Smoked Salmon Bagel Review - Stroll in Portsmouth, NH
Hey there guys, gals, and even you non-binary pals! After 10 months, it’s time for another salmon bagel review. In that time, I have eaten at a few of the NH Seacoast locations I’ve already reviewed, but hadn’t yet scoped out any new local eats. I’m happy to report that I’ve recently learned of several additional spots in the area that I’ll work on and document it for your pleasure.
Stroll is not a new restaurant for me, but I was completely unaware that they offered a smoked salmon bagel. I’ve been to Stroll a number of times and am always made happy by their pastries, soups, drinks, and more. Of course I had to try their smoked salmon bagel after hearing about it.
Salmon, Cream Cheese, Red Onion, and Capers on a Bagel..doesn’t get much better than that. There were several bagel types available, but I decided that an everything bagel would be my best choice. I was actually quite pleased with the price of $9.95, which is about as good as it gets in the New Hampshire Seacoast as of 2023.
Note the rather large cuts of salmon hanging outside of the bagel. The bagel itself was very well toasted. Just a bit crisp on the outside, with the soft interior allowing some give during a bite.
The ingredients were very well balanced. The red onion was very cut into very thin slivers which blended in with the other components. The onion itself offered a surprising sweetness that complemented the smokiness of the salmon. Speaking of, the salmon was smokier than many I’ve eaten on a bagel before. I’ll assume it was hot-smoked rather than cold-smoked. Much of the salmon I’ve eaten on a bagel has been cold-smoked, which leaves the salmon brighter and fresher, pairing nicely with capers and raw red onion. In this case, the salmon was very smoky, which married well with the very prominent toasted garlic flavor on the everything bagel as well as the slight sweetness of the red onion. Although the salmon flavor profile (i know that sounds pretentious, but I don’t have a better word) differed from many other salmon and lox bagels I’ve eaten, it was a welcome change of pace. If you can’t tell from the image below, I was very pleased to dig into this one and would recommend it for anyone.
