Everything bagel (and more) from Schmear

A while back, a friend of a friend recommended Schmear. I was hesitant to trust his recommendation because when I asked him if the bagels were New York or Montreal style, he replied with “I don’t know”, which signals a lack of experience with excellent bagels. Nonetheless, my friend Valeria and I decided to make a journey out to Sentosa Island to check out Schmear’s NY style bagels.

I ordered an everything bagel with plain cream cheese, pictured below.

The crust was very crunchy. The inside layer of the bread was pretty soft and chewy. I kind of feel like there was a lot of air in the inside because each bite seemed to contain less bread and more cream cheese than I expected even though the bread looked kind of thick. The cream cheese was very good - great creamy texture and just the right amount of tartness.

I was a little sad that only the top of the bagel had any seasoning, as you can see from the picture above that I took of the bottom half of my bagel. As for the seasoning on the top side, I could see and taste sesame, onion, and garlic. I noticed poppy seeds were lacking, and it made me realize that I haven’t seen any poppy bagels in Singapore. So the conspiracy theorist inside me did some Googling and it turns out that poppy seeds are banned in Singapore! So sad.

Valeria ordered a bagel with lox, pictured below, which looked pretty tasty. Looking at this photo makes me slightly regret not getting lox on my bagel, but I didn’t want any distractions to my tasting the bread (because I’m that pretentious). Valeria said that her bagel was very creamy, the salmon was fresh, herbs were a nice touch, and the bread was very filling.

Valeria also picked up Philly cheesesteak bagel sandwiches for her roommates, Nick and Britt.

Nick and Britt said that the bagels were both kind of chewy and kind of hard. Nick felt that the bagel was “lacking in complexity in flavour”, but he felt that maybe since some time had passed before he ate it, the freshness might have impacted his experience. Also, speaking as someone who has been to Philadelphia several times and eaten a number of Philly cheesesteaks there, I would say that Philly cheesesteaks are not meant to be served in a bagel, but that’s a conversation for a different time. Nick and Britt had spring onion cream cheese which they said had a really fresh flavour. I do think the cream cheese was the best part of my bagel as well! Schmear makes their own cream cheeses, so the restaurant is aptly named.

The bagels at Schmear are a 3 out 5 stars for me, and the cream cheese is excellent!

Thanks to Valeria Kebets and her housemates Nick and Britt for some of the photos and their reviews!