I may be in a minority but I did not like the offerings at Bien Cuit in Grand Central. The crusts are very hard, almost burnt and my almond croissant was incredibly sweet, with the same burnt crust.
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Another thought- Urbanspace Vanderbuilt is basically next door to grand central. For lunch i would definitely do something from the nordic offerings in the great northern food hall, but in urbanspace there’s a location of Ovenly. They’re best known for the chocolate chunk cookies which are rather chubby and very soft inside- i think what makes them notable is that they’re actually vegan yet widely held as one of the best in the city. The olive oil cake by the slice and peanut butter cookie are also worthwhile.
There’s also Dough doughnuts which everyone but me seems to love (they’re just not the same style doughnut as what i grew up having) and they often have interesting flavors like hibiscus and such.
https://www.urbanspacenyc.com/urbanspace-vanderbilt/
And this sounds insane but Paris Baguette has a few locations in flushing, they sell that super fluffy light spongy "cheesecake " that is really popular, and this time of year they usually feature several chestnut buns and pastries, i haven’t been recently but there was a tasty bun last year with a thick chestnut filling that was quite good.
If you are doing lunch in Grand Central and want to treat yourself, go to Agern, which is located at the back of the food hall. It’s a bargain compared to dinner ($65 for three courses as opposed to $145 or $185 for the dinner tasting menus) and the food is really spectacular. I meant to do a write up of our meal there but forgot; I’ll post some photos here in a second so you can at least see some of what we enjoyed!!
Steak Tartare
Corn and mushroom appetizer - I am not a fan of corn and I LOVED this.
Pork belly with cauliflower puree:
Gorgeous chocolate dessert. All of the desserts were wonderful, in fact.
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Thanks for reminding me about that thread. I agree that their crust is very dark and hard to chew. Although I didn’t like it at first, their bread grew on me. Reading the other thread, it seems like they may be having quality control issues.
I wasn’t impressed with their cookbook, but I am very excited to see how their products look and taste in the actual bakery.
Always on the lookout for doughnuts. I only like one doughnut place in Baltimore. At home, it’s very time consuming to make different flavors of doughnuts.
Insane, indeed. I’m way too snobby for Paris Baguette. Many years ago, I kept getting things from Paris Baguette and Tous Les Jours, but was never impressed. We were in China this year and I was hoping to eat sponge cakes every day, but bakeries were not popular in the region we stayed in. So I’m looking forward to a steady of diet of sponge cake next week!
@bmorecupcake, Sorry for the delay in responding. Despite Bien Cuit being owned by my cousins, I have no inside information regarding Grand Central Market deliveries. I’ve bought bread and pastries from the GCM location only once, and I found the quality to be as good as what I’ve eaten at and taken home (to NJ) from Smith Street many times. Maybe my senses are not as sharp as yours, but I haven’t noticed the sourdough aroma being absorbed by the pastries.
I very much appreciate that you’ve read my blog. And “Thank you!” on behalf of my cousins for being a Bien Cuit customer.
It’s just a counter of Ovenly , their actual bakery is in greenpoint brooklyn so there’s a smaller selection- i don’t recall seeing cakes at for example but maybe they have them now.
If you’re going to be anywhere near union square/flatiron district especially in the morning make Daily Provisions your first stop, they have a cruller doughnut , kouign amann, and breakfast gougeres i think you would love
Unfortunately i have only been for lunch (and had a tasty delicata squash sandwich) so those items had already sold out for the day.
Totally understood on paris baguette! Haha, and there really is something wonderful about those chinese sponge cakes! I always love the sticky rice pastry stuff too like the plain triangles and balls filled with peanut or sesame.
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You’re going to be the end of me. I am guilty of chasing food, especially stuff I can’t make well at home. I will “waste” a half day to chase a perfect bagel or kouign amann or garlic knots. My immediate family are almost as nuts as I am, but you can see looks of desperation on our friends’ faces.
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What is the place with the garlic knots called? I’m going to have to make a trek there the next time I’m in the city!
I had no idea this place was there. Always enter and exit through the market so I never see Vanderbilt. I will have to check it out!
Yeah it a weird location, but good for a lunch stop or the coffee at Toby’s is great. I seem to go when i’m near grand central and yet don’t want to deal with or need to go into grand central itself (in good weather i would park my citibike in a mearby station)
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It’s not really attached to Grand Central. You can walk “uptown” through the office building housing GCT, but you have to exit and cross 45th Street to get to Urban Space Vanderbilt. It confused the hell out of me the first time I went looking for it and no one in GCT knew what I was talking about.
There’s a shock! Is Urban Space on Vanderbilt? Could I exit there and walk up?
Sure, you could walk along Vanderbilt to 45th. The Urbanspace building is on the northeast corner.
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I HAVE to get to Dough!!! Looks great!
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I know Joe Distefano of chopsticksandmarrow.com. I was his RA in college and we were best friends for almost 25 years. We lost touch the past couple of years, but he knows his stuff about food and restaurants in NYC, especially Queens. His food tours are great, and he has been on several food shows taking folks to places in Queens. Bourdain, Zimmern, etc. He spends all day, every day, visiting restaurants and markets, and writing about the ones he likes most. We used to get together and check out new places to eat and drink several days a week for more than a decade. We also wrote for the same publication for several years. Then he focused on Queens food and the professional BBQ scene, and I on beverages after I became partners in a winery, opened a brewery, restauarant, culinary school, then a distillery.
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Garlic Knots? Tell us more!
Garlic knots are from Don Filippo. See original post here.
@JMF, I appreciate you taking time to share this. It’s always tough when you come across a blog for the first time. But as long as the writer is all-in, I’m not afraid of being disappointed, if you know what I mean. Hope we can meet him some day. All day, every day sounds like my food obsession. People say, “Get a hobby!” Um, this is a my hobby. And they say, “Get a life!” “Um, no.”
We leave very soon. Can’t wait to gain back in 3 days all the weight I worked hard to lose since Thanksgiving.
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Thanks everyone for the recs. I really appreciate everyone’s input. We tried hard to respect all the recommendations, but NYC was colder than real life. Temperatures never went above freezing during our whole trip, yet we kept trying to will our way through. By the end of the first day, we all had a cold. By the end of the second day, we were getting mild fevers. The third day we had to rest, sort of, still went out anyway. Finally got back today.
The good thing about it being so cold was that we could drive around and park a lot easier. However, usually we can park in one spot and cover a mile radius, but that was impossible this time. And my lone subway trip was painful. The “subway action plan” during the holiday break closed down a lot of trains. Even then, it was an absolute blast. (I’m sure we’ll pay for it next few days as we recover.) I think the best way for me to manage will be to post about one place a day. Otherwise, it’ll be overwhelming. I’ll start with Bakeri, our very first stop.
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Oh my god, i was in CA last week and this crazy brutal arctic weather is traumatic!! I hope you are all back to healthy asap, this has been a bad year for the flu already.
