The recipe that fuels The Bagel Co started in a grandfather’s bakery in Melbourne before – two generations later – eventually making its way to Sydney’s Rose Bay. And somehow that sense of history and family pride still shines through every bite of the finished bagel. The classic with house-cured salmon is what most people order (there’s also egg or tuna mayo and falafel), but the challah and rugelach here deserve their own visit, especially if you’re not in a savoury mood. It’s kosher, it’s friendly and unfussy, and it never feels as though it’s trying to impress you. It just always does. Shop 3-4 / 475 Old, Old South Head Rd, Rose Bay; thebagelco.com.au

Grandma Moses has been boiling rings of dough then baking them since the 1980s, spending decades perfecting that proper chew inside and a crisp shell outside. It’s a fully kosher operation here; the bagels are all vegan and it’s fed the same local families for generations. Poppy seed, sesame and plain are the classics, but those with a bit more of an adventurous spirit shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to try the fragrant za’atar-dusted bagels. Grab one warm with a smear of cream cheese. Weekends get busy, and once you’ve had one of Grandma Moses’ bagels, you’ll certainly understand why. 105-109 Anzac Parade, Kensington; grandmamoses.com.au

Back in 2017, on the ground floor of a Hills District corporate building, tucked between office blocks and roundabouts, a small bagel shop opened. Given its unassuming location, it’s likely nobody expected it to become a must-visit destination, but that’s exactly what happened at Good Fella. Every bagel is hand-rolled on site, and while the smoked salmon on an ‘everything’ bagel draws the loyal crowd, the real surprise is the Nutella – a sweet bagel piled with house-made mascarpone, Nutella, banana, toasted nuts and Milo that shows that this kitchen can do plenty more than just coast on the classics. Alpha Specialist Centre, G07/5 Celebration Dr, Bella Vista; goodfella.co

Long before bagels were a thing here, one Brooklyn-born baking enthusiast started kettle-boiling and hand-rolling dough the old-fashioned way. Suddenly, Sydney was in the bagel game. Brooklyn Boy went on to prove its point on the world stage, taking out Best Bagels in Asia Pacific and placing for Best International Bagel at the world’s biggest bagel bake-off. Brooklyn Boy’s line-up includes a rainbow-dyed showstopper and a properly loaded ‘everything’, with plenty of regular guest chef collabs keeping things interesting. This is where Sydney’s bagel obsession got its start, and the one to try if you can only try one. brooklynboy.com.au

Yukiko Yamazaki, known at Sydney’s markets as Bagel Mama, taught herself to hand-roll and boil dough over a period of 20 years, and what she’s landed on doesn’t look like anything else on this list. Her bagels come shaped like animals, and are flavoured with Japanese ingredients like hojicha tea and kuri chestnut paste. Past pop-ups have included baby matcha turtles, kransky bagel dogs and a matcha cat that bleeds bright purple sweet potato paste when you cut into it. You’ll find her at markets, not at a shopfront, so check out her Instagram page before you go looking. @yukibageljp9

Stitch started as a coffee roastery, and it shows: this isn’t a bagel shop that happens to sell coffee, it’s a coffee crew that worked very hard at getting bagels right, too. The biggest draw is the jammy miso egg bagel, a swirl of miso-spiked egg salad and piccalilli piled onto an everything bagel, with a soft-boiled egg cut clean down the middle so the yolk spills into everything else. Pair it with one of their playful coffees – and a bit of seafood shopping if you’re visiting at their brand new fish market outpost – and consider your morning sorted. stitch.coffee

This is a tiny spot, easy to walk straight past if you’re not looking for it, but the bagels are worth the detour. Small Talk does Montreal-style bagels, so expect something chewier, denser and a bit sweeter than the usual New York style – but absolutely no less addictive. The pastrami is the order for first timers, stacked with pickles, melted cheese and a special sauce that guarantees there’ll be a second visit. There’s also a rotating line-up of doughnuts, focaccia and a cinnamon-chocolate morning bun, so it’s worth checking what’s fresh on the day. The coffee’s good too, from a well-loved Surry Hills roaster. Shop 2/355 New Canterbury Rd, Dulwich Hill; smalltalkcoffee.com

Lox in a Box will tell you upfront that they don’t bake their own bagels, they bring them in daily. What they obsess over instead is everything that goes inside: LP’s Quality Meats pastrami piled high, a lox bagel with sustainable salmon flown in from New Zealand weekly and cured on site, and a vegetarian version so loaded with jalapeno schmear it might teleport you through space and time. They’ve got a handful of little outposts scattered through the eastern suburbs and the inner west; none of them have their own oven, but none of them seem to need one. loxinabox.com.au

This Miller Street cafe keeps its focus on a tight selection of bagels: sesame, everything or plain, toasted fresh to order. It’s from there, though, that the options get exciting. Breakfast brings a chorizo, bacon, egg and cheese bagel, a grilled haloumi number and an eggs benedict version, while lunch swings into a – wait for it – double cheeseburger bagel, a stacked Reuben, a panko schnitzel bagel and a vegetarian option stacked with a vego pattie and plenty of tasty salady things. North Sydney doesn’t get much bagel attention, but this spot is making a decent case that it should. Shop 1/54 Miller St, North Sydney; brewandbagel.com.au

Walk into Lox Stock and Barrel and it feels like someone airlifted a real New York deli into the middle of Bondi, fridge cabinet and all. Seven bagel varieties get boiled and baked here every day, but go for the chopped liver, egg and onion piled onto a sweet onion bagel with pickles on the side. It’s an old Ashkenazi combination that’s basically disappeared from Sydney menus, which is a shame, because it’s the sort of thing that makes you stop mid-bite and just appreciate how lucky we are to have classics like this done so well so close to home. 140 Glenayr Ave, Bondi Beach; loxstockandbarrel.com.au