The Happening Bagel Bakery — Restaurant in London

Having been into this place several years back and had my jaw melted off by molten pastry filling I thought it might be fun to pop in again for more of the same.

Was not disappointed.

Having queried fillings of several savoury pastry products with the staff, I opted for two of the jamaican 'patties' - one chicken and one other i did not catch the details of when the member of staff serving me mumbled it vaguely in my direction.

On asking whether i want this 'warmed up', I said very clearly, WARMED, yes - NOT too hot, please. The woman slammed them into her oven and then proceeded to begin serving other customers. Catching her as she went to grab a packet and after 20 seconds had passed on the microwave/oven device's timer I said thank you, that is enough - at which point she opened the oven, felt around the pastries and turned around to reply 'no, needs longer' before moving to the till to ring up my purchase. Which, astonishingly to me, came to over £6. For two patties.

Having no further say in the immolation of said pastries, i waited until i was handed both bags before leaving the premises and began unwrapping the first 'patty'.

I have had this form of jamaican fare on many occasions before - I can say that I have never had a drier, more liquid free pastry in London. I could feel the pastry sucking the moisture out of my gob with every increasingly hesitant bite. With 3/4 of the first item going into the nearest bin, i opened the second bag which, encouragingly, was somewhat oily - suggesting at least a modicum of liquid in the product.

Not to mention the fact that both containers were a hair away from being red hot and, again, inedible due to their temperature.

But, on first bite, the contents of said second 'pastry' revelealed themselves to be, well, i have no idea. Looked like a form of paste, vaguely chicken in flavour? No idea to be honest. As the member of staff i was dealing with had trailed off when asked what exactly was in the thing i had no idea what i was eating. We will label it 'grim' and leave it at that.

I suppose there must be other products on sale in this establishment that do represent good value and do approximate the flavour or flavours of the foods they are meant to replicate. I have yet to taste these. The premises themselves are depressing beyond belief - with a large gentleman in apron and t-shirt standing just adjacent to the weirdly shaped serving areas surrounded by a messy, jumbled 'kitchen' area. Sure no punter in an area like finsbury park gives much of a toss about how ugly a trader's workspace is - i will say it anyway.

Dear owner: Jack yourself up, pull your finger out and at least make an effort to leave the place looking good and hire in at least one person capable of approximating a smile. Or at least looking like they would rather not be anywhere but in your 'bakery'.

Not...

Customer service here is a myth. The blonde and brunette servers act like they've been dragged in from the street to work and would rather be elsewhere. There is zero hospitality from anyone who serves here. Their attitude is truly abysmal.

As for the food, they bring in crowds because of their Chola bread. Fresh out the oven, it is truly delicious.

The other items on sale are pretty much touch and go. The bagels are significantly smaller than before and quite expensive in comparison to their size. Fillings are nice and reasonably portioned. The cakes are easy on the eye, but I always have a lingering suspicion that they will taste vile. They pair up low supplies of any particular cake with another, and a visual comparison clearly shows some cakes have been sitting out for 3-4 days at least. They look so delapitated and unappealing in that regard that I dare not take a chance to spend the extortionate amounts of money they demand on a cake I truly feel I will despise.

Their donuts are horrendously expensive. For the ring donuts, the icing is literally sugar and food colouring, and whilst the flavour is there, you could literally pop across to Lidl over the road and get 6 ring donuts for the same price.

*Edit: Their apple donuts were lovely up until 2024-ish. However, they are not always fresh. They like to tell you everything is baked fresh daily, but that is not true. I have bought apple donuts that they stated were fresh baked that morning, and they were as hard as a rock cake. On another occasion, it had mould underneath the apple filling. I have been there of late (March 2025) and tried the apple donuts again, and now they have changed the apple filling. It used to have a sharp, tangy filling with crunchy apple pieces in a sweet glaze type mixture. Now it's soft and mushy, and the tang is no more. I feel as though they've changed the brand of filling because 1. they can no longer source the brand they were using for over 30 years, or 2. this brand is cheaper, therefore maximising profit. I'm veering on the latter as the most plausible explanation, seeing as their pricing continues to water the eyes.

As long as you inspect bakery items carefully before purchasing and don't expect anything remotely resembling good customer service, you'll be fine. It's such a shame really, as keeping their ear to the ground and actually reading these reviews would give them the opportunity to see from patrons of their bakery where they fall short and make some well needed changes. Seriously, we can't be in 2025 and still ignore constructive criticism in an era where digital information is literally at...

Best onion bagel EVER...I can't imagine getting my cholla from anywhere else. I have bought cholla only to get home and find it doughy, I simply take a picture, show it the next time I'm there and I'm given a free on....with a minimum of fuss. The ladies are always polite and the owner's a true gentleman.

EDIT...took ⭐️ ⭐️ 💫 Been coming here for years, still love the challah but today's visit just about broke me, due to illness I've become less mobile and I'm usually unable to stand for any length of time. I have a walker so I can stop and rest when my pain gets too much but it was wet and windy so instead I took my walking stick and a friend drove me as near as she could to find parking. By the time I got into the shop I was in quite a bit of pain, I ordered my challah and was told it'll be ready in 5 minutes as I wanted hot ones. I paid and to relieve some of the pain I rested against the wall but it was no good, my back and legs were in agony, so much so that another customer asked if I feeling ok. I asked the lady behind the counter if they had a chair, she shouted over to the guys and one of them rolled his eyes and snapped back in a different language, the lady snapped back and said 'but she wants a sit' he muttered threw his cleaning cloth on the workbench and start gesturing, by this time I genuinely was about to cry my pain was so bad, I said it's ok if u don't have a chair but the lady say they have that's why she asked him. I grit my teeth almost in tears as the man angrily opened the oven and dumped the bread out saying 'it's ready now anyway' or some to that effect and started to serve another customer as the lady served me. He never looked at or addressed me. I took the bread, hobbled outside and spent 5 to 10 mins sitting on one of those bt exchanged boxes in front of the chemist next door to them. The thing, it'd cost that man nothing just to be kind and give me something to sit on, I'm a frequent repeat customer who just needed a little bit of help and his unkindness literally brought...