Yesterday’s brunch consisted of sweet and savoury cream cheese, delicious bagels and laughs over random conversations with new friends. The get-together happened in LES Bagels at the Podium, the most recently opened branch of the New York inspired deli and bakery, and my most recent favorite discovery. Their first branch opened in 2013 in Mckinley Hill, Taguig, but I was only able to try it for the first time yesterday. What a shame.

I’ve never been to New York and don’t have bagels very often (probably just the Starbucks one, once? ), so trying this for the first time was exciting. We were served different flavors of bagels and about ten types of cream cheeses which I never thought I would enjoy so much, it was a little embarrassing.

The bagel flavors consist of Onion, Garlic, Sesame Seed, Black Sesame Seed, Chocolate, Blueberry, Whole Wheat, Whole Wheat Everything, Pumpernickel, Black Russian, Cinnamon Raisin and Plain. A wide variety enough for you to pick from for breakfast, lunch, merienda, dinner, and even dessert!

The bagels were served to us without the cream cheese inside so we had the option to fill it in with our choice. The cream cheese flavors we had were Plain, Scallion, Garlic and Chives, Jalapeno and Cheddar, Apple Cinnamon, Herbs, Bacon Cheddar, Blueberry, Sundried Tomato Basil, Strawberry and Truffle.

It was hard to pick a winner, really. Every bite of the different bagels and cream cheeses put together kept us ooh-ing and ahh-ing and going back for more.

My favorites?

One that stood out for me was the Chocolate one because it tasted like dark chocolate, which I didn’t expect. Some might want it to be sweeter and expect the chocolate flavor to be strong, but I think the chocolate is just right especially when putting it with the Strawberry, Blueberry and Apple Cinnamon cream cheese. I’m not a fan of overly sweetened desserts because I like being able to have more than a bite, so for me this makes for a perfect sweet dessert after the savoury cream cheeses. I even tried the Chocolate bagel with the Jalapeno cream cheese and enjoyed it a lot. But I think that’s just me.

For the cream cheese, it’s also pretty difficult to choose because I enjoyed everything. The ones I kept going back to though are the Truffle, Jalapeno and Cheddar, and Sundried Tomato and Basil.

This is the size of the bagel on my hand. You might think for a bit that you won’t be stuffed after having this, but with the amount of cream cheese you get with every order, you’re sure to be full. It’s not as light as you think it is!

Aside from your bagel dessert, you might also want to try their other pastries for dessert. We were able to have their Oatmeal Maple Cream Cookie, Fudge Brownie, and Raspberry Cheesecake Brownie. All just as good as their bagels and cream cheese and very moist and sinful. Best if you’re looking for something sweeter to end your meal. To top it all off, you can enjoy all these desserts at LES Bagels… with some Yardstick coffee.

All of us went to LES Bagels that morning thinking of what we’d have for lunch after the get-together. But after devouring what we were served, all lunch plans were cancelled and yoga and gym came into the picture because we couldn’t help but eat and eat, even if our stomachs couldn’t handle the load.

I’d say it was a pleasant trip to LES Bagels, even if it was all the way in Podium (way north for the southerners). I left very much happy and stuffed, and wishing I took home some of the leftover cream cheese.

Until next time #danielaeats!

LES Bagels
2F Podium Mall, 18 ADB Ave , Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong
(02) 804 0423
They do deliveries around Ortigas and The Fort