Balena Bagels — Restaurant in Castle Shannon

Read about this place recently and was intrigued enough to put it on our list of places try since there are no really good bagel places around. Finding it is a bit of a chore since Google Maps has not updated its street view yet, but we ended up coming to Anthos (next door) and walked over. It is a small cubbyhole of a place and you basically order your bagels, pay for them, and leave.

Coming in mid-day, their cupboard was pretty bare. We bought a half dozen (two of each of three kinds). When we tried them we noted that they are basically the same bagel dough with different toppings / coatings on top. We got the Zaatar, Rosemary, and Everything bagels, by the way. That was somewhat disappointing, but aside from that, they were decent bagels.

Will we go out of our way to get their bagels in the future? Probably not. Parking in that area is atrocious and they are not special enough for us to make the longish drive and deal with the difficult parking situation.

I guess we keep looking for good...

Umm what?? Excuse me?? We have bagels this good in PA? In Pittsburgh?? In the south hills?? How? This would give Montreal a run for their money. Pigeon bagels in the city is vastly overrated (with a line down the block, but no line here!!).

See those bubbles? That's proper fermentation. This is a real, proper bagel. The texture is immaculate. I am shocked that we are so spoiled to have this place. I see other reviews notice they are good too, but I honestly worry they'll go unnoticed by the folks in the south hills (no offense to us). Although, I worried about Anthos for the same reason and they are a huge success too, so perhaps not!

But I selfishly hope Balena can open a satellite in the city that can help sell volume for them. They'd make a killing if they could set up shop in that zone between CMU and Pitt.... I would get them every day....

Anyway, I'm raving about these bagels to everyone, especially folks I know who take transit. It's a teeny stroll from...

The bagels are tasty. I like the chewy exterior and soft interior. Great service and overall experience. Will definitely come back. A few suggestions: make cinnamon raisin and blueberry regular bagels or at least weekend bagels (there are quite a few savory bagels that feel very similar that could be swapped out for these). I’m not a savory bagel person and pretty much have to get there by 8am on Saturday to get a blueberry bagel before they are gone. I wish I could try the cinnamon raisin but I am not able to go on fridays when that bagel is available. -given the space is small and almost always packed, you could remove some decorative items that get in the way or take up space. This would make the most of the space you have. I could see adding these decorations if the place wasn’t ever busy but that doesn’t seem to be...