Can I find a good Seattle bagel at... Tous les Jours
What does a French-Asian-inspired bagel taste like? Let's find out...
Welcome to It’s A Shanda, one Northeastern Jew’s quest to find a decent bagel in Seattle (and beyond). If you’re interested in taking this journey with me, make sure you subscribe so you never miss a review. If you want to make sure I review any specific bagels (or want to let me know why I’m wrong), you can email me at itsashanda@substack.com.
A long time ago, when I lived in Los Angeles, I worked for a company called Tartan USA. We were the American arm of a United Kingdom-based film distributor who specialized in horror movies from Asia (got all that?).
We released some very notable films that I was proud to help promote, such as Oldboy, A Tale of Two Sisters, Lady Vengeance, and Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring. We also had a lot of schlock. We were trying to capitalize on the Asian horror movie craze of the 2000s and acquired as many horror movies from Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, and South Korea as we could.
During that time, I became a little bit of a Korean film aficionado, to the point that I became quite skilled at predicting the quality of the film based on the production company logos beforehand. If I saw the CJ Entertainment logo appear before the movie began, I knew it was likely to be an interesting film (or at least a big-budget one).
CJ Entertainment was just one arm of the massive South Korean conglomerate called CJ Group. They are a comically large and expansive entity with divisions spanning such disparate markets and products that it’s hard to know how they all coexist. CJ has subsidiaries in various sectors, including logistics, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, entertainment, media, and food. If you’re a Breaking Bad fan, they’re like Madrigal Electromotive GmbH.
So when I looked up Tous les Jours and found out they’re a bakery franchise owned by CJ Foodville, a business group of CJ Group, I had a good chuckle.
Why am I writing about a French-inspired South Korean bakery in my bagel newsletter? I recently came across Matthew Norman’s extensive rundown of Seattle bagels. At one point in the video, he visits the Tous les Jours bakery in Union Station to sample their “cloud bagel,” which I had never heard of before.
“Made with rice flour and available in two flavors: Cloud and Everything Cloud!!,” reads an Instagram post.
I will admit that I didn’t know much about Tous les Jours and was surprised to learn they had more than 1,650 locations worldwide, including three in Seattle, one in Bellevue, and one in Redmond. Their menu is chocked full of good-looking pastries, bread, cakes, coffees, and just about anything else you can bake. Some of their locations are café-style bakeries located inside larger markets, which is the case for the one tucked inside Capitol Hill’s M2M Mart.
And so, armed only with the knowledge that this cloud bagel might be there, I swung by the H Mart offshoot to see about acquiring some.
The targets were indeed acquired, but were they any good? Let’s find out…
And if you want to know how I define a good bagel, you can find that here.
WHAT I ORDERED
Plain cloud bagel
Everything cloud bagel with cream cheese
THE EXPERIENCE
I’d walked right by the Tous les Jours in the M2M Mart on Broadway many times and never pieced together that it was a standalone shop. That made sense as soon as I began perusing their extensive selection of pre-packaged pastries and bread items.
I was a little worried that I might not be able to find the bagels, as they don’t appear on the online menu. But sure enough, they were front and center, waiting for me inside delicate plastic wrapping adorned with the company logo.
As I was paying, the cashier informed me that I could also purchase some cream cheese. I said I’d like that, and she handed me a container of Philadelphia Cream Cheese.
UPON FIRST GLANCE
I’m instinctively concerned whenever I come across a pre-packaged bagel, especially if it’s wrapped in plastic. It’s evident that packaging is an integral part of the Tous les Jours experience, and I’m sure it makes for a lovely gift or a great social media display. But when it comes to maintaining the freshness of a bagel, it’s pretty much the worst way to go. And that seemed fairly clear upon looking at and handling the bagels.
TOP
The plain bagel was on the larger side and featured a medium-sized hole. It seemed to be somewhere between hand-rolled and factory-formed. Perhaps somehow both? The top was soft, doughy, and clammy to the touch. The coloring was beige to light brown. There were craggles and lines all over, but no texture. Handling the bagel, it felt roll-like and gave off a bready smell.
The everything bagel was also slightly larger and featured a medium-sized hole. Offering a beige to light brown coloring, it also felt soft, doughy, and clammy, likely due to moisture getting stuck in the wrapping. The everything seasoning glistened and had the feel of toppings that had been sitting around for a bit. There was a potent everything seasoning smell. A medium seed hand was at work, though there was a notable empty space on one side of the top—a veritable bagel Boötes Void.
BOTTOM
Both bagel bottoms were incredibly soft and slightly spongey when pressed. The flat bottoms were golden brown for most of their circumference. There was no Cornmeal Ring of Doom (CRoD) present on either.
INSIDE/BITE
The plain bagel offered an extremely loose rip, revealing an odor I can only describe as cheap bread. Indeed, it was like eating a low-quality roll. There was no texture, only a slightly tangy taste. It wasn’t stale, but it somehow had a stale taste. The few bites I could make it were not enjoyable.
The everything bagel offered a completely textureless chew. If this was supposed to be a cloud bagel,I imagine this is what it feels like to bite into a dense rain cloud. The everything flavor did come through, but the moistness of the seasoning was off-putting. Again, the bagel itself felt like cheap bread. Adding some cream cheese from the packet helped, as this thing was crying out for interior moisture. But it only did so much.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I know it’s a bit cliche to ask, “Who is this for?” when presented with a bad food item, but seriously, who is this for? I suppose they felt like they had to make a bagel to be relevant for American consumers, but anyone would be better off getting one of their other pastries or slices of bread.
This is a facsimile of a bagel that isn’t even enjoyable if you pretend it’s something else. You can’t even really eat it on its own, but I’m not sure that adding a schmear or toasting it will accomplish anything, either. With the packaging, I think this is supposed to convey an upscale and elegant vibe, but everything about it felt cheap. The whole experience left a literal and figurative bad taste in my mouth.
Is It Good Enough For The Goys?
I don’t think so. Again, it’s not even enjoyable as an edible product, let alone as a bagel. However, it appears to have some kind of reputation. I think the go-to items at Tous les Jours are things like the milk bread and almond croissant. Stick to what works, goyim.
Is It Good Enough For Northeastern Jews?
MY SEATTLE BAGEL RANKINGS SO FAR (6/12/25)
Freshborn Bagels (Ballard) - 1st visit
Little Rachel’s (Lake City) - 1st visit
Toasted (U District) - 1st visit
Loxsmith Bagels (West Seattle) - 1st visit
Golden Wheat Bakery (Central District) - 1st visit
Rubinstein Bagels (South Lake Union) - 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
Einstein Bros. Bagels (U Village) - 1st visit
Dingfelder’s (Capitol Hill) - 1st visit
Cafe Solstice (U District) - 1st visit
Bagelbop (Pike Place Market) - 1st visit
Tous les Jours (Capitol Hill)
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