Here in the US, bagels have been popular and even sold in grocery stores all around the country since at least the 80s or 90s, but before that many people, like my mom, had never had them if they didn’t live in a major city with a large Jewish population.

Edit: We also have many bagel chains here in the US that usually make much better bagels than you can get at the grocery store.

49 comments

  1. No,not at all.

    They are almost completely unknown here in my city, apart from people who have encountered them while traveling.Most locals wouldn’t know what a bagel was.

    The only place I’ve ever seen them on sale in Palermo was once in Lidl.I bought some that time (I have eaten them before,in London and in NYC for example) but hardly anyone else did…I have never seen them there again!

  2. You can buy them in many grocery stores (not fresh though) but I don’t think many people do. They’ve become somewhat popular in cafés at least here in Berlin, but we also have a large US immigrant community that seems to be driving this popularity. I’ve never seen them in a regular bakery.

  4. well it’s a polish-jewish product that originated in Kraków in 16th century, so yep they are very common.

    They are not super popular though

  6. You buy them in almost every supermarket up and down the country.

    Buying high quality fresh ones is much more difficult. Most cities will have a couple of bagel spots, but they are far from commonplace. When you’re in smaller cities and towns you’ll struggle to find a decent fresh bagel.

  9. Honestly I would not know where to find some. They are not popular at all. At least in my region.

  10. Just had one. It’s very common in the bake-off bread section but not in the fresh bread. It’s nice but kaiser rolls and pistolets are way more practical and cheaper.

    Most cities also have a couple of bagel restaurants.

  11. Maybe in fancier cafes or bakeries, but generally no. But you can find something similar, like a savory bublik or a kalach.

  12. Yes, we can find them easily in the supermarkets. Not sure how popular they are though. Probably with the younger generations they are.

  14. Not really, I have seen them in the supermarket and occasionally you will find them on the menu in a lunch restaurant. But I wouldn’t consider bagels popular.

  15. London. The beigel (note the correct spelling) shop on Brick Lane has been there since the 1880s, and there’s a fair few others dotted around London. Some other bakeries also do them. Plus pretty much every supermarket has the meh mass produced kind.

  17. They are popular enough that they can be bought, fresh or frozen, from most grocery shops, but they aren’t staples.

  19. They are a novelty for when you want to try something different. They are inferior to local small breads so there is no real need for them.

  21. Not popular and not well-known, but easily to get in various pastry and delicacy shops. Applies for both countries I represent (Germany and Czechia).

  23. Modestly popular and easy to find. Every supermarket sells them. There’s at least one lunchroom in every city where you can sit down to eat them or for takeout. They’re on par with panini.

  25. No… Not in any of the countries we lived… they’re an oddity although they’re some venues in big cities that serve them as something exotic.

  26. Coffee shops have them so there’s like two chains selling bagels with stuff on it. Tried one once. Yikes no thx. Didn’t see them anywhere else

  27. I have no idea, they might sell them at a supermarket or bakeries, but I have no idea since I don’t look for them. They aren’t too popular.

  28. Very common in the Netherlands but as bake at home good. So you can get bagels to put in the oven at home but not fresh with other rolls and breads.

  29. Only as a novelty for urban yuppies.

    The closest thing would be so called “loupák”

  30. Not very popular but if you’re one of the few people who want them then they’re easy enough to find.

  31. Extremely hard to find them. Some fancier bakeries have them at 2€ per piece. But bagels are not that popular in Croatia. “Kajzerice” or “Kaisersemmel” in German are more popular.

    We had one hipster bagel shop in Zagreb. Which had sandwiches with bagels. But it went out of work.

  32. They can be bought in most supermarkets here, but *good* bagels are harder to find. The best I’ve ever had was a toasted creamcheese & cucumber bagel from a food truck somewhere in London. London does have a small Jewish population.

  33. Not really. I don’t really see them in grocery stores, but perhaps bakeries offer them. Can’t say they are common, though.

  34. 20 years ago, no. Now, there are breads called bagels, but they just look like them. They don’t really taste like NYC bagels.

  35. They are unknown. We have lots of baked goods, but I don’t think bagels are among them.

  37. In supermarkets yes

    Fresh in bakeries, not so much

    I’ve had a proper, fresh bagel, was promised it would be the best thing ever. I didn’t like it, and the person who had bought it for me took that very personally.

  39. Mass-manufactured pre-packaged (often “New York style” – which is silly, London style is damn good) ones can be bought widely. Good, fresh, properly-made ones requires a Jewish bakery. You find them in a few neighborhoods in London and a relatively small number of other locations, but, sadly, not elsewhere.

    There is a chain of cafes in Oxford that claim to have “introduced them to the city in 1992”!!!! They bear a faint similarly, mostly in shape, but that could be almost coincidental , to real beigels, highlighting perfectly how provincial that West Country town is.

  40. I guess like a more international grocery store like Lidl sells them. Maybe some bakeries, though definitely not all. I haven’t ever eaten one or seen someone eat it.
    Personally I don’t even know what the Lithuanian translation for it would be, and for sure not everyone would know what it’s supposed to be.
    I suppose I could just say it’s a small savoury [*riestainis*](https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riestainis), which would be clear. But such a thing is not common.

  42. I went to the US, tried them and OMG I love them so much . i wish I could find them where I live

  43. You can get them in the UK from supermarkets but they are not that popular. Please seem to prefer buns without holes that they can put burgers in.

  44. I’ve seen them in Lidl I think, but I don’t know anyone who buys them. We have better and fresher baked products in bakeries on every corner.

  45. No, but I really wish they were. You can get them, but not as readily available as they were in the UK when I lived there. I miss having bagels whenever I wanted.

  47. Very common, most cafés and sandwich places will have them as a bread option, and they’re available in most supermarkets too.
    There’s a chain of cafés called Bagel Factory in the UK and Ireland, they specialise in bagels. I haven’t seen one in years, but they were very, very popular maybe 8-10 years ago

  49. You can get them frozen in a lot of supermarkets, and there are quite a few bagel shops in larger cities in Denmark.

    You can’t get really good bagels, you can’t get true bagels, but you can get okay-ish mass-produced bagels.

    I think bagels started popping up here in the 90’s.

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