Mile End Bagels — Restaurant in Melbourne

3.5/5

Mile End is Melbourne's first bagel shop to offer wood-fired bagels, inspired by the bagel scenes in Montreal and New York City. I have never been to their other locations, but the Brunswick location is quite literally a 'hole in the wall' with no kind of seating available. This is fine for those of us who don't mind eating in their cars (me).

l've visited once before, years ago, and wasn't too impressed so I recently decided to give them another chance. Yet again, I was not overly impressed but it was good. Their menu is quite basic, offering straightforward ingredients that may appeal to those seeking simplicity. Service was unfortunately unremarkable and lacked personal touch.

As I recalled, the bagels remain quite dense, resulting in most of the filling spilling over, which can lead to unnecessary mess. While I usually appreciate a generous filling, when it escapes the confines of what I'm eating, it becomes a tad inconvenient. Oddly enough, I found myself enjoying the Chicken Salad bagel much more than my typical preference which would be the Pastrami. It was refreshing, I always love a bit of BBQ sauce and the chicken was well-seasoned. The Pastrami option was decent but didn't overly impress. A touch more mustard would have alleviated its dryness and introduced additional layers of flavour. I was a big fan of the pickles though. They also offer a great range of hot and cold beverages to complement your meal.

Mile End are currently doing Monthly Specials, so keep an eye out for those on their socials as they are typically more interesting than their regular menu. After two visits that failed to leave a lasting impression on me, I'm inclined to stick with my usual bagel spots...

As the name suggests, they served sandwiches in Bagel. There are different bagel variants and stuffings to choose from. We visited here on a Sunday morning and it wasn't too crowded. We tried the following items from their numbered menu - #2 which had pickled jalapenos and cream cheese; #4 which had Avocado, chive cream cheese, tomato, pink sauce and chilli oil; #9 which has Chicken salad, avocado, bbq sauce, tomato, onion, rocket and tasty cheese; and #12 which was cream cheese and raspberry jam. We also had a supermate soda which was a variant of tea with fizz. You need to place your order at the counter, and collect your token. Once the order is prepared, your name will be called. Coming to the taste, it was really good indeed though I found the bagels to be a bit hard. They would cut the bagel at the centre making it easy to eat. The bagels are wrapped, making it easy to takeaway as well. There's some space to eat while being seated. Overall a good experience and would recommend it to someone who wants to try something...

I popped into Mile End Bagels after Pilates for a little treat and grabbed myself their two April specials to try! I’ve visited mile end before on a collab basis but this time I visited as a paying customer and honestly I enjoyed it even more than my first time!

Here’s my thoughts on the bagels: 🥯 Hot Cross Bagel with hot cross cream cheese, cinnamon, orange zest & sultanas: oh my gosh this was absolute heaven, the bagel for starters was perfect, the flavour of a hot cross bun was there but the cream cheese was on another level! This whole bagel is my new addiction and for $12 how can you not grab yourself one? 🐟 Tuna Melt bagel with pickles, jalapeños & melted cheese! This was fantastic, their bagels are just so good! I got it on an everything bagel and it was perfectly balanced! The only thing I’d say is that it gets messy, so be prepared. I loved the lighter feeling of it being in a bagel.

The bagels here are fantastic and not too poorly priced either! Definitely coming back again for the hot cross bagel in...