The Muffins Cafe

Service alright. Few years ago went latte not memorable. Went recently for hot chocolate, it tasted horrible, even SB’s taste better by far. I think they are using poor ingredients like powered mix. It is pricey for a poorly made beverage. Service is decent, quick and a gem of a neighborhood café due to its location.

I had to double check to see if I was looking at the right place after reading some of these reviews… Maybe I’m just that lucky and came here on the perfect day. The coffee is good the food is good (I had the smoked turkey sandwich on ciabatta bread). It’s pretty cheap considering it’s the upper west side. The service was absolutely exceptional both times I’ve visited. The first time there were two girls behind the counter they were really sweet and bubbly. The second there was a girl and a man who might have been the owner? I sat there for about 20 – 30 mins and every customer who came in was treated wonderfully. He would even throw in extra pastries or free bread for people who seemed to be loyal customers. Overall I had a great experience at this café I will definitely return.

I’ve only ever eaten the bagels and ginger snap soft cookies here, and those alone get my five stars. Best bagel in the city in my opinion– best of course in the morning when they’re just made, but still amazing if you’re cutting in right before closing.

Hello upper west siders —
This place has the best freaking bagels I’ve had in a long time.
Also — the mood and vibe is ON POINT.
So cute and clean and tasty. They make their sandwiches with care and have a great everyday relationship with their customers. Also a family business! Support support support
Best spot for casual breakfast or lunch on upper west — without a doubt!

Really lovely little café on Columbus. Fairly priced lunch– I had a delicious, fresh tomato/​basil/​mozz on ciabatta for $ 9.50. Nice ambiance as well. I recommend for pastries, lunch, or just a coffee stop.

Quite & Cosy place for a croissant and coffee with seating inside more in a European way. Coffee was okay, not the best one in the city, but still good quality. Definitely recommend as a nice break from a walk in the nearby Central Park

I was so excited to try out Muffins because of how cute it looked and all of the positive reviews. Sadly I seem to have ordered the wrong thing (the Chocolate Chip Scone) which was dry, crumbly and unappetizing. I would be willing to give it another go and (hopefully) have a better food experience.

I have lived in this neighborhood for over 10 years and this is by far my most favorite coffee shop! I stop here at least 4 days a week. Not only is the food fresh and delicious, the staff and the owner are some of the nicest, most friendly people I know! Their bagels, sandwiches, fresh muffins and croissants are all to die for! I can’t count the number of days I’ve stopped for an ice coffee, a fresh bagel and just sat out in front on their outside bench, relaxed, chatting with neighborhood friends. Two thumbs way up!!!

Fresh pastries, nice classical music, smal seating but if you grab a spot it’s great. Good coffee too ranging from 1.60-$ 4 so pretty cheap! All gluten free and some low fat options

2.5 stars
Looks like a cute quaint place and it is sort of. A few tables and a bench outside. A few flies hovering around the pastries. Coffee was good, scone was meh, not the worst but i’ve definitely have much better. Service is kind of eh, like it’s bothersome to wait on people. And someone spilled a coffee and they actually gave the customers napkins and watched them clean it up! When does a restaurant or store ever let that happen? I’ve worked at a café before. there is no way we would ever have a customer clean up an accidentally spilled drink, dropped food, etc. we would clean it up and give them a replacement.

Avec Plaisir — My favorite coffee shop in the neighborhood. The Muffins Café makes their own pastries, the croissants, bagels, and the muffins are fresh and the outdoor bench is great for people and stroller traffic jams watching. The coffee and ice coffee are solid and you might want to try the palate-​soothing lemonade on a asphalt-​melting summer day. The service is very good and the owners are delightful to interact with. The lunch sandwiches are worth a quick stop as well. Hell, on my best days I’ll just go there for my daily diet. It does get a little tight when patrons line up and they don’t have a lot of seating indoors but neither does a subway car at rush hour — it’s New York after all. Even though there are now more coffee shops in a half-​mile radius than there are banks, this one stands out.

Best place to sit outside on the bench sipping a hot coffee and look at people go by. Their croissants are good, my favorite is the almond one but only once a week. It’s a treat.

I love The Muffins Café! I come here all the time and I always get the tuna fish sandwich. I don’t even like tuna fish. I never eat it anywhere else, but at the Muffins Café it is one of my favorite foods in the world. Beware though once you eat this tuna fish sandwich all others will seem inadequate.
If you can’t eat tuna fish or just don’t want to try it for some reason you should still come here. I’ve tried tastes of other food from here and it is always very good. Their desserts are also delicious!

Another adorable UWS place. They have great bagels, sandwiches, pastries etc. The bread for the sandwiches is always toasted just right. I’m into that :)

We go here every Sunday after our run in the park to get the best bagle in NYC! The staff are all so nice and seem genuinely happy to see us.

The only reason I am giving this place 4 out 5 stars is just because the seating is tight, but that’s it! When I lived in the neighborhood I would pass by this shop and always wanted to go in, I kept thinking oh it’ll be like all the other cliché bakery shops but it wasn’t.
I popped in with two girlfriends for an after dinner coffee and dessert and we were so impressed that we literally stopped talking when we tried their pecan bar. Which, by the way, was kindly recommended to us by the friendly staff when I asked which dessert was the most popular. Equally so my chai tea was super delicious and my girlfriends thoroughly enjoyed their coffees.
Even though I no longer live in the neighborhood, I will definitely make this a go to stop when I’m looking for coffee and a dessert.

What a great place to grab quick lunch bites? I had the Broccoli Soup (I can taste the freshness of broccoli through the soup) and Grilled Salmon Sandwich (yummm). The staff was super helpful and friendly. Seats may be limited during lunch hour, but we were told that people share tables all the time. So don’t be afraid to sit next to the cute stranger!

Wow. I don’t understand how this place is still in business. Not only do they get their stale pastries from Costco, but the staff is completely unprofessional!
Multiple times I have been in the store when the staff were talking down to or yelling at CUSTOMERS! In an area where there are so many children present I don’t see how this is appropriate…
One day while walking down my neighborhood street I noticed that there was a lot of police activity. At that same time I heard one of the owners yelling the N word at a man and had to be restrained! The police were there to break up this fight.
After seeing the complete lack of concern for people’s feelings that are paying their bills makes me feel sick to my stomach. I do not suggest getting anything thing from here and I definitely wouldn’t allow my family to dine here either!

Rude people work here. The hiring process must be very simple, only employ the rudest customer service employees you can find and have said employees bark at customers like junk yard dogs.
I used to come here often, but I came in last saturday (Oct. 18^th) and after I ordered two bagels at the counter my girlfriend sat down at one of the three tables with her «outside» coffee. Right when my girlfriend sat down the woman at the counter started yelling at me and her because her coffee was brought in from another store.
I quizzed her as to why she would treat customers like this, especially after I already ordered and paid for the items. She said «it is an owners rule and that you can’t be here with outside coffee».
I took my money back and we left. I guess the employees don’t understand that the the owner is taking a loss by throwing away food they already started making for us, because they felt it was better we leave with our outside coffee.
I’ve also read that they don’t make their own pastries and that everything is brought in. What a sham.

I work nearby and eat here at least once a month. In my opinion, their sandwiches are the best in the area. I normally order the mozzarella & pesto with lettuce and tomato on a whole wheat baguette. Their baguettes are always fresh and have the perfect amount of crunch when toasted. Their ham & cheese is also a favorite. Just note that the sammies are smaller than a typical deli hero/​sub.
Their coffee is also good. Better than Starbucks by far but just good. Try their iced tea when the weather gets warmer. They’re also happy to make you a half iced tea/​lemonade which is fantastic.

Ah, the Muffins Café. I’ll first start off by stating that there’s really nothing horrible here. Everything they make is okay, and decent. There’s not too much, though, that I would call outstanding.
For example, for a place called ‘Muffins Café’ you would hope that their muffins would be the highlight. I mean, if you are going to load up on something as carby as a muffin early in the morning, you’d probably want it to be an incredible muffin. Well, their muffins are… … … ‘good.’ The taste, the texture, the ingredients, it all tastes good. BUT… it’s far from fresh. I asked for a blueberry muffin, and then said «Is that fresh baked?» and she says to me, «of course.» I suppose the word «fresh» is too vague for some; so I restated, «well, what I mean is, did you bake these muffins this morning?» She said, «all our pastries are fresh baked.»
Okay, well, I heard what I needed to hear because clearly the answer is NO, and when I took the muffin and ate it later I learned very quickly that this was definitely a muffin that was made yesterday or the day before and put in a fridge. If you’re not making your muffins fresh in the morning (day of) then why would you call yourselves Muffins Café? It’s really not that hard, and it doesn’t take that much time or man power to bake muffins fresh. Down the street, the Aroma Café bakes muffins fresh every morning… and their a coffee shop.
Muffins Café, come on… get it together… just bake your muffins fresh, and you’ll be a winner in my book. For now, I can’t think of a reason to come back here