8 Fast Food Bagel Breakfast Sandwiches Ranked, According To Reviews
Bagels are a great way to kick off the day — but a bagel breakfast sandwich is even better. Usually layered with eggs and cheese along with bacon or sausage, bagel breakfast sandwiches are filling and delicious. There can also be some surprising variation, depending on the flavor of the bagels offered, types of cheese on the menu, and various spreads.
At the same time, what matters most here is the bagel itself — the backbone of a bagel sandwich. Ideally, a bagel should be fluffy inside with a slight chew yet also maintain a lightly baked outer crust. The problem is that it can be difficult to find a good bagel at a fast food restaurant. Fast food bagels can often end up over-toasted, giving them a crunchy texture that's more akin to burned toast. On the other end of the spectrum, some fast food bagels can be overly dense and almost gummy, which also isn't exactly desirable. The good news is that we're here to give you the rundown on which places are worth it.
To form our ranking, we combined our own experiences eating at these restaurants along with an evaluation of reviews on Yelp and YouTube. If you're a bagel lover looking to get the best bang for your buck, you're in the right place.
8. Dunkin Donuts
Dunkin Donuts dominates the breakfast market with more than 13,000 locations around the globe. But just because something is widely available doesn't necessarily mean that everything on the menu is top-notch. To be fair, Dunkin Donuts has pretty reasonable prices, which is always appreciated. Yet it's also true that you often get what you pay for, and Dunkin Donuts' bagels aren't exactly something to write home about.
In fact, sometimes the bagels at Dunkin Donuts are downright repulsive — the company has been known to serve bagels that are burned to a crisp. And even when the bagels aren't totally scorched, they're basic at best. Dunkin Donuts might be a decent choice for a quick Boston Cream or a cheap coffee, but when it comes to scoring a great breakfast bagel sandwich, it's not a place we'd go out of our way for. We'd rather make a quick breakfast sandwich at home or go elsewhere.
7. Tim Hortons
Tim Hortons opened its doors in Canada back in 1964 and eventually spread into the United States. The chain is mainly known for its coffee, featuring creative seasonal drinks with ingredients like brown butter caramel and gingerbread oat milk. Tim Hortons also sells breakfast sandwiches on biscuits, English muffins, and bagels.
The company's bagel breakfast sandwiches come with a choice of sausage, bacon, cheese, and eggs. Some of them also come with an avocado spread. During an extensive taste test of Tim Hortons' menu, food critic Corey Mintz reported that the company's bagel tastes like a supermarket bagel. "It's neither fluffy like a New York bagel nor sweetly chewy like a Montreal bagel," Mintz revealed.
If we're going to go out and pay for a breakfast bagel sandwich at a fast food joint, we're expecting the bagel to at least be better than a grocery store bagel. Alas, that's not the case here at Tim Hortons, landing near the very bottom of our ranking.
6. McDonald's
With more than 38,000 restaurants, McDonald's is one of the biggest fast food chains in the world. The company's mainly known for its burgers and fries, but it also has a breakfast menu that's usually available until about 10:30 or 11:00 in the morning. McDonald's breakfast menu typically includes everything from its iconic Egg McMuffin to McGriddles, Hotcakes, Hash Browns, and breakfast burritos. McDonald's also serves various bagel breakfast sandwiches that come with eggs, cheese, and meats such as bacon, sausage, and steak.
The bagel on McDonald's breakfast sandwich gets good marks for being affordable and consistent. The bagel is well-toasted and comes with a spread of butter. It's thick enough to support the sandwich's eggs and meat without falling apart or getting too messy. That said, the bagel itself also isn't exceptional or flavorful. A bagel breakfast sandwich from McDonald's is designed to quickly get the job done, and in that way, it succeeds. But it's not the kind of food that will induce cravings or daydreams.
5. Honey Dew Donuts
Honey Dew Donuts is a fast food chain with dozens of locations scattered across Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. The company's menu has a wide variety of donuts that include jelly donuts, coconut donuts, and French crullers. Honey Dew Donuts has plenty of other options on the table too, such as yogurt with fruit and granola and customized breakfast sandwiches.
The company's breakfast sandwiches feature an assortment of bread choices, including croissants, ciabatta rolls, English muffins, and bagels. Other customizations include various meats like chorizo, turkey sausage, and bacon, along with different types of cheeses and spreads. What nudges Honey Dew Donuts ahead of our lower rankings is the fact that it has more flavor options available, which gives diners more choices. Honey Dew Donuts also gets some bonus points for consistency, since plenty of customers happily point out that the restaurant gets orders right with impressive accuracy. For a solid and convenient breakfast and some decent coffee, you could do a lot worse than Honey Dew Donuts.
4. Bruegger's Bagels
Bruegger's Bagels is a chain with more than 100 restaurants across the country. The company specializes in bagels and sandwiches for breakfast and lunch. The bagels at Bruegger's are kettle-boiled and come in various flavors including Poppy Seed, Cinnamon Sugar, Jalapeño Cheddar, and Rosemary Olive Oil. One of the things that really sets Bruegger's apart from the pack is the eclectic cream cheese spreads that it offers. The company has 10 different flavors to choose from such as Bacon Scallion, Sriracha Honey, and Honey Walnut.
Bruegger's bagel breakfast sandwiches go above and beyond the simplistic flavors provided at most fast food chains. Exciting ingredients like smoky brisket and chipotle sauce along with freshly cracked eggs make the company's breakfast sandwiches extra delicious. The only thing holding Bruegger's back from true greatness is the quality of the meats on some of its sandwiches. Some reviews have noted that the company's brisket is flavorful but a little too tough. If Bruegger's offered more tender brisket on its bagel sandwiches and improved a bit in the meat department, it would slide even higher in our ranking. But as it stands, Bruegger's is still a nice spot to score a good bagel breakfast sandwich.
3. Panera Bread
Panera Bread first hit the market in 1987. In the decades since, the company has grown to establish restaurants in 48 states across the country and has also expanded into Canada. The company's menu features a wide variety of breakfast and lunch options.
Because Panera is known for its bread — which is of a higher quality than many other fast food chains — Panera is a wise choice when it comes to breakfast sandwiches. Some of the company's bagel flavors include Asiago, Cinnamon Crunch, and Multigrain. The cheese at Panera is also a bit better than many other fast food chains, with options like aged white cheddar that has some nice bite and depth of flavor. The eggs at Panera Bread are folded (similar to McDonald's) yet the eggs have a fresher taste and look to them. If bagels aren't your jam, Panera has other options like brioche buns and baguettes. As solid as Panera is, there are still some other restaurants that truly go the extra mile.
2. Einstein Bros. Bagels
Einstein Bros. Bagels has a head baker at each of its locations that makes fresh bagels every morning. The bakers continue to bake bagels all day long, which ensures that customers are getting the freshest bagels possible regardless of what time they come to the restaurant. By working to provide fresh, high-quality bagels around the clock, Einstein Bros. surpasses much of its competition.
The bagels at Einstein are flavorful and airy, yet also chewy with a light crust on the exterior. The texture has a complexity that many other fast food chains can't hold a candle to. But even beyond sheer texture, the variety and quality of bagel flavors is truly astounding. The company's Green Chile Gourmet Bagel — made with green chiles and a blend of five different cheeses — is every bit as delicious as it sounds. The chiles and cheese are clearly visible throughout the entire bagel, punctuating every bite with a luscious pop of flavor. This bagel is the heart of Einstein's Chorizo Sunrise Egg Sandwich, which comes with cage-free eggs, chorizo sausage, cheddar, smashed avocado, and a schmear of jalapeno salsa cream cheese. All of these ingredients combine on Einstein's Green Chile gourmet bagel to make one of the best breakfast sandwiches we've ever had at a fast food chain.
1. Brooklyn Water Bagel
Smithsonian Magazine describes New York City's water as the "Goldilocks of bagel water chemistry." This is because the vast majority of New York City's water supply comes from the Catskills and the Delaware Watershed, traveling through a system of pipes that's over 100 years old and picking up a wide variety of minerals along the way. New York City's water is exceptionally "soft," which is a result of low levels of magnesium and calcium. The softness of the water creates dough that's extra soft and sticky — which makes some extra tasty bagels.
Because water quality differs so much around the country, some might say that bakeries outside of New York are operating at a disadvantage. Brooklyn Water Bagel has decided to do something about that.
The company has created a 14-stage water filtration system that replicates the water quality of Brooklyn. The water is then stored in a tank that the restaurant refers to as The Brooklynizer. That water is then used to make the bagel dough and give them that highly-coveted New York City bagel flavor. The bagels are made fresh every day, and the restaurant offers classic breakfast sandwiches with ingredients like Taylor ham, pastrami, and smoked salmon. Brooklyn Water Bagel's elaborate efforts to create a New York level bagel pushes it to the top of our list.
Methodology
To form this ranking, we combined our own dining experiences with customer comments and reviews on Yelp and YouTube. Similar sentiments shared among diners across locations helped inform our placement of each restaurant. The variety of menu options and quality of ingredients at each restaurant played major roles in the sequence of our ranking.