Supermoon Bakehouse, NYC

Update Review, December 2024 Visit

It had been quite a few years since I had a treat from Supermoon Bakehouse in NY, although it is always on my short list of places to seek out when I visit.  I finally made it back to snag a holiday themed treat in December.

The experience was good, but not "OMG, I must go back again, stat" inducing.  I'll gladly try more items from their menu, as it is constantly evolving and has creative offerings, but there are just so many top notch bakeries making interesting pastries in NY that its hard to prioritize one that didn't stun me this time (for example, Supermoon was immediately shown up by Dominique Ansel the next day - stay tuned for that review!).

Sugar Cookie Cruffin. $9.50.

"Our signature cruffin filled with smooth sugar cookie vanilla crème pâtissière rolled in a sugar glaze and finished with sprinkles and a festive sugar cookie crumble."

Oh the cruffin.  I'll admit that it is a trend I never was quite as excited about as the masses.  Sure, I've liked a cruffin, but not really my top choice of format for my laminated pastry.  But Supermoon definitely has been on board the cruffin trend wagon from the start, and is one of few places that continues to feature them (their ferrero rocher inspired one is a menu staple).

The cruffin was really pretty perfectly made.  You can tell from just looking at it how very flaky that pastry is.  No spongy soft pastry here.  When I cut it in half to get a shot of the cross-section, it made a horrible mess of shards, as it should.  The flavor was good, clearly heavy in the butter, as it should be.  A rich, well made, laminated pastry, in a perfect oversized muffin form.  Eating this croissant dough made me instantly grumpy at basically every other croissant/danish/etc I've encountered in the past year or so.  They just don't compare to well made fresh pastry like this.  ***+ pastry.

Sugar Cookie Cruffin: Top.

And then there was the decorations.

The top of this looked pretty great: thick sugar glaze, check!  Festive sprinkles, check!  Sugar cookie crumble, YES!

The glaze was a bit over the top, very, very sweet, and just tons of it.  Thick: thick iced sugar cookie.  Yup, the definitely achieved those vibes.  The red and green sprinkles achieved the festive spirit as well.  And lastly, the adorable garnish of sugar cookie crumble.  This was more of a crumble (like on top of a fruit crumble) than a cookie, basically a big hunks of sweet rubble (with more sprinkles baked in), and I adored it.  I'd love to just be able to buy a bag of this as a snack!

**** for nailing the festive and promised sugar cookie experience, but actually just ***+ on my personal enjoyment level of the toppings, as the icing was just a bit much.

Sugar Cookie Cruffin: Inside.

And finally, the filling!  I had seen a cross section of this posted on Instagram, so I knew what to expect.  To be honest, it is part of what drew me in.  Such generously filled pastry.

This was sugar cookie vanilla crème pâtissière, which I can't say necessarily screamed out "sugar cookie" to me, but the vanilla came through very strongly, and it was perhaps a touch sweeter than I'd expect from just a regular crème pâtissière.  Very thick, very rich, pretty classic vanilla pastry cream.  Textbook, no qualms with the execution, although I did find the generous filling to be a bit much by the end, just so much richness!  ***.

Original Review, October 2018

A bakery with crazy Intagram worthy goods, seemingly too hip for its own good, specializing in croissants loaded with fillings and toppings that are very, uh, non-traditional, and signature cruffins ... does this sound familiar to you?  Yes, this sounds like Mr. Holmes Bakehouse in San Francisco, which I've reviewed before.

But it also describes Supermoon Bakehouse in New York City.  Looking at the website and browsing the goods I couldn't help but think someone was playing copy-cat.  Plus, both called "bakehouses"?  Who does that?  It only opened a year ago, so, I immediately thought it was a copier.

I quickly found my answer though - its actually done by the same people.  Well, the original guy from Mr. Holmes, who left the SF bakery in a rather strange ordeal involving a break-in and stolen recipes.  Aha.

So even though I feared this might just be Instagram fodder and not necessarily good eats, I went, because, well, baked goods. 

I went to Supermoon intending to meet a friend for dessert, as I had lunch already.  He arrived a little before me, and decided to get savory pastries for his lunch, since he hadn't eaten.  Thus, I got to try the savories.  And during that time, we decided ... to do something else for dessert.  It isn't that anything was bad, it was all fine, but, it really wasn't better than average, and the location wasn't really somewhere we wanted to hang out longer.

So instead of reviewing desserts as I planned, this turns into a savory review, not items I would have picked, but I was happy to try.

Storefront.

The front of the store is glass windows, with this as the only signage.  If you didn't know the address, you certainly wouldn't spot it easily.

Display Table.

Rather than a display case like most bakeries, Supermoon, just like Mr. Holmes, has one of each item just sitting on a long counter.  The line extended along the counter, which meant that you walked by every item while waiting to get to the register to order, with plenty of time to ponder the beautiful goods.

Seating / Open Kitchen.

Inside has limited seating, just a few low tables with uncomfortable stools.  Far more people in line than seats available.  Loud music pumping, making it impossible to really talk with your group, even if you do get seating.  Clearly ... not designed to be somewhere you want to spend time.

You could view into the working pastry kitchen, which at least made it feel a bit legit, they do really bake things there, it isn't just for looks ...

Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich Donut / Banana Split Twice Baked Croissant / Mocha Croissant / Croissant Toast.

Ok, I'll admit that these things do look really good.  The toppings in particular, just, incredible really.  And ... well, the descriptions sounded equally amazing.

Had I ordered one sweet item, the pb & j sandwich donut likely would have been it.  A donut, with two cores inside, one with raspberry jelly and one with peanut butter creme patisserie.  Dipped in chocolate peanut butter glaze, and topped with vanilla cream, peanut brittle, and raspberry jelly pate de fruit.  Yes, please.

The Banana Spit Twice Baked Croissant also sounded crazy, with a whole caramelized sous vide banana, chocolate almond creme, banana caramel, and vanilla creme patisserie inside, chocolate fudge, more banana caramel, whipped cream "bulbs", dehydrated bananas, and gold leaf on top.

Nearly every item looked, and sounded, really good.

But I didn't order any sweets.

Twice Baked Croissant. $8.

"Thick Cut Smoked Ham, Gouda Cheese, Cheddar Cheese And A Super Creamy Béchamel Sauce Baked In Our Classic Croissant And Then Topped With Crispy Cheese Shards."

I was however meeting my friend, who had already ordered savories.  He selected two of the 3 options, both served warm, which meant that they took time to prepare, so they arrived right when I did.  Even though I wasn't planning on having any, since I just had lunch ... of course I did, starting with the ham and cheese twice baked croissant.

Ham & Cheese Twice Baked Croissant: Inside.

The croissant was very flaky.  It made a huge mess, really.

Inside was good, perfectly melted cheese (cheddar and gouda), it really oozed out beautifully.  The creamy béchamel made it even better.  The ham was good quality, generous amount.  I like the cooked on béchamel on top too, almost like a frico, a fairly unique touch.

Overall, a fine croissant, but not particularly special.  ***.

Sausage Roll. $6.

"A classic Australian pastry snack. Pork Shoulder minced meat inside a flaky, buttery pastry. Ask for it Hot. with Extra Ketchup." 

Next he selected the sausage roll.  It didn't come with sauce, and he forgot to ask for it.  Shame on him and them!

But bigger shame on the way it was prepared.  The pastry was warm.  The sausage ... was not.  Stone cold inside.

Sausage Roll Close Up.

The sausage itself was fine, not particularly notable, but, cold.  The pastry was much like the croissant, flaky, good, but not earth shattering.  The spices on top were nice.

So another item that was good, but not special.  ***.

[ No Photo ]

CROISSANT BUTTER SOFT SERVE.

"Yes. You read that correctly. The flavor, taste and texture is honestly still blowing our minds - and it’s exactly what you’re imagining - our very own house made soft serve made using the best part of our croissant, the Croissant Butter! It’s a SWEET, SALTY, BUTTERY, ICY COLD F****** DREAM.  It comes covered in dehydrated extra crunchy croissant crumbs that have been flavorfied (made that word up) in extra salt and sugar and that’s not all, it also comes with a slice of our signature croissant that has been twice baked with extra salt, butter and sugar on it. But wait, there’s MORE: Every soft serve comes in a HYPERCOLOR COLOR CHANGING cup and SPOON that change color with heat and cold.

Why? Because it’s badass"

Well, this sounded awesome.  I'm a soft serve ice cream girl.  It was warm outside.  I was in the mood for ice cream.  The flavor, the toppings, everything sounded great.  But I'm glad they were eagerly offering up samples of this to everyone, because otherwise ... I would have ordered it, and likely been sad.

It was fine soft serve.  Very creamy.  Sweet.  But that was it.  Just sweet and creamy, I didn't taste butter nor croissant.  Eh.  Cool concept, not sure it really translated.  ***.