Bagels @ Vienna Soft Fresh Bagels, Suria KLCC, Kuala Lumpur

We discovered something brand new at Suria KLCC yesterday - fresh soft baked bagels! Taking over the booth where Auntie Anne's Pretzels used to be on third floor of the mall is Vienna Soft Fresh Bagels. It's hard to miss this place since it's located very near the TGV cinema on the third floor.



You'll do a double take when you walk past this place as the bagels look uncannily like doughnuts. In fact the White Oreo one looks so much like the one found at Big Apple Donuts. The similarity is definitely not a coincidence as the company even has a pamphlet explaining the different characteristics. It's kinda like a doughnut with the hole in the middle but instead of being fried, it's baked. I like how Claudia Roden described the bagel - "a doughnut with rigor mortis". She's so right as the bagel has a chewy but dense texture versus the light as air doughnuts. It will definitely suit those who hate Big Apple Donuts that complain it's like "eating air" as it has more bite to it.

Order your bagels at the counter and select which variety you want from the glass trays (similar to the ones you find in Breadtalk and Big Apple Donuts). There's actually 25 varieties available under the label but yesterday, we only saw 9 varieties on display. From what I understand from the cashier, they rotate the varieties every day but some favourites do remain. There are savoury and sweet varieties to satisfy your tastebuds. We tried their Sparkling Cheddar Bagel which is covered with a slice of cheddar cheese. Not fantastic since the cheddar cheese is not that strong but I can imagine it will appeal to those who don't like strong tasting cheeses.

Then we had the Italiano Bagel - sliced pepperonies sprinkled with romano cheese. This was nice as the romano cheese was strong and tasty. What made these savoury bagels taste great we noticed was the sprinkling of coarse sea salt on them.

This was the best savoury one we had - the Mexitaliano Bagel. Topped with sliced jalapeno peppers and shredded romano cheese, it was very good stuff. You had the slight spiciness from the jalapenos and the strong cheese taste which made it so tasty. We had all the savoury ones heated warm at the counter so they tasted really good. We noticed if you heat up the bagels, their texture is softer and not so chewy. Again the coarse salt sprinkled on top made the bagel taste great.

Then we had the sweet ones which seem to be popular as there were more of these versus the savoury ones. This is the one which looked like a twin of Big Apple Donuts - their White Oreo Bagel. It's covered with melted white chocolate and oreo crunch. We thought this wasn't too great as the taste was quite subtle.

Something unusual, the ChocoRomano which combines sweet and savoury tastes together. The bagel is dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled with romano cheese shreds. Kinda weird combination but it works somehow.

Peanut lovers will enjoy this - the White Crunch Bagel. Coated with melted white chocolate, it's generously sprinkled with chopped crunchy peanuts. What we like about this place is they're pretty generous with the toppings hence each mouthful is full of the crunchy peanuts.

Here's our favourite sweet variety - DoubleNutz Bagel. Peanut butter is spread all over the bagel and it's then coated with ground peanuts. It tastes nicer when you eat it not heated up. When you heat it up, the topping tends to melt a bit and somehow the peanut butter flavour is not as strong.

This is supposedly their best seller - the Dark Flakes Bagel. It is topped with melted dark chocolate and a generous sprinkling of almond flakes. If you heat this up, the topping will melt a bit making it kinda messy to eat though so beware especially if you're wearing white.

Other varieties they have are more traditional like with salt or the ones with cream cheese. The cream cheese varieties are given a slight twist with the sprinkling of Japanese fish flakes (Katsuo) or chopped chives (Cheez & Chivez). There is also a Green Tea version, one sprinkled with seaweed (Nori-San) or sprinkled with coffee on peanut butter frosting (CoffeNut) and etc. They also sell flavoured teas served chilled or at room temperature - Citron, Wild Raspberry (which we tried and was very nice), Aloe, Green Tea, Earl Grey and English Breakfast. Items are strictly for take away only so find a place in Suria KLCC to scoff them down. The bagels get packed in nifty boxes with strings as handles if you order 3 pieces or 6 pieces.

Pricewise, they get cheaper if you buy more so share with your friends or colleagues. If you want them warm, chuck them into the microwave and heat on high for 10 seconds. Instructions are found at the side of the boxes. One bagel costs RM3, 3 bagels for RM7.50 and 6 bagels for RM14. The flavoured tea costs RM3.80. Note that the prices are inclusive of service tax already. Tastewise, we both liked them a lot but then we're biased as we both love bagels. They're more for the adventurous who prefer something different compared to the traditional cream cheese, salmon and poppy seeds varieties.

Vienna Soft Fresh Bagels

Lot K35, Third Floor

Suria KLCC

Kuala Lumpur

Tel No: 03- 9200 4933

(Halal. This is opposite the escalators at the Centre Court, Third Floor where American Chilis, Best and TGV Cinema is located.)

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from the restaurant for writing this review.

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Tagged with: Bagels + Suria KLCC