This is my second review of MacarOn Café, different location from the first review. (You can read my first review at: http://www.foodlovergirl.com/macaron-cafe/)
We went to their 3rd Avenue location for afternoon snack, and also to buy a few of them as a gift to my co-worker friend who told me that she never had macaron before. No macaron, ever??? I asked. Come on, that is a crime! So, I decided that I get some for her from MacarOn Café, since she cares about gluten free items, and their macaron is all gluten free!
At this location, the interior is designed without much consideration to their entrance door. The space between the door to the counter where the macarons are displayed is really small. There is just enough space to go inside, making it difficult to walk around the counter when people are coming and going. They do offer nice amount of seating all around, from front of the store to the back side.
Depends on if you want more natural light, or what kind of seats you want (counter, booth, table, etc.) you can choose which area you want to sit while enjoying some macarons or other offerings.
We were there for macarons and macarons only. so we walked around the counter and chose some flavors. While we were doing that, a couple with a baby stroller came in, with some difficulty. They wanted to get to the tables and chairs on the side, and while they move from the door to the table, no one else could be around there… Maybe they could have made the counter a bit smaller, but that is way too late for that now. So, I advise not to go in there with baby stroller unless you really need to, it will be a challenge to move around in this location.
They have many flavors of macarons, including some seasonal ones. I think they change out the seasonal flavor every 3-4 months.
We ordered my favorite, Lychee, White Chocolate Peppermint, Earl Grey, and for my friend, we got Orange Blossom and Wedding Almond ($2.50/each), since she loves almond, and fruity flavor. As for the price, the more you buy, the cheaper it becomes, as many of macaron places. $2.50 might sounds a lot, but they are larger than most other macarons in the city.
We also ordered cappuccino ($3.75) to go with our macaron. It was was ok, not super special, but pretty good. The female staff who brought the cappuccino also gave us water without being asked, which was really nice.
Lychee was as good as I remembered, but I felt that the macaron was too dense and thick. With the first bite, it pushed all the cream outside… Earl grey was very flavorful, strong tea flavor and aroma, this one is another one of our favorite.
The peppermint was one of the Winter seasonal flavor. Which we realized was not in our bag once we got ourselves a table. The male staff we ordered the macaons got our order wrong. We talked to a female staff who brought our cappuccino, and she right away went back to the counter to swap it with the correct flavor. The guy did NOT admit that he got the order wrong (it is not a large space, so we could hear them talk). Regardless, the female staff was super sweet, she brought back the correct flavor with smile and apologized for the error. Peppermint macaron had nice peppermint flavor, with small bits of peppermint candy in the cream. It was pretty good.
The interior at this place also have lots of interesting decorations, and lots of pink; pink colored walls, pink colored lights, etc.
My friend at work was super excited with the surprise, and she made sure to tell me what she thought of them after she tried them. She absolutely LOVED the wedding almond, she said that it had great almond flavor. The Orange Blossom was ok, but compared to the almond one, she definitely prefers the almond macaron. She asked me to get some more for her the next time I go back to get some macarons from them again, so I created another fan of MacarOn Café.
As I mentioned in my previous review, I really like the fact that they are larger than normal macarons out there, and they are made in NYC, gluten free, kosher certified. I will be going back to one of their locations again in the near future, maybe when they get some Spring flavors out for some more macaron goodness!
MacarOn Café – 750 3rd Avenue, New York, NY 10017