As someone who has lived in New York City for the last 16+ years, I can honestly say that while the bagels here are delicious (to this day, my favorite bagel in all of New York City is at Absolute Bagels in Morningside Heights in Manhattan), they are not quite on the same level as Montreal bagels. The reason is really simple: New York bagels are… heavy. Once you’ve eaten half or one, you KNOW you have eaten it. It weighs on you. It makes you feel heavy and like you cannot eat anything more. When you have a Montreal bagel, somehow it manages to be light, airy, and crisp, and you can easily eat 5-6 of them and not even realize you ate that many freaking bagels. I’m going to say it, and I don’t care what you think (especially if you’ve never even been to Montreal and had one of their bagels: Montreal has the best damn bagels in all of North America, if not the entire WORLD.

How are Montreal bagels different from New York bagels? Montreal bagels are wood-fired. When you walk into any St. Viateur, you can immediately see the open wood-fired oven. That’s why Montreal bagels have that delicious crispy exterior, which is then contrasted quickly with its very light and chewy interior. This is all heightened by (what I think is) the best type of Montreal bagel: the sesame. THE SESAME BAGEL IS THE BEST. We came back to St. Viateur after 10 years today. Ten years ago, we visited their location on Mont-Royal Ave E, and this time, we visited their more old-school location on Rue Saint-Viateur O, right in the heart of the Jewish ‘hood, which had at least three thousand more reviews on Google. And for four Canadian dollars, we got three bagels: sesame, all dressed (what they call the “everything” bagel), and apple maple (for Pookster). All dressed was delicious. Apple maple was good. But the sesame – AHHHH, the sesame. The sesame bagel was truly perfect. The first bite was exactly the same as my first Montreal bagel bite ten years ago, everything from the contrasting textures to the taste and the flavor. The toastiness of the sesame seeds on the outside of the bagel just sang. It really SANG. We ate all three bagels just like that. And we didn’t feel heavy at all.

Also, you know how people in New York slice bagels and put the cream cheese in between? Here at St. Viateur when you watch people eat their bagel, they take bites and DIP the bagel into their tiny containers of cream cheese. Yes, that’s how they eat them here! It is no doubt a lighter bagel here in Montreal!