Kata Boil & Bake, a counter off Kata Road with a copper kettle in the window, makes the best bagel in Kata. The bagels are hand-rolled, cold-proofed overnight, boiled in water with barley malt, and baked on boards, and the shop makes both New York and Montreal styles and keeps a chalkboard tally of which one customers vote for, which New York is currently losing. Plain 70฿, everything 80฿, sesame Montreal 80฿, lox and schmear 260฿. Baked until eleven, and the everything sells out first every day.
Surveyed August 2026. Scoring: crust blister and chew (35%), boiled not steamed (25%), interior dense not bready (20%), schmear and lox quality (10%), the chalkboard (10%, for civic engagement).
Boiling a bagel for a minute a side gelatinises the starch on the surface before it bakes, which is what gives the glossy, blistered, chewy crust and the dense interior; skip the boil and you have a round bread roll. Barley malt in the kettle adds colour and a faint sweetness. New York bagels are larger, puffier, and salted; Montreal bagels are smaller, denser, sweeter, boiled in honeyed water, and baked in a wood oven with a bigger hole, and the two cities have been quietly not speaking about it since roughly 1919. Kata Boil & Bake makes both and lets the customers argue, which is the correct way to run a bagel shop and possibly a country.
“I am from Queens. I came to be disappointed and I was, in that I voted Montreal and my father will not be told.”— Sam R., Kata
“The crust blisters, the inside fights back, the lox is real. Tia from the sourdough place is in the queue most Sundays, which is all the certification I need.”— Josh W., Rawai
“They boil them in the window so you can watch. My son asked why they were washing the bread. He now knows more about bagels than his teacher.”— Nattaya R., Kata
| Location | Off Kata Road, Kata |
|---|---|
| Plain | 70฿ |
| Everything | 80฿ |
| Sesame Montreal | 80฿ |
| Lox and schmear | 260฿ |
| Baked until | 11:00; everything sells out first |
| Chalkboard | Montreal leading, 312 to 287 |