The Muffins Cafe
“The Upper West Side has more than its share of bakeries and cafes, with new ones springing up every day.”
“I come for a toasted everything bagel with cream cheese and coffee every weekend morning I can.”
“They have freshly brewed hazelnut coffee, which I appreciated.”
The Muffins Cafe
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Outdoor Seating: Yes
Price range.
$ Price range Under $10
8 reviews
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Excellent iced-coffee, tasty sesame bagel… exactly what I wanted for an afternoon read in Central Park!
Great place. I was happy with my lox bagel and it was only $8, which is pretty affordable in NYC for anything with lox on it. They have freshly brewed hazelnut coffee, which I appreciated. The bread for the sandwiches looks crispy and delectable. I'll have to try that next time. Definitely a good spot on Columbus when you're looking for a bagel in a neighborhood where good bagels are somehow scarce.
I'm ambivalent about this place, but always like to give a neighborhood place a try over a big chain. I'm a little partial to the cute name.
Pros:
-It's not Starbucks, so you feel like you're supporting something local (or something)
-Tasty pound cake-style desserts, like orange loaves, banana bread, etc. Really delicious and moist. Sandwiches look good too.
-Outdoor bench (seats a couple, or 3 strangers?) great for nice weather or smokers.
Cons:
-Coffee out of paper cups only, it seems. What is that? No class…
-VERY small, with like 3.5 seats. And good luck fitting in there if you have a bag or something!
-Awkward high-counter sugar/stirrer situation. See for yourself. And no tasty Brown Sugar! Ach!!
Coffee has been good and bad, depending on day, barista. Hard for me to review it.
Muffins Cafe, clean up your act!!
You dopey bunch of hosers. The Best and OMG and 4 star reviews? Guess what, they don't MAKE anything here, its a glorified 7-11.
I stopped in yesterday and asked the counter person, do you do any baking on premise? No.. its all brought in (Just like oh thank heaven)
I ordered a coffee and a biscotti (which was stale) Why give this place anymore than three stars when there are some AWESOME bakeries around the corner.
Here is a test. Go to this place on 3rd Ave, La Delice Pastry Shop and breathe in the sweet sweet smell of a bakery. If you find a place that has "Muffins" in their name and doesn't smell like they make the muffins, keep walking..
Yesterday was one of those days where I left work and I was just FIENDING for coffee thanks to a combination of a hard day at work, stress, thirst and well, a love of coffee. Specifically I wanted iced coffee, but by some miracle of oddities my entire walk to the subway did not put me on the same side of the street as a Starbucks. When I got out of the train at 72 street, I knew Columbus Ave. had to have a cafe, and there it was – Muffins Cafe!
This place is a tiny little joint with a few tables in the front area and a counter that takes up most of the store. To the left (when you're facing the counter) are several clear glass jars with awesome looking cookies in them including chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin. The counter itself had a pile of breads, muffins and other baked goods. Among them was a five grain muffin and an apple yogurt loaf. Tasty looking stuff, but I needed my iced coffee. Good size cup? Check. Soy milk? Check. Non-sugar sweetener? Check. Awesomeness.
The gent serving drinks was cool. With his back turned to me the whole time while making a latte for someone else, he made it a point to talk to me and his other customer at the same time. I can't get that kind of attention with people FACING me sometimes so it was refreshing.
The coffee itself was pretty much ZOMG good. The coffee had a strong flavor, which I not only love, but don't usually find in an iced coffee since it waters down very quickly. I was super happy with the service and the coffee. At some point I'm sure I'll try their baked goods as well.
Ah, the Muffins Cafe. I'll first start off by stating that there's really nothing horrible here. Everything they make is okay, and decent. There's not too much, though, that I would call outstanding.
For example, for a place called 'Muffins Cafe' you would hope that their muffins would be the highlight. I mean, if you are going to load up on something as carby as a muffin early in the morning, you'd probably want it to be an incredible muffin. Well, their muffins are… … … 'good.' The taste, the texture, the ingredients, it all tastes good. BUT…it's far from fresh. I asked for a blueberry muffin, and then said "Is that fresh baked?" and she says to me, "of course." I suppose the word "fresh" is too vague for some; so I restated, "well, what I mean is, did you bake these muffins this morning?" She said, "all our pastries are fresh baked."
Okay, well, I heard what I needed to hear because clearly the answer is NO, and when I took the muffin and ate it later I learned very quickly that this was definitely a muffin that was made yesterday or the day before and put in a fridge. If you're not making your muffins fresh in the morning (day of) then why would you call yourselves Muffins Cafe? It's really not that hard, and it doesn't take that much time or man power to bake muffins fresh. Down the street, the Aroma Cafe bakes muffins fresh every morning…and their a coffee shop.
Muffins Cafe, come on…get it together…just bake your muffins fresh, and you'll be a winner in my book. For now, I can't think of a reason to come back here
I went here to grab a bite to eat for breakfast on the weekend since i was craving a good bagel.
When I arrived, there was not too much of a crowd so I was able to order right away. I decided to go with an onion bagel that was toasted with cream cheese and a peach danish.
The onion bagel was not much to write home about as it did not provide much flavor. It was toasted well and the cream cheese melted nicely, but it just didn't have the layers of flavor I was hoping for.
The peach danish was better–but still didn't totally win me over. Though it looked pretty, it also lacked a certain sweetness/creaminess that I was hoping for.
Overall, this place is decent, but was a bit underwhelming in the flavor department. Nevertheless, the service was friendly and pretty quick as well.
What a great place to grab quick lunch bites? I had the Broccoli Soup (I can taste the freshness of broccoli through the soup) and Grilled Salmon Sandwich (yummm). The staff was super helpful and friendly. Seats may be limited during lunch hour, but we were told that people share tables all the time. So don't be afraid to sit next to the cute stranger!