The City Bakery

Since my last review, I’ve been back a few times to try different things.
Pumpkin Seed Burger — When I saw this, I knew it would be good. (See picture.) Inside the roti/​flatbread thingy is stuffed with fresh coriander, red onions, tomatillo, avocado and a pumpkin seed patty. This is officially my go-​to lunch item at City Bakery. It was absolutely delicious, fresh and somewhat healthy, right? It is a bit oily and was dripping a bit of oil while I was eating it, but it was still amazing.
Raspberry Bran Muffin — I loved the crunchy top and the tang of the raspberry. It was really good, especially with some extra butter: D This is my go-​to breakfast item at City Bakery.
Mixed Berry Scone — One Saturday, I came around noon, and they didn’t have any more raspberry bran muffins, so I tried the scone. It was ok, nothing memorable, the raspberry bran muffin is better.
Pretzel Croissant — Everyone raves about this, I can see the appeal, I mean, where else can you get a pretzel croissant. Not really my thing, it is alright imo.
Chocolate Chip Cookie — This is a massive cookie, and is probably one of the two cookies that I would repeat-​buy in NYC (the other being Levain). It has a buttery goodness, crunch on the outside, yet soft slightly chewy inside. It is actually very similar to my all-​time favorite cookie (The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie from Bread & Sons in Ottawa).
Update about the Hot Chocolate — I wasn’t wowed the first time I had this. But I had it again at the Birchbox store when they had an event there with hot chocolate from City Bakery. I had the bottom-​of-​the-​pot hot chocolate, and it was way better than the first time I had it. It was more chocolately, and smooth, yes very sweet, but the chocolate really came through. So if I were ever to buy hot chocolate from them again, it would have to be from the bottom of the pot.

Hot chocolate was good, but over price! I know this place is so famous about sex and the city. That’s why? It’s for tourist or SATC fan. Nothing special just standard café.

The bakery selection left a little more to be desired. Yes, it’s NYC, so yes, the pastries are overpriced, but I’m totally the kind of person who’ll drop $ 10 in an attempt to satisfy my sweet tooth once a month. That didn’t happen here — cookies looked too hard, and there just wasn’t anything that looked all that appealing… except the pretzel croissant.
It exists! Managed to score one when they were hot out of the oven. Had to make a conscious effort not to inhale the warm, buttery, salty masterpiece in seconds. Was happy to discover that their pretzel croissant totally holds up.
Also appreciated that they have a water jug and glasses set out for these hot sunny days!

Wish they had a larger selection for breakfast. But it’s just pastries. Split a banana corn muffin with a friend, and had an iced tea. Slightly overpriced. Love hanging out in their space upstairs and catching up. Also good for laptop workers. Will have to return to check out their hot chocolates.

The pastries are good, but hardly the best I’ve had. (Although I’m spoiled living in Montréal, I would have thought New York could do at least as well!)
The French toast was *delicious*. I think it was sweet brioche rather than bread, which is a bit of a cheat… but did I saw delicious? Indulgent, too.
But the prices are outrageous. $ 4 for a croissant is highway robbery!

City Bakery’s warm hot chocolate lured me in during a cold, dreary NY spring.
I was a bit bummed because they ran out of marshmallows (boo!). But the hot cocoa was still decadent and rich. If I were to imagine what the chocolate river in Willy Wonka’s factory tastes like, CB’s cocoa would be it.
I also got their pretzel croissant. It was a perfect match — the saltiness of the pastry with the sweetness of the drink.

Really enjoy everything about City Bakery — they have a huge prepared foods bar for lunch with loads of veggies, macaroni and cheese, sandwiches, soups and more. I mainly come here for the sweets. I’ve tried the bakers muffin (like a crispy monkey bread with walnuts and raisins), the blueberry cornmeal muffin (really delicate crumb with lots of blueberries) and the applesauce muffin (just the right amount of sweetness and crunchy muffin top). Highly recommend — with fair warning that you’ll pay $ 3 for a muffin and upwards of $ 15 for lunch. But worth it every now and then for a treat.

I headed into the city after work for hot chocolate. Every February City Bakery hosts their Hot Chocolate Festival where each day they feature a different kind of hot chocolate. Mmmm. We had no idea what the Leap Day flavor would be (the day we went) since the calendar just said LEAP YEAR FESTIVAL FINALE but decided to go with the element of surprise. Turns out the hot chocolate flavor of the day was «The Manhattan». It was a dark, dark chocolate with orange bitters and cherry… something. Can’t remember what it was! The stirrer/​toothpick sword thing also had a cherry at the end.
I decided that «The Manhattan» was the hot chocolate that City Bakery came up with when they realized too late that February had 29 days this year and were like… crap… what do we make? And looked around their kitchen that morning and threw in the random ingredients they saw. I know that these ingredients are in a Manhattan cocktail (orange bitters, cherry liqueur) but it was odd for a hot chocolate flavor. The hot chocolate was tasty but it was super heavy and thick with the intense cherry and dark chocolate flavors. I don’t think either of us finished our mugs.
City Bakery also literally kicks you out the door when they close. Like, «GOODBYE NOW WE ARE CLOSED.» I get it, but SHEESH!
I have been there before and enjoyed other drinks as well as some bakery snacks. Would have been nice for them to have some food options in the evening but everything was cleaned out when I got there (around 6:30pm)

I came here maybe 5 years ago and had the memory of a delicious hot chocolate served with a fat fluffy marshmallow. Since then, I’ve been wanting to go back to indulge in that hot chocolate once again and at last, I have come back… and was extremely disappointed. I cannot recall if this is what it tasted like the first time or if my palette has changed since then but I found it extremely underwhelming. Le sigh (this is my French sigh, when I feel the need to further emphasize my sigh).
I ordered the hot chocolate with the marshmallow and a chocolate cookie with white chocolate chips. First the chocolate cookie with white chocolate chips was dry. What saved it was my dipping the cookies into the hot chocolate. As for the hot chocolate, it was NOT hot. It was thick, rich and creamy but the lack of steam coming from the cup made it very meh (and expensive). The taste of the hot chocolate didn’t taste as if it had much added sugar, which would have been great as a gigantic sugar marshmallow sat in the middle but because the chocolate was not hot, everything just floated amongst each other, not really melting into one heaping cup of potential deliciousness. What a pity as I waited for years for this and wanted to give my boyfriend the best cup of hot chocolate ever! It just turned out to be barely room tempertured chocolate soup. The marshmallow was still nice and soft though. I guess that counts for something.

One of my go to places when I need a cup of coffee, an easy lunch or a delicious dessert snack. The warm chocolate cookies are the best!

The biggest letdown since Cookie Monster switched to veggies.
I had heard about their February daily specials online, and that one of the days in particular was Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate Day. I am confident to say that peanut butter is the only true love I’ve ever experienced, so the minute I heard of this announcement, I weirdly marked it in my calendar.
The day came, and I hauled booty to the shop. And, blegh. I was super surprised by how spacious the place is, but alas, I’m overall bummed.
Expensive? Well duh.
Overflowing with people who have no sense of traffic flow? Well, yeah, it’s probably a trap by now.
Live band at 2 PM on a Sunday? Cool, but I’m not coming here to get drunk. I love live music, but it’s a bakery.
My hopes were sky high for weeks for this cocoa, and it was TERRIBLE. Like, the lingering after-​taste terrible. The, «I Feel Obligated To Drink This Because I Waited Over A Week & Paid $ 6 For It» terrible.
The dark chocolate cookie was good, though… but not enough to justify the trek. Maybe I’d come back to try the original hot chocolate. Maybe.

What’s not to love about a place that has an annual hot chocolate festival? In February they have a different hot chocolate flavor every day. If you’re indulging throughout the month of all the delicious hot chocolate concoctions and feel like you might get hot chocolated out, you can also get a shot size instead of a full size. Throughout the year they have both dark hot chocolate and milk hot chocolate. Their marshmallows are homemade, I haven’t had them to comment on how they are though. They do seem to be pretty popular. I have had the vegan chocolate chip cookies and they are simply amazing. May be the best chocolate chip cookie, overall vegan/​non-​vegan, I’ve ever had. I’ve also had their macaroni and cheese and it was quite good. All their baked goods look tasty.
Tips: If you don’t want a full hot chocolate, ask for a shot size. Get the vegan chocolate chip cookie.

I’m putting their hot chocolate under the «best things I’ve ever had». No words I can come up with would really do it justice. Just know it’s everything you ever dreamed of and more. You MUST get the marshmallow to go with it ($ 2.50 extra). It will set you back $ 7.50 which is very expensive for a small cup of hot chocolate but go ahead indulge you’ll be glad you did. This was truly unlike anything I’ve ever tasted, they made a fan out of me! The only reason I can’t give them five stars (even though I really want to) is the cost.

3.5 stars. If you like your hot chocolate on the sweet side, you found the right place. When I had a ridiculous sweet tooth, the hot chocolate with a marshmallow would be the fix. It’s really like drinking a melted chocolate bar (or two), but you don’t have to admit you ate an entire chocolate bar in one sitting. I recently came here with a couple of friends for their hot chocolate festival and the hot chocolate is still just as good as I remember it to be. We went the day of the sunken treasure hot chocolate and I believe there was a dark chocolate truffle along with candy (caramel?) pieces at the bottom.
We didn’t get them with the marshmallow since we felt it would be pretty sweet on its own. I also got the pretzel croissant, which was good but a tad too salty. However, it sort of balanced out the sweetness of the hot chocolate. My friend got a chocolate croissant and an oatmeal raisin cookie, which needless to say are known to be good here as well. Service here is always friendly and there is a good amount of seating including upstairs, but it also depends on the time of day. The hot chocolate here is worth a try and you’ll most likely be back again!

On a date night, we stopped by to experience the famous City Bakery hot chocolate. I would recommend getting the shot size, unless you’re planning on sharing it with someone. It’s a rich, drinkable chocolate. I like that it isn’t overly sweet – it seems to be a blend of pure chocolate and whole milk. It reminds me of the hot chocolate I loved as a kid while in Paris, as it bears little resemblance to powdered American cocoas, which are tasty too – just different. We opted out of getting one of those slab-​like marshmallows, although I like the fact that they are homemade.
I definitely need to order breakfast catering from City Bakery again. At my last job (see my previous review), we ordered from them a fair amount, and were always impressed by the quality and presentation.

The stress the cashiers/​workers are under was pretty palpable. Couldn’t really stand there for too long… very anxiety provoking. That being said, the hot chocolate is a very intense experience. Very sweet, and thick, and rich. I mean, I’d go to try a weird flavour but otherwise, it’s just really not my favourite… just too much you know? BUT they do have shot-​sized hot chocolates, which may be a better bet in the future.

I’m going to make a bold assertion here, not for dramatic effect, but simply because I feel the unyielding desire to shout it from the rooftops: The hot chocolate from The City Bakery is the best hot chocolate you will ever have in your life. Period. More of a liquid pudding than an actual beverage, it’s an unapologetic lesson in sensory overload. The chocolate flavor is deep and rich; the texture, silky smooth. How anyone is able to finish a full-​sized cup is a mystery to me, but if you are one of these people, you have my eternal respect. Don’t pass up the barista’s offer to add on a homemade marshmallow. (Yes, it’s on the pricey side, but you’re already overindulging, so why not go the whole hog?) For the ultimate experience, pair your drink with their legendary pretzel croissant: salty, savory, buttery and worth every calorie. Finding a place to sit can be a challenge (especially in cold weather), so head upstairs and snag a seat along the railing, where you can peer down and watch New Yorkers and tourists alike queue up for this totally decadent treat.
Eat This: Hot Chocolate with Homemade Marshmallow, Pretzel Croissant

I actually used to work here and eat for free, so my review may be biased but I can also assure you that at least during my stint there nothing gross goes on behind the scenes!
Pretty much every pastry is nothing short of amazing, and these are reasonably priced given the quality. Coffee is consistently good.
Now, the salad/​hot food bar… Oh how I miss those free lunches! Really fresh, overall delicious options for healthy salad stuff, wonderful granola, amazing brunch eggs, top notch mac & cheese, great bagels & lox… Terrific. Just too bad it costs an arm and a leg and also the limbs of your unborn children. My advice: eat the food, just keep an eye on your portions & if you’re budget-​conscious, avoid the by-​the-​pound traps like «watermelon and feta salad» which is literally 90% water-​weight and will cost you as much as a full blown meal somewhere more reasonable.
If price is not an issue for you, then hell, bon appetit for sure!

Instead of the hot chocolate special of the day, decided to go with the dark chocolate hot chocolate. All three of us who went had the same one, and all three of us found it too sweet to finish. (I drank half of mine and had to toss the rest.)
Loved the homemade marshmallow and the wheat croissant… but of the $ 11-​$ 12 total I spent, most of it was on a beverage I didn’t enjoy enough to finish.

Finally made it here to try the hot chocolate and I can say it was definitely worth it!!! Definitely for chocolate lovers only, more like a sipping chocolate to me though and the marshmallow was an added bonus! I also tried the pretzel croissant and it was still warm, really good. I have to go back when I have more time. They have food and a macaroni station. Definitely going back, gotta try those cookies!!!

I go to a school nearby and was looking for some breakfast. Found this cute little bakery and i really liked the atmosphere of this place. It was so quaint and the staff were very professional. I have an everything bagel with cream cheese, orange juice (fresh squeezed) and the infamous hot chocolate. I enjoyed everything except the hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was so expensive and it was terrible. I do not recommend the hot chocolate. That orange juice was good and the bagel was amazing. I have no idea why the hot chocolate is famous. However, the bakery was an amazing place to hang out with friends.

Went in for lunch, the offering were okay at best. However the bakery items were as nice to look at as a Picasso Painting smelled like La Nona’ kitchen bakery in Forli, Italy and tasted like the sweetest of sweets.
The hot chocolate was as smooth as Fine French Silk and the chocolate tasted as if it had been hand delivered by the greatest of chocalatier from Switzerland.
The serves was good and the people behind the counter are as nice as Mother Teresa on a mission trip.

City Bakery is best known for its Sex and the City episodes. If you’re not a SATC fan, then you shouldn’t be able to walk. It’s that serious for me.
Anyway, it was a freezing cold, sleeting night and we were craving chocolate.
Low and behold, City Bakery called our names.
We ordered the hot chocolate with fresh marshmallows. I’m telling you, there is nothing more rich and intoxicating than drinking this luscious dark coating of bitter chocolate laced with this fluffy marshmallow that gently starts to melt in your mouth. It was heaven.
I couldn’t finish my hot chocolate, it was way too much. But for those couple of minutes when my diabetes didn’t kick into overdrive, I was a happy camper.

Okay I had mixed feelings about this place.
The famous hot chocolate was just as rich and decadent as I had heard, and the baked goods were buttery and delivious. However, I had a few qualms with the way the place was run.
In line I was rushed along, with barely enough time to make a decision. The woman behind the counter did not ask if we wanted marshmallows but gave us them anyway (and they are $ 2 each). Our total was insane. $ 26 for two hot chocolates and two baked goods.
Overall, it was good but not really worth the $ 26, especially since the service was NOT very good.

Visited because I had to check it off my list. I mean, this place is always ranked on those «best NYC hot chocolate» lists. The thing is, City Bakery’s hot chocolate is more «sipping chocolate,» closer to a soup than a beverage. Don’t get me wrong, it tastes good. Just don’t try to drink it. There’s a reason it’s served with a spoon.
I made it about halfway through my mug with one of the homemade marshmallows (next time I’d order a «shot») and ate the chocolate by dipping my pretzel croissant into it (the croissant was pretty good).
Two hot chocolates with marshmallows and a pretzel croissant was about $ 20.
Other than sweets, there’s a salad bar, mac and cheese station, and other hot food at the back. They do samples, which is a nice touch.
Crowded on the weekends, but two levels of seating.

If you’re looking for a quick sugar-​filled pick me up, City Bakery is the spot. Although I didn’t try any of their cookies or baked goods yet, I could taste their goodness just by looking at them. The cookies are fairly large and chunky. The pretzel croissant caught my eyes because I’ve never saw such a thing before.
Service was very efficient; Don’t let the long line deceive you because you’ll receive your cup of hot chocolate in no time. You could definitely bring a date here on a cold winter day. Just make sure they love chocolate.
As for the hot chocolate, everyone raves about how it’s sooooo good and it’s a must try. I tried it and am not disappointed but am not in love with it. I could easily see why people would love their hot chocolate; it’s because those who love it obsess over chocolate. Sadly, I’m not a huge chocolate lover, so this was entirely overwhelming. The ginormous homemade marshmallow melts right into the rich chocolate leaving you with a huge cup of sugar. I tried my best to just enjoy every bit of it without thinking of its high calorie content. It was as if I was drinking 5 chocolate bars melted. That’s how thick the consistency is. But I love how there were hints of bitterness in it. I had a stomach ache after so… the next time I want hot chocolate, I might just have to only get the chocolate shot and pretzel croissant.

Location: the city bakery immersed in the middle of 18^th street westside. I took some walks to finally find here. A huge place with several seats. There;s a front counter, which is selling bakeries. And salad bar is at the behind. When I got there, it was already two lines appearing in front me. I hesistated a little bit but a big NO in my head told me that I would not miss a chance of trying some prezel croissant!
to my huge surprise, the line is moving fast.
5 minutes, I end up having my prezel croissant in my hand.
I ate it — first time, hmm, too salty. oh, my god. is it a bad decision? Second bite, oh, the texture, the richiness, the softness, I love it. Third bite, ohhhh no more thinking, I need to finish it completely. The end — can I have another one?
Yeah, that’s pretty much my whole experience with their prezel croissant — if you ask me to sum it up, it would be, oh, it’s worth my time to try this and it is declicious. Next time, I will grab it on my way home!

Overpriced and under delivered.
I went to this bakery as it was recommended to me because they supposedly have some of the best cookies and hot chocolate in NYC and as the weather starts turning colder a warm hot cocoa and cookie sounds perfect to me.
The place is very large and has a lot of sitting to accommodate big groups which is nice. The waitstaff here was friendly but the cookie and hot chocolate were not very good which was pretty upsetting after such great reviews. The cookie was really hard and the hot chocolate was cold.
I most likely will never come here again as there are better bakeries with better goods in the city.
In short:
— over priced
— not very good baked goods
— friendly staff

Kantine mit Essen nach Gewicht zum selbst auffüllen. Die Auswahl war gut, das Essen hat auch geschmeckt, aber dafür das es keine Bedienung gab ist der Preis des Essens zu hoch.
Für eine Pause zwischen dem Shopping durchaus zu empfehlen, da man sich g u t aufhalten kann.

Vom bakers muffin träume ich immer noch —
Sind sehr nett dort — und wenn man öfter kommt
gibts alle paar Mal ein Cookie oder so was zum Probieren geschenkt

Best hot chocolate I’ve ever had. It’s incredibly rich and smooth. So rich that I couldn’t finish mine and my chocolate loving daughter couldn’t either. Expensive, but worth the stop!