6 Grocery Store Bakery Bagels, Ranked Worst To Best

A bagel may seem simple, but like most foods we don't think too deeply about in these modern times, it has a long and fascinating history. This unique bread roll can be traced back to the 13th century, when it was a popular product of Jewish bakers in what is now Poland. Ages later, it made its way across continents and oceans, with the immigrants who made it. Today, of course, the bagel is an American breakfast staple. You can find dedicated bagel shops in nearly every city, and bagels are commonly made in all manner of bakeries, including those in grocery stores.

Creating bagels is no simple task, even by baking standards. The process starts with a dense, high-gluten yeasted dough that requires careful mixing, kneading, resting, and rising. Then the dough must be separated and shaped. The bagels are then chilled, ideally overnight, before they're boiled and then baked. Along the way, flavorings and toppings can be added. A well-made bagel is a thing of beauty, with a distinctive crispy browned crust and a chewy, substantial yet tender interior. While I love a gourmet bagel, I don't always have time to make an extra shopping trip, so I was curious how the bagels at my local grocery stores stacked up. I tried one plain and one flavored bagel from each store. Here's how they ranked.

By the time I got to the store, though it was still morning, Save Mart's bagel selection had already been picked over, and there were only a few left to choose from. The bakery had run out of everything bagels, so I subbed in asiago for the flavored option. I had to double-check that the plain bagels were actually bagels, because I could barely find the hole in the middle, and at first glance thought they might be knishes or some other type of roll. The asiago variety looked more bagel-like, but those had some shaping problems as well, with uneven widths, and the bottom not coming together into a full circle on one of them. Both types of bagels, right off the bat, showed that there had been multiple issues with shaping and rising.

The best thing going for these bagels was flavor. Both varieties had a nice balance of sweetness and tang, with just the right amount of salt. Despite the rampant air pockets in the bagels' interiors, the dough was fairly dense and chewy, though the texture wasn't even across the board, as you might expect from the lack of a uniform shape. The crust on both was matte, lacking the bagel's signature sheen. Perhaps if I'd gotten to the store in time to get my pick of the batches, Save Mart may have fared better, but these were my least favorite of the selections.

Visually, the bagels from Raley's bakery absolutely popped. Perfectly round and puffy, they had a gleaming shine that you could practically see from across the store. I picked up everything and sesame, as they had run out of plain. I was most excited to try these based on their appearance, but unfortunately, the interior didn't live up to the hype. 

Though both, when sliced open, looked nearly identical with a fairly open, holey crumb, the texture of the sesame bagel was noticeably denser and tougher than the everything variety. It made me wonder if the sesame had been baked earlier, and had been sitting for just a little longer — it's possible that these bagels just have a very short window of freshness. I'm definitely willing to try these again at the crack of dawn, to see if that's the case, but I do feel that grocery store bagels should at least last through the day. The flavors of both were fine, more sour than sweet, but I couldn't get past the inconsistent and tough textures.

I recommended Costco's bagels as an item to buy from the warehouse store's bakery, and despite their placement here in the bottom half of this ranking, I still stand by that. There are plenty of positives, including the price — a sleeve of eight Costco bagels is $4.99, which makes them the most affordable of all the options on this list. The interior has a lovely springiness to it and a consistent density all the way through. I also appreciate that the everything bagel has poppy seeds both inside and out, adding a nice little extra touch of texture.

There are some noticeable consistency issues with these bagels, though. Some were absolutely perfect, like a diagram of a ring torus you'd find in a geometry textbook. Others were bloated and lumpy in places, with barely a hole in the center. That's fine, I don't need my bagels to look machine-made to enjoy them — in fact, just the opposite — but the vast difference in shape from one to the next was glaring. Still, these are solid bagels and good value, especially if you like a thicker, cakier texture.

WinCo's bagels offer a lot of positives, despite their bronze medal placement in this ranking. As far as the everything bagels go, this was by far my favorite seasoning. Though they're called "all world" bagels here, the mix is the same everything bagel mix: Lots of crunchy seeds with a generous presence of deeply savory and sweet onions and garlic that permeate every bite. A WinCo all world bagel with a dollop of cream cheese and chives was one of my top bites in this entire endeavor, purely because of the beautifully layered flavors of rich umami and sharp, crisp green onion.

I found the plain bagels to be somewhat bland, unfortunately, which led me to believe that the everything bagel's success relied a lot on its toppings. I did appreciate the golden-brown crust on these, which added a subtle crunch to each bite that contrasted with the bready interior. The air pockets present in said interior were all over the place, though, giving them an inconsistent texture. I would definitely reach for one of the all world bagels again without a second thought, but I'd hesitate when it comes to plain or other flavors.

It was stiff competition between first and second place, and I flip-flopped a few times. I'll probably change my mind again even after this project wraps up. In the end, it was a coin-toss battle between two different but delicious types of bagels, each of which had about the same amount of pros and cons. Let's talk about the pros of Whole Foods' bakery bagels, of which there are many. The crust on both the everything and plain bagels had a beautiful shine, and both were round, plump, and puffy. Of all the everything bagels, the Whole Foods offering had the most dense blanket of seasoning, making each bite super flavorful. Sinking my teeth into each was a pleasure, with the crust adding just the right amount of tension before giving way to the soft yet chewy interior.

What sets me back a bit with these bagels is the sweetness. They're noticeably sweeter than any of the other bagels, which isn't necessarily an issue — sweetness is definitely welcome, even necessary, in a bagel — but I wished there was more balance. A touch more salt or sourness would really make these sing. Folks who prefer a maltier bagel, and who go more for fruity than savory schmears, will likely love these. Another positive here is that Whole Foods has banned hundreds of questionable additives from the food it makes and sells, so you can rest easy knowing these bagels aren't hiding any nasty surprises.

I went back and forth tasting Safeway's bagels against Whole Foods' offerings countless times until, finally, I landed on Safeway as the victor. Just look at the color on these. The deep amber crust glistens around a beautifully hand-rolled torus. While these bagels were not the exact same size and shape, like many others on this list, the differences between them were minimal and aesthetic, not structural — each of the four bagels I tried had the same exterior and interior texture, pointing to a consistent baking process all the way through.

Texture and flavor-wise, there was very little to nitpick regarding both the everything and plain Safeway bagels. These had the best contrast between the bouncy but subtly crispy crust and soft, fluffy interior. The everything seasoning was not as densely applied here as it was with some of the others, but the flavor was sufficiently intense, with a sharp bite of caraway to balance the sweeter and nuttier allium and seed flavors. When I boiled it down to basics (pun intended), Safeway's bagels were the ones I kept going back to again and again, even with all of the other options in front of me. They may not compete with what you'll find at the best bagel shop in your state, but Safeway's bagels are a solid, convenient alternative.

I shopped each of these six stores in the morning, so I could get the freshest bagels possible. For each bakery, I planned to select plain and everything-flavored bagels, but made a few substitutions based on what was available. To make sure I tasted them at the peak of freshness, I tried one of each the day of purchase. To assess them, I took into account the exterior and interior's look, texture, and flavor. I also noted anything remarkable about the shape. I also tasted each bagel untoasted — as any bagel expert will tell you, a good bagel shouldn't need to be toasted — and initially unadorned, with no additional toppings. After my first pass, I went around and tasted each again, this time with the addition of cream cheese and chives, which is how I normally enjoy my bagels. 

I looked for a shiny, browned crust with a good balance of crispness and elasticity, and an even, rounded shape. For the interior, I wanted a balance of chewiness and tenderness, with a crumb that was neither too dense nor too open. I also took flavor into account: Salt and sweetness levels for the plain bagels, and how well additional flavorings worked for the others. The most successful bagels were consistent across both types and offered the best balance of all of these attributes.