Posts Tagged ‘Bagels in Maryland Virginia Washington DC’

Best Bagels in Washington, DC area?

Posted: March 8, 2025 in Breads and Treats
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As I noted in an earlier FB post, in a sorta do-over, the Washington Post decided to revisit its previous rankings of top bagel places in the Washington DC area. The paper previously ranked Pearls as the number 1 bagel shop. Wow. So it seemed right for them to revisit their clearly erroneous decision after the entire world complained. They said “we overlooked some of the best bagels in town.” So sad. What were they doing?

Anyway they did the do-over and, no surprise, Pearls dropped from number 1 to number 3. First place went to Brooklyn Bagels and second place went to Baked by Yael. Where’s my personal fav Bethesda? Not even in their top 5. Im looking for something sharp to stick in my eye right now.

I visited Baked by Yael, Pearls, Bagel Uprising, Brooklyn, and Bethesda Bagels. Of all of these places, this is the only one I brought home:

It’s not that the rest of the places were bad, just not as good as Bethesda. Anyway, my first stop was Pearls.


Pearls is a cute place and the staff are super friendly. If you can grab one of the few tables, great place for coffee. The bagels are ok, just ok, really designed for a bagel sandwich. That means they are mostly soft and pillowy. There is no discernible difference between Pearls and Bagel Uprising – bagels made for sandwiches. This is not a bagel shop for purists or bagel snobs. The everything bagel was good but the plain bagel was the best.

Baked by Yael was not what I expected. This place really is a bakery, not a bagel shop. Their cakepops looked yummy, but I passed. Ditto the panda toys.

The bagels were flavorful but a bit salty. I did like the flavor. The bagels were underproofed. The everything was overly coated in poppy. This should be illegal:

The bagels came oddly wrapped in tin foil and not cut in half but there it is. I thought all bagel places knew how to use bakery paper and cut a bagel in half. You can see these bagels are underproofed by these pics:

Overall the flavor was elevated, blisters and corn meal only on the bottom, discernible skin with a crunch I liked, but underproofing made them quite dense. I wouldn’t go out of my way for these and I’m a bit confused why the Post thinks they belong in the top 5.

Brooklyn Bagels was respectable enough. The bagels are large but not overly so. There was a thin skin but really no crunch. The flavor just …. neutral, nothing to write home or blog about lol. The toppings don’t really help because they are quite stingy. Here’s the everything bagel:

Here is the Onion bagel (with lox, capers, tomato and red onion):

I do agree with the Post that Brooklyn Bagels is better than Pearls and certainly better than Baked by Yael, but Brooklyn Bagels is absolutely not the best bagel in the DC area. That honor goes to Bethesda Bagels.

This is what a bagel shop should be. Proud display of a wide variety of bagels, stacks of flour bags on the floor and a massive boiling kettle of water with steam making the place feel like a rain forest.

How can you possibly get better than that? The bagels are flavorful, with a crunch skin on the outside, but soft enough on the inside with a nice balance of density and chewiness. Toppings top and bottom are generous. I do think their bagels are too large and they sell a mini bagel that’s too small, but I can deal with that problem.

Weirddoughs Bagels

Posted: July 19, 2024 in Breads and Treats, Uncategorized
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Warrenton, Virginia

A relatively new bagel shop opened in Warrenton, Virginia!  There is nothing weird about Weirddoughs Bagels and they have now taken over my list as the top bagel shop in our tri-county area (Culpepper, Fauquier and Rappahannock Counties) with an overall rating of 8.4, a well-earned rating that, but for a few minor criticisms, could have been a solid 8.6.

Having moved out of their previous digs on the other side of town (that was very unattractive and inhospitable so I refused to go), they now occupy an adorable little shop on Culpeper Street.  The venue is well-done with both indoor and outdoor seating and is certainly a great place to hang out for a bagel and coffee in the morning.

They make traditional “New York style” bagels, clearly hand-rolled, properly risen, boiled and baked fresh each morning.  As typical, I arrived mid-morning and ordered one each of their everything, onion, asiago and plain bagels, not toasted, with plain cream cheese.

There was a longer-than-expected wait for the bagels in the modestly busy shop but I didn’t let that bug me.  The friendly staff brought it out from the back and politely handed me my order.  The bagels were unusually wrapped in a large wrapping but, once opened, demonstrated a properly cut bagel with a generous smear.  All is as it should be.

The color and texture were sublime, with a nice malty yeasty yummy aroma that spiked my taste buds and expectations even before my first bite.  The bagels are a respectable size – neither too small nor large.

The seasonings on the onion and everything bagels were a bit stingy, but nicely included on both sides of the bagels.

The onion bagel:

The cheese on the asiago on the other hand was generous and even melted through the discernible hole to pool on the bottom in a good way.  

The plain bagel had nice color and texture.

Each of the bagels were properly dense as should be expected.  The thin crunchy skin on the outside was in good shape and not too thin.  The favor profile was superb, with a nice tang.  Their processes are not readily observable because the kitchen is buried behind walls (sadly there was no steaming kettle of water visible) but I venture to guess these bagels begin life with a starter sponge, are made with good high-quality high-gluten flour (14%) and diastatic malt syrup, are hand rolled and allowed to rise in a cool long environment before boiling in water alkalized with baking soda. 

There was a nice pull to the bite – not overly tough. The crumb was slightly dense and moist, indicating to me that they were either under-baked (by about 1 minute) or not allowed to rise sufficiently.  Bagels should be baked at a proper 500ºF for approx. 7 minutes, then rotated and finished at 450 ºF for another 7 to 8 minutes. For the rise, the float test should always be used prior to going all-in.

Overall I truly enjoyed these bagels and am very happy Warrenton has a new shop to celebrate.  I will certainly return and encourage everyone to give them a visit!