Salt beef bagel
Photo: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain

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.

2 editor picks for Salt beef bagel in London, ranked by editorial score. All London signature dishes · Salt beef bagel across every city.

Beigel Bake ★ 4.7

£Street foodShoreditch Spitalfields

The Brick Lane Beigel Bake bakery in east London, trading since 1974, runs hand-rolled bagels and salt beef sandwiches from a 24-hour counter.

OrderSalt beef bagel

TipOrder at the counter, pay at the till. Salt beef bagel with mustard is the orthodox order. £6 cash-or-card, queue runs 15 minutes after midnight.

DirectionsView

The Dusty Knuckle ★ 4.4

£BakeryHackney

Max Tobias's social-enterprise bakery in a Dalston car park in east London, opened 2014, runs sourdough sandwiches, pastry and a youth training program.

TipSalt beef sandwich is the marquee fill. Sunday roast bread loaf sells out by 13:00. Outdoor seating only in summer.

DirectionsView

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