Unfiltered Food Review - Otro Bagel

Any time there is a restaurant that serves a U.S. staple opens in Medellin, it will always raise debate as to it's authenticity. For whatever reason this applies mostly to New York-based food options, so maybe New Yorkers are just that protective of their food.

I've been told that there is a bagel place in Manila that opened and I had to try it. That's enough to pique my interest. So I had to try it. I saw that they have traditional NYC sandwiches, I knew it would be controversial to say the least. Earlier this week, I saw a video from the wildly popular couple colombia.expats, and this is their new venture. This sold me, so I headed over today to try it out.

I woke up this morning and the first thing I thought of was a bagel. It was all I wanted all morning, so I did everything normal and took the dog with me and we walked to Manila to get our bagel on. First they are located in the "Muncher" food court which is located in the Manila Park Parqueadero, at the end of Calle 12 - about a block away from the "Calle de comida" in Manila - Yes, I know this isn't the official name, but it's what I call it.

I need to take a moment here to admit something, I've actually had a heated exchange over sourdough bread while here. A baker claimed his sourdough is "better than that trash in San Francisco". Needless to say his culture didn't live up to his ridiculous claims. So, needless to say I'm passionate about my breads, and bagels are also something I'm almost as passionate about. So I had my hopes up, and when I saw my staple breakfast when I lived in Brooklyn - the BaconEggAndCheese on a bagel, I was sold.

My dog and I walked to Manila, and the walk was well worth it. I opted for an everything bagel and when I saw they have scallion schmear, I got excited. I was cautiously optimistic, when I got my bagel, that optimism turned to glee. I was trying to balance filming a quick YouTube video, protecting my bagel from the dog and enjoying my food. So when you see the video, I hate to say, you're seeing the 3rd try, because the bagel was just that good. There was so much schmear in the middle that it made a mess of my face, and that's not a good look for trying to film a video. The outside is well cooked, and the other thing I love is that they put the seeds on both sides of the bagel. You can't go wrong when the toppings are on the outside and there is a solid amount of schmear between the layers of bagel.

Let me address the elephant in the room, is it as good as a New York bagel? No, but expecting that in Medellin is ridiculous. We can be honest in saying that the bagels and pizza crust in New York are unmatched. My theory is that the water in New York is the reason for this. Same as I think of sourdough from San Francisco, the moisture in the air is the reason it's unmatched. With that said, these bagels are about as good as I've had outside of New York. The fact that we have a spot to go and get our bagel fix is incredible. There are other quality bagel options, but they have to be ordered. For those moments you want to have a bagel we have an option. The name fits this place perfectly. Because you will want... Otro bagel.

Then we can talk about the owners for a moment, I got to meet Nick, who I've seen on videos, but never met in person and it was a pleasure to meet him, and I will be interviewing him and his wife soon, and hopefully the dogs too!

You can find the store on Instagram at @OrtoBagel on the web at otrobagel.com and you can find the Sam and Nick at @colombia_expats to follow their adventure.