Crumbs Bake Shop

Oreo Cupcake

       Crumbs is a popular bake shop best known for the large size of their cupcakes and the unique flavors. I heard about Crumbs through a friend. She was raving about how good they were so I had see for myself. I live closest to the location near Wall Street. Hardest location to find...I got lost for 20 minutes and just when I was about to give up I found it. This location is very small but there is always a crowd standing around waiting to be served. Looking at the display case I saw interesting flavors like cappuccino, tiramisu, white hot chocolate, and cookie dough. I picked out a dozen cupcakes at random. Usually when food looks good you would think it would taste good as well. That is not in this case with Crumbs.

   Lets start with the icing, it is as hard as rock and tastes so sweet it makes your gums bleed. The vanilla cake is just ok. A little dry and nothing special. The chocolate cake is literally disgusting. Beyond dry and tastes nothing like chocolate. The red velvet was really foul. I've had better red velvet from the supermarket bakery. I have a love and obsession with cupcakes so I was really disappointed with Crumbs especially after my friend's rave review. The most remarkable thing is despite the vast variety of flavors, every cupcake tastes the same. Really. If someone was to blindfold me I would not be able to tell the white hot chocolate from the cookies and cream. Though Crumbs makes some attractive looking cupcakes, the taste is beyond bland. They are nothing to get excited about.

                                                                                     Crumbs

Raul's Empanadas Town

I have been eating at Raul's or "The empanada place" as me and my friends like to call it, since the place first opened my junior year of high school. A few weeks after Raul's opened we went to try it out. The space is super small but it is hard to miss with it's orange and blue theme colors. Pictures of cute little cartoon empanadas decorate the walls. 

The restaurant was nearly empty and we looked up at the giant menu on the wall realizing that this place meant business. Raul's has nearly everything that you could want or imagine and stuffs it into an empanada. I ordered the chocolate and berries empanada. After one bite and I was sold on Raul's. We went back numerous times and the staff was even nice enough to give us a free platter of empanadas for my group of friends to celebrate our last day of school. I've tried nearly all that's on the menu (only about $2 an empanada) and never had a problem with Raul's until recently.

The Summer Empanada

Last year I went to Raul's on a friday night with a friend and the place was packed. There was only one person taking orders and he was to preoccupied watching the soccer game on tv to take orders. We stood in line patiently for 15 minutes and when we were next in line to order the guy leaves the counter, comes back 5 minutes later, and turns his back to us to watch the the tv. We walked out and ate next door at the Morristown diner instead. I don't know when the service got so bad but it never used to be like that. I guess I've missed a lot being away at college.

Despite that incident I went back a few months later and got a few empanadas to go. Apparently they changed the menu and don't offer my favorites anymore. I opted for the Hawaiian and the three cheese. I have to say they just did not taste right. The empanadas tasted like they had been frozen and then microwaved back to life  I wont be going back to Raul's. Seems like the more popular a restaurant gets the worse it's food and service gets. Sad

                                                                                         Rauls