We found a Canberra café completely dedicated to bagels and lunch has never looked so good

Posted on 23 January, 2023

Classic cream cheese, B&E, Tom Yum prawn, and even ice cream, Biscoff, and blueberries—we’ve found a café that has a menu completely dedicated to bagels.

Officially opening its doors in December 2022, Fav Cup Café is the newest foodie addition to London Circuit, making the dreams of bagel aficionados come true with a menu packed full of plain, sesame, jalapeno and cheese, blueberry, and Milo (that’s right, MILO) bagels.

Owned and operated by Wicky Wutthiudomlert (of local favourite Chong Co Thai), Piyada Siribunchakit (also of Chong Co Thai), and Peach Chinsamai (who also owns Café Nate in Roseville, Sydney), the relaxed, light, and airy venue promises to draw a crowd of people looking for delicious, easy to eat food.

And with a prime location (just around the corner from Hobart Place) and unique menu, we know where we’ll be going for lunch—because forget choosing between cream cheese or smashed avo (although both of those options are available), Fav Cup Café has taken the humble bagel to a whole new level.

“We love the texture of bagels, but we wanted to do something different because with bagels we normally have cream cheese, but I didn’t see much about the filling and the different fillings you can do,” says Wicky.

Think the delectable combination of maple cream cheese and blueberries, grilled prawns, Tom Yum cream cheese, roasted beef and garlic cream cheese and more.

And if that’s not enough (is there ever enough bagel options?), the menu even has a ‘Bagel Snack’ section that sees offerings like Milo choc ice cream (a Milo bagel with Oreo crumb, maple cream cheese, choc ice cream, banana, and strawberries) and the blueberry cheesecake—a blueberry bagel, Biscoff crumb, maple cream cheese, and vanilla ice cream. Heaven on a hot day.

The delicious blueberry bagel with maple cream cheese.

“In Thailand, we have a lot of ice cream shops serving it with bread and that’s where we got the idea from,” says Peach.

“We’ve tried to infuse the menu with anything Asian, so we do some Thai flavours in some of the dishes. That’s why we do a Tom Yum flavour in one of the bagels—we’re doing something that feels like our identity.”

But if you’re not obsessed with bagels and you want to give one of their flavour options a try, don’t worry. The team can also do any spread or sandwich option on gluten-free sourdough, ciabatta rolls or tortilla wraps.

The smoked salmon on the jalapeño and cheese bagel.

Playing on their desire to keep the menu something customers would happily consume every day (without getting bored), there are also salad options—including a Thai beef salad, smoked salmon salad, and even a Tom Yum prawn salad—served with lightly torn and toasted bagels; while the snack cabinet has goodies like almond croissants, banana bread, salted rye chocolate cookies, and vanilla yoghurt granola.

And of course, what’s a bagel without a frappe, smoothie, or coffee?

“I roast our own small batch coffee,” says Peach.

“I own another café in Sydney, and I was always thinking ‘Why don’t I sell bagels and coffee?’ So that’s why we came up with the idea and why we choose to sell speciality coffee in collaboration with bagels.”

The Fav Cup Café Thai beef salad.

Making everything fresh in-store (so you’ll never be handing over your hard-earned money for a two-day-old sandwich), all menu options are available for dine-in or takeaway. And for those who don’t want to travel all the way into the city to cure their cravings, Wicky and Peach hope to eventually bring their bagels to the rest of Canberra.

“We’ve designed Fav Cup Café one to be a model—the first place—and then we want to extend,” says Wicky.

Breakfast, brunch, and lunch? Sorted. Vanilla yoghurt and granola bagel to go anyone?

Photography supplied.