Magnolia Bakery - Grand Central — Restaurant in New York

It is always nice when a good eatery is able to expand to different locations. That being said, all too often, the increase in locations often results in a reduced quality of food. That certainly appears to be the issue at this Magnolia location. I ordered a red velvet cupcake and a small glass of lemonade.

The red velvet cupcake is at least a third smaller than your typical cupcake. Additionally, the red velvet cake was covered in whipped cream. I generally prefer whipped cream on cakes over buttercream, but in this situation, even buttercream would have been better. While whipped cream tasted good on its own, when it comes to red velvet cake, the only acceptable icing is cream cheese. It is the only icing flavor that compliments the mix of the vanilla and chocolate cake mix equally and provides the necessary moisture that tends to be required in a drier cake like red velvet. While I realize that cream cheese icing can be expensive for the seller, not providing it produces a noticeably lower quality product. On a scale of 1 to 10, I rate the cupcake a four.

The lemonade wasn't very good either. It was extremely tart, almost to the point where it seemed that next to no sugar was added. While I understand that eating sugar could certainly change the flavor of other things like drinks, in this case, it just tasted like bad lemonade. There seemed to be minimal to no effort to sweeten it. It seems the taste tester is slacking on the job.

For the price, I should have paid at least 25% less for the reduced quality I am certain they are aware of, because they cut back on items that generate good flavors, resulting in a clear savings on their part, but yielding only slightly acceptable products.

This experience has confirmed for me that I will never eat anything from this location again. It is possible that, due to the rent required for a location in Grand Central station, they are reducing the quality to not lose too much money. However, I think it is in Magnolia's best interest to NOT have a location at Grand Central if this is the product they are going to present as Magnolia quality desserts. Additionally, viewing the severe lack of attention to quality makes me question if I will ever go back to any Magnolia.

Back in the early 2000s, I remember Magnolia having amazing cake and amazing icing. It went from 100% I would buy to 30% I would buy. That isn't good. I certainly hope that Magnolia begins to do a better job of providing quality food for the prices that they expect to receive. In fact, if they actually took the time and effort to provide better quality food, they might be able to garner (very slightly) higher prices. Additionally, skimping on the product side looks like nothing more than trying to make more money for providing less.

It's quite a disappointing experience. I certainly hope for a change in Magnolia's functioning. I have experienced similar, though not as bad, experiences at other Magnolia locations that are not the original location. I long for the Magnolia from the early 2000s. That was when they paid attention to what they were putting out.

I strongly do NOT recommend this location. Even Auntie Anne's is a better option, and that is saying a lot considering it is a fast food...

I was pretty excited to try this place for one reason, the internet trending banana pudding! I wanted to see if it was worth the hype and I will say I did have high expectations. I am pleased to say that this banana pudding was not only worth the hype, but worth the price as well. I will gladly go back and get some more, but I would like to try one of their seasonal flavors. Since I waited in that long line, I only wanted to get a large sized one so I am full. Unfortunately, they were all out of large sized apple crisp banana pudding so I just had to get the original. If I get a dessert, it has to be the biggest size because I do not do teases. The banana chunks were nice, the cream was not too sweet, and the wafers added a nice texture to it. The only thing that could have made the experience a little bit better is if they had their seasonal flavor in large portion or added just a few more wafers because those were a great balance for the texture. These are little things, but definitely not dealbreakers and I will be back. It is also normal for places to run out of things, so I will see about next time. I scarfed it down way faster than I probably should have, but only because of how good it was! I was also surprised how well the pudding did hold since I carried it on my commute home before eating. They had some other cakes that looked decent, but I was there for the banana pudding. I heard they also have a smores flavor at some points of the year; I absolutely would want to try that but only if they have a large option. I look forward to coming back and getting some more goodness! Definitely stop by if you love banana pudding or...

I came to this place this morning to get a cake for one of my colleagues at work... I came with another coworker who offered to help. Below the interaction I had with the stores' (alleged) manager, Mrs. Gbem: Us: Hi good morning, do you have available cakes for today? Her: YES, WE ONLY HAVE BANANA CAKE, YOU HAVE TO ORDER IN ADVANCE IF YOU WANT ANOTHER FLAVOR. Us: Alrighty, what's the price for the cakes? -Her: IT'S 85 dollars. -Us: alrighty, do you have any other option that might be a little more affordable? -Her: NO WE DON'T, THE ONE I JUST TOLD YOU IS THE ONE WE HAVE. DO YOU UNDERSTAND? ARE YOU FROM HERE? -Me: Alrighty, do you happen to have photos of the $85 dollars cake? we just want to make sure it'll be enough for the amount of people we'll have. -Her: NO, WE DON'T HAVE PICTURES. IT'S THE ONLY ONE WE HAVE. -Me: (trying to lighten the mood): haha, the little signs that say "happy birthday", how much are they? are they free? -Her: THERE IS NOTHING FREE IN THIS CITY. looks at my coworker CAN YOU TELL HIM THAT NOTHING IS FREE HERE? APPARENTLY HE DOESN'T KNOW HOW THIS CITY WORKS. Me: silence.

This interaction left us both in shock because we didn't expect to be treated that way, specially when in our POV all the questions we asked were relevant and innocent, standard questions you would normally ask at any commercial establishment. Completely unnecessary to be this rude to customers and sets a very poor precedent for a store that is supposedly renowned for the quality of its products. Very...