Zaro’s Bakery

I entered the store and nobody said hi. When I was choosing the cake in front of two staff, they ignored me and chatted loudly. After I picked the chocolate cake, they didn’t say anything to me, just give the cake to the cashier. And the cashier just said, $ 4.99. Until I left the store, nobody smiled or said something good to me. I believe pastries and desserts bring people happiness but I didn’t get any here. The bakery should give the basic training to all the staffs, at least say hello.
And the cake, it’s not worthy a second try.

I asked for a toasted bagel with butter. I got an untoasted bagel with a disgusting entire tin of butter thrown on it, not even spread. Not exactly convenient for the train.

I come here every morning on my way to work. They are extremely fast and friendly!

Essentially a duplicate of

There are four locations within Grand Central but there are insufficiently specific listings (Near Track 103, Near Track 34, Near Track 19, and in Grand Central Market Place). On my visit, a week after their launch AND announcement of $ 4 credit to claim to supplement the $ 2 everyone gets from Zaro’s, track 19 and the one within Grand Central Market didn’t work (and the staff were so nasty I’d never return)…tracks 34 and 103 did (and the staff were friendly but the selections were worse and the food was so mediocre I’d never return: black & white cookie insulted the foodstuff, and salt pretzel was insipid and heated just long enough to waste your time but cool off by the time you walk a few feet).
TRANSACTION AMOUNT $ 2.99
CREDIT APPLIED — $ 2.99
TOTAL SPENT $ 0.00
TRANSACTION AMOUNT $ 2.75
CREDIT APPLIED — $ 2.75
TOTAL SPENT $ 0.00
TRANSACTION AMOUNT $ 4.70
REALLY WEAK –
BAGEL $ 0.00
ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE –
RED VELV CKIE $ 3.25
OTHER*
* TAX OR OTHER ONE-​OFF ADJUSTMENTS $ 1.45
TOTAL REWARDS — $ 4.70
$ 5 BIRTHDAY GIFT — $ 4.70
TOTAL BALANCE $ 0.00

Being one of the lucky folks who commutes from Manhattan to the suburbs of NY, I am ALWAYS grateful for anything that is open in GCT at 630 in the morning. At that hour, Zaros plain bagel (smeared with cream cheese) and a cup of steaming coffee satisfies my early AM fix for carbs. The bagels are the blend of hard, chewy and soft (on the inside). Service is prompt and efficient.

Works for a fast bagel or pastry before early morning train out of GCT. Hidden by Track 19 ¾s. Generously staffed with attentive and efficient servers… the people who work at Zaros make it work… especially well for those dashing to a train. The food is fair, and the service makes up for it.

Late night snack. The employees were great. No nonsense. A customer tried to get her own cake (although I’m not sure why) just imagine your old middle school lunch lady. You’re welcome!!! I came, I ordered a bagel with cream cheese, I got on my train. It did the trick. Really it was the cream cheese. I mean nothing to brag about. I had no time to take a picture, but all the breads/​bagels were open and stacked on a shelf on the wall. But if, after not eating all day, this bakery is in front of me. I’m going in! Period. I wanted a piece of cake.

I didn’t realize I was here before. My bagel was good. A+ for SF standards. B for NY standards.

Located at the grand central station in the little market area. It stood up with thr amazing cake displays! There is a wide variety & it looks & tastes delicious. I love cheesecakes. The price is ok for New York.

I was walking through Grand Central and decided to grab a treat. My napoleon was stale and almost frozen.

Slow and rude service. (7 minutes to buy a water?) The cashier assumed I did not want my change, closed the register, and then told me to wait until another customer came and she would take my change out when they paid. Avoid avoid avoid. Also: they delivered the soup while I was waiting– it comes fully cooked in a giant plastic bag. It is not freshly made.

It was my first black and white cookie and it was pretty solid! I liked the texture, it tasted a bit like madeleines.

I was being touristy and checking out the beauty of Grand Central Terminal (station) and happened on this place, with its long line, it must be good?
I had a piece of plain New York cheesecake for $ 5 and it was very good.

5 stars for the chocolate dipped almond horn alone! THAT keeps me coming back here. So gooey, soft and delicious — this is definitely one of my favorite desserts of all time.
Now…
The staff here are a toss up. Some nights you get a super pleasant cashier others. not so much. The woman that helped me yesterday may have been hired on the spot somewhere within the terminal. No sense of customer service.
$ 0.99 baguettes seem to be the draw here.
I plan to hit up the location near track 17 next time I get a hankering for my crack horn.

Zaros has been in GCT for decades, and in the bad old days they were as good as it got there, offering not just baked goods, but also prepared salads among other savories. They still have more locations in GCT (4) than any other food vendor, with their main spot near track 34 offering breads, sweets and coffee (to go only). An outpost on the lower level has some hot food, while others including one in the food court concentrate on baked goods. Unfortunately, the quality and especially the freshness varies, from cakes that look nice from a distance, but actually consist of more icing than anything else, to cookies and specialty items made long before the holidays they celebrate – and long before the date they’re sold. Occasionally I’ll pick up a loaf of bread here, especially the Irish Soda Bread for St. Patty’s Day, but otherwise I steer clear.

Swung by Track 103 (Food Court location) to redeem a $ 6 LevelUp credit. Fast, friendly service.
–Autumn Salad ($ 8.17): Trail mix meets yardwork refuse. Ordering this was a very bad decision. I felt like tossing it after the first bite. I should’ve chosen one of their many other offerings instead, which undoubtedly would’ve been 10x better… Sigh.
–Pizza Bagel ($ 4.50): Includes both halves of a bagel. Pretty darn good, but this simple dish is hard to f*** up.

Let me lay the scene: I’m catching a 12:02 train. At 11:45, I head over to grab a bagel and a coffee. Line is long, but I’m not deterred – this Zaro’s location is usually great! The line usually moves quickly! The staff is usually so sweet! Plus, fifteen minutes at most other joints would allow enough time to toast every damn bagel in the place and have time to do a tap dance afterwards, so I settled into line. This is before reality smacked me in the mo’ f*ckin’ face. Buckle your seatbelt.
1) Flawed. Ordering. System. My boyfriend and I were in line, but kept getting cut by pushy dudes in button downs, all the while fighting for a spot at the baked goods counter so we could yell out our coffee order (multiple times before it was heard or acted on, by the way). «No cuts no buts no alligator guts» didn’t appear to be a viable option. Why can’t we just like, get in a line and give our orders that way? Am I old fashioned? Am I crazy?
2) You would assume that because this is a food place at a train station, there would be a real sense of urgency. Or at least like, a feigned sense of urgency. Oh, how I was proven wrong. We barely made our train on time because after yelling out our order, we had to wait, eh, approximately ONE TRILLION YEARS for my un-​toasted bagel and our two (shitty, just so, so shitty) iced coffees. I stood at the counter and let my mouth gape open for ten minutes while I watched this girl mosey on over to the iced coffee machine. Check her phone. Very slowly pour milk in. Chit chat with her coworker. And then saunter away, then saunter back, before finally reaching over and handing them over.
0 stars if I could Zaro’s, at least today. We had such a good thing for a while. We really did.

Nice little shop located conveniently a footstep before u hope on the Metro North (next to track 18)
Shop is tiny, standing in line gets tight.
Service is quick and fast.
They have a great selection of carbs, hot/​cold beverages, yogurts and more to stock up on.
I grab a everything bagel with lite cream cheese (and they always say «that’s a extra 75 cents»). With a small l coffee, I pay $ 5.50 cents as opposed to $ 2.37 in Queens ~eyeRoll
If u on the move and need a quick piece of New York to chew on, check the shop out.

Went in around 11am to pick up a cake for my buddy coworker’s birthday, and settled on a Manhattan Layer Cake. Wasn’t crowded, which was perfect, since I wanted at least a couple minutes to shift through all my options.
This is the second time I tried their cake — the first was when our boss got me a cake — which was the Shadow Layer Cake. THAT was way too sweet.
I think the Manhattan layer Cake, which has yellow layers with chocolate and vanilla custard with white chocolate triangles on the top, worked out better in terms of sweetness. It was sweet enough to make it a good sweet tooth killer with one thin slice. $ 2.50 for standard short candles. Total was a bit under $ 30, which was expected.
Not sure if I’d pick this over any other bakery for cakes had there been more options near my office. This one’s right across the street and about 15 steps into the grand central market.
The employees didn’t look too happy today and weren’t that helpful either — contrary to other reviews, which makes me question whether they changed the staff or they were just having a bad day.

This place is fast I appreciated that —
Food was fine

yummy fresh breads and choc chip cookies