Bukamaranga Bean & Co.

Breakfast. Bagels. Buka. (Beets. Bears. Battlestar Gallactica. Anyone here watch The Office?) Anyhoo, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so of course while we were out and about early one morning and waiting for my car to get an oil change I declared I needed to eat at that very second, or I couldn’t possibly have the energy to move another muscle. My poor boyfriend must think I’m insane...or a squirrel, storing food for winter. Either way, we ended up at Bukamaranga (or Buka as many people call it) on a very busy Saturday morning.

Situated between Lick’s and Chapters, parking can be a challenge if lots of people decided they wanted to go shopping for books or burgers on any particular day, but we were lucky and found a spot right in front of the store next to the patio. 

The place was packed on this visit, and every seat was taken. There was a line of a few people in front of us, so we were playing it by ear if we were going to eat in or take our food to go. Buka is set up so you pick one of the freshly baked bagels out of baskets directly to the left of the entryway and you walk along to the counter, hand it to the server and let them know what you want to eat. On this particular day, I decided to go with a toasted Cheddar Herb bagel with the jalapeno cream cheese. One of the nice things about the cream cheeses is that all of them are light, so you save yourself a few calories there if that’s something you’re watching. The bagel was soft and chewy with the perfect blend of cheddar and herbs. The cream cheese was generous with the slightest hint of jalapeno to give it a mild kick. 

The boyfriend ordered the breakfast special, which was a bagel with butter, two eggs, choice of meat (sausage, bacon or ham) and coffee. The Chocolate Chip bagel was kind of a disappointment because the whole bagel only had about four chocolate chips, so it tasted pretty plain. However, the breakfast was cooked perfectly. Although the eggs were done in the microwave, they were cooked to a perfect over medium (something we can’t say for many restaurants that use an actual stove or cooktop) and the sausage was hot without being dry. The coffee was fresh and brewed to a perfect strength.

Overall, our breakfasts came to just under $9 after tax and we managed to grab a couple of seats along the breakfast bar on the high stools. We enjoyed the paper and a relaxing start to our morning for a relatively inexpensive price. There are a variety of fresh baked bagels and cream cheese flavours to choose from, so I will be back to try out different combinations. If you like bagels, I highly recommend trying Buka.

Bukamaranga Bean & Bagel Co.
3305 Fairview St., Burlington