cuautzina
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While the coffee was good, they had no decaffeinated coffee options. (Very unusual in NYC, especially since they have many alternative milks for medical and moral dietary restrictions.) They had their old summer seasonal menu up on the wall near the door, but that menu was out of date —it is early/mid September when I am writing this— and when we tried to order and we were told they had moved on to a fall menu which is only visible at the front of the line. The employee had quite a short tone i.e. when we mistakenly tried to order something off the summer menu, they seemed annoyed even though we were all smiles and we quickly pivoted our choices past the decaf and the summer menu hiccups. Maybe they were having a bad day 🤷♀️.
Off the current menu we tried the Hot Chocolate, the (seasonal) Osmanthus Latte iced, a blueberry danish, and a ham and cheese croissant.
The pastries looked better than they tasted, (and there was no oven to reheat them, at least not that was offered) Though I will note it was ≈1:30pm, so it is possible they had been in the case for a long time. That being said they were still dryer than I think is reasonable to serve. We ate the danish there and we brought the croissant home to reheat. After being reheated, it was slightly flakier than the danish and much moister.
For the drinks: The coffee was quite good. I’d never had anything osmanthus flavored and it was not very bold. I couldn’t tell you what it reminded me of. The hot chocolate was also good.
I will note, for a cafe in the middle of Chinatown it felt like we had been transported to Wilumsburg when we stepped inside. Both with the actual cafe and the patrons of it. I was hoping for an Asian influence on the menu and there wasn’t really one, (aside from maybe matcha and i didn’t ask what teas they had but maybe they have some Asian tea.) It was a fine place to grab a cup of coffee. I would go down the street and get some rice rolls at Sun Hing Lung instead of getting a pastry if you are hungry (and you have cash on hand).