At The Bagel Bunch, New York’s sturdy bagels get a softer, Asian spin

Hemant Mathy didn’t quite look the part of a baker when we met him: Tall, burly, with the easy humour of someone who has seen enough chaos to laugh at it. But the 29-year-old founder of The Bagel Bunch has been making bagels for a while, long before his Buona Vista shop opened its doors in 2024.

Began as a home-based business 

“I was very tired after uni, so I decided to try making and selling bagels from home, because I’ve always wanted to do food stuff,” says the graduate from Nanyang Technological University’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information. 

In 2020, when home-based businesses were all the rage, his kitchen became home to one of them. 

“I learnt everything from YouTube,” he recalls, laughing. He experimented with making bagels with Asian flair — more on that later — sent them out for delivery, and eventually lugged them to pop-ups at cafes. The crowds were modest, but enthusiastic, enough to convince him there might be space for bagels in Singapore.

The decision to move from hobbyist to shop owner came during his reservist period in 2023, when a fellow reservist mate in the navy Thng Wei Wen, 33,  introduced him to Justin Chua, 32. The two would eventually become Hemant’s partners. 

By May 2024, The Bagel Bunch had secured its spot in Buona Vista, in a narrow but workable unit that Hemant called “just nice.”

How The Bagel Bunch’s bagels are made

Unlike regular bread, bagels are boiled before they are baked. The dough puffs and swells up in the water, then deflates when removed, but they will rise again in the oven. That step gives them their sheen and chew, and it is what sets them apart from any other roll. A longer poach would give the bagel a stronger crust and chew. 

The Bagel Bunch’s recipe first emulated the New York-style, but Hemant adjusted it for local tastes. 

“New York style bagels are very dense and chewy. Singaporeans prefer things that are softer, such as pau or toast, so we tweaked the recipe to be fluffier, easier to bite into, but still chewy,” he says.

According to Hemant, the secret to a bagel’s chew lies in its low-hydration dough and the strong gluten network formed by gliadin and glutenin, the two proteins in high-protein bread flour that create elasticity when kneaded. 

By fine-tuning the flour ratio and slipping in a secret ingredient, Hemant has made his bagels lighter than their New York cousins, while keeping that satisfying tug with every bite. 

Lessons as a first-time entrepreneur

The Bagel Bunch’s story is full of small disasters that — in hindsight — sound like a true comedy of errors. 

A bird once flew straight into the spotless glass door. 

A faulty thermostat sparked a fire in the bakery’s front-of-house. 

And on one memorable day, a part-timer locked the keys outside just before the lunch rush. “The baker was stuck inside, making bagels, but couldn’t pass them out,” Hemant recalls, with a laugh. A locksmith eventually saved the day.

Most recently, though, someone had given them an entire slab of frozen fish and “walked away”. 

These moments, while chaotic, have shaped Hemant’s approach to running the business. He is candid, often blunt, but calculated in the way he talks about strategy and operations. 

He still holds a day job in content writing, and his employers know about The Bagel Bunch. “My company knows I have this going on, so I balance between both. As long as I get the work done, they’re fine,” he says. 

It is this mix of frankness and pragmatism that has defined him as a first-time entrepreneur.

International pop-ups

In 2025, Bagel Bunch received its first overseas invitation. Thanks to Justin’s links in the music scene, the shop was asked to take part in the One Love Asia Festival in Chengdu, China.

“It was very, very good. We sold out both days. We were the only Singapore brand there,” Hemant says. 

The mala bagel, created for the festival, was a runaway success. Garlic butter and cinnamon sugar bagel bites also flew off the counter.

The response convinced him to bring the mala bagel back to Singapore. “I wanted to do an Asian flavour, and it did really well over there,” he says. “When we brought it back, it didn’t sell as well as we hoped, so we shelved it.” 

But it was proof that The Bagel Bunch could resonate with diners beyond Singapore, and gave him confidence that the brand could travel further.

“In China, they are very big about their bread. Over here, people still tend to eat more rice and noodles,” Hemant says.

Unlike the offerings at popular bagel haunts, such as Two Men Bagel House and Keen’s Bagelry, The Bagel Bunch’s menu runs leaner, but mirrors the founder’s personality: Straightforward, familiar, but never without a twist. 

The line-up includes smoked salmon, Korean fried chicken, portobello patty with chilli kicap manis, and rotating seasonal specials such as mala or butter chicken. Customers can choose from four types of bagels: OG (S$4), sesame seed (S$4), cheddar (S$4), and blueberry (S$4.50).

The classic Lox of Love (S$15.90) is a crowd favourite. Smoked salmon drapes over scallion cream cheese, brightened by pickled red onions and a dusting of plum furikake. The nutty and sturdy sesame bagel is the right call for this sandwich.

In the Portobello Party 2.0 (S$12.90), the portobello arrives lacquered in chilli kicap manis. It’s syrupy, almost indulgent, yet somehow holds back enough to let the mushroom’s earthiness breathe. 

That said, the portobello is plump, yielding, and fares well with the spicy syrup. Fried tempeh and shallots give some crunch where it’s needed, but the tater tots tend to soften under the pressure. This is likely a hit or miss.

The Korean Fried Chicken ($15.90) doesn’t pretend to be neat. This Korean number boasts a hefty chicken thigh, double-fried for that deep crunch outside and juicy tenderness within. The glaze is fiery and sticky, starting sweet before a slow sting creeps in. 

Hemant says the chook is first marinated with gochujang sauce and other spices before being fried, then doused with tangy and spicy yangnyeom sauce. The cheddar bagel soaks up this hearty concoction, which inevitably spells a messy bite. 

Notably commendable is the house-made daikon-kimchi slaw, which brings a crisp, tangy lift that makes this KFC balanced despite its glorious mess. 

The Pollack Power ($14.90) comes with a choice of sauce — yuzu tartar or mentaiko — though the latter was the only option available when we were there. The fried pollack is tender, its mild sweetness holding up well against the creamy, briny sauce. Diced cucumber and tamago (omelette) add freshness, though their fine cut means they tumble out with each bite. Not exactly impressionable, but perhaps the yuzu tartar might have given it the lift it needed. 

For more ideas on what to eat, read about our visit to 3 Meals A Day at Sim Lim Square or Mensho X at Resorts World Sentosa.