If you know you know!! The desserts at Milk bar are amazing. They’re simple but unique and just everything I want in a dessert. I love their birthday cake truffles, and you can’t go wrong with any of the cookies. They also have cute boxes to package beautifully as a gift or you can even purchase a sturdy tin to reuse. If you’re up for ice cream, they have a cereal and milk ice cream that isn’t absolutely favorite- so much so I ordered it in the middle of winter! They also have a cute coffee bar inside of ice cream is not your thing.
I raced to Google before I even had the opportunity to eat my piece of cake because I wanted so desperately to write a review of this magical place, but most importantly of its superstar employee Drea.
We came into Milk Bar at the Ace after a genuinely weird, off night, hoping a slice of my favorite cake might reset the mood. We already trusted the cake to do its thing, what we didn’t expect was Drea.
Drea didn’t just serve us. She completely turned our night around.
She was warm without being forced, funny without trying too hard, and genuinely present in a way that’s increasingly rare. She was knowledgeable, patient, and effortlessly personable, the kind of person who makes you feel like you landed in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.
There’s a difference between customer service and hospitality. Drea has the second one. She read the room, met our energy, made us laugh, and somehow turned a quick “let’s grab cake and go” moment into something that actually felt restorative.
And yes, the cake was perfect. But honestly? The reason we’ll remember this visit (and come back) is Drea.
Milk Bar: please know you have a superstar on your hands. She didn’t just sell us dessert, she changed the temperature of our entire night.
Five stars for the cake. Ten stars for Drea.
This is definitely a must try dessert spot for one main reason: cereal milk soft serve. It was kind of difficult for me to decide what I wanted to try, but the simplest decision came down to haven’t I had, which was the cereal milk soft serve.
The simplest suggestion I say is get the cereal milk soft serve with the corn flake crunch or cocoa cereal crunch. Or do what I did where I got both toppings, cookies & cream soft serve on the bottom and cereal milk on top.
The best way I can describe it is literally through the name. It is like the end of when you’re done eating your cereal and the milk is all sweet from the cereal. The compliment to it is the crunchy topping that I believe may even have a little salt to make it taste even better.
The area is spacious as there is plenty of room to enjoy your dessert. This place even has more room than most restaurants in New York. Simple dessert shop with a variety of desserts but you must try the cereal milk soft serve at least!
My sister sent me a red velvet cheesecake cake for my birthday, along with chocolate chip cookie and birthday cake truffles. I can't say enough about how delicious it all was!! It was so great that now I have to order more for Valentines!
Milkbar pie slice. Tbh a bit small, but very good. Classic browned butter and sugar pie. Mildly custardy and thick, overall just decadent. Worth it, but only just, this is almost 4 stars. I think next time I'll try a cookie instead
Good coffee, delicious food and service as warm and sweet as their cookies. Very conveniently located and connected to Ace Hotel where I am staying. If I'm not trying to care for my sugar level, I might come more often. Long opening hours add to the temptation.
Visiting from Australia and knew we had to come to Milk bar. We got the cereal milk ice cream and birthday cake - despite having high expectations it didn’t disappoint at all! Really interesting yet complex flavours and executed extremely well! I’d say it’s a must visit when in NYC ???
First time trying Milk Bar visiting NYC as a tourist and it was underwhelming. I tried the birthday cake slice and cereal milk soft serve. The birthday cake slice was overly sweet and tasted like a cake I could get from a grocery store. It also had an odd industrial after taste.
The cereal milk soft serve was oddly savoury and I didn't really appreciate the cereal milk taste.
The store offers free cookies if you a leave a review.
All the deserts are crazy good. Maybe a little pricey, but well worth it… and I got a free cookie on my birthday. Horray!!! The PB crunch pie is insanely awesome!
Absolutely incredible! The chocolate chip cookie at Milk Café is nothing short of extraordinary. It’s unbelievably moist—hands-down the best cookie in all of New York. Every bite is perfection.
The vibe inside the café is warm and inviting, and the people who work here are genuinely kind. The service is excellent, and the whole experience just feels good from start to finish.
Milk Bar has the most interesting food and snacks. The baristas are friendly, the service is fast. I would recommend MilkBar to anyone. The atmosphere is lively without being overwhelmingly loud.
Really beautiful and vintage old 50s diner. Living for it! Staff really kind. Looks clean. Taste not as hyped for, and kinda expensive. But still a good place to hangout for a little bit and get a coffee.
Great atmosphere inside, the neon lights and mirrors around really add to it. The sample of the milk bar pie was very welcoming (and tasty). The cornflake cookie is also fantastic, will come again
Honestly? Average. Just average.
I came here expecting a fun, creative dessert stop something sweet to wrap up the night, but everything just kind of fell flat. The snacks looked cute, sure, but the flavors were uninspired. Our drinks were lukewarm, the sugar hit too strong, and it all felt like the staff was more eager to close up than serve something memorable.
Quick notes for fellow dessert hunters:
Service: Polite and minimal, just enough to take the order and move things along.
Food: Ok. It's ok.
Atmosphere: Clean enough, but the energy was as tired as the drinks.
Nothing terrible, but nothing special either. Out of everywhere I visited in NYC, this was the most forgettable stop, which is saying something in a city full of flavor.
This place has definitely gone way downhill. The employees don’t care, the music is too loud and this is what a “Pie and Soft Serve” looks like. Everyone understands that when someone orders pie and ice cream, the ice cream should be on top of the pie. And also the pie should be warm. Here instead you get this and the pie is refrigerated solid out of a box. Very dissatisfying
Had this place recommended by a friend and it did not disappoint! We ordered the lemon meringue pie and cereal milk soft serve, and it definitely satisfied our sweet tooth. The girl taking our order was also super sweet. Would definitely visit again if I’m ever in NYC again!
Delicious desserts for all hours of the day. I had the Milk Bar pie and Sundae combo deal. They were both good. The vanilla soft serve ice cream is a cereal milk tasting flavor which my husband did not like. He thought it was good but his flavor of choice. The pie was very rich maybe too rich for me. Eating it together was delicious though. Prices were good. Selection was good. Seating available was good. It’s a nice place to sit and satisfy your sweet tooth for sure.
Very good! We had the cereal milk soft serve and bday cake with peanut butter crunch pie! The service was extremely quick and employees were kind. If you are close do stop by!
Tried the Quadruple Chocolate Cake and the Birthday Cake—one slice each, $11 per slice, pre-made and boxed. Honestly, not worth the price. The slices were small, and since they were refrigerated, they didn’t taste fresh. Unfortunate, because they had potential.
The Quadruple Chocolate Cake was actually pretty good, but the Birthday Cake wasn’t great. Both had decent flavor, but the texture was on the dry side. It seems like they don’t make the cakes in-house—looks like they come pre-made, get sliced, boxed, and either served cold or shipped out. Fresh would’ve made a big difference.
Feels like you’re mostly paying for the ambiance rather than the actual taste. Wouldn’t go out of my way for these.
I came here to get dessert with my brother. The inside is pretty large with good amount of seating. As soon as we walked in we were greeted by a friendly staff and she told us to try the samples they had. My brother and I both got the cereal milk soft serve with corn flakes. It was really good in my opinion. The soft serve tastes like cereal milk basically ? and the corn flake topping isn't like regular corn flakes cereal it's was more crunchy and a bit sweet. I would come back here again.
Popped in here to try the famous birthday cake. Also grabbed a cornflake cookie. Overall, was just a bit underwhelmed. The extra crunchy bits in the cake didn't really feel like a positive addition to the experience - cake is supposed to be soft and light - while the overall flavour was a bit one-dimensional. It's just a few variations of milky and sweet. There's a good reason the bitter notes of chocolate and the tang of fruit make such good counterpoints to the sweetness of classic cakes. This felt lacking in those aspects. As for the cookie. It was even more bland. No crunch of corn or any other flavour than a bit of sweet and a bit of vanilla.
Lovely staff, nice feel inside the store but at the very least I'd go for one of the chocolate-based options next time or probably opt for somewhere else.
Absolutely loved the cereal soft serve with cornflake crunch. I had one of these 10 years ago but it tastes even better than I remembered. The price was a little steep but worth it once in a while.
They have a big selection of cookies, cakes, and other desserts that all look delicious!
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