Well Fed On the Town

I never much liked cheesecake from restaurants. Until, that is, I went to Manhattan and tried cheesecake where it’s made like it’s supposed to be made!

My first foray into good restaurant cheesecake was at Carnegie Deli in Times Square. I got a slice thinking I’d try it, just to say I’d had it. That first bite sold me forever! Wow, that’s great stuff! It was so good, we went back again the next day for more. In fact, I have half of one in my freezer right now!

On my last trip to NYC, my wife and I had seen Junior’s on the Bobby Flay “Throwdown” show, and we wanted to try that. I didn’t go out of my way to find it, but, while walking through Grand Central Station, there was a Junior’s!

What Junior’s does a bit differently is to incorporate cheesecake into other styles of cake, so the cheesecake isn’t just flavored; it’s a component of a bigger cake. We tried two versions, carrot cake and devil’s food cake.

The carrot cake just made sense; what’s carrot cake without cream cheese? And add a big layer of great cheesecake… You’ve got something! This was great stuff!

The devil’s food was very good; it was a couple layers of devil’s food cake with a big layer of cheesecake, all wrapped in rich chocolate icing. It was good, but I think the devil’s food/chocolate is out of balance with the cheesecake. It would work better with more cheesecake, less devil’s food. However, as a devil’s food cake, it’s fantastic!

My next trip will see a head to head battle between Carnegie Deli and Junior’s! I can’t wait!

Junior’s Locations: 

386 Flatbush Avenue Extension at Dekalb Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11201

Grand Central Station
Main Concourse near Track 36
Lower Level Dining Concourse

Times Square
West 45th Street between Broadway & 8th Avenue