B Bagel, a chain bagel shop, has been rated the best place to go for breakfast and coffee in London by Deliveroo, but when I went to try one of their famous bagels it failed to impress. Located in the heart of Soho on Wardour street, the shop’s charming exterior with a black and white striped awning is reminiscent slightly of a New York bagel deli.
I ordered the Eggplant Sunshine (Sabich) bagel from the house specials menu which was filled with roasted aubergine, hummus, boiled egg, caramelized onion, pickles and spinach. Sounds nice right? That was what I thought and hoped.
The bagel was prepared quickly and the portion size was large, both notions I was satisfied with. I went to sit on a nearby green and unwrapped my bagel.
The first thing I noticed was that whoever prepared my bagel made very little attempt to actually get the fillings inside the slices, with most of it spilling out of one side. My aubergine was cold and unflavoured, the egg was mediocre, there were only about three pickles inside and as a pickle fan, this was a violation.
Furthermore the caramelized onions were overly sweetened and lacked the tangy onion flavour which make them a delicious condiment. The hummus and bagel bread itself were the only redeeming factors of my lunch, with the hummus a satisfying creamy texture and the bread relatively soft and flavourful.
However this was not enough to save the meal, and after about two bites, and a pitiful attempt to dismember the bagel to find the non-existent pickles I gave up, and sent my lunch into the bin.
It is worth noting that there are many other options on the menu, and perhaps I just made a poor choice. These include the iconic Salt Beef bagel, the Reuben or the Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese bagel, although due to being a vegetarian I did not pick them.
Additionally, with a 4.8/5.0 review on Google, B Bagel Soho is clearly well liked, so perhaps my lunch order was just not to my taste. Furthermore, B Bagel has homemade smoothies alongside cakes and pastries, salads and freshly prepared bagel fillings like cream cheeses of which I did not order, but have noticed positive reviews online about.
So maybe it is worth going and seeing for yourself, is B Bagel really worth its accolade, or is it simply overrated?
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