Hani’s pronounced “Honey’s” is located on Copper Square in the NYU neighborhood of the East Village. I’d read so many spectacular reviews about it that I couldn’t wait to try all of chef Miro Uskokovic’s popular offerings at this simple and shiny bakery cafe.
Lucky for us their food case boasts all of their bestsellers on the top shelf so it was a one of these and one of these and oh, yeah, one of these too scenarios. We packed up all our goodies to go and here is an honest take on quite a few of their most popular menu items.
By the time we landed back at my apartment, huge bag in hand, it was time for lunch. So first we sampled the extraordinary home baked Focaccia with smooth cream cheese, lox, watermelon radish, micro chives and lemon zest. Holy break fast, Batman! This was one hell of a square. The focaccia was incredibly tender with a springy, savory crumb center, the lox was rich and buttery and the herby and acid toppings coupled with the cream cheese brought the whole sando together harmoniously. NO notes.
Next up was the Turkey Club that sat on thick and hearty toasted multigrain bread. It housed fresh turkey, razor thin tomato slices that were shingled over the entire surface, bacon, more bacon, a small mountain of lettuces, and an outstanding double smear of chunky pistachio and kale pesto with a great kick. Now this was a sandwich. There were audible gasps. And definitely oohs and aahs from my kitchen table. Dare I even say this was a “Hani” of an oh? (ha) This was a winner. Wow. I usually eat my sandwiches topless because I like the contents to be larger than the carrier and I hate when the bread overwhelms the meat. In this case I knife and forked my way through an open faced club of my making… BUT I went back to polish off the leftover pesto’d top side of the bread– yeah, it was that good!
Moving onto the sweet options of our hall, we tried their Carrot Cake slice made with brown butter, ginger and apricot jam. The cake layers on this baby were exceptional, however I found the slice to be so jam forward that I started to scrape away the middles and attempted to eat the cake sans layers– a challenging task. To me the perfect cake to frosting ratio is somewhere in the five to one range. Anybody feelin’ me? Sadly this square had more frosting than cake. And although the flavors were elite, I’d love them to create a carrot option in a sheet cake format that has just one frosted layer on top of that moist, terrific cake. A girl can dream, right?
Last up was their Triple Chocolate Chunk Cookie and their Fudgiest Brownie. The cookie was great with big salty flakes on top and robust chunks of chocolate. But that brownie? You’ve GOT to be kidding me? A showstopper. Fudgy. Thick. Almost gooey but not. And the frosting was perfect. Ten out of ten.
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