Bagels On Fire — Restaurant in Toronto

Found this little gem near me. My wife loves pumpernickel bagels but they are hard to find. We were going past “Bagels on Fire” anyways so we stopped in. The first thing you will notice is the amazing Ames’s of a wood fired oven. I looked but did not see any pumpernickel bagels. I was about to leave when the young lady behind the counter asked if I needed help. I said “do you have any pumpernickel bagels” to which she replied how many did I need. At first I said six but then changed it to twelve. She told me they will be freshly baked but would take about 10 minutes. Sure enough 10 minutes later I had a bag of freshly baked bagels from the wood fired oven. They put them in a paper bag and gave me a plastic bag to freeze them when they cooled off. I brought them to our car. My wife smelled the bagels and couldn’t wait to try them. When we got home we cut them in half then put one in the toaster. We added pumpkin spiced cream cheese. Honestly, my wife said it was the best bagel she has ever had. While I am not a fan of pumpernickel I did try one and loved it. The staff (possibly family run) were absolutely wonderful. The service was amazing and while the price was a bit more than I would normally pay, it was worth paying for the quality. Inside there are three small tables and a couple more outside. They do have many toppings available. In the 10 minutes I was there many people came in to order. I highly recommend this wonderful place and will definitely be back to try more flavours,...

I lived in Montreal for fifteen years and ate a lot of bagels so I do feel qualified to comment. When this establishment first opened there was absolutely no doubt that it produced the most authentic Montreal style bagels in Toronto, both in taste and style. The taste is still there...soft and delicious in the center but I agree with some other reviewers that there is less care being put into the shape and size which does affect the texture. A real Montreal bagel is often best enjoyed warm out of the oven with no added ingredients. This the necessity of having the hole a certain size so that the inner dough gets the same cook time as the outer crust. I do find the taste to still good but wish they would revert to the true shape again. I have always found the staff to be very pleasant although at busy times service can be a little slow as the place is small. (However, we gladly used to wait outside the two most famous Montreal bagel bakeries for fifteen or so minutes to get an order!). There are a couple of tables inside and out to pause and savour. Parking is definitely a problem as it is street only and a very limited number of spots for five or six businesses. I still do recommend for the...

Very good bagels, need to streamline the ordering. It sometimes takes awhile to grab and go a dozen bagels as they often get slowed down preparing single sandwiches which each take a minute or two to prepare. I’d suggest one server dedicated to ‘grab and go my orders only (dozen bagels, pretzels, etc so those customers could get in and out quickly). I’m sure it’s costing them lost customers as sometimes it takes 10+ minutes to fill an order, even with a short line. Personally, I’m often in a rush in the morning and just bypass now if there is a line as it just takes too long. With the original owners at the store, this was never an issue - but they’ve moved to support the new store at queen west.

Also, I’d say the quality has gone down a little bit (but not a lot) with the new staff. I find sometimes the bagels are a little slightly over done these days. That said - still some of the best bagels in the city.

I hope they consider adding an express line for ‘grab and go’ orders only. Cobs is way more efficient as no preparation (other than slicing bread) seems to happen on site (so it’s my alternative but I prefer...