Black Star Bakery & Cafe — Restaurant in New York

This local cafe's pastries are incredibly delicious, lets get that outta the way right now. However, great pastries won't save you from serious shortcomings. I've been coming here for years, and each subsequent visit gets further and further apart, and makes me want to abandon coming here altogether.

First, Black Star often seems to run out of certain items even by semi early morning hours, and that I think is them not getting enough stock of each item, which they could rectify, yet seemingly don't want to. Second, the service CAN be fast, but often takes forever, and there are quickly ridiculously long lines forming inside. Third, and this is more a fault of this terrible neighborhood than the cafe, is that the people who come here mostly suck. They're entitled, annoying, and take two eternities buying up some of the most popular pastries in gluttonous fashion. The atmosphere of this place is pretentious and obnoxious, and that's mainly due to the clientele, not the cafe's intentions. Lastly, their pricing......is off to say the least. Some things, like croissants, are semi reasonable, but then you get the Cinnamuffin. While delicious as hell, should it really be $5 for something so tiny? Even donuts are too much for their size. They really overcharge on a lot of pastries to be sure, so be wary.

Overall, if you want a solid breakfast cafe, you can definitely do better elsewhere. I'd wager you can walk a bit further and find something cheaper somewhere nearby. Perhaps Padoca is a better option? Either way, price wise and atmosphere wise this place isn't great, so proceed...

Cute coffee and bakery- latte was good. Just a note to customers: As a new Yorker who may pop onto my email on my laptop (no different than phone really- just easier to type quickly) it is frustrating that they don't allow you to use laptops at tables. I understand the need to not have people sitting there all day working BUT this is NYC, and people work between appointments. In my opinion, better to have a time limit (say no more than 20 or 30 minutes) on a laptop. It is their prerogative and they don't want to be timing people, but I won't be going back, since I was told I couldn't do on my laptop what everyone else was sitting at tables doing on their phones.

I get it, I just don't agree with it, so if you feel the same way, be aware that unless you score one of the two window bar seats, you can't use...

Easily one of the go-to spots I've used for coffee across the last year. Between their front and back areas, the spacious location is consistently clean and easy to find somewhere to sit. Their coffee is by far some of the best, and this is in a location where they are competing with Mellow Yellow, Elly's, and Padoca!

Above everything else, their staff is incredibly friendly and makes an active effort to keep the place clean. I love the variety of food that they have across seasons and the amount of care that the staff provides to their regulars is really wonderful too.

Overall, the vibe of this place is amazing and the staff always maintain composure to create a welcoming environment. Have to credit this team for how well they...