Magnolia Bakery Upper West Side
“If you are ever in town and have a craving for something sweet, just walk into Magnolias and order their banana pudding.”
“but the red velvet cheesecake was insanely awesome with it's oreo cookie crust and deep red goodness.”
“screw the hype from sex and the city and its liddo cupcakes, B-A-N-A-N-A PUDDING IS WHERE IT'S AT.”
Magnolia Bakery Upper West Side
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
PokéStop Nearby: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range Moderate
8 reviews
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Nice neighborhood bakery. The bakery has a wide variety of sweets. The display is visually fantastic which makes it all the more difficult to make a decision about what you want to try upon visiting. We ordered a red velvet cupcake, a key lime pie and a lemon bar. Everything that we tried was simply amazing. I wouldn't hesitate to try a few different items the next time around. The customer service was very helpful and attentive. They move at a fast pace here, so even though the seats are occupied and there's a steady flow of customers, we never felt rushed or uncomfortable.
4 stars for their cheesecakes, although I only tried the blueberry cheesecake. It was good, but not the best blueberry cheesecake I ever had. But — the banana bread pudding on the other hand….Definitely deserves 5 stars. BOMB DOT COM. Seriously, the banana bread pudding is to die for. Maybe I'm bias because I love bananas, but from all the banana bread pudding that I have eaten (which is a lot), Magnolia Bakery takes the cake! (pun intended). Will be back for just the bread pudding, YAAS.
I met a friend here once and got a cupcake while I waited. Delicious and very sweet! I haven't been back since but I desperately want to.
Purchased cupcakes for a friend's birthday, along with their famous banana pudding. What a letdown. First of all, when I arrived at 11am on a Wednesday, more than half of the flavors were unavailable. What a bummer!
The cupcakes were unacceptably dry and crumbly; they fell apart as soon as the wrappers were peeled off. If one or two were crumbly i'd chalk it up to a bad batch, but all 6 (mostly different flavors) had that texture, so I'm guessing they don't have a quality control aspect to their bakeries. The frosting was gritty and since it was so sweet we couldn't taste any of the flavor profiles (vanilla, etc.) in it. Just pure, unadulterated sugar. Six cupcakes were about $30, which was absolutely not worth it.
The banana pudding had a decent texture, but the obviously fake banana extract/flavoring really ruined it for me. I know there were pieces of bananas in it, but the rest of it tasted like banana candy. You know those little ones that look like bananas? That's the "banana flavor" the pudding contains, which made it seem much less homemade for me.
I've been to the one near Times Square and it's all the same. The desserts are really good! I still favor their banana pudding over everything else and I can never get enough of it. It's a good price still so to save money I just get the Large one for $6.50. This location is good because it actually has seats where you can just sit down and enjoy your dessert compared to the other one I went to. Million thumbs up to this place!
There's a reason this place is rated so well – it's great among locals and visitors alike.
The banana cream pie is amazing (big so make sure you share it).
The vanilla and red velvet cupcakes are also just as good.
Seating is limited but there's a back room with more tables and chairs (somewhat like community seating).
There are so many other items here that would take forever to try, so time to get at it!
Banana Pudding
Without the Downtown Line
Looking for moist cupcakes? This is definitely not the place. Finally after years of hearing about their banana pudding, I walked in (no line) and picked up a pint to share with my friends who were visiting from California. Several cookies, and no cupcakes in tow the Banana pudding, and the cookies were a hit.
When I tried the cupcakes at this bakery I was far from impressed. The frosting was too sweet, and the cupcakes were dry. If you want to sample the legendary pudding this is a not the original place but it tastes exactly the same. If you continue walking up Columbus avenue towards the Natural History Museum you will find Shake Shack on the same side of the street.
The Scene: Cupcake Craze, Tourist Destination
Destination Rating: 4
Date Rating: 2
Hob Nob Potential: 1
Note: Stick with the banana pudding, or try a cobbler.
We stopped in here one night after dinner for their famous bread pudding. It was okay, but didn't knock my socks off. They were giving away samples of something with walnuts, I believe, and it had bits of the shell in it, so needless to say I didn't eat anymore of it and didn't want to eat anything else there.