Joyce C.
Yelp
This is more like a 3.75, a B+! Have heard a lot about Bench Flour Bakers and finally made it over there early enough, before things start selling out.
It helped that it was a holiday weekend, around 11AM-12 PM. The small cozy restaurant was half full with their windows wide-open, sidewalk seating, and a small quick consistent line.
A mostly young, pretty diverse crowd, small groups, solo older guy with a coffee & book, college-aged daughter & father; dog walkers, a spanish-speaking young local talking on the phone (who left briefly to go home for something and then came back and finished breakfast), a few folks waiting for takeout. Met a woman who lives in Manhattan, but comes to Astoria for yoga weekly and stops by the bakery afterwards! How indulgent.
The area is a bit far from all public transportation, in a quiet residential area, 5-10 minute walk from the Little Egypt area of Astoria.
Love the concept and experimentation of this business, and their origin story. Excited to support an Asian-American owned business, especially one that useshigh-quality ingredients.
My order came out around $29.
* Durian Croissant (interesting savory - sweet flavor, the paste wasn't too overpowering. More of a one time purchase for me.) A smaller dense type of croissant, flavors worked well with a full bite of everything. They had just replenished the batch.
* Chocolate Chip Cookie: are these the popular rye flour ones? It was huge, had flat ripples of dark chocolate throughout and sea salt on top. Very good, but nothing mind blowing.
* $9 Loaded Home Fries: cheddar, onion jam, truffle zest, scallions. Very good! Very flavorful. My order was to-go and I fried some eggs with it at home.
* $7.50 Rose Cardamom Iced Latte. A special for the weekend, very delicious and actually the highlight of my order. You can taste the flavors, just a bit sweet, a smooth nice Latte.
A lot of things on their menu sounded great: roast pork breakfast sandwich, fried chicken biscuit. The price point probably matches any brunch spot in Astoria or LIC but not sure why I felt like things were a little pricey. Overall, it costs a lot running a business, especially one that doesn't skimp on the ingredients.
On that August weekend, they also had regular croissants, chocolate, almond all look great. Plum crumb muffins, Chocolate muffins, Blueberry ginger scones, Lemon poppy scones, Cinnamon Bun, Giant wheel of a Quiche, Five spice egg custard Tart pie. Biscuits, Savory seasonal Danish (goat cheese, asparagus), Seasonal Almond Fran plum jam, a giant Frosted Cake (by slice)- looked like Rose. Wish things were labeled with pricing.
Overall a very cute, local place. The staff was super nice! Helpful in explaining the pastries & down to earth. I wonder how their Run Club is doing!
The business is a bit of a trek and slightly too small/tight & busy (good for them!) that wasn't so relaxing for me (sat a bit outside waiting for my hot item). Also- there's bees around there, that definitely like the sugary foods offered. Maybe that's why I was stressed?