The Top 8 Bagel Shops Near Grace Cathedral
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Rank 1. Schlok's
Bagels
Schlok's is a proper bagel shop off the Panhandle that cures and smokes its own salmon in-house, which tells you everything about how seriously these people take a classic. The bagels are malty and thin-crusted, the schmear is aggressively briny in the best way, and the lox sandwich is the move. The line on weekends is mostly locals who already know this, plus a few visitors who found it online and feel very smug about it.
- San Francisco Chronicle Best bagels in the San Francisco Bay Area
- The Infatuation The 18 Best Restaurants In NoPa
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Rank 2. Chicken Dog Bagels
Bakery
- Bon Appétit The Very Best Bagels in the US (Yes, Outside New York)
- San Francisco Chronicle Best bagels in the San Francisco Bay Area
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Rank 3. The Laundromat
Pizza
A former coin-op laundry in the Outer Richmond that pivoted to bagels and pizza, and honestly the pivot worked out great. Mornings belong to the bagels, displayed in metal racks draped with white sheets as a nod to the building's past life. The rye is where it's at, and the Calabrian chile schmear is worth the trip alone. Afternoons shift to pizza, and the crowd is exactly the neighborhood mix you'd expect, locals who've clearly figured something out.
- San Francisco Chronicle Best bagels in the San Francisco Bay Area
- San Francisco Chronicle 2026 · #85 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area
- The Infatuation The 19 Best Pizza Places In San Francisco
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Rank 4. Poppy Bagels
California-style Bakery
Poppy Bagels in Oakland's Temescal neighborhood has settled the New York bagel debate by simply refusing to participate in it. This cheery little bagel shop does all the classics, lox, whitefish, schmears, but the move is the seasonal veg sandwich, an open-face situation that reads more like a California farmers market than a deli counter. The crowd is exactly who you'd expect: reusable tote bags, good sunglasses, no regrets.
- Bon Appétit The Very Best Bagels in the US (Yes, Outside New York)
- San Francisco Chronicle Best bagels in the San Francisco Bay Area
- The Infatuation The 25 Best Restaurants In Oakland
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Rank 5. Hella Bagels
NY-Style Bakery
The San Francisco Chronicle called these the best bagels in the Bay Area, and honestly the chewy, pillowy rounds make a pretty convincing case. Hella Bagels is a laid-back bagel shop with a sunny patio in Albany where the weekend crowd looks like they rolled out of bed on purpose. Sandwiches run from smoked fish to eggs to veggie, and the seasonal specials get genuinely creative in ways that'll make you second-guess your usual order.
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Rank 6. Boichik Bagels
NY-Style
The SF Chronicle called these the best bagels in the Bay Area, which tracks, because the line outside this Berkeley bagel shop hasn't moved since the day it opened. They do NY-style right, with proper chew and malty crust, and the cream cheese options run from plain whipped to Hatch chile if you're feeling bold. The crowd is mostly locals who've made this a weekend ritual and visitors who've been warned to get there early.
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Rank 7. The Bagel Mill
NY-Style Bakery
These are not the bagels you grab out of a plastic bag. The Bagel Mill is a proper bagel shop where the team mills whole wheat flour fresh and leavens everything with sourdough starter, which is a lot of effort for a breakfast sandwich but absolutely worth it. The San Francisco Chronicle named them the best bagels in the Bay Area. Expect a loyal local crowd who take their order very seriously and probably have opinions about cream cheese.
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Rank 8. Winston's Cafe & Bakery
Filipino Cocktail Bar