If you are searching for some of the best bagels in the Phoenix area, this Barrio Bagel review covers what to order, what makes the bread different, and whether Don Guerra’s Barrio Bagel & Slice is worth the drive to Gilbert.
The casual bakery serves naturally fermented bagels made with locally sourced Arizona heritage grains, along with breakfast sandwiches, pastries, coffee, pizza, and fresh loaves of sourdough bread. It is a good breakfast or lunch stop for anyone who cares more about exceptional baking than a traditional sit-down restaurant experience.
I found Barrio Bagel & Slice while searching for James Beard Award-winning restaurants around Phoenix. Once I learned the bagels were connected to Don Guerra, winner of the 2022 James Beard Award for Outstanding Baker, I knew I had to try them.
If food is a major part of your trip, my Best Restaurants in Phoenix: Where to Eat for Every Craving includes more of my favorite meals throughout the area.
Barrio Bagel & Slice is a casual bakery and counter-service restaurant in Gilbert, Arizona. It comes from Don Guerra, the baker behind Tucson’s Barrio Bread.
The shop uses locally grown Arizona heritage grains and naturally fermented sourdough techniques to make its bagels and bread. Those details may sound like something only serious bread people would notice, but you can taste the difference.
The bagels have a rich flavor and an excellent chew without feeling overly heavy. You do not have to understand the entire baking process to notice that the texture and flavor are different from a standard bagel.
Honestly, I came for the bagels…but I would return for the sourdough.
Do not leave without buying a loaf of bread to take home. I expected the bagels to be the clear highlight, but the sourdough was one of the best things I tried during the visit.
Barrio Bagel & Slice is very casual, but that is exactly what makes it inviting.
Most people were using the drive-thru, picking up breakfast to go, or collecting orders from the counter. There are also outdoor tables for anyone who wants to eat there.
It feels more like a neighborhood bakery than a traditional sit-down restaurant. The focus is not fancy décor. It is exceptional bread.
Service was friendly and efficient during our visit, and orders moved quickly even with people coming through the drive-thru and picking up food to go. That makes it practical when you need breakfast before starting a full day around Phoenix or Gilbert.
This is not a restaurant where you should expect a long, leisurely table-service breakfast. Order at the counter, find an outdoor table if you are staying, and make time to look at the bread and pastries before leaving.
Travelers fitting this stop into an arrival or departure day may also find my Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport Guide: Everything You Need to Know (PHX) helpful for planning terminals, timing, and transportation.
We ordered:
Everything we tried was excellent, but a few items stood out enough that I would order them again without changing anything.
The Breakfast Bagel Sandwich was easily my favorite.
I ordered it on an everything bagel with egg, bacon, and chiltepin cream cheese. The bagel had an incredible chew and plenty of flavor on its own, while the egg and bacon made it filling enough for breakfast.
I'd never tried chiltepin cream cheese before, but I'm glad I did. Chiltepin is a tiny wild pepper native to Arizona, and it gives the cream cheese a little smoky kick without making it overwhelmingly spicy. It was one of my favorite parts of the sandwich.
This would be my first recommendation from the Barrio Bagel menu.
The cinnamon raisin bagel with strawberry cream cheese was another winner and a good sweeter option.
The fruitiness of the cream cheese worked well with the cinnamon raisin bagel without making breakfast feel like dessert. I would order this alongside a savory breakfast sandwich and split both rather than trying to choose between them.
Get the Chocolate Roll if you have room.
It would be easy to focus entirely on the bagels, but the pastry case deserves some attention too. We did not have room to try nearly as many pastries as I wanted, but the Chocolate Roll was worth adding to the order.
It also gave me a perfectly reasonable excuse to plan another visit.
I ordered the Iced Salted Caramel Latte, and it paired well with breakfast. It gave me the sweet coffee I wanted without competing with the stronger flavors in the everything bagel sandwich.
We also tried the Drink of the Month, a Banana Cream Soda. It was a fun seasonal option and something different from the drinks you normally see on a coffee shop menu.
The changing specialty drink is worth checking when you visit, but I would still order the salted caramel latte again.
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I thought the prices were very reasonable considering the quality of the ingredients and the amount of craftsmanship behind the baking.
You are getting artisan bagels and sourdough made with locally sourced grains from a James Beard Award-winning baker. The quality reflects that, but the experience still feels like an approachable neighborhood bakery rather than an expensive specialty restaurant.
If you are staying near the airport and deciding how far you have time to drive for a meal, see my Best Restaurants Near Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport for options organized around the amount of time you have.
Absolutely.
Barrio Bagel & Slice is best for bagel lovers, breakfast people, coffee drinkers, and travelers interested in artisan bakeries or James Beard Award-winning food. The casual counter-service setup also works well when you want a high-quality local breakfast without giving up most of your morning.
It feels distinctly connected to Arizona rather than like a bagel shop that could exist in any city. The heritage grains, sourdough techniques, and connection to Barrio Bread make it especially interesting for travelers who like building local food stops into their itineraries.
I would happily drive across town for it again. A rental car is also the easiest way to combine Gilbert with other Phoenix-area stops, and you can compare rates through Discover Cars.
Barrio Bagel & Slice could also work as a breakfast stop before heading south. My Phoenix to Tucson Road Trip Itinerary: The Best Stops, Views & Eats Along the Way can help you plan the rest of that drive.
I would order the Breakfast Bagel Sandwich with egg, bacon, and chiltepin cream cheese exactly the same way. I would also get another cinnamon raisin bagel with strawberry cream cheese, add a pastry, and leave with a fresh loaf of sourdough bread.
I expected to find excellent bagels, but I ended up finding one of my favorite bakeries in the Phoenix area. The bagels lived up to the reputation, and the sourdough alone gave me a reason to return.
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Four hours on a train through a canyon you can’t reach by car — such a fun experience! We picked the indoor seats with unlimited access to the open-air viewing car, which honestly felt like the only right call. You’re not stuck in an assigned seat the whole time we bounced between the two, snacks in hand, chasing the best light.
The scenery is the whole point. Red rock cliffs, the Verde River, a 734-foot tunnel, historic trestle bridges views most people visiting Sedona never see, because you literally can’t drive to them.
The charcuterie box that comes with your ticket is shockingly filling ✨ so skip lunch at the Copper Spike Café beforehand, save your appetite for dinner back in Sedona.
Four hours with no stops did start to feel long by the end, but the trade-off for scenery like this? Worth it.
Would I ride it again? Yes. Would I buy lunch first again? No.
Link in bio for the full review cost breakdown, what to pack, and exactly how early to arrive 🚂
I ate chilaquiles while a Cessna taxied past the window, and that’s just a normal Tuesday breakfast in Sedona.
@mesa_grill_sedona sits right beside the Sedona Airport Scenic Lookout, so along with your food you get red rock views stretching in every direction and a front-row seat to tiny planes lifting off. Chef Mercer Mohr runs the kitchen, serving up Southwestern comfort food from breakfast through dinner, chilaquiles, elevated diner classics, burgers, steaks, seafood, all of it.
The view is what pulls people in the door, but the food actually holds its own. Good enough that this place stays packed with locals, not just tourists passing through on their way to the lookout. It also picked up the 2025 Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice and OpenTable Diners’ Choice awards, so it’s not just me saying it.
Indoor seating if you want the AC, a pet-friendly patio if your dog’s along for the trip. Either way, get there before plane-spotting turns into a wait for a table.
Link in bio for the full Sedona breakfast roundup ✈️🌵
Confession: my newsletter is where the good stuff lives. Not the polished, edited-for-the-grid stuff, the “here’s the hole-in-the-wall I almost skipped” stuff, the packing lists I actually use, the “don’t book this hotel” warnings before you waste your money on them.
The newsletter is basically me texting you before a trip instead of after one. Sign up and you’ll be the first to know where I’m headed next, plus a few things I’ll never post here.
Link in bio if you want in. ✈️
Yes, it’s only July. Start planning anyway. Fall books faster than people expect, and a few of these destinations are worth getting ahead of. Here are five places worth putting on your radar right now.
Ireland: Cooler temps, moody skies, dramatic coastline fall was made for it. Tourist crowds drop, the green stays, and the whole country feels a little more like itself.
Great Smoky Mountains, TN/NC: Fall foliage in the Smokies is the real thing. The color peaks mid-October and the views from the ridgelines are hard to argue with. It’s also one of the most visited national parks in the country, so going on a weekday makes a real difference.
New York City: Fall is NYC at its best comfortable temps, the energy of the city shifting into a new season, and every neighborhood doing something worth showing up for. It’s also just a great walking city when it’s not brutally hot.
Japan: Fall foliage season is as good as spring cherry blossoms and somehow less talked about. The colors are dramatic, the temples and gardens are stunning, and it’s worth planning around peak dates by region.
Mystic, Connecticut: Small, walkable, genuinely charming Mystic in fall feels like exactly what a New England autumn is supposed to look like. Easy to pair with a broader New England road trip if you want to extend it.
Full guides linked in bio 🍂
There are two kinds of travelers: people who plan a trip and then figure out where to eat, and people who book a restaurant and then build the rest of the itinerary around it.I am the second kind. I will not apologize for this.
The reservation gets locked in first. The hotel search happens within the same 24 hours. The flights get compared around the restaurant’s hours of operation. The rest of the trip exists to fill the days before and after the table I actually came for.
If this sounds unhinged, I completely understand. It has also resulted in some of the best meals of my life, so I’m going to keep doing it.
Drop a 🍽️ if you plan your trips around food too.
Follow @travelwithwendyplummer for Beautiful Beach Destinations, City Guides, Foodie Spots, and Luxury Hotel Recommendations.
