Tali’s Bagels & Schmear — Restaurant in Honolulu

My favorite place to stop by before work in the morning!

The bagels do in fact have a crispy exterior with a nice chewy center, but not to the point of being tough. Though it definitely helps to get them earlier in the morning!

For bagel flavors they have classic, everything, sesame, and poppyseed.

They have quite a variety of sweet and savory schmears to go with the bagels as well! They have different ones every day and the ones I’ve had so far are the classic, haupia, and the premium Israeli schmear.

Classic is pretty much your cream cheese flavor, haupia is a nice but not overly sweet coconut haupia flavor (of course), and the Israeli schmear is a wonderfully refreshing blend of cucumber, herbs, and cream cheese.

I’ve also gotten the classic lox bagel sandwich, which I will say is pretty tasty but I tend to stick with a good bagel with schmear for simplicity and prices’ sake.

(My go to is the everything bagel with a classic schmear btw, they compliment each other well 😋)

Since it hasn’t been mentioned yet so far, I’d like to talk about my favorite drink from here: the Israeli Iced Coffee!

I absolutely LOVE this drink! I always tend to get one to go with my bagel.

It’s a slushy style coffee that’s the perfect balance between bitter coffee flavor and sweetness, with a slightly sweet wall drizzle on the cup. If you come to Tali’s for a bagel, definitely try one of these guys too!

If I had any complaints, it’d be that that I tend to have bad luck with the operating hours.

I work nearby in the mall and usually stop by before my morning shifts. However, on three separate occasions, I’ve walked over to Tali’s only to find that it’s not open (they suddenly were closed on Mondays as well instead of only Tuesdays) or they were simply closed for maintenance. 😭

And speaking of times, I also recommend coming to Tali’s if you aren’t on a time crunch. Or if you are, show up 15 minutes before you think you’d actually need to show up. The line here gets so long depending on what time you show up, and with my luck I’ve even waited half an hour to order and receive my order because the line stretched around the side of the mall!

The iced coffee does come out faster than the bagels do so I usually just sip on that while I wait though haha

All in all, this place is great to stop by! Make sure to come in as early as possible, not only for better bagel quality and to avoid wait times, but because they also sell...

This pains me to write this, but I had to since I’m a huge Bagel and Schmear fan and since I already recommended people to this spot. I had their bagels at an event and really enjoyed them. Sadly, when I visited their location (hoping it was an off day) I ordered the OG NYC lox and bagels. The bagel was the most stale bagel I had ever eaten. I was in a rush and didn’t eat it until I had already walked outside of their shop (I work around the corner). The bagel was so stale that my lox and cream cheese kept falling out as I tried to pull the bread and eat it haha. I was hungry so I still tried to eat it! They advertised veggies with it? There were no veggies with my bagel. I also counted maybe three capers and four thinly sliced onion pieces. I will say there was a lot of salmon and tomatoes which was good, the ratio with the cream cheese was nice. I’ve had many bagels in the past and numerous places and lox and bagels are my go-to. Unfortunately, I was very underwhelmed. Stale bagel, little to no onions, three small capers, and no veggies with the bagel as advertised. I also wish they had given me napkins, since it was so messy. All in all I just had to struggle to eat it and was disappointed. They did not ask if it was take out or dine in, but they had it wrapped assuming it was take out so I just...

Grabbed breakfast after my morning run at 6:30 am on a Sunday morning. Seen just one customer leaving and one entering after I ordered-no lines and about 5 short minutes of wait. 2 friendly workers efficient in greeting and getting my order. I got the B.E.C Bagel Sandwich (classic bacon, egg, cheese), a mini bagel schmeared, and an israeli coffee. The sandwich was a classic! I had it on an everything seasoned bagel. Added my own hot sauce for a kick of flavor. The mini bagel schmear taste as expected, should of asked if there were other spreads (I like it sweet😋). Not too big on bagels, but I’m sure the bagel fanatics would love this place. The winner for me was the Israeli coffee! I didn’t know, but it does note in the menu, it was a slushie coffee with a sweet condense spread around the cup. Super refreshing and still so great when melted—did not lose taste like other coffee slushes I tried. Definitely was fulfilling, as I put in one sandwich and half of the bagel schmear aside. Also, the B.E.C, they can make it loaded with Portuguese sausage instead of bacon—I’ll definitely try that sometime! What’s great about this New York based establishment is that they do the traditional labor intensive method of bagels—boil, then bake. Very authentic! Would want to go back again to try their...