Balducci’s Gourmet On The Go

I know people seem to see other better options available in the neighborhood, but when it’s cold outside, Balducci’s might be the place to run to. Everything is a a bit overpriced, but if you compare prices to the Whole Foods’ — those are even more outrageous.
Pluses:
— The sushi always is delicious, though portions are big and pricey.
— Bagels: best in the vicinit
— They can make crepes!
— Xmas sweets: great selection of italian goods=sweets, esp. near Xmas
— Amazing oatmeal
— Rather good soups, and in prices on par with neighborhood.
I also don’t drink coffee, but supposedly, the coffee [iced] is great there. I have not tried their fresh salads either, but some quick premade salads/​sandwiches are good yet pricey.
Minuses:
— rugelah, a disappointment
— things are a bit overpriced (like 30% or so, in some cases)
— okayish sandwishes
I think the customer service is great, they might not be too obsequious, but you feel that workers are having fun, and that’s what counts.

I don’t get to go here too often because I work a bit further downtown but whenever I’m in the area for a lunchtime doctor’s app or something I make sure to get a salad from here. I wish I worked closer then I could try all the really tasty-​looking sandwiches and sushi but alas I’ve only had the salad.
Gotta say, at 9.49 it is quite a value, as long as you don’t mind skipping on the meat proteins. You get unlimited THATS RIGHT UNLIMITED premium quality toppings for that price. I don’t know many salad places that do that. And this includes cheese! And quinoa, which is usually extra in most places. And edamame, also extra usually. And their omg mouth watering candied pecans. Ingredients are fresh and don’t taste canned. Value. It’s a seriously delicious, gigantic salad. Yum!
Plus the place is really clean and neat and very pleasant and generally not a mob house.
Only downside is the salad container is made of carton which is flimsy but I suppose more eco-​friendly. Otherwise def the best choice for salad around Columbus circle.

Food isn’t bad but pricing is all over the place. Some things are reasonable, other’s are WTF.
The staff behaves ridiculously. It’s like a high school and the customer is the substitute teacher. Really bizarre. I have been in many times and I’m always a bit put off by how familiar/​aloof they are with people.
I used to work at McDonalds when I was young and we would have gotten in trouble for acting the way they do at this «upscale» place.
Needs a new manager.

In general everyone is so friendly here! I usually just run in for coffee and a bagel a few times a week but wanted to give the staff a HUGE Thumbs up!!! Everyone is always smiling and willing to help. They constantly update you on your order too!

Wow! Could the people who work there be less courteous and more resentful? Manager with the tattoos as well. I have stopped going there, but when one is on line, the workers CONSISTENTLY skip older people and try to help people who are in their 20’s or 30’s. Is there an age limit for this place?
The manager watches and does not react. The owners are paying a lot in rent. With a proper staff, the revenue would increase. Wake up, please!!!

The Iced Chai tea lattes are excellent. Not too sweet or spicy; just the way I like it. Looks like they have a pretty good selection of pantry food and baked goods — definitely will return to try more treats!

I’m 3 — 4 days late on this review. I went to this place the day of New Year’s eve. I been working down the block for the last 4 ½ years but never went their until Thursday. My co-​worker went a couple of time there and said I should give it a try.
I went there and got myself a chocolate croissant and cinnamon muffin. They are deliciously good.

I love their fresh and Asian Fusion sushi! There are always super clean and organized as well.

Great spot for take out lunch around midtown west, however, it’s pretty pricey. The salads can really add up, but they make decent sushi, have great soups and a very good hot bar including panini’s and an ever revolving offerings of chicken and pasta salads.

I go to this place frequently because they are around the corner from my work. Enjoy their salad. It is always fresh but I have to say that they don’t understand anything about customer service.
Here are some of my customer service experiences;
They close early during the weekend and several months ago I entered the store 10 minutes before the closing hours. I was shout by the store manager «We are closed» while there were still customers in and unlocked front door and at least 10 more mins. I know he is the manager because I found a piece of wood in my salad once. When I went to return it, he helped me and instead of apologizing he kept blaming the farmers not packaging the salad with attention.
When you try to get tea, croissant, or anything from the counter, they never looked at your face and they just chat with each other. I go there at least 4 times in a week for last 2,5 years and maybe 2 or 3 times I receive ok customer service.
Their uniforms are always dirty. Please you are a food establishment, the people serving food should be clean.
I think I am done with this place. I am absolutely ok with crossing the street and go to Starbucks for my earl grey tea and get my salad from somewhere else.

If you are staying at a nearby hotel, say, Hotel Empire, and you are up pretty early, this is a great spot to get delicious coffee. It’s self-​serve with terrific selection and lots of fixins like simple syrup and cinnamon powder. We got coffee and snacks to take our toddler to the playground every day of our visit.

Baldducci’s is a spot where I grab a sandwich once and a while, but not too often. I work in the bulding, get a tiny discount, but am not really a big eater, so I tend to skip lunch a lot. Plus, our cafeteria has the same stuff for half price.
One thing I will say is the sandwiches and salads that I did have were fresh, presented well, and tasted great. Nothing really stood out, except the vegetable salad with raisins that I have had several times.
The staff is nice, if not a little on the slow side, but not a problem.
Bring your wallet. Expect to pay over $ 10 for a tuna sandwich, which you can get at a deli for $ 5-​$ 6.

When I asked where the bathrooms were the barista said «We do not have one. Go to Chipotle.» Classy. Anyplace w/​food and seating must have one to meet Code.

Good place to go to for a quick lunch. It was my first time getting lunch here and I decided to get a salad. Taste was great, can’t really go wrong at these salad stations. Service was just okay– the order was taken but no one was particularly friendly. It actually made me uncomfortable since it felt like my order was being taken begrudgingly. I understand lunch time can be a rush but friendlier service would have bumped up the score.

Oh the weather outside is frightful.
But you have a piping hot, spicy soy chai latte in your hands from Balducci’s, so you’re okay.

Fast food for the UWS. On the expensive side, but to be expected. Customer service could be improved a bit. It pained the gal to tell me where the forks were located.

Super duper expensive but I love the salad bar. You get unlimited whatever you ant for like $ 11 and can add chicken /​other protein for a couple more bucks. I know, a lot of money for a salad… if you usually like your salad minimal.
I get it all — grapes, peppers, corn, tomatoes, nuts, cranberries, cheese, etc. I always get the chicken salad on top. The works! They put it in a huge bowl and mix it up and it tastes so good you don’t even need any dressing! It also provides me with enough food for two meals, so you could say you are buying two salads for $ 6, which isn’t bad!
I’ve looked over their other food options and it’s just too expensive per pound for me to touch it… plus, I really love the salad.
This store is really small so they don’t have much else in terms of selection. They do have a mini bakery section though up front with lots of scrumptious looking goodies. I have only sampled a mini pumpkin pie in the past that was pretty good.
The customer service is fine, quick check out every time I’ve been there. You can sit at the bar facing the street and people watch while you eat or browse your laptop. I’ve always been able to pick up wifi but I don’t remember if it belonged to balducci’s or not.
TIP: Parking is abysmal around here! Come on a Sunday!

So I work at Hearst Magazines and occasionally when I end up doing lunch past 2:30pm (when our awesome cafeteria closes) I’ll wander in here for something small… I’ve also come here because my boss has a hankering for lunch here and we’ll walk and talk or it’s someone’s birthday and I need emergency macaroons, yanno all the typical reasons one would go in here…
I really want to give this place 3.5 Unilocal stars, really I do, but I’m gonna err on the side of rounding down due to a few factors…
+ Prices: Yah, I know it’s midtown/Hell’s Kitchen/​Colombus Circle, whatever you want to call it — but it’s unnecessarily expensive and frankly their are better options in the neighborhood that are just as tasty (if not TASTIER) and not as overpriced. Although their pesto tortellini does look sinfully decadent… but until I try it, I’m sticking to 3 stars.
+ Selection: So I hate to describe this place as a «bougie deli» (I’m lying, I don’t really hate my description), but it’s a «bougie deli». You know how some businesses add the word «gourmet» to anything so that they can justify ripping people off? Nope, not Balducci’s!
To be honest, their edible delights are gourmet and they DO use top of the line ingredients, but my problem is that I’m just NEVER a fan of pre-​made food. If I’m paying for overpriced food, then I want it custom made, fresh and made just for me.
+ Bakery: Everything in their bakery section looks freakishly good. Their macaroons ARE delicious, but alas they’re not up to Ladurée standards in the least. They still are the best macaroons I’ve ever had and yep, I’ve munched away at the original Paris location.
I’ve also purchased a slice of their cheesecake for a friend who loves, loves, LOVES her cheesecake and whole she «liked» this one I could tell she was being nice. I kindly reminded her that I didn’t make it and wasn’t going to be offended (and even had I made it, feedback is good! lol) and she confided that Starbucks makes a better cheesecake… that would’ve saved me like $ 3 – 4, hah!
This isn’t an awful place to hit up if you want a fancypants lunch, made skillfully and with fantastic ingredients, if you don’t mind the pre-​made food thing — or if you want to get a quick snack… but I usually do prefer other things in the neighborhood… like Bread & Honey cuz yanno… they’ll make me a sandwich or wrap to my specifications, charge me $ 4 less than Balducci’s and Boar’s Head meat is a-​okay with me :].

I love this place. Big fan of the crepes but the salads and sandwiches are also excellent. They have a great selection of soups and happy to give out samples. They have really good soft pretzels too. Prices are a little high but you get what you pay for. At lunch the lines to pay can get kind of long but they move along quickly. Staff is friendly and hard working.

Balducci’s is like an upscale deli /​bodega in Midtown without the cramped spaces and the dumpyness. I live nearby and often pop in here for lunch when I am working from home. This location is inside the Hearst building and is relatively new. The moment you walk in, you are accosted by the wonderful aroma of cookies, pastries, coffee and stacks of said cookies and pastries. This is a bit challenging as you come in so hungry that you actually think that a bag of fresh baked chocolate cookies for lunch, washed down with a Pellegrino would be a good idea.
After you realize that eating 12 cookies for lunch is a bad idea, you cruise on to the back where they keep the lunch stuff. There is a sandwich counter that has a bevy of pre-​made sandwiches that all look to me made of the finest breads, meats, cheeses, etc. They also will carry cold pasta dishes and sometimes meat lasagna. I usually go to the salad station instead. It is typical Midtown «make your salad to order» set up: pick your greens, pick your meat /​fish, then on to all the other crap you load up load up your salad with and still call it «healthy».
The space is new, airy and spacious. It seems to be popular with the Hearst crowd, i.e. young, very fashionable and on-​trend, i.e. not an old creep like me. There are about a dozen seats along the window to eat, but they always seem to be taken. There is plenty of room to move around and lots of space between stations, so even when it gets busy at lunch, it still isn’t NY stock exchange nutso in there.
This place definitely beats the pants of the other options in the area (McDonald’s, Wendy’s, 2 – 3 pizza places, Chipotle, etc).