Where to Eat: Blazing Bagels

The Breakdown
Locations: Redmond (6975 176th Ave NE, Suite 365); Bellevue (555 108th Ave NE, Suite C); Safeco Field (1250 1st Ave S, Seattle); SODO (1911 1st Ave S, Seattle)
Must-eat: Salt bagel with chive cream cheese, raspberry bar, Irwin Itzakoff turkey sandwich
Dress code: What dress code?
Ambiance: Warehouse-y, but pleasant and kid-friendly
Price: Under $10 per entrée, $1.15 per bagel

When you have a super picky eater, finding something (anything) they’ll actually eat is like winning some crazy-hard strategy game (you know, one of those awful ones with multiple expansion packs). After weeks of cutting sandwiches into truck shapes or trying to figure out how to invisibly sneak vegetables into a bowl of noodles, you stumble onto an item they deem worthy of their finicky little taste buds. Victory in the form of calories!

And then everyone in your house ends up eating a lot of oatmeal. Or sweet potato fries. Or peanut M&Ms. Lucky for me, my picky eater’s latest obsession is one I can totally get behind:

Blazing Bagels.

Pretty much any weekday between 11:45 and 12:30, there’s a good chance you’ll find me chowing down on a salt bagel with cream cheese and guzzling a Diet Pepsi, while picky eater/construction vehicle enthusiast Max enjoys his plain bagel, ripped just-so into little pieces.

Located in a rather unattractive office park, the Blazing Bagels in Redmond is truly a hidden gem and from the outside, doesn’t look so great.

But inside, it’s a temple of carbs.

The place is super casual and friendly and the concrete floors make it easy to clean up the spills that are an inevitable part of meals with kids. The sandwiches are delicious (and all have rather delightful names...the Samuel Slutzky is my personal fav).

But for me, the salt bagel with cream cheese can’t be beat. Both are made in-house, and I love that when you order a bagel with schmear, they really load it on. There are tons of bagels, from sweet to savory to super cheesy, and almost as many cream cheese flavors.

And as a connoisseur of Seattle area fountain pop machines, I can say without hesitation that Blazing Bagels Redmond has the best Diet Pepsi mix I’ve ever found (plus free refills). Do you like the halo of light shining on my DP? Rather fitting.

Don’t miss the sample baskets. I’m a bit of a germaphobe, so usually communal food containers in public places sicken me, BUT the raspberry bars and apple crumb cake are so delicious, I make an exception. The treats here are worth the splurge. They also make great challah bread (which makes the best bread pudding and French toast).

Blazing claims to make the best bagels east of NYC...and I think I have to agree. Have you been? Tell us what you think.