Balsam Bagels

Super fresh bagels from the same family that brought you Malek’s in Brighton. It’s a tough call to say who’s got the best bagels in Rochester. In my mind, it’s a dead heat between Balsam Bagels & Bagel Land. Sometimes I have to give it up for the old neighborhood. Great place to carb up if you’re in the area. Some cool variants here, as others have noted. I’m a sucker for a fresh plain well baked bagel. Delish!

Balsam is the go to spot for bagels in my neighborhood, we’re lucky to have this gem! The freshly baked bagels have the perfect dense yet chewy texture, sure to fill you up. With endless varieties of bagels, cream cheese, baked goods, even paninis and soup there’s truly something for everyone. It can get very busy on the weekends yet with a little bit of patience I’m usually lucky enough to score a parking spot and table.

Bagel Dawg Tho… Seriously a good menu item if you’re not feeling the usual half dozen (don’t be boring)

ONLY place I can get a bagel with Vegan Cream cheese in ROC!!! Thank you!!!
Also only place where I swatted away flies between bites.
bring your appetite and a fly swatter.

The best soup and the best bagels in the area. Lots of vegan choices. Bathe mushroom barley soup is better than my bubbe’s. Lots of interesting sandwiches, salads and sides too. Just delightful and delicious.

Best. Bagels. Period.
Every vegan cream cheese has been delicious.
There is a really great variety of them as well which is awesome.
The line can get long but it’s worth the wait!

Balsam Bagels makes some very fine bagels. I’m a man who enjoys his bagels THICK, and the bagels sold here are quite thick! These bagels absorb butter nicely, so instead of having the butter run off the sides, as often happens with thinner bagels, the butter will soak in and produce a flavorful treat. The prices are reasonable; two thick buttered bagels and a large bottle of water comes to about five bucks here.
Balsam also offers soups, salads, paninis, sandwiches, bageldogs, wraps, and dessert items. They have outdoor and indoor seating.

Awesome bagels. Truly New York style bagels. You can even see them boiling the bagels.
Ordered the everything bagel with lox spread. Very creamy and tasty. A bit warm and soft, but tasty.
Came back the next day for chicken salad and loved it. Great texture and the right amount of seasoning on the bagels.
Not sure why the previous poster from Manhattan said they were tiny. Not. And I’m from NYC too. Great place.

Bagels were good a great selection but a bit tiny. Awesome selection of cream cheeses, savory and sweet! Looked like a neighborhood staple and I got my bagel fix out of the way!

Very impressed with Balsam! Everything that we tried was very fresh and delicious. The young girls behind the counter proved very helpful and patient with us as we made up our minds with what to order (so many choices!!) we ended up getting a mixed dozen of savory and sweet bagels to take home as well and they didn’t last nearly as long as they should have! I especially like how there is that glass and you can watch bagels being made. We will make a point of going back next time we are in town.

Balsam is my go-​to choice when I’m in Rochester and eager to start my day off with a bagel. In a city dominated by large corporate bagel joints, it’s nice to get a larger, fresh bagel that’s made right on site. As you’d expect, they have a variety of bagel and topping choices. I’m an everything bagel with veggie cream cheese kind of guy, but they also have sandwiches, coffee and bottled drinks, and, if you’re the frugal type, bags with a half dozen day old bagels for $ 3.
When my friend Joey D goes in on weekends, he always suggests grabbing a bunch of bagels and a tub of topping and advancing straight to the head of the class (or to the register).
My only beef with Balsam is their $ 5 minimum to use a credit card. I know small independent businesses like theirs really get nailed with interchange fees, but it means getting a 2^nd bagel for later for plastic addicts.

A bagel with flavored cream cheese is over three dollars. A bagel is only a dollar and a tub of cream cheese there is 4 dollars. The pricing is different. Instead of buying two bagels with cream cheese on it we bought four bagels and a tub of cream cheese for the same price. The selection of different bagels and cream cheese is overwhelming and makes the decision process longer. I went with a friend and we just stood at the selection of cream cheese for about 10 minutes. We eventually decided on honey walnut. We got the apple cinnamon bagel and blueberry bagel both which went very well with the honey walnut. I will definitely be coming back again to try different cream cheese and bagels.

The bagels here are great. Made fresh daily. The cream cheese variety is amazing and most are very tasty. They do buy the cream cheese from another company, but it is a local small business as well.
A little turned off by the breakfast sandwiches. The egg is a generic frozen patty and they just microwave it. I was expecting a real egg sandwich at a place like this. I was also slightly turned off by the cleanliness in the food prep area. On one occasion, they wiped the surface down with an obviously dirty towel and then put my sandwich together on top of the just wiped surface. I will still come here to get take out bagels and cream cheese.

I love this place so much. I get my standard everything bagel with jalapeño cream cheese, lox, red onion and capers. Happy Friday to me! Salty, spicy and yum!

If you want variety or something different from the traditional plain bagel with plain cream cheese, you need to go to balsam. I have not seen so many different options in either bagel flavor or cream cheese flavor! And they’re always good, I’m never disappointed, even when venturing out of my comfort zone to try something new. They offer wraps and sandwiches, along with many pastries as well that look just fabulous. Very cute inside, there are some tables if you wish to dine in for lunch or something. Conveniently located in the north Winton area just up the road from CVS on winton.

I love the food here. Best bagels/​cream cheese in Rochester in my opinion, and I don’t know what kind of vegan «sausage» they use but I I’m a fan of that too. And i don’t generally eat a lot of designer vegan «meat» because the idea weirds me out. But I heard it was good and I tried it and now I’m hooked.
That all ^ being said, this place can get tedious. It’s popular so there’s always a line, additionally, the staff tends to oscillate between being somewhat unenthusiastic and pokey, to being overly chatty with one another… and unenthusiastic… and pokey. The coffee is pretty forgettable too.
In summary, I won’t go here if I’m short on time, and I tend to bring my own coffee, both of which make for an unfortunate policy to have with a breakfast place, but damn, the bagels are really good.
Oh yeah and parking can get annoying; teeny tiny lot, fender bender potential: very high

Balsam is within walking distance of my apartment, and I dearly wish it could be my go-​to spot for bagels, breakfast sandwiches, lunch, pastries, etc. But last week, we stopped in there with the kids to get sandwiches to go before heading to Seabreeze, and if the employees there had deliberately tried to eff up our order, they couldn’t have done a better job. Here’s what we ordered:
one plain bagel with sausage and cheddar, no egg.
one everything bagel with sausage, egg, and American cheese
One everything bagel with veggie sausage, egg, and cheddar.
Mind you, we ordered these one at a time. The counter girl even repeated back the order. I had to correct her a couple of times. Either write it down or make the sandwiches one by one! Or, IDK, maybe ask along the way what should go on which bagel? At any rate, she was clueless (and unfriendly) enough that I checked our bagels as we were cashing out. Surprise! Guess what we got?
one plain bagel with egg and cheddar
one everything bagel with sausage, no egg, and American
one everything bagel with regular (non-​veggie) sausage, egg and cheddar.
So she basically conflated all of our orders, and screwed up all of them.
Credit where credit’s due: the woman who was at the register was very apologetic, and got us new bagel sandwiches in record time. But I don’t think it’s enough to win me back. I’m sorry, but if you have a job at a sandwich place, you need to be clever enough to make three different sandwiches with all different ingredients and keep track of them. Or at least be savvy enough to *ask* the customer what s/​he wants as you’re putting it all together.

Balsam has the best bagels in Rochester, no doubt about that. Better than Bruegger’s. They have a huge variety of bagels and cream cheese flavors. Bagels are always fresh and the cream cheese tastes good too. Expect a long line if you go on the weekends. Fortunately the line goes pretty quick. I can’t comment on the baked goods, but they look pretty good.
I would give this place 5 stars, but I’ve been spoiled by better bagels in NYC and on Long Island. Bagels are still amazing.

I was recently in Rochester visiting some family and was tasked with picking up the day’s breakfast. I walked into Balsam Bagels with a list of items and mentioned to the employee that I’d never been there before. She was so nice and patient as I scrolled through my phone reading off each order!
My everything bagel toasted with plain cream cheese was awesome, but the best part was there were seeds on both sides. Usually when eating a bagel I start with the bottom so that I save the seedy top part for last (’cause it’s the best). No need to do that here, unless this was an anomaly and I happened to get an over-​seeded bagel. Regardless, it was very tasty, and I understand why the family stops here for breakfast.
Four bagels — two with cream cheese, two with butter — totaled under $ 9. They also have quiche, pastries, coffees, bottled drinks, etc, but I passed on those this trip.

I’m a fan!
I still like the bagels at Bagel Land better, but as far as overall customer experience, factoring customer service and physical space, Balsam Bagels wins.
I went on a Sunday morning and found a line 10+ people waiting to order. This took me by surprise, but apparently it’s the norm since the staff were not at all flustered and handled the traffic efficiently and courteously.
I ordered a rye bagel lox sandwich for around $ 7. Since i’m use to Brownstein’s pricing, $ 7 seemed like a steal. It also came with a small side. I chose the fruit salad, which was nice and fresh. I thought it was a pretty good value.
The sandwich was good. I should have asked for onions and lettuce, since I missed that textural component that i’m accustomed to in Brownstein’s sandwich. Also in comparison, I felt they were a little more stingy with the lox. However being $ 3 cheaper, I can’t complain.
If I lived closer, I would definitely be a regular. As opposed to Bagel Land and Brownstein’s, they have plenty of seating both inside and outside the store. The ability to dine-​in is a big plus. The friendliness of the staff is also another asset at Balsam Bagels.