Daily Bagel — Restaurant in San Diego

I have been seeking a bagel shop in San Diego that sells the NYC-style crunchy, fluffy bagels that I love, and the closest I have found to date has been Garden State Bagels in Encinitas. I was hoping that Daily Bagel was going to at least approximate what Garden State Bagels does, and I would even be willing to trade-off a bit of my bagel "ideal" for convenience, since Daily Bagel is near my house.

Unfortunately, I was disappointed during my trip to Daily Bagel. Most discouragingly, I got chewy, unimpressive bagels that were most similar to the bagels one would find in a chain like Einstein's or Dunkin' Donuts.

In addition to the "drive-thru" texture of the bagel, the "Works Bagel" (essentially what east-coasters call an "Everything Bagel") is over-dominated by substandard onion flakes that give it a cloying sweetness and harshness that renders it nearly inedible. I had my "Works Bagel" with ham, cheddar cheese, and egg and I was also unimpressed by the thin slice of "Oscar-Mayer"-level commodity-grade sandwich ham with scrambled eggs that lacked any basic seasoning such as, for example, salt and pepper.

My "Jalapeño Bagel with Jalapeño Cream Cheese" was better, and featured some small fresh chunks of jalapeño in the cream cheese, which I enjoyed. However, there aren't as many chunks as there are in Garden State Bagels' superior jalapeño cream cheese. Also, again, I dislike the chewy texture in addition to the plain taste of the bagel itself, which perhaps is made from under-salted dough that causes it to taste more like sandwich bread than what I expect a bagel to taste like.

This is a small shop and doesn't have a large selection, and it took them about 10-15 minutes for me to get my food on a Monday morning at around 10am. It should not take that long during non-peak hours to make a bagel breakfast sandwich, a bagel with cream cheese, and a Vietnamese coffee. The coffee was good -- perhaps the only reason I'd come back here would be...

Stopped by this spot while just out taking my dog for a walk, with no plans on going in. After living in New York for a year, finding a real Bacon, Egg, and Cheese in San Diego is near impossible. With that being said, the Daily Bagel gave me a perfect breakfast sandwich. The croissant was perfectly toasted and flakey on the outside but warm, buttery, and soft on the inside. The egg was actually egg, a nice change from the frozen 'egg' patty's we're accustomed to. Lastly, the bacon was thick and cooked perfectly, like what you would make at home just better quality. As if the food wasn't enough to make me want to come back, the staff was friendly, they were practicing social distancing and provided hand sanitizer, and when my food came out both of them gave me a warm smile before wishing me a good day. I will be going back and I am excited to bring my foodie family here as well. Thank you Daily Bagel for keeping classic, family owned bagel...

The bagels are really beautiful and they really lay on the toppings. The size is great, the toastability is great. I don’t know if it was just my batch or what but the dough is in DESPERATE need of salt. The coatings for garlic, onion, sesame and everything are thick but also need salt. This may be what some other people are mentioning as the variability in quality. Without salt, things are going to taste bland even if they’re loaded with toppings

Edit: as I’m eating these bagels, some clearly have a proper amount of salt and some do not. To the business owners, I would suggest auditing each person who makes your dough and making sure they are not confusing or missing salt measurements. The bagels are great when they’re...