We had another opportunity to find a café in NJ across the GWB on early Saturday morning. This Korean bakery came up on my search, with a nice big selection of baked goods. It is located at the same mall as the BCD Tofu House, with a nice-sized parking lot.
When we walked in shortly after 7:30am, they had loads of selections already lined out! A staff was busy trying to get a name tag for the each items. They had sweet, savory, cold (refrigerated) and hot items.
We did enjoy our multiple visits at D’avant Bakery, but one issue we had with this place was the availability of their selections. They don’t have much offerings early in the morning. But here at Blue Angel, that was not an issue at all.
They had some adorable cookies, and I saw the same pig cookie that I saw at D’avant Bakery. I wonder if they get them from the same place? Or have the same person baking these cookies for both locations??? Anyways, I liked the cookie, so I was happy to see it here too. They had some croquettes in a heated container, and some cakes in a refrigerated showcase.
We saw many customers come in and out, mostly just taking their purchases to go. But if you wanted to stay and eat them there, they have a nice amount of seating! The area to the right of the entrance was the main dining area, with plastic ware, napkin, milk, sugar, etc. placed by the wall. They also have a bathroom all the way to the back. On the other side, all the way to the left, they have a small alcove with a bit more seating.
On this day, we got mostly savory items, plus one sweet item. As you can see, we were curious about their croquettes, so we got both croquette offerings.
First up, Curry Croquette ($2.95). It had lots of ingredient items listed, including onion, ham, green pepper, carrot, pork, etc. To me, it was very potato-y, which was interesting because potato was not listed as one of the ingredients…??? It was different from the Japanese kind that I grew up with, that had more curry filling with several ingredients that you can really see and taste. This one was more like stuffed with curry flavored potato.
Croquette ($2.95) was made with onion, crab meat and ham. We really loved the croquette from D’avant Bakery, so we were curious to see if they were the same croquette. Although it looked the same, but this one was more crunchy with little cubes of onions.
Ham Roll Bread ($3.25) contained potato, ham, cheese, onion, pickle, and other ingredients. This one was super tasty! Good amount of ham with creamy mashed potato on the top. Very comforting and delicious!
Now, this strange looking item is called Castella Twist ($2.75), and seems like one of the most popular items here. It looked like no other castella I have ever seen… And it was very tasty! It was covered with super fluffy coating of some kind, placed on the castella with cream acting as “glue.” Even though it looked and sounded heavy, it was actually as light as a cloud! I see the reason why this item is so popular.
We had two coffee drinks to go with our breakfast. I had White Mocha ($5.25), and my hubby got a king of a strange one… Sweet Potato Latte ($5.25). They were both under “Winter Special” items. My mocha was nice and creamy, I liked it. On the other hand, Sweet Potato Latte had interesting flavor… It had quite strong sweet potato flavor, which I am not sure how they did that! It was not something we will try again, but glad we got to taste it.
While we were enjoying our breakfast, (one of) their chef came out from the kitchen. He had a tall white chef hat, looking really professional! It seemed like he was checking on the inventory. He gave us a warm smile before heading back to the kitchen.
With so many varieties and options offered here, it was only natural that we returned again for more. This time, we got two savory and two sweet items.
We had the savory items first. The Bacon Cheese Baguette ($3.75) contained bacon, onion, scallion and cheese among others. The baguette was hard, as it should, but thin enough to give just a good crunch, making it easy bite off and to eat. It had a good amount of toppings that made it very flavorful, savory and tasty! Sausage Bun ($2.95) contained mozzarella cheese, sausage, and other ingredients. It was meaty and I liked the fun shape. It had a little kick to it in the sausage? I really liked the corn in it too. Bread was firm, yet fluffy. Very savory and satisfying.
They had a few different croissants, and we got Green Tea Croissant ($3.25). It had no cream filling, which was a bit disappointing. However, it was more like the matcha flavored creamy dough kneaded into the croissant itself, which was quite nice! Matcha cream drizzled on top had the real strong matcha flavor. Crunchy crumble on top was nice too, added another texture to this otherwise soft croissant. Loved the sweetness of the powdered sugar against bitter matcha flavor.
The last item we got was Choco Farm Donut ($2.50). It was indicated that it contains heavy cream, cocoa powder, and dark chocolate, so I was very excited! It was super fluffy!!!!! It was actually cut in half sideways, sandwiching a good amount of cream. The chocolate cream was more like whipped and light, not so-chocolatey but elegantly done. I was a bit sad about not finding any trace of dark chocolate, but I still enjoyed it.
The staffs here were polite and efficient. The café was nice and bright, clean and very organized. I really appreciate the amount of items they offer, so many varieties! We can go visit a few more times before we have to do repeat purchase of any items. And I am sure we will return again and again!
Blue Angel Café & Bakery – 1640 Schlosser St, Fort Lee, NJ 07024