Solly’s Bagelry

I stopped in mid day on a Sunday, there were no bagels left other than a few poppy seeds. I asked if they would be making more and they said no. Hubs decided to have the eggel on the poppy and said it was pretty good, I had it on the «day old» rye they offered since I didn’t want poppyseed. I found the eggs to be disappointing, bland and an odd texture (microwaved? from a box? I’m not sure but I don’t want to know why) It was also so dry I had to add ketchup, and I don’t really like ketchup very much. I personally don’t think its great for a place with Bagel in the name to have no bagels. I overheard the people behind us order a cinnamon bun, with frosting. The cashier said flat out «we’re out of frosting» no apologies or anything friendly. I’ve had better experiences at the Tim Hortins in burnaby hospital ha-​ha. We sat at our broken table and chairs (they looked like they had been pulled out of the alley!) the product availability was dismal, the shop is run down and sad and the service was bad. Safe to say I will never be back! Pity, the kits location is great.

They were out of onion for my lox and bagel. The cup of rigulah or whatever it’s called was actually stale. The washroom had no light so had to pee in the dark. Big disappointment. Bagel was ok.

I have to say that their service here is pretty good. They seem to really care about your satisfaction. I love that they have a good selection of baked goods. Great for my sweet tooth ;)

The lox & cream cheese bagels are filling and tasty, cream cheese piled high. Same for the smears. Tasty.
Can not leave without getting a cinnamon bun, with or without the cream cheese icing. Perfectly delicious. My kids live for this.
The bagels are good, usually leave with a bakers dozen.
Prices are very fair.
Have been coming to this Solly’s for 11 years (was formerly farther up Main). The basket of toys has always been a blessing to allow mom to chat with a friend or simply sip an actual hot coffee. There are also high chairs and kid seat on the toilet. I don’t need these for my littles any more, but it’s pretty thoughtful to a mom in need of a little venture out of the house. Thanks Solly’s.

Great little place for lox & cream cheese. I wish they would keep rye or pumpernickel bagels as a regular bagel item. They could use some newer tables & chairs as the current ones are looking a little beat up.
I was disappointed that they closed early on the May stat. holiday. I went in for a bagel to go 2 minutes before they closed early (which I didn’t know that day) and they said it would take too long to make my lox & cream cheese bagel. They served 2 people after me just ordering desserts which I didn’t think was very busy savy on their part.

If this is Vancouver’s version of a perfection bagel than I’ll accept. If you’ve tried the ones in Montréal and New York (and there are only one top notch venue in those cities) then you’ll see Vancouver’s is very different. Just for comparison sake Solly’s bagels are tougher in texture and smaller. Not being purely a bagel shop their bagels also aren’t fresh out of the oven-​throughout the day. I can live with this because their pricing is very reasonable and service is decent (take out) but I actually come here for their cinnamon buns which I prefer.
For some reason the cinnamon bun I received this time at this location didn’t spec the caramel like candy topping I’ve had in the past, the syrup seem minimal and wasn’t creamy. My limited candy making experience suggests that the sugar was not cooked long enough and volume was insufficient, a bit of a let down since no other cinnamon bun place in Vancouver I’m aware of makes it Solly’s way. I’ll give them a second try before inquiring.
In general their other sweet pastries I find are too sweet but since I can’t just walk out with cinnamon buns and bagels I also tried:
Wiener bun– reminds me of the Chinese version except with an all beef giant wiener– high sodium of course but I got my protein.
Lemon cake– yes the icing is the icing on the cake except I just eat the cake because the icing is tooo sweet. It’d be nice to incorporate the lemon rind in the cake and not just the icing — being a granny recipe I’ll likely just be making this myself at home.
By the way there’s a groupon out right now for %50 off all baked goods.
4stars for groupon pricing
3 stars for food

Solly’s? This place should be called Sullen’s because the staff are so somber, it hurts. Some of the young staff look like they could be perky and upbeat but it’s like the place has sucked the life right out of them!
I had a bagel sandwich and soup combo, it wasn’t bad. The soup was nice and hearty, as I was just getting over a cold and it really helped me to feel better. I wouldn’t mind going back to Solly’s sometime, but the uncomfortable atmosphere of the place makes me think twice about heading back.

I always get my regular eggel with cheddar but if I could afford to I’d get the eggel Delox. Oh and yes the eggel is a bagel with egg in it. The second favorite item is the «babka» which is similar to a cinnamon bun but rather than the cinnamon it has a chocolate sauce.— no icing needed. The icing is not the greatest by the way. Don’t spend the extra on the icing, and yes they charge you extra… Overall food quality is good the service is good, the manger at the main location is a good guy and always makes a point of shaking my hand, as I am a regular. I go there often for convenience rather than food. If you are in the area it’s worth checking out but I wouldn’t go out of my way to get an over priced bagel. With that being said I still am a regular but more so because I work in the area and it’s convenient.

Not as roomy as their W.7^th location, kinda cramped but pretty convenient on this side of town.
Obviously their cinnamon buns are winners: like the option of spreading your own icing, control those calories depending on one’s mood ;)
Lemon pound cake so-​so, in a way too sweet considering not much ooomph in the softness of the cake, kinda bland, not enough lemon.
Parking’s tough here, shared with a bunch of other places in a plaza.

Best cinnamon buns ever!
Great variety of bagels, and cream cheeses too. I don’t come here often but I’m always satisfied when I leave.
Everything is always freshly made. Love their eggels and Salmon bagel sandwich.

I was introduced to Solly’s bagels when a friend of mine brought a bag of bagels over for a book club meeting from the 7^th ave location. I really liked the bagels, so my husband and I decided to give it a shot.
Solly’s Up Main is a small bagel shop just north of King Edward Avenue. The parking situation is a bit lackluster, since there are only a few spots reserved for Solly’s itself (the rest are reserved for the laundromat and other businesses in the complex). The store itself feels dated, with uneven mismatched chairs and tables that feel cramped. I agree with other reviews in that it is much better to take your order to-​go instead of eat in.
I decided to order the Eggel on a herb bagel, and my husband ordered the Lox and Eggel on a sesame seed bagel. We also ordered a spinach knish. Our total bill was $ 12 which I would have been okay with if the bagels weren’t so tiny! I can guarantee you that the bagels at Tim Hortons and Bernoulli’s at UBC are bigger.
My Eggel was unfortunately quite bland. I don’t think there was much seasoning in the egg or the herb bagel, which is disappointing since I really enjoyed the bagels my friend brought over a month ago. My husband was happier with his Lox and Eggel, but he said the shining star was the bagel itself; the rest was forgettable.
We didn’t actually get the knish until I went back to the till after about 10 minutes. They completely forgot about it! I was able to get one without question when I showed our receipt, but still. I actually liked the knish, it was quite tasty. It just didn’t make up for the rest of the meal.
I don’t know, I just feel like other places make way better bagels. I won’t be going back.

I’d give this place 5 stars if I was just rating it on my love for their chocolate babkas, but it’s really only 3 stars.
The location is a hole and much worse than their others. It’s very small and ridiculously hot in the summer. Seating is uncomfortable inside and the chairs are really tippy outside.
The food quality is decent and typical of Solly’s, but the atmosphere is lacking and best for take away/​to-​go orders. It’s also lacking some of the selection (no frozen/​refrigerated times) and fewer baked goods varieties.

I was torn between a 2 and a 3 with this place but really I probably wouldn’t go back so it has to be a 2.
New York style bagels.
Now there’s a statement!
These bagels are TINY in comparison to NYC bagels. There’s your first problem.
Like a previous reviewer said these bagels are a step up from a Tim’s bagel but actually they are smaller.
The staff are friendly, they seem a bit panicked most of the time though. Calm down! There’s so many of you and not much of a queue. I actually was confused as to who to pay because about 3 staff were attempting to take my order.
I ordered the hot pastrami on an everything bagel. Like I said the bagel was tiny. The pastrami was OK. The bagel itself was nice enough, just too small.
This is where I was annoyed. It was 8.75 for this tiny bagel that was packed with OK pastrami.
8.75!!!
It came with some chips which tasted stale.
If I am passing and feel like a bagel with a schmear I may go in because that is not so expensive if I just wanted something quick and cheap on the run. Oh and if I wanted something SMALL to eat!

I live in Tacoma, WA, USA and the previous location was my go-​to place for Montréal style bagels when I’m in town.
During this visit, I tried their cinnamon buns… and they are still good as ever.
However, this new location just don’t have the same feel as the old place… maybe it is the neon sign.

I’m a one bagel girl. And will admit to being a bit bias in that claim. It’s a family matter.
You see, a decade ago, my mother went and bagged herself a bagel man. Since that day, we’ve been a one bagel household and dare I say, I landed in a pretty find part of Vancouver’s bagel royalty. But when a Solly’s opened up a block away from the house, my loyalties vs. my laziness began a three month battle.
Until the inevitable betrayal.
With little sleep and sesame bagel on the brain, yesterday I creeped my cheating self into Solly’s to get my guilty bagel fix. And the result? I’m still a one bagel girl… most of the time.
Family aside, here’s my honest take on Solly’s:
I’m a bagel purist so it’s sesame to the end with me. The bagels themselves are quite good. I appreciate that they are boiled and not the knock off grocery store bagels. Bread cooked in a circle does not a bagel make. And I could happily munch away on a plain version of this circular goodness. It was well cooked and fresh. Extremely tasty indeed.
Where things went pear shaped was when I started adding things on top.
I ordered the Rusty. Sesame bagel with butter, scrambled eggs, melted cheese and pastrami. If your a fan of the Montréal smoked meat sandwich at that other bagel haunt that shall not be named, you’ll be disappointed in this one. It lacks the spiciness and the sky-​high meat factor. That being said, the pastrami is tasty as heck, albeit completely overshadowed by the odd choice of cheese. In fact, you’ll find yourself pulling it out of the bagel to truly enjoy it. The eggs are well done and don’t seem to be an out of the bottle deal but again, the odd cheese (I want to say… mozzarella?) just throws this sandwich off completely. It’s a satisfying sandwich but nothing to write home about.
The latka has promise. But came so greasy that it seeped through the bag and I spent the walk home flipping it from hand to hand, trying not to cover myself and my bag in grease. If they could tone down the greasiness, it would be great but as is, is soggy and disappointing.
And the coffee? Pass it.
The verdict? I’m still a one bagel woman. But if the craving takes over, i’d venture back here for a plain sesame with butter. But i’ll pass on the sandwiches and my loyalties have yet to be swayed.

I was really hopeful that we’d get some solid NY style bagels… but these guys were too small and didn’t have enough leavening in them to get that great bite. Better then Tim Hortons, but not New York. The knish was pretty great too, as was the cheese filled pastry we tried.
EDIT: Two stars because there was another issue that I don’t think is fair to post given I don’t know all the cirucmstances. If the Owner wishes to know why I dropped down to a two, they may contact me via Unilocal

Well, they’ve done it again. This has everything you’d expect from a Solly’s. That means great baked goods: bagels, babka, cinnamon buns, latkas and other classic favourites. And true to the great Solly’s tradition that also means service that always appears to be one order away from complete chaos.
Sadly, for those who appreciated the charm of its previous off-​main location, this new site draws its aesthetic inspiration more from the 7^th Ave store. It also feels like it was opened in a terrific hurry — the signage outside is clearly temporary. It’s a shame they weren’t able to make it feel a little more finished before it opened. The layout inside is also not the best — putting the counter on the same side as the door creates a real choke point, and fighting to get in is not a welcoming experience.
Solly’s has great products and a loyal following, which keeps it going. To me it has always felt like a business that teeters on the edge of greatness, but which always manages to pull itself back towards mediocrity. I hope this new location matures into something better.