Magnolia Bakery - Grand Central

"Small but great location. Really convenient place to grab one last treat before heading out. The banana pudding is great, I know there are mixed reviews but everyone I know loves it! It's a whipped pudding, but it still has wafer and banana slices in it like any regular pudding. The cupcakes are not great though. They're small and nothing extraordinary, and definately not worth the price, just get the pudding instead. The service here was polite and quick. Unfortunately, there is very little seating in the dining concourse, mostly just standing tables."

"We stopped by here to grab some coffee and red velvet cheesecake on our way to Bryant Park. There was a long queue but staff were so fast and helpful. Thank you."

"I ordered a German chocolate cake for pick up on 6/21 and it was so dry that the edges crumbled while cutting into it. The appearance, taste and texture showcased the fact that whosoever made it could not have cared less how it turned out. The quality here is just very inconsistent, based on my experiences. Will not purchase again from Magnolia Bakery for any business or personal function, and recommend that others do not either for the sake of their guests."

"We thought this little bakery was fantastic. The staff was polite and efficient. Even though their seasonal strawberry shortcake pudding wasn't on shelves, the manager scooped it up fresh for us. The pudding itself was also good. Not very sweet and refreshing. I do prefer their banana pudding though."

"It is always nice when a good eatery is able to expand to different locations. That being said, all too often, the increase in locations often results in a reduced quality of food. That certainly appears to be the issue at this Magnolia location. I ordered a red velvet cupcake and a small glass of lemonade. The red velvet cupcake is at least a third smaller than your typical cupcake. Additionally, the red velvet cake was covered in whipped cream. I generally prefer whipped cream on cakes over buttercream, but in this situation, even buttercream would have been better. While whipped cream tasted good on its own, when it comes to red velvet cake, the only acceptable icing is cream cheese. It is the only icing flavor that compliments the mix of the vanilla and chocolate cake mix equally and provides the necessary moisture that tends to be required in a drier cake like red velvet. While I realize that cream cheese icing can be expensive for the seller, not providing it produces a noticeably lower quality product. On a scale of 1 to 10, I rate the cupcake a four. The lemonade wasn't very good either. It was extremely tart, almost to the point where it seemed that next to no sugar was added. While I understand that eating sugar could certainly change the flavor of other things like drinks, in this case, it just tasted like bad lemonade. There seemed to be minimal to no effort to sweeten it. It seems the taste tester is slacking on the job. For the price, I should have paid at least 25% less for the reduced quality I am certain they are aware of, because they cut back on items that generate good flavors, resulting in a clear savings on their part, but yielding only slightly acceptable products. This experience has confirmed for me that I will never eat anything from this location again. It is possible that, due to the rent required for a location in Grand Central station, they are reducing the quality to not lose too much money. However, I think it is in Magnolia's best interest to NOT have a location at Grand Central if this is the product they are going to present as Magnolia quality desserts. Additionally, viewing the severe lack of attention to quality makes me question if I will ever go back to any Magnolia. Back in the early 2000s, I remember Magnolia having amazing cake and amazing icing. It went from 100% I would buy to 30% I would buy. That isn't good. I certainly hope that Magnolia begins to do a better job of providing quality food for the prices that they expect to receive. In fact, if they actually took the time and effort to provide better quality food, they might be able to garner (very slightly) higher prices. Additionally, skimping on the product side looks like nothing more than trying to make more money for providing less. It's quite a disappointing experience. I certainly hope for a change in Magnolia's functioning. I have experienced similar, though not as bad, experiences at other Magnolia locations that are not the original location. I long for the Magnolia from the early 2000s. That was when they paid attention to what they were putting out. I strongly do NOT recommend this location. Even Auntie Anne's is a better option, and that is saying a lot considering it is a fast food booth chain."