Zaro’s Bakery

Had a slightly bad experience last week. Incorrect order. Contacted the company through its website. Got an almost immediate response from one of the owners. He offered me a free order. Enjoying my salt bagel with the perfect amount of vegetable cream cheese.

Horrible Bagel with Sausage, Egg, and Cheese. Egg was pulled out of a bin already overcooked, then put on a sandwich to be microwaved further making the bagel super soggy. Typically fine, but awful experience today… burning my face it’s so hot. Not cool Zaro.

First time here. This is a family business bakery. Big bakery with lots of cookies, pastries, cakes and breads. I had $ 2 credit from level up app so I ordered a big oatmeal cookie. It was delicious. The staff was really helpful even when it’s packed inside. There’s cashier on both ends. With the option of level up it made it so easy to pay and leave the store. I’ll come back to try the bagels next time.

Little Rocks in bagel!!! Bout ¹⁄₈ inch diameter, thought i chipped tooth, scarey! i say more

This location to me will always be known as the very first place in New York that I ever bought any type of food item. Sure, ti was just a hot dog, but it will remain an historic moment nonetheless. While Zaro’s offers a wide variety of items, I was just wanting a quick bite and a hot dog sounded amazing right then and there so I went to this little side window where they just sell different types of dogs and various beverages. It was super fast and the staff was reasonably friendly which was nice considering New York’s reputation for customer service isn’t the best or the brightest. Zaro’s seems like a popular place for the locals as there was a long line at the main part of their establishment so I may have to try something else from here next time I happen to be passing through Grand Central Terminal.

This review is for the Zaro’s Bakery in Grand Central Market, closest to 42^nd and Lex. I went to Zaro’s last night to buy a mini cake for my fiancé’s birthday and asked for «Happy Birthday» to be written on it. The person behind the counter asked me, «is it for a male or female» to which I answered politely, «hmm, well what color icings do you have?» She replied, with a heap of attitude, «That’s why I’m asking! Is the cake for a male or female?» After she asked a third time, and I answered the same way, she huffed and puffed away from the counter to write on the cake without ever telling me what colors she had. Her attitude was horrendous. When I went to pay, I was given a very dirty look from the cashier.
Why does it make a difference whether the cake is male or female, and why was it her business? It may sound trivial, but to me it was not. Colors don’t match genders. Come on. At least the cake was tasty.

I have stopped here a few times because it is conveniently located. Most of the time my experience has been negative. For the price they charge for a bagel or pastry, I expect my order to be correct. I ordered a plain bagel toasted with butter and received an un-​toasted bagel with cold butter all over, where when I opened it butter was smeared on the outside and inside of the bagel. It is not the first time my order was wrong here as well. Also, there is also no organization, whoever pushes to the counter and yells gets help first and customers are often completely ignored while the staff has side conversations. Staff are not friendly, service is horrible and I have had much better bagels elsewhere.

New York City was a second home to me as a child and I still frequently visit to this day. Zaro’s is one of those places that I MUST stop at before I get on my train back to Connecticut. It does not matter if I am taking the commuter train or a late weekend night, I stop religiously. There are multiple locations throughout Grand Central and I go to all three.
I usually always leave with a massive Bud Lite, large hazelnut iced coffee w/​cream only, and pastries of some sort. That is a standard for me. Being left alone with a loaf of their bread to nosh on the ride back is dangerous. Their bread is so good! I usually like my coffee black, but their hazel nut coffee tastes just that much better with cream. The coffee itself has just a hint of sweetness, sugar is not really needed. It is probably the best flavored iced coffee I have ever had.
The case of baked goods and cakes is a slow form of torture because you do not know which one you want because they all look so good!
I know that in their location downstairs in the food court area they sell more of a variety savory options. It is sometimes easier to take a quick detour to the lower level to purchase food items than wait in line upstairs. Their bagels are delicious and topped with lox and cream cheese, you can’t go wrong.

Convenient locations as there are about four Zaros in all of Grand Central. $ 2.50 for two mini packaged black and white cookies. Light in the lemon taste and not that chocolatey on the icing side but decent for the price. The extra large chocolate rugelagh was ok — nuts and chocolate.
Service was fine enough. Works if you know exactly what you want as they don’t have the answers to all your questions.

Alright, here’s what you need to understand about Zaro’s in Grand Central. This is not the place you go if you’re wanting to be wined and dined. No one is going to cater to your every need. This is a place for New Yorkers and Commuters who are on the go, trying to catch a train to work at prime time 8am when everyone and their mom’s are trying to get to work too. The selections are limited. They have bagels, cream cheese, lox, pastries, coffee, lattes but limited flavors, and some beverages. Figure out what you want to order from said items, go to the counter to order, pay, and leave. All I know is that I can swing by Zaro’s at 9:40am and easily make my Departing 9:45am train because they are Fast and they don’t waste your time. There’s really no line. Be courteous, but don’t be afraid to hop up to the counter and tell whoever wants to know what your order is, hop on over to the cash register and step back and await your delicious bagel. The toasted bagel with butter is going to require a hefty handful of napkins because they really lather on the butter (in a delicious way)!

Stopped here with my kids as we found something to pair with the cheese from Murrays across the market. Italian round loaf and Flagel… now we met Scott Zaro there and he helped me understand the proper way to pronounce Flagel. Which is the perfect flat bread to pair with cheese, mind you. He explained that he was fourth generation at this location and we had a great chat. Made the visit a great memory for our trip.

I just love their apple turnovers. Stop for one daily — even though I can’t afford it (too many calories). But I’ll die happy. Lol

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

Decent place for some quick lunch at grand central. The service is fast and the price is really good.

Really good pastries. You really cant go wrong, but I loved the Almond Crescent
Decent breakfast with a huge selection of breads you can make a sandwich with.
However, I’m not that impressed with the breakfast bread/​bagel quality, especially since its supposed to be a bakery.
Lox on a bagel was a bit disappointing since it had two tiny slices and hardly any cream cheese for ~$ 8 after tax. Its definitely not a deli.

Convenient place to grab a snack or breakfast as you wait for your train. A very good bagel and coffee will set you back $ 4, not bad for NYC. I have been told that they buy their bagels from Zabars, I believe it, imo these are some very dang good bagels, even the cream cheese was a surprise, very good too. Price, quality and convenience make this a natural destination when you are hungry or have some time to kill and want a very good NY bagel experience.

Great chocolate chip (chocolate) muffin.
YUM.
Not too sweet, soft and melts in your mouth.

This is just about the black and white cookie.
As of right now (08/​24/​2014), this is my favorite black and white cookie.
The deets!
Black and white cookie, 3: excellent because the cookie is moist and cakey, the frosting is evenly applied, the chocolate is chocolate, the vanilla is vanilla without too much lemon.

I recently saw this Thrillist article for «The 10 Things You Didn’t Know» about the Black and White Cookie. First being, it’s not actually a cookie, it’s a «drop cake». Mind. Blown. Then it got me thinking, «man, I haven’t had a Black and White Cookie Drop Cake in a while». So, I headed to Zaro’s Bakery, famous for their B&Ws.
And so, I tried one of their Black and White Cookies for the first time (how disappointed would you be if that’s not even what I got?). I feel like, similar to an Oreo or Reese’s, people have their own way of eating this cookie. For me, I split it in half, and eat the chocolate side first, then the vanilla. Any way you eat it, it’s delicious. It’s sweet and cakey, the chocolate is rich and creamy, and the vanilla is sugary sweet and slightly crunchy like glaze.

What a BUSY bakery!
Always line waiting in front of the store.
I LOVE LOVE the raisin & walnut bread, I can eat the whole loaf by myself.
However, all the pastry are sooooo overpriced!!! over $ 3 for one cookie?