Wednesday, January 19, 2011

The City Bakery Review



The City Bakery
3 West 18th Street
New York, NY 10011
(212) 366-1414

They are known for their Hot Chocolates with the homemade marshmallow. I walked in there w/ my friend, E, & we ordered 2 cups along w/ 1 marshmallow each. The cost came out to a whopping $11! Crazyness for 2 hot chocolates. If you ordered the marshmallow on it's own, it cost $0.75, while if ordered w/ your drink, it's $0.50.

We were excited because we've heard so many great things & read so many great reviews. They serve the hot chocolate in little bowls (reminds me of Chinese rice bowls). We sat down to enjoy our hot chocolate. On first glace, the marshmallow looks billowy, fluffy & delicious looking. We were waiting for it to melt a little in the hot chocolate but to no avail. The marshmallow does not melt whatsoever. I took one bite of it & thought it was on the hard side even after it's been dunked into my hot chocolate. It was definitely not soft & fluffy as I had expected, & it was overly sweet.

Next, we noticed the hot chocolate is very thick, almost like a thick soup of chocolate. You drink this w/ a spoon instead of sipping from the cup. On first taste, E & I both noticed it was disgustingly sweet & heavy. We tried it a few more times & each time, it got sweeter & sweeter. Plus taking bites of the marshmallow & drinking the hot chocolate at the same time did not help. It was a double dose of sugary sweetness. I'm getting a tooth ache thinking about it.

All in all, we both did not enjoy our hot chocolate nor the homemade marshmallow. Even if we had shared one cup (bowl) together, we wouldn't even have finished 1/2 of it. It was tough to get through those few spoonfuls. It is majorly over-priced & definitely does not deserve all the hype out there. The only saving grace was the 2 large cups of tap water that helped wash down the sugar & chocolate that was stuck on my teeth.

I am thinking they are catering to those w/ a high tolerance for sugar. It was enough for me to want to make an appointment w/ my dentist right away to clean my teeth, in case all the sugar started rotting my teeth. I would not recommend this place whatsoever.