Blue Ribbon Bakery & Cafe

$ 17.42 (yes, you read that correctly) for a scoop of good but not spectacular vanilla ice cream, a tiny slice of tasty chocolate chip bread pudding, a good amount of chocolate sauce reminiscent of Dunkaroos (not a bad thing), and no utensils to eat it all with, in a gigantic paper bag.

Blue Ribbon Bakery’s brunch is a perfect combination of casual and upscale. It’s the kind of place where the waiters wear ties, but somehow you don’t feel underdressed in a sweater and jeans (to be fair, it was freezing the day we stopped by!). The restaurant itself is very small, but not overly intimate — I can imagine a morning out with the girls just as easily here as a Sunday brunch date. The brunch menu is relatively small, but delicious. They definitely excel with their eggs. I got the shrimp and bacon hash, which was just divine. Huge chunks of slab bacon, juicy shrimp, and perfectly fried home fries with two poached eggs on top. Delish. Boyfriend got their challah French toast, which looked very nice, although French toast is not really my thing.
Drinks were fine, but nothing special. The $ 12 bloody mary seemed a little watery for my taste, and it’s a small glass, but hey, classy place. Overall it’s a little pricier than my everyday brunch, but a nice place for a little splurge.
As far as crowds, we got here around 11:30 on a Sunday morning and were seated immediately. I think we saw a couple bigger parties (5+) waiting a bit, but it didn’t seem like anyone waited too long while we were there.

This is my first review on Unilocal.Had a great New Year dinner tonight. Superb fried chicken, as always. I’ve loved this place for years. So cozy and welcoming with a truly friendly staff. However, I’m giving it four stars (and would give three and a half if I could) for one reason only: the entrée prices have gotten almost obscenely high. That’s why we don’t go as often as we used to. If those prices were $ 5 — $ 7 less, we would be there a whole lot more.

To be honest, I do not understand the hype of this place.
The interior is homey and great, I like that it has two levels because then they can accomdate more people. Living in NY you know the hardest thing is finding space for you.
2 of my girlfriends and I came here to check our their brunch, as you know its highly raved about and we were ready to sink our teeth in. The 3 of us came around 12:30 on a Sunday, without reservations and were seated right away… what? I know! The service was great, from the bartender to the host and our waitress. Everyone was super nice and our waitress helped and was patient with how indecisive we were.
I personally thought the menu was very limiting. I ended up ordering the chicken salad sandwhich… eh, its like any other chicken salad sandwhich. I was not blown away by it. My friends seemed to enjoy their foods, but was not impressed with the overall food. Maybe I had such high expecatations.

Walked in at the start of lunch service (mid-​week). (empty restaurant). Waiter asked if we had a reservation. We said no. He literally turned his back to us for 10 seconds (not to check how many reservations there were or anything, literally to do nothing) and then walked into the back room.
A lovely waitress then came up and asked if it was just the two of us and seated us immediately.
Then the waiter came back, and was to be our server. We left immediately.

This made my list of must come back. The service was exceptional and the food delicious. We came here for Sunday brunch and I ordered the poached eggs with shrimp and bacon and my husband ordered the steak and eggs. We ate everything. It was amazing. It was fresh and cooked well. We will be back!

We loved the atmosphere and loved the food. We were eating on the later side, so they had a basket of fresh bread loaves to take if we wanted as we left. So nice! It is pricey, so be prepared.

The food was spectacular, and the ambiance was delightful. The complementary bread was fresh and yummy. However, this place is on the pricier side. My friend got the avocado special and it was really yummy, but it was half an avocado for 10 $
The mains and sides were of a decent proportion. There is no way anyone could finish the French Toast by themselves but you know you’d want to if you order them. The rib hash is also delish!

I live in the neighborhood and absolutely love this place. I have been there for dinner (usually) and sometimes lunch. The service, location and ambiance are impeccable. It’s very understated but also very comfortable. It reminds me of Connecticut a little bit, it feels like an «American» tradition in the best sense of the word. I love this place so much that I had Thanksgiving dinner there and it was delicious as usual.
I love how the place is cozy and warm and also full of light: you can see people walking outside through the large glass windows that encompass the entire restaurant (on the main floor anyway). I love the burger, fried chicken, avocado appetizer. The customers are also sort of west-​village-​y and understated, simple and chic and not showy. This is NOT a trendy place thankfully it is just a reliable, steady and wonderful high-​end «comfort food» place.
They usually give you a loaf of (delicious) bread after dinner which is fantastic too.

Pro — very attentive service, yummy food — my goodness, that bread is to die for! — and relatively quiet but still lively.
Neg — not a lot of choices in terms of entrees and the portions are small. Well, at least the burger I had was tiny. Wooden chairs so you can’t get comfy… so you don’t really linger over coffee/​tea.
Somewhat hidden away in the west village… if I can find it again, I’d go again.

Fried chicken and challah french toast. That’s all you need. Oh, and their complimentary bread. They were serving up some bomb focaccia that day.
A little on the pricey end, but so worth it! If you’re craving just the fried chicken, you should visit their Lower East Side casual fried chicken joint. It’s basically the same recipe!

Good place for brunch, albeit on the pricier side. Poached eggs were the main focus of the brunch menu, but they had French toast and yogurt/​fruit as well. The brunch menu was lacking a bit of variety.
I ordered the poached with mushrooms, spinach, and bacon. I liked it because it was a nice balance of veggies and bacon/​eggs. I found my friends chorizo hash to be too overwhelming. The French toast was good as well.

We had a good dinner here, all things considered. Cute restaurant in the Village with nice looking and attentive waiters/​waitresses. The food, overall, was well prepared. I had the chicken and country pâté– both really tasty.
That said, they really overcooked my friend’s steak. But not only did they fix the issue right away, they brought out another dish while he waited. In short, they care about what they’re doing.
My only comment would be that this place is a bit pricey and the food, while tasty, wasn’t that inspired. We didn’t find anything to be too special here. But we still appreciate a restaurant that does everything that they do with an eye toward perfection. If we’re in the area we might give it a second blush.

I planned a birthday dinner here for my husband with a party of 7. I talked to the chef and made sure there would be a lamb shoulder feast for the family!
We were given a private dining room downstairs, right across from the baking ovens. It smelled heavenly walking down, and the room was perfectly sized for our party.
The service was very attentive, they made sure every detail was attended to.
We started out with the cocktail shrimp, chorizo, bone marrow, and cheese
The cocktail shrimp was large, and simple
the bone marrow –i didn’t really get a great taste of the bone marrow, and it was really hard to get the bone marrow. I like when they split the bone marrow vertically so you just scrape it out
The chorizo had an amazing flavor, which we all loved dipping our bread into.
For the main course, we got a giant lamb shoulder which was very tender and everyone enjoyed. It came with roasted vegetables which were all fork soft.
My mother-​in-​law didn’t like lamb so she got the fried chicken dish. It was good chicken, but $ 28 good? I’m not so sure
The dessert was the best thing we had all night. I think it was a walnut banana bread budding? It was delicious with the ice cream. The profiterole was underwhelming.
As we were leaving, we got to choose bread from their bread basket! I thought that was a cute treat. All in all a successful dinner, a bit pricey

Lunch. Weekday. My new jam. Always loved this place because of the in house bakery, the delicious food, and the awesome service.
Tried the pulled pork sandwich with avocado on toasted challah bread today. It’s worth getting on my laptop to write about. So good.
Most pulled pork sandwiches are a bit too sweet or a bit too soggy — this one is the perfect combination of soft and savory with a tiny bit of texture throw in because of the toasted challah bread. It was delicious.
Also really enjoyed the latte. Solid lunch place in the West Village.

Muy buen restaurante, los huevos con salmón estuvieron excelentes y el pan francés mejor!!!

Brunch at Blue Ribbon Bakery & Café is good. I give it 3.0 stars; my friends gave it 3.5. The service is good, the food at brunch is fine, but nothing really stood out. However, the warm bread basket that they give you before your meal is really good.
The entry is really awkward and gets chaotic and cramped really quickly.
Also their website says that they open at both 11:00am and 11:30am for brunch — they open at 11:00am and brunch is definitely served then.
Not worth going back; there are much better restaurants in the area.

Did my V-​day dinner here which was a little unnerving because every single review is for brunch. That said BRBC is a solid dinner spot as well.
Obvi try the fried chicken. Like duh.
Intimate enough for a date, but probably best as a group dinner. The location is pretty perfect on Downing tucked in with the brownstones that make the West Village what it is.
Solid spot.

Came here for a birthday brunch, and our party ended up sitting next to a semi-​incognito Iron Chef Mike Symon. Then I think the birthday boy scared him away because he was saying Iron Chef a lot and looking over indiscreetly.
Anyway, I’ve been trying to avoid ordering burgers at brunch places lately, primarily because burgers just all end up tasting more or less the same after a while. The quality of the meat has to be there, but otherwise, unless you have a special sauce, you end up with some lettuce, tomato, cheese, and a burger patty. Minor variations on the same thing. So… I ordered the pulled pork sandwich here. It was freakin’ delicious. The thing about pulled pork is that every place has their own sauce. Some places buy their sauce, some places make it, but each place serves a pulled pork sandwich differently. This thing was juicy, sweet, smoky all at the same time. Portion size was pretty hefty too, I was super full by the end and really didn’t have space for dessert.
I’d definitely come back again. My only caution is that this place generally is able to comfortably seat parties of 6 max — beyond that and you start feeling like you’re on top of each other. I did appreciate how the staff accommodated our party of 13 as best they could, it was admirable and the staff were super courteous the entire time.

Have been here a few times and they prepare the bone marrow perfectly with parsley on the side.
Today for lunch we has the chorizo sandwich and the chorizo with shrimp appetizer. Perfect for lunch

One of my favorite places for brunch/​lunch in the city. It is one of those places where you can order anything and it will probably knock your socks off.
Generous portions, homemade bread, good atmosphere and friendly service. My first time I came here I sat beside Lucy Liu (had to heavily explore the wine list to keep my cool).
Brunch favorite is the poached eggs w/​ham. Lunch is shrimp salad… enjoy!