To start off this review I would like to mention that an egg and cheese bagel is not on the menu at The Gourmet Shop in Columbia, SC. One morning while grabbing brunch at The Gourmet Shop I was craving a sausage egg and cheese bagel. I looked over the menu to find that there was not a menu item that offered a Sausage Egg and Cheese Bagel.
They did however have a number of other bagel varieties including a basic toasted bagel and a smoked salmon bagel. While they did not have a sausage egg and cheese bagel they did offer what they call an egg and cheese croissant that allowed you the option to choose bacon or andouille sausage. This is exactly what the description of the menu item said:
“Scrambled eggs, cheddar cheese, and choice of bacon, turkey, bacon or andouille sausage served with choice of side.”
I had never tried andouille sausage before but I thought this would be a great opportunity to try something new. When I looked up what andouille sausage was I more or less found out that it is a more course kind of sausage that is made up of chopped pork bits rather than ground pork. The taste was also a bit more sharp than normal sausage but I was up for something new that morning. For my side I ordered the vanilla Greek yogurt.
When the plate arrived it honestly looked like one of the more appetizing bagels I had ever been presented with. Maybe it was because it wasn’t wrapped up inside a paper bag to go. Now that I think about it that is exactly why the bagel seemed so attractive. It is not very often that I order a sausage egg and cheese bagel in a sit down setting. The bagel was served on a plate and the vanilla greek yogurt was topped with fresh cut strawberries.
Here is what my plate looked like upon arrival. Again this is not on the menu and was sort of a special request.
The first thing I took a bite out of was the bagel. It was a little difficult to manage without pieces of scrambled egg and sausage falling out onto the plate but not impossible. The way that the sausage was cut up and distributed around the bagel made every bite a slightly different combination of sausage, egg, and cheese. Some bites had more sausage than others which made each bite unique. Not sure if this is a positive or a negative it will really depend on your taste and your tolerance for texture.
If I isolate my review of the bagel it was sort of middle tier. Not the best bagel I had ever had but certainly not the worst. Those who enjoy a sharper sausage flavor will likely enjoy the use of the andouille sausage as apposed to traditional ground pork sausage. The vanilla yogurt was fantastic and had just the right amount of strawberries and blueberries to give it a dash of flavor.
I have visited the Gourmet Shop in Columbia, SC many different times over the years and their brunch always seems to hit the spot. As for my rating of the egg and cheese bagel at the Gourmet Shop, I am happy to give it a solid 7.1. For a restaurant that doesn’t specialize in bagels it was actually really good. The wait at the Gourmet Shop is less than ideal if you just want to grab a bagel and coffee in the morning. However, if you find yourself sitting down with friends or family at the Gourmet Shop near the University of South Carolina, give it a try.