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we swung by on a late friday evening after our montreal friend said it was a must-try. i love the atmosphere - you order basically right in the kitchen - there are workers pulling bagels fresh out of the huge oven and putting them straight into our hungry tummies! our friend says that the traditional bagels are either the poppy or sesame seed but we LOVED the blueberry bagels. they were packed full of blueberry and definitely had a great blueberry flavor. i also spotted cranberry, chocolate chip, and all-dressed (= everything) bagels and was impressed by the size of the bozo (poppy seed and sesame seed). the bagels are crunchier/more well done than typical bagels and a touch sweeter and less dense than new york style bagels... delicious! best off, they're all only 70 cents each!
MUST EAT FRESH!!
I'm told this spot has the best bagels in Montreal. The texture is nice, crispy with a nice chewy inside. I had the garlic and the onion, which were full of flavor. They have a bunch of spreads like hummus, tzaziki, lox, etc.
Another must try Montreal institution. No worries, the long line moves fast.
The bagel was good but I'm more of a NY style bagel kind of girl. I don't like my bagels as dense.
I did quite enjoy watching the guys make the bagels though while waiting to order - that itself was worth the taxi ride from our hotel downtown to try Montreal's Best Bagel!
As a Native New Yorker there is no other bagel that matches quality, taste and consistency to flavor. Until one fine day a friend in Montréal along with her husband took myself and my former love to Fairmount. Whoa! The taste is vastly different than New York standards. I'm verstile in flavor so taste is easily to adapt. It's sweeter and smaller in size.
http://www.fairmountba...
You can see from my profile that I'm from NYC where we're a little picky (and provincial about our bagels). Carry on reading at your own risk.
While the bagels here are good, they simply aren't my favorite kind of bagel. I found them a bit cakey and sweet. I prefer my bagels a little more robust and full-bodied in texture, and less sweet. I can't really see pairing a Fairmount bagel with cream cheese and lox; the sweetness would just get in the way.
The shop however is great, very old fashioned and bare bones which was really cool. I gave it a fair try but I think that perhaps Montreal style bagels just aren't for me.
I'm such a tourist.
So yes, I had to grab a famous Montreal bagel on my recent trip. I hiked out here from my downtown hotel on a lovely Friday morning and was surprised to arrive to a line out the door. Fortunately, Fairmount is very efficient and I was quickly at the front of the line. I ordered one sesame and one cinnamon raisin bagel, paid up, and was out of there because there is no place to eat in the store. I settled on a bench outside, decided to save my cinnamon raisin bagel as a snack during my later Mont Royal hike, and started eating. Having finished the sesame bagel, I promptly reversed my decision and also ate the cinnamon raisin one. I'm a tourist with poor impulse control.
My Lonely Planet tour book informed me that Montreal residents refer to our American bagels as "hockey pucks" (whether or not this is true, I have no idea). And I can see why. These bagels are definitely "wetter" than ours are - perhaps because they're dunked in water before they go in the oven. They're also slightly sweeter. I dunno...at the end of the day they were good, but a bagel's kind of a bagel's kind of a bagel. After the hype I was expecting this bagel to change my life and make me swear off American bagels forever. Let's just say I've already purchased a Dunkin' Donuts bagel since my return.
Prices are super reasonable, and I saw they had bags of day old bagels for even less money available at the front of the store.
I knew I had to try a bagel at Fairmount when I was in Montreal, so I grabbed a taxi at my hotel. When the doorman asked where I was going so he could tell my driver and I said Fairmount Bagels, he smiled and teased me, "Are you going to bring some back with you? You'll have a lot of friends!"
Even when I walked in the door of the little storefront, I wasn't sure if I was in the right place. The vestibule was stacked high with bagged bagels and all I could see were people in various stages of bagel-making. For a moment I thought I'd walked into the wrong part, because I didn't see a retail counter anywhere. But when I asked the first worker I saw, she pointed me around the tower of packages to the counter.
While contemplating what to order and then waiting for my smoked salmon and cream cheese on a plain bagel, I was able to witness the process: one man sliced bits from a huge ball of dough and formed the bagels. At the other table another man lined up uncooked bagels on a 6-foot-plus narrow wooden paddle and placed the bagels into the roaring wood-fired oven. It was quite a spectacle, especially when the bagels were extracted from the oven on the long paddle and tossed into a waiting receptacle.
I ate my bagel as I walked back toward my hotel, down St.-Laurent. At first glance, it was definitely smaller than its U.S. cousins. At first bite, it was harder, more pretzel-like than doughy, and slighty sweet. But as with all bagels, it was delicious with the cream cheese and smoked salmon. The trip to Fairmount was certainly worth it, but I still prefer American bagels.
My favourite bagel place in the entire world. 24/7, yo.
It's funny how this place will completely split people's opinions. I can certainly respect the taste and size of the bagels here for what they are. Montreal bagels, bagels that are probably some of the best in Canada.
However, they're certainly not NY bagels which is what I've become accustomed to and what I find to be tastier for my taste buds at least.
They weren't so exceptional that I would purposely come here again, but if it were handy to swing by I would certainly grab another.
Some of the others in the group I went with loved the bagels and some of the others disliked it more than me.
We got there first thing in the morning so lines weren't an issue, but by the time we were leaving there was definitely a sizable crowd slowly building out the door.
Hmmm... bagels.
I hardly eat them as the bagel shops in Toronto don't make good Montreal-style bagels (except for Gryfe's). However whenever I visit Montreal, I make an effort to travel to one of the best bagel shops in the city.
I like the fact there's variety at Fairmount. Say what you will about the other shops who claim that bagels should only come in two or three flavours maximum, I disagree. If you can make a tasty garlic-flavoured bagel then you have my vote as being one of the best bagel shop in the city. I tend to go to the other place further down the street out of loyalty and reputation, but Fairmount is a fair contender in the bagel wars.
With an assortment of flavours, I bought plain, sesame and garlic. I practically lived on these during my 24 hours stint in the city. While waiting for the free Stevie Wonder show to start, I ate the supply I had bought that morning and shared with my friends. They were still fresh and soft, a perfect bagel in my books!
These bagels make me happy. This is the seven-step plan to best navigate the Fairmont bagel experience:
1) starve yourself in the morning
2) make sure you have cash
3) when you get to the counter, order a dozen of whatever just came out of the oven (hopefully sesame) for every 3 people. in your group. Also get a big tub of the french high-fat cream cheese, a package of smoked salmon (180-250 grams should do you about right) and a half-gallon of OJ.
4) after paying, take one bagel out of the bag and split it into three. Eat it plain immediately so you can minimize the oven-to-mouth time.
5) have a mini-mouthgasm.
6) get to the park asap and create a slicing-smearing-loxing assembly line.
7) devour and be happy. If visiting Montreal, return at the end of the trip to buy as many dozens as fit in your trunk.
This is not a cafe. There are no tables, cafe au laits, or wireless internet stations.
It's a friggin' bagel store. Like, you know, a bakery.
It amazes me that people want so much goddamn razzle-dazzle these days that they'll rate stars down on THE BEST FREAKIN' BAGELS IN THE UNIVERSE just because it doesn't meet their Lacoste Sportif wearing, cosmo-sipping, gentrified yuppie ideal.
Cynical New Yorkers should avoid Fairmount as well. This isn't fucking
Zabar's, and the bagels aren't those puffy monsters that the Apple is so famous for.
As for me, I'll take 7 dozen sesame seed bagels to go, please.
I've never liked Montreal bagels. I've always thought they tasted more like pretzels than bagels.
But, I was in Montreal, and my friend from the area, said this was the place to go. So, I trekked out here. In the rain. Pushing a stroller. With an overtired child in the seat.
First, I got here, and was disappointed there was no place to sit and enjoy the bagels I was going to buy. The shop itself was great. And watching the process was amazing. But the place was small. And not quite what I expected.
I bought a few bagels, took a bite out of one before leaving the store. I was woefully unimpressed.
Then a local cabbie comes in. He has left his cab double parked outside. He asks for "two of whatever is hot". Pays his money and is on his way.
I go back to the counter. And I now ask for "two of whatever is hot". And I have a bagel that changes my mind about what a bagel can be. Holy sh*t those were good bagels.
Cabbies. Say what you will about them... they know how to eat.
So screw the fancy flavors. Seriously. Get what just came out of the oven. Eat it on the spot. Then repeat. Until you can't shove any more white flour down your gullet.
Are they the better bagel? Honestly, I am still partial to the NY bagel on the whole. But Fairmont has encouraged me to keep an open mind.
My bf and my friends LOVE Montreal-style bagels.
When we visited Montreal, this was a must-stop. We stocked up on enough to bring home to the States, and we savored every one.
Chewy bagels with a nice density, and not sweet at all (that's a big issue for me in bagel shops outside of NYC--too many places add a lot of honey or sugar). Perfect simply toasted with butter. Mmm.
Hands down, the best bagel store I've visited in my life. Nothing comes close.
The only "machine" I saw here is the cash machine. Everything else is hand made. You can see the bagel preparation process while ordering. Everything is hand made, with care.
Get the Montreal style bagel. It is the equivalent of everything bagel. There is no match to it. Other winners are cumin, chocolate chip, and sun dried tomato bagels.
We took our bagels to Illy coffee next door to eat. There is no space to sit at Fairmount bagels, there is barely enough space to stand.
I bought a whole bag of the Montreal style bagels to bring home and forgot them on the plane. I listened to my man for an entire week, as a punishment. Yeah, they are that good.
My husband and I went to try this place out after being told that Montreal had bagels worth writing home about. After trying these bagels, we were so disappointed we almost didn't go on to St. Viateur which turned out to be epically better.
Not only did we watch one of the bagel makers drop a whole load on the floor and then throw them in the bins anyway, my cinnamon raisin bagel was totally hard and flavorless. My husband's blueberry bagel was only marginally better. I don't care about the size, or the cafe feel, but the taste has to be there and it just wasn't. Maybe it was an off day or an off batch but, well totally not worth it as far as I'm concerned.
I will start by saying that my daughter and I made a special trip to get these bagels fresh in the morning, and I was so disappointed!
First of all, weighing in on the bagel debate, I do prefer NY bagels (for which I have also been known to make special pilgrimages). Montreal's are thinner and somewhat sweet, which is less enjoyable to me.
That said, some of the dozen bagels sold to me were actually stale and had to be day old. The best and freshest was probably the sesame. However, we decided after trying both St. Viateur and Fairmount, that Montreal bagels are not for us. I think many Americans who have experienced high-quality bagels in NYC might agree. Frankly, I can even do better at several places in Boston.
Montreal has amazing French food; I guess I don't need it to compete with NY for the Jewish angle. (I also think Schwartz's is way overrated.)
I wish someone would have told me this is not my kind of bagel place. What I mean by that is that they don't toast bagels and smear them with anything you could possibly think of. It's a to go, dozen bagels to take home type of place.
I was so excited to try Fairmount Bagel because I used to work at a bagel place with the same name. My little heart and big appetite were crushed after walking miles to stand in line and realize nope, no toasted bagels with smears for me. Blargh.
The actual bagels we got and ate by themselves or dipped in cream cheese (one "all dressed" or everything in American speak and one chocolate chip) were good bagels, don't get me wrong. I was just very disappointed that I couldn't experience the bagels as a proper breakfast.
It tasted more like a bialy than a bagel. Sorry to say, but the bagel did not match the hype. Maybe it is because I'm surrounded by good bagel shops in NY/Norther NJ and can't help but compare. I would not go out of my way to come here again. But decent bagel, I guess.
There is basically no point in eating a sesame bagel from another shop. It will just depress you, as it has to me.
I miss you.
My Favorite Bagel
Yes, yes, NYC'ers complain that bagels are meant to be larger, but when it comes to taste, I think Fairmount's small donut like offerings are a lot better.
Unfortunately, they don't make their own cream cheese.
Next time, I venture up to Quebecoise contry, I'd like to try St-Viateur Bagel to compare with Fairmount.
That is NOT a bagel.
I'm from NYC, home of H & H and Ess a Bagel. Those are real bagels - big and meaty. These are more like glorified donuts. They're also unusually sweet for a bagel. Tasty but in a different sort of way...but just don't call it a bagel. The place is a dive in some residential area so parking is non-existent. The last annoying thing was that THEY DO NOT TAKE CREDIT CARDS!!! For such a busy place (expect to wait on line) that caters to tourists, it should really take credit cards. A tad expensive but what do you expect for a tourist trap.
Ess is a bagel. This is not.
As I dragged my poor guy across the Mont Royal Plateau on an epic quest, I was questioning my bagel obsession and asking myself, "Is all this brouhaha really worth a bagel?"
Do birds fly? Is water wet?
Great bagel place - the pretzels are good too! My only qualm is that they were out of so many specialty flavours and it was really disappointing to not get to try something crazy. I guess you have to get there early in the morning! It was really cool to watch the bagels being made from the huge mound of dough and slid into the oven on a giant wooden paddle. The bagel I finally settled on was good - chewy but with a little crunch to the outside. They have coffee too!
Fairmount Bagel is absolutely the best bagel I have had all over North America. The crispy outside and delicately soft inside is mouth watering. The bagels are so good I always buy a dozen to bring back to Boston. After you have had these bagels you can't eat another bagel anywhere else. I ONLY eat bagels here and never anyplace else which means I have bagels only about ten to twenty times per year
My rating is based only on the bagel and not the decor or location.
One thing that I can't stop thinking about is the Fairmount Bagel Bakery. There are arguments who makes the world best bagel.The winner is Fairmount Bagels.
It's freshly made out of hot wood burning ovens. My favorite are the Sesame bagels and Sun-Dried tomatoes.Love the crunch, the smell, and NO I'm not eating rubber ball. This what a bagel should be. Got to be stopby this place when you're in Montreal. Even the locals brags about their bagels.
The bagels are alright - but this place is not worth trekking across town to get a bagel.
This is just a bagel joint - they sell Philadelphia cream cheese like at the grocery store - but it's just a place to grab a bag of bagels and leave - that's it.
I went at noon-ish - there was a line out the door and hardly any flavors left. There certainly weren't any 'exotic' flavors left - which was quite disappointing. (and with a line out the door? I don't get it!!)
I got one fresh - still hot bagel - that was quite good - it was an onion bagel. The others were alright. I definitely recommend asking whats hot and get that - fresh is sooooo much better!!!
We took our bag of bagels and went next door to grab some coffee and sit down - as many others do as well.
scruuuuumptioooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuussssssssssss.
When I look at the Fairmount bagels and then think to my Brooklyn bagels, I can clearly see why we have such a larger obesity problem than Montreal.
Sad but true.
Nom nom nom.
I never knew there was so much of a debate between Montreal and NYC bagels until I read the travel guide and checked out Yelp. I guess I am just naive because i did a double take and my jaw dropped at another restaurant when I realized the menu said "Horse". wow, that was a shocker. But anyway, the whole bagel debate is kinda like the chicago vs nyc pizza thing. They are just totally different and its a tough comparison.
First of all, staying in downtown, I took the metro and walked about 10 or 15 min to Fairmount. It was nice to actually see some of the town. Anyway, the chick at the counter wasn't very friendly. I said bon jour but then started to speak in english. I think I pissed her off when I asked for a bagel with butter. She yelled at me and said "we don't serve butter with bagels here!" so sorry lady. Montreal does serve lil packets with peanut butter at some places (eggspecations) which i thought was fantastic. As far as the bagel, it's kinda small and it really reminded me of Panera or Au Bon Pain. like that very brown sophisticated look with the silly lil package of cream cheese in there. Maybe im the spoiled american who is happy when they cut the bagel for you...anyway I sat down outside in the rain and bit into the bagel, and WOW! It was really good! like really fn good. just like what they say, crunchy outside and sweet doughy interior. The only drawback was I should have ordered 4 or 5 of them because they are on the small side. They are cheap though (1 CAD). I didn't want the girl to yell at me again so i went across the street for more lunch at this bangin Cuban/Chilean cafe, which I will yelp later as soon as i find out the name.
If you are staying in old town or downtown, i really have to recommend checking out fairmount. Besides the bagels, it's a nice area to see and then you can walk back down St Denis.
We stopped here having heard that "Montreal bagels are the best." Our kids ordered a chococolate and a cinnamon/raisin bagel respectively, with cream cheese, and took them to go. This is a tiny hole in the wall shop, but it was cool to watch the bagels being made behind the counter while we waited. The bagels were less salted than what we were used to, and my son with braces found his harder than he had hoped for (supposed to avoid really crunchy stuff). Will have to try plain or sesame next time.
if you've never fallen in love with bagels, don't worry...it's not you.
i never knew i could have that orgasmic experience with bagels until i had some at la maison de l'original fairmount.
and if you didn't have that feeling after eating these bagels, yes, then it's YOU...something seriously is wrong with you or you've been very spoiled by your partner!!!
My friend and I went here for a late lunch. It was our first time, so we stuck with the traditional bagels: sesame seed and poppy seed. We both ordered our bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon. A bagle with cream cheese and smoked salmon costs a reasonable $6 Canadian. Even though we were there at 3 pm in the afternoon, there was still 3-4 people busy making bagels. (Their website claims that they make bagels 24 hours a day!!!) The bagels were delicious, lightly toasted, crunchy, and not chewy. I was happy that that the amount of cream cheese was kept to a minimum; I hate it when workers lather bagels with too much cream cheese. Delicious!
i dunno both bagel places for me weren't all that great... just dense... but not salted or buttered...
i wouldn't go all the way to montreal just to try this...
Very modest (and small!!!) place. The lady at the counter was super-nice. I got the sesame bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese. It was great. There is a hint of sweetness in these bagels that make them unique in Montreal. There is also something about the sesame seeds in these bagels which flavor pops out.
A dozen bagels from this bakery is basically worth a train ticket from Toronto. They are that good! I'm a purist when it comes to bagels, so I always stick with sesame, but they have lots of other interesting flavours, including flax, blueberry, sundried tomato, pumpernickel, and chocolate chip, which is smaller, crustier, and sweeter than their other flavours. The store is open 24 hours a day, and you can watch as ribbons from a giant blob of dough are made into bagels, boiled, and then baked in a wood oven. The 24-hour operation is not only convenient, it means that no matter when you go, your bagels will be hot and fresh - so much so that the bag will steam! I can imagine locals might get tired of Fairmount bagels (given a few decades), but if you're a tourist, this is an absolute must.
To be honest, i was expecting a bit more. It was a no nonsense kind of place where, for the most part it seems that locals order bagels by the dozen to take home. I ordered the sesame seed bagel with cream cheese. It was tasty and had a subtle sweetness to it that was a pleasant surprise. I sat on a bench outside and ate my bagel in the cold of Montreal. I guess i was just expecting, with all the hype, some kind of ambiance inside where i could sit and relish the best bagel known to man.
The bagels are small and not salty enough and definitely do not live up to all the hype and long lines. It is great to watch them make the bagels as you are in line, however. The cream cheese they use is much lighter and cheesier than the everyday Philadelphia cream cheese, which is nice.
Somewhat cliche to review Fairmount bagel but it has to be done. We went around 10.30am on a weekday morning and there wasn't a person in sight. Very non-descript place with piles of trays stacked up outside. Apparently they were working on a big Costco order and we could barely move in the small shop front for bags of bagels piled up everywhere. All the flavors were available and we opted for plain, sesame, onion and blueberry. Toasted with cream cheese when we got back home. Amazing. Best bagels ever, hands down, amazing. Thank goodness we can buy them in bags at the local supermarket.
this place was open at 4 am when we most needed it. actually, every moment of the day is when i most need it. these are unlike any bagel in the universe. i'll stand by it.
who knew that montreal was the place to go for bagels?
Montreal, QC
Montreal, QC
Montréal, QC
Montreal, QC
Montréal, QC
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