After having a fun brunch with friends at Vinatería, we walked around the Central Park and Morningside Park to burn some calories. Then, we decided to get some desserts nearby. We decided to check out The Hungarian Pastry Shop, popular among any and all writers, for some sweets.
It was crowded, but we managed to find a small table. The Hungarian Pastry Shop is a no-frills, family-run café, serving traditional Hungarian pastries and coffee. The menus are written up on a board behind the counter, and they offer self-service complimentary water, which is always a plus.
All the pastries looked interesting and tasty, but you can’t really tell which one is what, as they don’t have any signage. But you can ask one of their nice staffs, and they will tell you what they are with smile. It is also not easy to take a look at all of them, as people line up in front of the show windows to order and pay. If you are eating in, they will bring the orders to you, and you can pay before you leave.
Everything looks good, but since we didn’t know what they were without description by them, we just pick what looked good. We did ask a couple of questions to the staff, but the description was not super clear nor detailed, and we didn’t want to keep asking question on each item, since there were other people in line.
The first item we tried was a slice of Lemon Cake. It had coconut crust on the bottom. A strong lemon flavor coming through with each bite. The coconut was fresh and a bit chewy. Nice flavor combination of tart lemon and sweet coconut.
Then we tried something that looked like a chocolate cake. We were told it is some kind of a chocolate cookie sandwich? I believe it is Ishler. On their board, it was described as “two hazelnut cookies with bittersweet chocolate cream.” It tasted more like ginger cookies… It was super rich and decadent, and it had loads of chocolate in the middle that was tough and hard, I wouldn’t call it a “cream” by any means… A bit messy to eat, since you have to bite into it, as the filling is too hard and thick to cut with knife. The cookies are brittle, and the chocolate coating gets everywhere on your hands as it melts. It was packed with sugar, even though we shared it between the two of us, it was still way too much sugar and too sweet.
The last item we tried was Éclair. This was the only item that I could say “light” or maybe it tasted light in comparison to the other items??? It had chocolate cream and Bavarian or custard cream? Nice size to share among two people.
My experience was a bit mixed… I love the old (over 50 years of history!) and old-fashioned pastry shop in the thriving neighborhood. But it was very cramped with very small tables. There were many customers with their laptop, and you could tell they have been there for a long time… And they seems to NOT care about other patrons, looking for a seat. I saw a couple using 3 tables (6 chairs), with their personal items spread all over so that no one can share the table. Not a very nice thing to do, especially at a popular café. Let’s remember, as George Costanza once said, “we’re living in a society, people!”
The pastries were nice, but all too sweet for my taste buds… It will be perfect for super sweet teeth people, I am sure. The bill for the three items came to be $14.50. Since there is not price listed anywhere, I don’t know what the price was for each item… Regardless, it is good to see a local, historic café is still doing great.
The Hungarian Pastry Shop – 1030 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10025