During our visit to New York City we visited Dominique Ansel Kitchen, the sister restaurant to Dominique Ansel Bakery. This airy cafe and bakery offers a different set of desserts, most of which are finished-to-order. They also offer sandwiches, salads, soups and drinks.
Unfortunately, the most famous creations, such as the Cronut™ and cookie shots, are not sold at this location. But there is still a lot to choose from.
I immediately fell in love with this space. The original bakery is quite small and there isn’t anywhere to sit down and enjoy your pastries. Here, there are fun steps inside and tables outside. After perusing through the display case, we ordered a few desserts to try.
While waiting for our food, I wandered around the corner to their soft serve ice cream window. They offer creative soft serve flavors which are only available at this location. We ordered one of each.
These may be the prettiest soft serve ice creams I’ve eaten. The flavors were well developed and there was so much attention to detail. The person making our cones was using tweezers to precisely place on each ingredient. It was impressed with all the care, but inside I was screaming because the I didn’t want the ice creams to melt. As you can see, the salt & pepper caramel one was the first one that was finished and was already slightly melted when I took the photo.
I preferred the burrata one. I loved the creamy milk flavor and silky texture. The homemade waffle cones were light and delicate.
I believe the soft serve ice cream is only served during the summer.
Here are the desserts we ordered.
Brown Sugar DKA (Dominique’s Kouign Amann)
I adore Dominique Ansel’s version of the kouign amann. We always get quite a few when visiting one of his bakeries. At this Kitchen location, he offers a brown sugar version.
It’s everything I love in his original kouign amann, but with a richer, deeper flavor. I still favor the original though but it was nice to try this flavor.
Matcha Beignets
These pillowy fried dough bites were light, airy and not too sweet. They don’t quite have the texture of the beignets I had in New Orleans (I actually haven’t been able to find any beignets that taste like the ones I had in New Orleans), but they were delicious just the same. And of course, I liked the addition of matcha powder since I love matcha.
Chocolate Nutella Swirl Croissant
We really enjoyed this one. It was such a beautiful pastry to look at and I enjoyed the crispy, flaky texture along with the Nutella filling.
Hazelnut Madeleines
These were airy and soft, just like madeleines should be. Because they are made-to-order, we got to eat them in their ideal state. Once cooled, madeleines become much more dense.
Overall, we enjoyed our visit here. If you only have time for one Dominique Ansel location, I’d recommend the bakery as it offers a lot more of the desserts he is famous for. But if you have time for both, this one is definitely worth a visit. It’s more peaceful and you are able to fully enjoy his desserts.
Dominique Ansel Kitchen
137 7th Ave S, New York, NY 10014
https://dominiqueanselkitchen.com/
