St Urbain Bagel Bakery

Hit or miss and more misses than hits lately.
I LOVE St Urbain Bagels when I get them at St Lawrence Market, but they seem to miss the mark at least every other time at the Eglinton/​Bathurst location.
PARKING
They are on the south side of Eglinton. With chronically bad traffic there, you are better off driving around the block in the neighbourhood to get street parking. Caution: the north/​south streets on the south side are one-​way streets that have non-​traditional speed bumps and go past a community centre (slow it down for the kiddos please).
Rexall is next door to the west (enter only from Eglinton) has a parking lot for customers only, so that’s the best option if you’re getting pharmacy stuff on the same trip. Other than that, it’s hard to come by metered street parking. Free, brief parking on north/​south one-​way streets IF you can find it.
STAFF
Some of the staff have horrible English which has resulted in incorrect orders, like today.
PAYMENT
They absolutely do NOT take credit cards. Interac & Cash only. Weird machine where you have to insert your debit card before prompted.
VENUE
There is limited seating, maybe enough for 10 if not less???
It is not fancy and looks like bad plastic laminate that was installed by a non-​professional. It is far from fancy and a well-​maintained retail area. Poor lighting.
FOOD
They sell a few cake loaves (lemon blueberry as I recall is one flavour).
They have below average Bourekas which are puff pastry wrapped around either 1) sweet cottage cheese 2) spinach/​feta 3) or mushroom/​potato/​onion filling and in a horse shoe shape. The fillings are good, but the pastry is always lousy and tough.
They are known for their «wood-​fire oven bagels» but it sure looks like a bell-​shape gas oven that masquerades as wood-​fire. Really, it is NOT the same taste as a true Montréal-​style bagel that has character from wood fire — like Bagel House on Avenue Rd has.
Their bagel dough is Montréal-​style in that it does not have salt in it and has a bit of a sweetness. They do often have garnishes that have salt to compensate, like the Poppy Seed/​Salt and Everything if you prefer.
I do love the incredible chew that they have in their «WHITE bread» dough (not whole wheat).
Cinnamon Raisin, Sesame, plain, poppy seed, and whole wheat make up the bulk of the fairly traditional bagel flavors.
We drove out of our way today just to get these as a treat, but — due to the non-​English speaking male staff — I was given DISGUSTING whole wheat (WW) poppy seed bagels instead of the double poppy seed white bagels I requested. Maybe they were having a very bad day because at least ¹⁄₃ of the bagels were not pinched into a circle & were «U» shaped. Additionally, the WW had an extremely yeasty smell to them when I cut them to toast them 5 minutes after coming home. After I toasted it, the inside of the bagel interior puffed up — which means it was not fully cooked since it continued cooking in my toaster! My hubby & I took one bite and had to spit it out since it tasted like raw dough. Then we had to throw away the 4 WW bagels. What a waste! Too inconvenient to return to haggle w/​someone who doesn’t speak English to try to get a credit.
I’d say there are burnt spots on the bagel every other time. So combined with the above, I will not likely return to this location and will only get them from St Lawrence Market.
They sell cream cheese, lox, etc. The usual accompaniments and bottled beverages.
$ 4.50 for half dozen. I think.
They sell out of flavours. By 10am on Saturday, they were out of whole wheat poppy seed bagels and Spinach/​Feta Bourekas for example. But then again, they closer earlier on weekends (3pm I think on Sat) so they are less likely to re-​stock whereas they are open until early evening on weekdays when your late-​day options are a bit better.

The question everyone always asks is «Who makes the best Montréal-​style bagel in Toronto?»
The correct answer is St. Viateur — it’s just up Yonge, hang a right on the 401 and it’s just about 400km — on the right.
Really, both of the main contenders for this dubious crown are, at best, «School of Montréal» bagels. «Ain’t nothin’ like the real thing baby» OK — Vaguely reminiscent of the real thing they are worth eating in pinch — but if you’re one of the myriad who does not suffer carbs gladly, then you should save them for a better place.

Real bagels baked in a wood burning oven.
The good varieties tend to sell out fast so arrive early for full selection.

St Urbain, on south side of Eglinton just west of Bathurst, is a great place to have a bite or grab a dozen bagels and cream cheese to take home. They have a bagel club card, where after buying 5 doz the 6^th is free. They bake on site and sell what I like to call a real bagel and not simply a bub with a hole in the middle.