Breads Bakery - Upper East Side — Restaurant in New York

Short Review:

Customer Service: Poor

Food: Poor (Tried the Black and White cookie)

Long Review: As a resident of the Upper East Side (Lenox Hill) when I hear about something new in my area, I like to try it. After reading an article in The Gothamist called "Breads Bakery Reimagines The Iconic NYC Black & White Cookie", which greatly hyped their reimagining of the Black and White cookie I was excited to try it. I went there early yesterday morning to buy a few and when I got there, I was told they were all out. I wasn't given any indication of when they might have more. The employees seemed cold and uncaring. I went back there again at 8am today to buy the cookie and when I asked for it, I was just told a time, "8:30", thats all. I asked if I could order the cookies and come back to pick them up and I was directed to the cashier. When I asked the cashier about ordering the cookies and coming back to pick them up, she acted confused and was uncourteous. I went home for a short time and then headed back out to the bakery to get there before 8:30 to beat the rush that I expected for the cookie. I got there at 8:20 and the cookies were already out in their case. I ordered two cookies and the guy behind the case boxed the up and asked me impolitely " Is that all?" Then I brought the box to the cashier to pay who also impolitely asked me " Is that all?" Finally, I got home and tried the greatly hyped "reimagining" of the Black and White cookie. The texture of the cookie was what I expected. The flavor of the cookie was very underwhelming. The vanilla side lacked an actual vanilla taste. It just tasted sweet and sugary. The chocolate side was basically tasteless. When considering the poor customer service and the poor quality of the cookie I definitely stand by my 1 star rating for both the bakery and the cookie. The cold, uncaring employees who make it seem as if my business is unwelcome, as if I am not worthy of their bakery definitely deserves the 1 star rating. The over-hyped cookie that was supposed to "fill a hole" in the UES that was left by the closing of Glaser's definitely did not succeed in that.

I almost forgot to mention the price. The cookie was supposed to be $4.50 but apparently the price has changed to $4.95. What a...

I find it a shame that our beloved Upper East Side of Manhattan, known for its subtle elegance, quaint shops and very neighborhood-ish atmosphere, is now littered with places like Breads Bakery on Third Ave. Oh, the pastries are lovely, no question and I bought a Swiss Muesli Whole Grain role that was so delicious that I found it to be almost worth the $5 price tag. But what these people don't seem to get is that that's beside the point. Product quality is something that I would minimally expected on the Upper East Side. What they don't seem to get is when you go into a neighborhood bakery and have a counter person acting sooo irritated that you have a question about some of their pastries before making a purchase; acting like you are aggravating her; acting like you're keeping her from attending to other customers who may be ready to fork over cash on the spot; as was my experience in my first stop into Breads Bakery, that this is not a place to which I would wish to return, especially when there are so many other bakery and pastry shops that I pass in the neighborhood, all with equally-high quality breads and pastries. I found the service that I received at Breads to be offensive to the point that it completely invalidates it as an otherwise nice stop for a yummy pastry and coffee. I will never return - there are more than plenty of other options. Gee, maybe that's why these places seem to come and go so quickly - I'd think maybe they'd...

A few really baked goods. Okay coffee.

Got an assortment of things to try.

-Iced Coffee -Black and White Cookie -Chocolate Almond Crossaint -Spinach Bureka -Feta Bureka -Cheese Straw -chocolate rugelach

The Jerusalem bagel and the Cinnamon Rolls were the standouts from this batch. Soft and chewy and good flavor for each.

The biggest letdown was the black and white cookie. They makes theirs layered with croissant dough, which may explain the price, but I prefer just to get a traditional one from a good corner bagel shop. They spend so much attention on the chocolate that I think the vanilla side is left behind. The second biggest letdown was the rugelach. Too airy and lacking intense chocolate goodness, especially for the price.

The other baked goods were fine, perhaps of typical high-end bakeries, but just didn't pack a lot of flavor for the price and I wouldn't personally get them again.

Coffee was just average.

Perhaps some items are a little overhyped, but overall if you've got the spare change to splurge here, give them a try. While rather expensive, I will eventually make it back to try the...