Salt Beef Bagel appears as a signature dish in 1 United Kingdom cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Salt beef bagel · London
Brined and slow-cooked salt beef brisket, hand-sliced thick onto a boiled-and-baked bagel with English mustard and pickled cucumber. A Brick Lane lunch from a 24-hour counter since 1974.
Eastern European Jewish migrants brought the boiled-and-baked bagel and the brined-brisket tradition to Whitechapel and Spitalfields from the 1880s. The Beigel Bake on Brick Lane (1974) and the rival Beigel Shop next door (1855, the older of the two) sell the form that London adopted: dense hand-rolled bagel, hot pink salt beef sliced to order at the window, English mustard and pickled cucumber, cash and card, 24 hours. Cabbies, theatre staff and clubbers anchor the queue from midnight onwards. North London delis like Reuben's and Brass Rail in Selfridges sell the upmarket sit-down version.
Where to eat in London:
- Beigel Bake
- Reuben's
- The Dusty Knuckle