Lancaster, PA Bagel Tour

On a brisk fall Saturday morning my wife and I embarked on a simple Lancaster County adventure: taste a few of the locally made bagels and pick out our favorite.

The ground rules were simple: Everything bagel. Cream cheese. Not toasted. We ate half of the bagel on location and saved half of the bagel to revisit when we got home.  Note: wear a coat with very large pockets to store the half-eaten bagels while wandering the city. 

Before you take issue with our ground rules, please consider embarking on a bagel tour of your choosing. 

We hit Grand Central Bagel first. I had heard murmurings that they sometimes sell out. The bagel at Grand Central is large and light, reminiscent of a grocery store bagel but with much better flavor. 

Next, we drove downtown, found a free parking space (not giving up the location), and walked a few blocks to Roundbreads Bagels (formerly known as Two Poodles). Roundbreads is a proper sourdough bagel with a nice contrasting crispy exterior to a soft interior.

Our third stop was Wish You Well Bakery. Their bagel was similar to the Roundbreads bagel. A bit darker in color and had a micro-blistered surface. Their bagel was also the most expensive of the tour.

We walked over to the Central Market and grabbed a bagel from the Central Market Juice Company. Their bagel is shipped over from Philly.

Last we drove out to Thom’s Bread to try one of their NY Style bagels.

After completing our tasting of the bagels we stopped at Lancaster County Park for a short hike to temper the carbohydrate load and enjoy the sunshine of a beautiful fall morning. Then we drove home and finished out the taste testing with a side-by-side comparison.

The winner of our Lancaster Bagel Tour is Roundbreads Bagels!

Click the image below to get a PDF of the guided Bagel tour.