Blue Dog Cafe

Just ordered lunch from Blue Dog. My crew of 10 was pretty excited -- they've always been a solid choice, we order from them about once or twice a month, the orders are always well over $200. Halfway through our meal, shrieks rang out from one end of the table and everyone began scrambling.

An enormous beetle had crawled out of my coworker's tarragon chicken sandwich.

We cringed. We dry heaved. We called the restaurant.

They apologized and offered me a discount off my next order. (WHY would we ever order from there again?!?) I hung up and felt really dissatisfied, so I called back and asked for them to refund the cost of the sandwich. Not one of us finished our meal, so I had wanted to ask for more, but the cost of the sandwich, I felt, was the very least they could do. And it was the least they did do. The manager told me to call Seamless, rather than offering to do so himself, to have them make the adjustment. And then he specified to tell them it was JUST the one sandwich that should be refunded, to avoid us getting more back than he was agreeing to.

The manager knows we order from them all the time. (He mentioned as much when I called the first time.) That's why I'm surprised that it took more than one call to have the bare minimum taken off the order. We're a film crew that works in food. We're very picky about the restaurants from which we order. Most of us are freelance and work with other food crews regularly. And I think it'll be hard for any of the crews we work on to consider ordering from them again.

Over the past few months my weekend residence in New York has shifted from Brooklyn to Midtown, and with that has come great new set of culinary scenery. Shortly after beginning my exploration of the area I discovered Best Bagel and Coffee, whose breakfast sandwich blew me away:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/best-bagel-and-coffee-new-york?hrid=IIY9ccEWi8-aGyaZ9y3VaQ

Since then, it's honestly been a sequence of breakfast sandwiches that honestly don't even come close, and Blue Dog Kitchen was bundled into that group during a recent visit Saturday morning.

Star 1: How were the service and atmosphere?

I will say that the service and atmosphere at Blue Dog Kitchen impress. I got the vibe that the clientele here was a sequence of regulars and locals, and the juice bar appears to be one of the real draws. Certainly no complaints. Star Granted.

Star 2: How were the portions relative to the cost?

A $6.25 for a generous egg portion, a bit of sausage, and cheese on an everything bagel I really can't complain. Pictured below. Star Granted.

Stars 3 and 4: How was the food?

It's here that things were, well, just basic (and with the recent trend of spoiled college kids adopting that word as their own I despise using it). The everything bagel? Meh, it was okay. Would have liked for it to have been toasted I imagine. The egg? Essentially without flavor of its own, so it really just acted as a filler. The sausage? Small, and left by its lonesone along with a small piece of cheese to carry to flavor of the sandwich as the everything bagel really failed to deliver the flavorful kick that I expect from an everything bagel. The whole thing was really just a sum of it's mediocre parts, and compared to the breakfast sandwiches that I've had elsewhere I just wasn't impressed. No Stars Granted.

Star 5: Would you eat here every day if you could?

If I were a juice fanatic maybe, but I'm in it for the food, and the breakfast sandwich at Blue Dog Kitchen didn't impress compared to what's out there in the city. No Star Granted.

Before we delve into the actual review, I would like to offer some advice on blue dogs in general.

1. If your dog is blue (in terms of the color), you should take him/her to the vet. There is something wrong. Unless you painted him/her blue; in that case, you have problems that I can't solve in a Yelp review.

2. If your dog is blue (in terms of his/her mood), take him/her to the Dog Spa/Hotel* down the street from here. If I were a dog, that would cheer me up.
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The Blue Dog Cafe a great little cafe run by a sweet lady who will occasionally offer you a free sample of pound cake, if you're lucky. On the wall is a great big board listing all kinds of delicious sandwiches. (I would've called it a sandwich board, but that means something else.)

Everything I've tried has been good, but I keep coming back to the hot pastrami sandwich, which comes topped with avocado, havarti, Russian dressing and perhaps some other things I can't remember. It's awesome. But, I feel compelled to tell you that:

This is not the place to get a huge, meaty pastrami sandwich. They give you about 1/4 the amount of pastrami that you'd get at Eisenberg's over on 5th Ave (which is not necessarily a bad thing).

This is the place to get a well-made, well-balanced, TASTY sandwich, with a sensible amount of meat. Accordingly, it's no surprise that the Blue Dog seems to appeal to the ladies, more than the gentlemen. There is always a line out the door, and more often than not, an extraordinary percentage of the clientele is made up of cute girls.

If I was a creep...well, I am. But if I was a SINGLE creep, I would always get lunch here. As it is, I only sometimes get lunch here.
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*http://www.yelp.com/biz/new-york-dog-spa-and-hotel-new-york

I could tell you about how uncomfortable the seating was. Or that people reaching over my head for napkins, straws and utensils was annoying. But really, the magnificence of the tuna melt trumps all that. Though next time, I will get it to go!

And the fact that the folks working behind the counter manage to remain kind amidst the frenetic lunch rush? Nearly miraculous in my eyes.

I had their Oatmeal Raisin Cooke. Which was per usual...amazing. Anything that has @bluedogcafe attached to it is pretty much guaranteed to not let you down.

This cookie, just the same. It was a an Oatmeal Raisin Cookie! Just after the adorable rustic twine enclosing the plastic packaging was undone... an immediate whiff of a rustic buttery based cookie. Baked to perfection, It crumbled ever so slightly when taken out of its packaging.

A foreshadowing of what to come. They used a variety of raisins, and not just the typical, standard, run of the mill red grape raisins, giving the cookie more color and flavor. These cookies were just, divine!

And perfectly done from the proportion of raisins to to cookie, to how the cookie crumbled in my mouth giving a crunch then dispersed into little crumbles of what was once a crisp goodness, softened from the heat of my mouth with just a hint of raisin. The cookie was the star of the show and the raisins were the supporting actors boosting the cookie to stardom. Just proving the quality and choices of ingredients to be spot on.

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Have never been into the store, so I can't comment on the in-store experience, but I have ordered from this location on Seamless 3 times previously.
I've had the yogurt parfait, the nutella croissant and the iced coffee. The yogurt parfait is my absolute favorite, and I don't even usually like yogurt. I only ordered it at the urging of a co-worker, and I'm so happy I tried it. The Greek yogurt is delicious, and they aren't stingy with the berries and granola like some other places are. The nutella croissant was also amazing (but really, how do you mess up a nutella croissant?) The iced coffee was pretty bad, so I can't give 5 stars.
I would definitely go back if in the area.

I was thrilled when I found this place, because it is exactly the type of cafe I yearn for.

Menu is enticing and creative, and almost too expansive for a shoebox-sized cafe to believe. They maximize the space with high stools and bar counters, and have a beautiful display case of baked foods and even fruit parfaits. I felt the pangs of love immediately.

I am sad that all three of the things I ordered were just ok, if not slightly disappointing.

The iced latte was weak, and the milk tasted way too whole to counteract the lack of coffee flavor.

The green smoothie I got--one with kale and spinach as well as some fruits and milk--unfortunately also included unripe bananas. How do I know? I had to endure that awful bitter/sour/astringent aftertaste that you get from eating a green banana the whole subway ride. It was large for a smoothie, but also cost around $8 or $9 bucks which is kind of insane, now that I think about it. Should have been better.

And the breakfast sandwich section sounded great, with a ricotta, fig and honey sandwich on whole grain bread. Unfortunately, the sandwich came with DRIED figs which was not what I was expecting. Fresh figs and ricotta are one of the best combinations but chewing into chunks of dried fig didn't do it for me.

I would recommend that you go and check out the place, but don't order any of the things I got. There are bound to be better picks available.

I have a feeling that if I were still in the city and not in a rush on my way out, I could have discussed my preferences with the staff--who were very friendly--and gotten it sorted out.

Staying in the hotel nearby, found this place on Yelp and decided to give it a try before heading to be airport in the morning. Little coffee shop, limited seats but it looks cute. I ordered takeout egg white avocado on 7 grains. It is amazing!!! Healthy breakfast choice with healthy fats and protein. And it's very filling. Too bad that I'm heading back today otherwise I would come back here again for tomorrow's breakfast. :) Staff is friendly too.

Quaint little cafe located just off 6th street. Amazing coffees and chai lattes- something that is hard to find in this city! A few too any options on the menu but all of them look fantastic and the sandwiches and baguettes that my friends and I had were awesome! I think they deliver too.

The pastries also look great but I was just too full from my yummy tuna sandwich to fit it in.

A good little find in this part of the city and with a few more seats, this place could be a big business!

Came here on a late friday night and the bartender/waiter was super nice and friendly. He was from California, so maybe it's the chill laid back attitude that he had.

He let us bust out our laptops and hang out and linger. What was even better was he refilled our teapot with more water and he was even willing to stay later than the 12 midnight closing time.

I don't say this much about many places but I definitely had an excellent experience here.