The Best Gluten Free Bagels Ranked

Guys, it has been a hot minute since I did a new ‘The Best Gluten Free X Ranked’ episode. And this month I’m really excited to share this new one. Today, we’re doing the best gluten free bagels ranked. I’ve wanted to do this for so long but it took me forever to get enough products to feature. There are four bagels on the list today, and I usually like to have 5 in these posts. But I don’t think there is a fifth.  

I’ve been on every major supermarket’s website, gone through specialist food websites and I can only find these 4 in the UK that are both GF and vegan. I’m sure there are others from independent stores or bakeries, and some that could be gluten free but contain eggs. But the following four are the only mass market options I was able to find.  

Which is pretty poor on the grand scheme of things.  

Gluten Free Bagels Available 

The brands I have featured today are Tesco, Schar, The New York Bagel Co, and Genius. Genius and Schar are both huge names when it comes to GF products, so I’m sure you’ve seen those before if you’re in the GF market. The New York Bagel Co are obviously huge in the bagel market, so it makes sense for them to be the only brand from the mainstream sector to offer a gluten free bagel. And then there’s Tesco free from. I was quite surprised to see this. None of the other big 4 UK supermarkets offer a gluten free bagel in their free from ranges, not even a non-vegan one. But Tesco’s offering happens to be both. 

A couple of these brands offered a couple of different flavours of bagel, but for the sake of this post I’ve gone for plain white from each of them to keep the ratings as fair as possible.  

GF Bagels Aren’t Easy to Find 

I had to go to three separate supermarkets to find these. The Schar ones were only available in Morrisons in my area. When I was doing my Ocado order, they only sold Genius. Tesco ones are obviously only available from Tesco. And I got my New York Bagel Co ones from Sainsburys when I was doing my grandparents’ order, but Tesco did stock those ones too. So, unless the situation is better where you are, it isn’t exactly easy to find them all.  

The Best Gluten Free Bagels Ranked 

I’m going to be brutally honest, the majority of these are bad. And I don’t mean regular gluten free/ isn’t as good as the real thing, bad (none of them are anywhere near as good as the real thing). I mean bad. As in even bad for gluten free, I wouldn’t eat them again even if I really wanted a bagel levels of bad.  

Genius 

£2/ 4 bagels (240g) 

Hello, meet the worst gluten free product I’ve ever tried in my life.  

A lot of gluten free bread products don’t taste great fresh from the packet, but are better when toasted. These ones are horrible no matter what you do with them. 

Fresh from the packet, they’re unbelievably hard and dry. You can even see from the texture in the photos, it looks nothing like fresh bread. And it doesn’t get any softer or more pleasant when toasted. I had to put about twice as much toppings on these just to make them easy enough to swallow.  

Price 4/5 – These are some of the cheapest 

Fresh 1/5 – As I said, hard, dry. Awful  

Toasted 2/5 – they were marginally better toasted, but still below average 

Tesco 

£1.60/ 4 bagels (240g) 

These ones are tricky to evaluate compared to the others. They don’t have the greatest texture. Not as dry and awful as the Genius ones, but definitely still not good. They’re also smaller, not quite as thin as a bagel thin, but nowhere near as full as the two that are yet to come. For reference, my smoke alarm was going off before they’d popped when it was set for regular bread. Also, please note that my smoke alarm is extremely sensitive and they were only a tiny bit burnt around the edges. While they’re not great, they’re also more affordable than any of the others. So, it depends how much price plays a role here. 

Apparently, they’re the same weight as the Genius ones, so I can’t explain why they’re so thin. But my smoke alarm only went off for one of the four.  

Price 5/5 – it’s almost unheard of to see any gluten free product for less than £2. 

Fresh – 2/5 – Too dry to eat without toasting regardless of what you put on them, but still deserves an extra point compared to the last ones. 

Toasted – 2/5 – Because they’re so thin, it doesn’t really feel like you’re eating a bagel when they’re toasted. It’s thinner than a lot of bread. So even though the texture is slightly better toasted, as an overall bagel experience, I don’t rate these ones. 

The New York Bagel Co 

£2.60/ 4 bagels (288g) 

This was a big one for me, who would perform better, the free from experts or the bagel experts? Well, they’re not bad, but not great. I wouldn’t say these ones are good fresh, but they’re better than the ones I’ve previously mentioned. When toasted, these ones are as good as you’d typically expect for gluten free, so not below the standard you’d expect. But by no means are these the same quality as a regular New York Bagel bagel. Trust me, I had a bite of one of my mum’s to confirm my memory wasn’t failing me. 

Price 4/5 – These ones are pricier, but they’re a lot better than the other two, and they’re bigger and more like the size you’d expect a regular bagel to be.  

Fresh 3/5 – Edible, but definitely not preferable.  

Toasted 4/5 – As I said, what you’d expect for GF, but definitely not a top tier bagel.  

Schar  

£2.50/ 4 bagels (400g) 

Hands down, these ones are the best. By a mile. And they’re the biggest ones, and they’re roughly the same price as the New York Bagel Co ones. So, better value and texture. The only issue with these ones is an issue I have with Schar as a brand. They’re full of chemicals, so heavily processed beyond belief. Whether that’s a deal breaker or not obviously depends on how you feel about that personally. They’re nice, but I’m not that keen on putting these in my body on a regular basis.  

Price – 5/5 SO much more grams for your money. 

Fresh – 4/5 I could happily eat these not toasted. They’re not the best that way, but still not a bad experience. 

Toasted 5/5 Better than a lot of gluten free bread products. Still not as good as real bread, but one of the best tasting gluten free options on the market. 

Have you tried any of these gluten free bagels? If you have, do you agree with my ratings? 

Until next time, 

Sophie 

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