not better. There was a really thick layer of the scallion cream cheese which was just heavenly when I bit into it. We also loved how crispy the little onion bits on the top of the bagel became. It was delicious, just don’t eat one before a date (lol).
Overall I thought that Mother in Law bagel was really very good and one of the best in the city by far. They have a really good selection of fillings and bagels. If you are a New Yorker then this is well worth the trip across town. If you have been before then let me know what you think below.
Mother in Law Bagels is located at 5 Ewhayeodae 5-gil, Daehyeon-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul. To get there take a train to Ewha Womens Univesity (line 2) and come out of exit 2. Walk straight and take the third road on the left hand side. Walk down this street and you will see Mother in Law Bagel a little way down on the left hand side. For more information you can call them on 070-7758-3030 or check out their Instagram page. They are open from 8:30am – 7:30pm Monday – Saturday.