8 Places to Find the Best Bagels in San Diego

Inglourious Bagels

What sets Inglourious Bagels apart starts with the water. The Carlsbad shop distills local water, rebalances pH, mineralizes, and adds salt to mimic the softness of New York’s, aiming for the chew we’d expect out of Brooklyn or Manhattan.

Over a dozen flavors come out daily, joined by schmears and Jewish deli classics: the Shlemiel stacks egg scramble, crisp bacon, sharp cheddar, tomato, and aioli, while the Zaftig loads smoked whitefish salad, premium lox, lettuce, tomato, red onion, and garlic schmear.

The kitchen also turns out matzo ball soup, challah, salads, smoothies, pizza, and Cafe Moto coffee brewed on-site. The team admits the bagels may not be the prettiest to look at, but the chew and flavor make the case.

Mission Bagel

Out of a Pacific Beach food truck, Mission Bagel is a family operation – siblings Gabe and Hannah, plus Hannah’s husband Dante – serving the chewy, golden bagels Gabe grew up on in Cincinnati.

The menu stays intentionally tight: Lox Sandwich, Bagel & Schmear, Tuna Melt, Pizza Bagel, and a rotation of deli salads anchored by Mom’s Egg Salad and Tuna Salad.

No gimmicks, no long list of specials. Just a proper everything bagel and a schmear done right. Simple, as they put it, is the point.

The whole thing started as a pandemic delivery run Gabe launched out of San Diego, won over its own following of carb lovers, and grew into a food truck the whole family now runs together.

PL Bagels

Pumpernickel, garlic, onion, sourdough – PL bagels in Point Loma is the place to make your savory bagel dreams come true. They boast creative options for cream cheese, like garlic, bacon, and basil. When you go, keep in mind that the signage on the building gets straight to the point and just reads “bagels”.

New Wave Bagel

No salmon on the menu. That’s the line at New Wave Bagel in Encinitas, where the smoked fish on the bagel is locally caught halibut instead. That house rule holds across the whole menu too: if it’s not from around here, it doesn’t go in.

The sourdough bagels are naturally fermented, built on Central Milling organic wheat and rye, the cream cheese is California-made Gina Marie, and the veggies, fruit, meat, and dairy all come from local farms. Housemade schmears and sandwiches round out the menu, each component held to the same organic, locally sourced standard.

The North Coast Highway shop reads as a coastal rewrite of the bagel playbook – built entirely from what San Diego grows, cures, and catches.

The Daily Bagel

Located in La Jolla, The Daily Bagel is a classic cafe known for its tuna melt bagel with lox, onions, capers, and tomato. They also make a mean bagel sandwich with all the good veggie toppings. Oh, and they have coconut lattes, too.

Golden Bagel Cafe

Family-owned since 1995, Golden Bagel Cafe has been turning out fresh bagels and breakfast plates for 30-plus years. The bakers start early each morning, mixing dough by hand and boiling every bagel before it hits the oven, with homemade spreads built in-house to match.

The menu stretches well beyond the bagel basket. Breakfast sandwiches, hearty omelets, focaccia sandwiches, chopped salads, soups, and fresh smoothies all make the board, with ingredients sourced locally whenever possible.

The space stays low-key and family-run, the kind of neighborhood cafe where we can settle in for a longer lunch or grab a quick coffee on the way out. Regulars and first-timers get the same welcome, and fresh bagels come out of the oven all morning.

BCB Cafe

The bagels at BCB Café are made the New York way – dough mixed by hand each morning with fresh ingredients, boiled briefly, then baked for that thick, chewy crust and golden color. Fresh batches keep coming out throughout the day, so the supply rarely runs dry.

There’s a wide assortment of flavors, plus a full lineup of bagel sandwiches and melts stacked with Boar’s Head meats and cheeses. Egg sandwiches cover the breakfast crowd.

The San Diego Reader named them Best Bagel in 2021, and the reach has kept growing since. The original Hillcrest café, at it for over 25 years, is now joined by spots in North Park, the UCSD Coffee Kiosks, and the Rental Car Center.

101 Bagels & Subs

The Nova Lox is the move at 101 Bagels & Subs. Nova Scotia salmon piled on our choice of bagel with cream cheese, tomato, onions, and capers. For a bigger start to the day, the breakfast specialty stacks egg, two meats, and cheese onto a bagel.

The rest of the menu at this Oceanside shop on North Coast Highway covers plenty of ground: roast beef sandwich, tuna melt, BLT bagel, chicken salad, and a peanut butter, strawberry, and banana bagel for the sweet side. A fresh seasonal fruit cup rounds things out.

Everything runs on fresh ingredients, and the counter stays quick whether we’re grabbing one sandwich on the go or rounding up an order for the whole crew.