Balducci’s Gourmet On The Go
“This includes baked goods towards the front, a salad bar to the left and a sandwich station to the back.”
“If you're really lucky you can nab a seat by the window and people watch with a green tea and a crossword if you've got time to spare.”
“If you're in the Columbus Circle area, definitely stop by for lunch sometime.”
Balducci’s Gourmet On The Go
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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I love this place. Big fan of the crepes but the salads and sandwiches are also excellent. They have a great selection of soups and happy to give out samples. They have really good soft pretzels too. Prices are a little high but you get what you pay for. At lunch the lines to pay can get kind of long but they move along quickly. Staff is friendly and hard working.
If you are staying at a nearby hotel, say, Hotel Empire, and you are up pretty early, this is a great spot to get delicious coffee. It's self-serve with terrific selection and lots of fixins like simple syrup and cinnamon powder. We got coffee and snacks to take our toddler to the playground every day of our visit.
This review is for their kick-ass SALAD BAR.
Choice of greens
+
Unlimited toppings of veggies, fruit, cheese, and nuts
+
Only $2ish for protein
+
The salads are HUGE.
= Excellent value for a fresh, delicious salad that has a variety of toppings
Recently, I've started to save them in tupperware because it's impossible to eat one of these salads in one sitting. Rather than throw them away, I just save it for the next day's lunch. Be sure to ask for dressing on the side.
Super duper expensive but I love the salad bar. You get unlimited whatever you ant for like $11 and can add chicken / other protein for a couple more bucks. I know, a lot of money for a salad… if you usually like your salad minimal.
I get it all – grapes, peppers, corn, tomatoes, nuts, cranberries, cheese, etc. I always get the chicken salad on top. The works! They put it in a huge bowl and mix it up and it tastes so good you don't even need any dressing! It also provides me with enough food for two meals, so you could say you are buying two salads for $6, which isn't bad!
I've looked over their other food options and it's just too expensive per pound for me to touch it… plus, I really love the salad.
This store is really small so they don't have much else in terms of selection. They do have a mini bakery section though up front with lots of scrumptious looking goodies. I have only sampled a mini pumpkin pie in the past that was pretty good.
The customer service is fine, quick check out every time I've been there. You can sit at the bar facing the street and people watch while you eat or browse your laptop. I've always been able to pick up wifi but I don't remember if it belonged to balducci's or not.
TIP: Parking is abysmal around here! Come on a Sunday!
I used to go to a Balducci's in Bethesda and they had the best prosciutto mozzarella sandwich. Unfortunately, that sandwich was not to found in this New York location. We tried the Cuban Ham instead. It started off being a great sandwich, until I bit into this massive glob of horseradish sauce and nearly fell off my stool. Sadly, that wasn't the last bite like that. So much potential lost.
The Iced Chai tea lattes are excellent. Not too sweet or spicy; just the way I like it. Looks like they have a pretty good selection of pantry food and baked goods – definitely will return to try more treats!
So I work at Hearst Magazines and occasionally when I end up doing lunch past 2:30pm (when our awesome cafeteria closes) I'll wander in here for something small…I've also come here because my boss has a hankering for lunch here and we'll walk and talk or it's someone's birthday and I need emergency macaroons, yanno all the typical reasons one would go in here…
I really want to give this place 3.5 Yelp stars, really I do, but I'm gonna err on the side of rounding down due to a few factors…
+ Prices: Yah, I know it's midtown/Hell's Kitchen/Colombus Circle, whatever you want to call it – but it's unnecessarily expensive and frankly their are better options in the neighborhood that are just as tasty (if not TASTIER) and not as overpriced. Although their pesto tortellini does look sinfully decadent…but until I try it, I'm sticking to 3 stars.
+ Selection: So I hate to describe this place as a "bougie deli" (I'm lying, I don't really hate my description), but it's a "bougie deli". You know how some businesses add the word "gourmet" to anything so that they can justify ripping people off? Nope, not Balducci's!
To be honest, their edible delights are gourmet and they DO use top of the line ingredients, but my problem is that I'm just NEVER a fan of pre-made food. If I'm paying for overpriced food, then I want it custom made, fresh and made just for me.
+ Bakery: Everything in their bakery section looks freakishly good. Their macaroons ARE delicious, but alas they're not up to Ladurée standards in the least. They still are the best macaroons I've ever had and yep, I've munched away at the original Paris location.
I've also purchased a slice of their cheesecake for a friend who loves, loves, LOVES her cheesecake and whole she "liked" this one I could tell she was being nice. I kindly reminded her that I didn't make it and wasn't going to be offended (and even had I made it, feedback is good! lol) and she confided that Starbucks makes a better cheesecake…that would've saved me like $3-4, hah!
This isn't an awful place to hit up if you want a fancypants lunch, made skillfully and with fantastic ingredients, if you don't mind the pre-made food thing – or if you want to get a quick snack…but I usually do prefer other things in the neighborhood…like Bread & Honey cuz yanno…they'll make me a sandwich or wrap to my specifications, charge me $4 less than Balducci's and Boar's Head meat is a-okay with me :].
Fast food for the UWS. On the expensive side, but to be expected. Customer service could be improved a bit. It pained the gal to tell me where the forks were located.