Bagel · One — Restaurant in Minamiaso

The place to go (in Kumamoto) for your bagel cravings, approved by an East Coaster using Japanese standards!

This family-owned cafe has extremely friendly staff and a comfortable environment. They are also accommodating to large take-out orders, as long as you call in advance (I've personally ordered around 14 sandwiches at one time, plus fries and a drink, with very good service).

If you are just going for lunch, the portion size of even a modest bagel is enough to satiate, and won't cost you over 1,000円. The menu has changed recently and they no longer serve fries with the set meal due to a smaller staff!

To start, the plain bagels are good, and you can buy frozen ones to take home and use for yourself. There is also an assortment of different cream cheeses which you can also take in bulk depending on availability. I particularly recommend the Honey Walnut to those looking for something sweet.

The salmon and cream cheese is actually a mixture (and a very tasty one at that), not cream cheese and salmon layered, so if that is a problem, then they also have a smoked salmon which is separate from the cream cheese. Other than that, there is a decent selection of other savory bagel sandwiches you can get, which all have their good points. I'm personally a fan of the prosciutto cream cheese and the bacon and cheese sandwich, the latter of which can come with a delicious garlic cheese if you so choose.

Another important note for foreigners is that if you order a bagel sandwich, it will be warm, so keep that in mind with your preferences. This is no problem if you are buying bagels and cream cheese spreads in bulk to take home, but I am aware some people may be picky about raw salmon/prosciutto served on a warm bagel. That said, they are both very good and recommended regardless of temperature, so please give it a try!

Finally, as a cafe, they have a selection of drinks including mixed fruit juices and coffee/tea lattes. In the latte category, the caramel latte and brown sugar latte are great. There is also a really great homemade minestrone soup which seems to go overlooked!

If you're a foreigner living near Aso or in Kumamoto, and you get that classic craving for bagels, then this place is very much...

Really cute bagel cafe! Compared to bagels in the UK or the US, the bagels were average, but high quality by Japans standard! They do a set which is one of the bagels with either fries or a hashbrown and a drink or soup. I got the red beef burger bagel set with kabocha soup and fries. It was reallllllly good! The fries are made in house and really good. My friend got the flake salmon cream cheese bagel set with a hash brown and minestrone soup. She said the salom cream cheese was especially good. The drink selection is pretty big with a variety of cold and hot drinks. Very nice small cafe to get...

This little shop is such a cute breakfast/brunch spot! We tried the strawberry and orange cream cheese bagels and they were amazing. The bagels were warm and toasted to perfection. The owners were so nice and the menu was in English which was very nice...