Ferrara Bakery & Cafe, NYC

My list of bakeries to check out when in NYC is rather lengthy, as I love desserts, and baked goods in general.  My list of bakeries to return to is nearly equally long, as I've found some I adore.  And yet, on this recent visit, I did a very un-Julie move, and decided to order a pastry from a place I only learned about that morning: Ferrara Bakery & Cafe.

Now, Ferrara is pretty well known, a classic Italian bakery/cafe that has been operating since 1892 (in its early days it was mostly a cafe).  Still family run, etc, etc.  They seem to still just focus on the classic Italian pastries, cakes, cheesecakes, and cookies.  Nothing innovative or unique, just, the standards.

Ferrara landed on my radar one morning when I was suddenly craving a lobster tail. I was plotting my DoorDash Thai Diner order for that evening (which, if you haven't had Thai Diner, and are in NY, stop everything and do that first, love it so much!), and wanted to use DoubleDash to add on a dessert from somewhere else (even though Thai Diner does have good desserts too).  In particular, I was thinking I should get a cheesecake from Venerio's, since I was leaving in just two days and hadn't had classic NY cheesecake yet, and Venerio's is a favorite of mine, but that got me thinking about the sad lobster tail I had also from Venerio's, and it made me second-guess my loyalty (to be fair, I loved the filling, just wasn't into the pastry itself, as it didn't seem fresh). This put lobster tails on my mind.

Now, lobster tails (the pastry).  If I could order a lobster tail pastry from anywhere on the planet, it would be from Mia's Brooklyn Bakery, where I had one last summer, and it was flawless.  Simply flawless.  Perfect 5 stars.  Blew my mind.  Mia's *does* have a Manhattan location, near Times Square, but ... they don't have the lobster tails. So Mia's wasn't an option.  And I didn't want to risk Venerio's again.  So of course this led me to Google search for "Best lobster tail pastry in NYC", etc, and basically all sources led me to Ferrara.  I saw them on DoorDash, and thus, it was settled.  (I'll admit I was a bit worried by the fact that they were featured on Food Network’s The Best Thing I Ever Ate, when Chef Alex Guarnaschelli listed as one of her picks, and I know that sometimes leads to over-hyped creations ...).

Box.

My pastry came in a simple but classy box.  No ribbon or string around it though, like many Italian bakeries. 

The box was quite heavy, which I took as a good sign, as it meant the lobster tail was likely both huge and loaded with filling (it was).

Lobster Tail.  $7.75.

"Crisp, flaky pastry filled with Bavarian cream."

It was a very large pastry, probably somewhere between the Venerio's and Mia's ones in size.  Definitely bigger than you really should take down in one sitting, but not quite appropriate for feeding a family of 4 like the Mia's one!  It was well covered in powdered sugar.

The pastry was fairly crispy, definitely better and fresher than the one I had from Venerio's, but not anything magical like the Mia's version.  It wasn't particularly buttery nor special.  Fresh, crispy, but fairly average.  Low ***+.

Lobster Tail: Cross Section.

But the pastry is only half of what makes a lobster tail enjoyable.  The filling is an equally essential component.  This was absolutely loaded up, and you can see how thin the pastry layer was here in the cross section (this is the small end).  The Bavarian cream was very thick, and given how well loaded up the pastry was, it explained the weight of the item (and the box).  

The filling is what I saw so many people raving about in their reviews (besides the crispy exterior).  I didn't find this to be raveworthy, or really, even all that good.  It was highly average Bavarian cream.  Very thick.  Not much actual flavor to it, no vanilla bean, no touch of citrus, just, plain Bavarian cream.  Average sweetness.  The filling in the aforementioned Mia's one was so so so good, and it too was a simple Bavarian cream (unlike the Venerio's one that had chocolate cream filling, which was the only winning element), but it was considerably more flavorful.  This one was just boring.  It seemed no better than an average donut shop filling.  Low *** cream.

Overall, this was just lackluster, but not bad.  The pastry was flaky, it was fresh, it was well filled, the cream was classic.  But I found myself bored after a few bites.  I added fresh berries, and sprinkles, and pistachio ice cream, and enjoyed it, but, it was just a bit one dimensional on its own.  *** overall.