Ole & Steen is an "all day Danish bakery" that started in 1991 in Copenhagen. They expanded to London in 2016, and then in 2019 to New York City, which is where I visited. They now have 5 locations in New York, I visited the one closest to Union Square.
The menu offers up sandwiches, parfaits, and whatnot for breakfast, toasties, soups, bowls, and salads for lunch, a full line up of espresso drinks and coffee, but the focus really is on the bakery side of things. On the bakery side, the breads take center stage, with a slew of different Danish rye and sourdough loaves, assorted sweet and savory buns, many pastries (including their well known Cinnamon Social), along with cakes and tarts. Given my love of dessert and baked goods, you can guess what I was there for. Oh, and did I mention, that they give you a birthday treat for free if you join their rewards club? I can never resist a good freebie, and this actually was a good one.
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| Blueberry Muffin (sample). |
When I first visited to scope the place out, they had samples on the counter. I eagerly grabbed one. It turned out to be the blueberry muffin.
It was a fairly sweet muffin and tasted rather processed. The base did have a strong vanilla flavor. More like a blueberry crumb cake for an afternoon snack than a breakfast item. Mine didn't have any almonds, but did have pearl sugar on top for a bit of crunch. The berries weren't particularly plump nor plentiful.
Seemed sorta like the kind of muffin you find it a hotel breakfast buffet. 2.5/5.
$6.50 normally.
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| Carrot Muffin. |
Other visit, this time to actually get my birthday treat, but I couldn't resist trying another sample that was laid out, this time the carrot muffin, which, given the fact that it had actual frosting, certainly seemed even more like a snack/dessert item than the blueberry crumb cake muffin, which I already thought wasn't really a breakfast item.
I love carrot cake, and had been sorta craving it, so this sounded great to me. Alas, it did not please me.
The frosting was a bit too fluffy, a bit too sweet, and tasted more like butter or shortening than cream cheese. I didn't detect any cream cheese element really. The cake was too strongly spiced, and dry. It lacked any raisins, nuts, or pineapple to jazz it up. Bo-ring, and I didn't even want to finish my little sample. 2/5.
Also $6.50 normally.
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| Strawberry Tart. $10. |
"Fresh strawberries, vanilla cream filling, dark chocolate-covered nutty shortcrust base, sprinkled with
chopped almonds ."
For my birthday free small cake, I went for the strawberry tart. Regular readers of my blog know that I'm not normally one for tarts, but this wasn't a standard American/French style tart. I'm told it is a classic Danish style though? It certainly wasn't as pretty as tarts from French patisseries, but it also wasn't quite rustic, rather, just somewhere in-between. This is the small, personal size, but they also make this in a larger format.
It actually was really quite good. The strawberries on top were fresh and ripe, and the almond slivers added great crunch. Good, but not standout, elements. The rest is where it got both unique (to me anyway) and delicious.
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| Strawberry Tart: Cross-Section. |
Yes, there was a thin shortcrust base that was fairly average (and why I'm not into tarts in general) but above that was a thick layer of almond frangipane. It was soft, nutty, sweet, and quite tasty. Lovely almond notes, that were accented even more by the sliced almonds on top. The dark chocolate covering it was a very thin layer, so easily lost, and I did find myself wanting more dark chocolate (so I added mini dark chocolate chips!).
Then, the part that really surprised me, was the "vanilla cream filling", which was a thick, rich, diplomat cream. The consistency was perfect, it did have quite a bit of vanilla flavor, and it was the right level of not too sweet.
Any set of these elements was enjoyable, e.g. just some frangipane and strawberries, or cream and strawberries and sliced nuts, and I almost enjoyed eating it more deconstructed in different combinations than all together. It really had a lot to offer, and was better than I expected.
Low 4/5.
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| Raspberry Almond Croissant. (Special). $7.95. |
I visited at 6:50pm to use up my rewards points that were going to expire. I could pick any Danish item, and was immediately drawn to the raspberry Almond croissants, which aren't actually part of their formal menu, but were a special at this location. There were two left in the case, and the person bagging up my order hesitated for a second, and just scooped them both up. Score! It was interesting to see them side by side though, as, not sure if you can tell from the photo, but they were quite different in shape and baking job, one was super puffy, and one was flat as a pancake. And both were massive (that is not a normal small individual pastry bag, for reference). I knew I wouldn't eat them both that night, and croissants are never that great a day old, so I handed one off to a friend who happened to be just a few blocks away. I couldn't decide which one I'd prefer: the lofty one clearly looked better, but the smushed one had more topping, so I let her pick. I got the pancake version.
I had pretty low expectations for this, given that Ole & Steen gets pretty mediocre reviews in general, plus laminated pastries like this are rarely good at the end of the day, even from a great bakery, but, hey, I had reward points to blow, and these did look unique.
I was really quite surprised by how decent it was, smashed and all. The pastry itself wasn't the flakiest, the most well laminated, the freshest, but it did have a really great, strong buttery flavor to it. Perhaps a touch over baked though, pretty dark. But the butter flavor was quite notable.
Of course, a twice baked and filled croissant is only partially about the croissant itself. The fillings and toppings are the star attraction really, and they most certainly were here. It was extremely generously stuffed with almond frangipane. So much of it - nearly too much, really, it made it really a heavy item! There was more baked on top, along with the crunchy sliced almonds, which I loved for the extra crunch. But that is all standard twice baked almond croissant. The raspberry is what took this over the top. There were pockets of intensely flavorful, fruity, sweet, raspberry jam within. That jam was very, very good, and the bites I got with it were fantastic. That said, it was not well distributed, so there were a few bites loaded with it, and most without. The freeze dried raspberry dust on top was nice for looks, but I didn't really taste.
I brought this home, warmed it up a bit, and stuffed it with ice cream to balance the heavy frangipane, and really quite enjoyed it. 3.5/5.
