Seattle's Bagel Oasis: The 2024 Review
More than a year since my last review, we return to the Ravenna mainstay.
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For a long stretch, Bagel Oasis was my No. 1 bagel in Seattle. And until Hey Bagel officially opens its doors in a couple of months, it’s still the top brick-and-mortar in town.
My last review of the longstanding Ravenna bagel spot came in September 2023, around the time I interviewed owner Peter Ryan to find out why Bagel Oasis had such longevity.
In the ensuing months, I’ve gotten a handful of comments and emails, claiming that their visit to this Seattle bagel institution was “pretty disappointing,” had a “bad recipe” and that the experience was “extra disappointing.” Everyone’s opinion is valid in this house, but I have to say, the steady drip of complaints had me a little shook, as the kids say.
Taste and flavor preferences are subjective, but one of my great fears is for people to come away from this newsletter feeling like I don’t know what I’m talking about (I don’t, but that’s not the point). And while I remained confident in my own assessments, I wondered if consistency was an issue. The everything bagel in my Second Schmear review had a different bake to the one from my original review, so perhaps that was happening here as well.
It seemed like a return to the Oasis was long overdue. One thing I wanted to be clear about was what my review would consist of. I retired The Whole Megillah-style review and I didn’t have a good idea in mind for a third visit. Instead, I considered how long it’s been since my last visit and realized I could mark each new review by year. Doing so opens the door for me to revisit other popular Seattle bagel spots, using a yearly return to mark the passage of time, and see how things have changed (or not changed).
So consider this the 2024 review of Bagel Oasis. Let’s do this…
And if you want to know how I define a good bagel, you can find that here.
WHAT I ORDERED
Plain bagel as-is ($2.25)
Everything bagel with cream cheese ($6.75)
THE EXPERIENCE
I rolled out Monday morning on a classic Seattle fall day. Rainy, breezy, and with a crisp bite in the air. An ideal day for a bagel, really. Several Seattle bagel shops are closed on Mondays but I knew without checking that Bagel Oasis wouldn’t be one of them.
Approaching the classic shop under a blanket of grey sky on a street covered in fallen leaves, the scene would not have been out of place in a childhood fall memory. There weren’t many people inside but the baskets were plenty stocked and the nostalgic vibes kept crashing over me like waves.
So many of Seattle’s bagel shops are new and shiny, and that’s great. But give me the lived-in aesthetic of Bagel Oasis any day. I love a bagel place where the edges have been sanded down. Where the menu board includes passive-aggressive ordering instructions and I have to deal with minor inconveniences like an inability to accept Apple Pay. I want to feel like they don’t have time to care about anything other than the bagels. That’s what it felt like on my recent trip to NY with Bagel Hole and Absolute Bagel. ‘You want Instagram backdrops? Go someplace else. We’re too busy making pumpernickel bagels.’
UPON FIRST GLANCE
Perusing the baskets while I waited for my order, I thought the bagels looked really good all around. Nice colors, lots of golden and dark browns. Lots of blisters. All seemed as it should. No notes!
TOP
The plain bagel was an ideal size and featured a medium center. The bagel was cold, which was unfortunate. The coloring of the top was light brown to golden brown and was soft and crinkly to the touch. There was blistering all along the top and edges as well as a few textural crevices. The bagel had an unexpected heft that told me a dense but chewy interior lay within.
The everything bagel was also an ideal size and featured a medium-small center. It too was cold. The coloring on top ranged between golden brown and dark brown. The top was very firm and featured a medium seed hand with a healthy mix of seasoning (except for salt). Some blistering was visible beneath the seeds.
BOTTOM
The bottom of the plain bagel had a beautiful color. That kind of deep brown ring you get from a nice bake. It was crispy and firm to the touch. There was a slight Cornmeal Ring of Doom (CRoD) present but nothing that made me concerned.
The bottom of the everything bagel had some nice coloring, with some spots firm and others soft. The CRoD was present here and there was a smattering of seasoning, which is always appreciated to help balance out the flavors.
INSIDE/BITE
The plain offered a slightly tough rip which revealed a classic bagely smell. The interior was indeed dense and chewy in the best way. The exterior offered some delightful crispiness that created a nice textural balance. The bagel had a strong rebound after each bite, reinflating quickly. No matter where I took a bite from, I got little crinkles that elevated the chew. An extremely eatable bagel.
The everything bagel with scallion cream cheese featured a very solid schmear application. Furthermore, the cream cheese was cold, ensuring it stayed in place after each bite. The schmear included plenty of tasty scallion bits but also had good flavor in general.
The crispiness of the bagel came through on the bite. Proportionally, it was an ideal bagel and cream cheese experience, with each bite containing a bit of everything. The onion and garlic flavors popped, though I would have loved some salt in the mix (AS GOD INTENDED) to bring out the seasoning a little bit more.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Like I said earlier, I welcome everyone’s opinions and points of view. I might be the one writing this newsletter but I want this to feel like a community where you can share your thoughts on the state of the Seattle bagel scene and be heard.
That said, I don’t know what you guys are complaining about. Both of these bagels were top-notch. The plain stood on its own while the everything with scallion schmear was a flavor bomb and a joy to eat. Ideally, I’d love to have gotten them warm, but they were still solid as-is.
Often, when people said that they didn’t like Bagel Oasis, they’d namecheck Mt. Bagel as a superior option. It just so happens that I got some Mt. Bagel bagels this weekend. They were delicious and as good as I’d expected. I still think Bagel Oasis is above them, if only because it’s a slightly more complete bagel (the same goes for Old Salt, which, again, I love) that offers more textural balance. While I appreciate the bulbous Mt. Bagel offering, I think Bagel Oasis’ bagels are a better size for sandwiches and schmears.
We’re lucky to have both of them in Seattle, but, if you’re willing to wait in line for 40 minutes for Mt. Bagel, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be schlepping over to Bagel Oasis just as often.
Is It Good Enough For The Goys?
I’ve been doing this long enough to know what the Seattle goyim like with their bagels. They like elaborate presentations. They like sprigs of herbs and microgreens. They like honey infusions and olive oil drizzles. They like sundried tomatoes and arugula. And there’s nothing wrong with any of that! But when they’re ready for the big show, Bagel Oasis will be there waiting.
Is It Good Enough For Northeastern Jews?
MY SEATTLE BAGEL RANKINGS SO FAR (11/4/24)
Hey Bagel - 1st visit
Little Rachel’s (Lake City) - 1st visit
Toasted (U District) - 1st visit
Loxsmith Bagels (West Seattle) - 1st visit
Rubinstein Bagels (Eastlake) - 1st visit
Rachel's Bagels & Burritos (Ballard) - 1st visit, 2nd visit, 3rd visit
Macrina Bakery (Capitol Hill) - 1st visit
Cafe Argento (Capitol Hill) - 1st visit
Eltana (Wallingford) - 1st visit
Westman’s (U District) - 1st visit
Blazing Bagels (Ravenna) - 1st visit
Einstein Bros. Bagels (U Village) - 1st visit
Dingfelder’s (Capitol Hill) - 1st visit
Cafe Solstice (U District) - 1st visit
Kelly’s Cannoli (Magnolia) - 1st visit
Bagelbop (Pike Place Market) - 1st visit
You can see my full rankings here.
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Speaking as a Seattle Goy (and on behalf of my wife, same), _some_ of us know wtf a good bagel is, and will probably stick with Bagel Oasis for pumpernickel but mostly switch to Hey Bagel for the rest when it opens. I have seen too many people on Reddit say that they love Blazing Bagels to give any credence to complaints of disappointing bagels at Bagel Oasis. They might be disappointed that they didn't get an Instragram-worthy experience, or by the lack of blueberry chocolate chip "bagels", but they are philistines who wouldn't know a good bagel if one hit them in the face, and can (should) be ignored.
I grabbed a few bagels here today (after dropping by Hey Bagel, which was sold out for the day), and the seed coverage was _much_ better than it had been in other recent-ish visits. I wonder if proximity to Hey Bagel is making Bagel Oasis up their seed game. Could just be a coincidence, I guess, but it felt connected.