Dominique Ansel Kitchen Honey Creme Fraiche soft serve with elderflower grapes: The newest special soft serve from Dominique Ansel Kitchen in the West Village. It's a sizable portion that comes at a sizable price just over $10. The honey creme fraiche ice cream had a good flavor, like a honey-sweetened tart yogurt, but the elderflower-marinated grapes were just not good. They were coated in sugar, making them entirely too sweet and difficult to eat. Without the grapes, I would have given it a 3 overall given the price, but with the grapes, it's a 2.5. 2.5/5.0
nyc westvillage icecream softserve dominiqueanselkitchen honey creme fraiche soft serve elderflower grapes 2.5
7th Ave Donuts Cake donut: Earlier in the summer, I had a surprisingly good donut at 24/7 diner/donut shop 7th Ave Donuts in Park Slope, though the icing made it far too sweet. So I’ve been trying to see if ordering simpler donut flavors can recreate the same experience I had eating the custard-like, slightly under baked donut I had a few months ago. This plain cake donut did not do the job at all - it was largely flavorless, like eating a barely sweetened dry pound cake. Do not recommend. 2.0/5.0
brooklyn nyc 7thavedonuts cake donut 2.0
Mah Ze Dahr Banana Bread: Mah Ze Dahr is a small bakery in Greenwich Village with pastries carefully organized on wooden boards and raised platters, somehow conveying both abundance (through its variety of baked goods) and scarcity (there are <10 of each). This banana bread was served in a sizable disc, like an enlarged, leveled-off muffin top, or an especially thick cookie. Unfortunately, while banana bread is one of my favorites, I found it to be a bit on the dry side, and the sugar coating on top made it far too... (read more) 2.0/5.0
desserts bakery nyc mahzedahrbakery banana bread 2.0
Matchabar Rose matcha milk tea: I really enjoyed a bottled Fuji ginger matcha drink from Matchabar a few months ago and decided to try a freshly-made beverage from their small to-go window in Soho. This rose matcha milk tea, while colorful, was actually quite bad - very sweet, and quickly diluted. Hardly any green tea flavor, and tasted like watery milk after only a few minutes. Definitely $5 wasted. 1.5/5.0
avoid drinks nyc matchabar rose matcha milk tea 1.5
Yaya Tea Clean Clothes kiwi and mango fruit tea with boba: This Little Italy-based tea shop has mixed fruit tea flavors with bizarre names like “Blue Blood” and “My First Car.” I ordered one of the weirdest ones, a mango and kiwi fruit tea called “Clean Clothes.” Somehow the tea managed to be simultaneously super artificial tasting yet also incredibly diluted, with a sweet yet sour flavor that reminded me of those Chinese jello snacks and Jolly Rancher candies. The boba was similarly subpar - overly hard and lacking any taste. Definitely the worst... (read more) 1.0/5.0
avoid nyc drinks bubbletea yayatea clean clothes kiwi mango fruit tea boba 1.0
Keki Modern Cakes Milk soft serve: When I went to Keki to try their cheesecake, they had a promotion where they were giving away free soft serve. Their only available flavor was milk, and while the texture of the softserve was good, it tasted very simply of rich whole milk. It’s not a flavor that develops in any way, and it was too rich for me, so I did something I’ve only done once before in the history of Tasty Snacking and threw it out. 1.0/5.0
avoid nyc softserve icecream chinatown kekimoderncakes milk soft serve 1.0