This popular Montrose-area bakery provides New York-style bagels, kolaches, and more. We sample a few bagels and a bagel pizza.

2015 S Shepherd Dr #900, Houston, TX 77019
713-520-0340
Website

6am–2pm, 7 days a week

Last visited on August 5, 2018

As recent transplants to Houston with some prominent East Coast roots, we were overjoyed to notice this pleasant-looking neighborhood bagel shop in our general vicinity. A few days after arrival, we made a beeline, and as satisfied customers, we have returned on several occasions for breakfast and lunch. The Hot Bagel Shop offers a nice daily assortment of bagels, bagel-related foods, and sandwiches to a steady mix of commuters and locals.

Bagels: Bagels at the Hot Bagel Shop cost $1 each (or $11.50 for a dozen), $2.39 with plain cream cheese, or $2.69 with flavored cream cheese. These are legit, chewy, East-Coast-style bagels with a nice glossy crust. While they won’t quite fool you into thinking you woke up in Hoboken instead of Houston, they come close and beat the pants off any national chain bagel store. We tried a salt bagel, which came thoroughly studded with crunchy, gem-sized crystals, and a sesame seed, both with plain cream cheese. The spread is not a sad, whipped-up froth, and you get your money’s worth in cream cheese—an inch deep in places—but you can request that they dial back the smear to a more heart-friendly thickness. Toasted or no, as you please.

Bagel Pizza: At just $2.49, this no-frills-yet-very-tasty personal pizza on a chewy bagel dough crust is a steal of a deal for lunch. With this cheap and already-warm option, there is no reason to resort to a frozen Totino’s from the convenience mart. And Hot Bagel Shop will sprinkle theirs with parmesan and/or red pepper flakes for you. You can choose from a selection of pepperoni, sausage, or veggie.

Bagel, a surprisingly flexible medium: The Hot Bagel Shop sells an assortment of attractively-priced bagel dog/kolache type items. One of us tried an egg-and-cheese “breakfast bagel,” ($1.89) which is not a bagel sandwich but rather consists of eggs and cheese baked kolache-style into a bagel dough roll. We were a little underwhelmed with this item and the accompanying “New York City?!” tomato salsa, but plenty of customers seem to order them. However, we look forward to sampling a jalapeño sausage bagel dog ($1.89) in the near future.