UCC Cafessa

This venue is closed.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 595 River Road (in the Mitsuwa Marketplace), Edgewater, NJ 07020 Website (201) 941-9113 Price: $$

UCC Cafessa is part of the of the UCC Coffee family of coffee shop concepts. They are renowned in Asia for their premium, siphoned coffees and delicious Euro-Japanese fusion food. They don’t have many locations in the States, but I happen to run across one while shopping at the Mitsuwa Marketplace in New Jersey. It’s located towards the main entrance on the far left. There are shuttle bus available from New York City at a fee.

Although they’re a renowned coffee shop, it’s the food that made we want to try this place. Like many Japanese cafes, UCC Cafessa has plastic replicas of their dishes for customers to preview prior to purchase. When I came across this place, I still haven’t had breakfast yet so the green pan cake seem like the ideal dish to try. From the plastic replica, the pancake looked soft and fluffy and not overly sweet. The actual pancake was nothing like the plastic replica (see pic below). It was hard and dense, the red bean topping was way too sweet, and size was nearly half the replica. Their coffee might be good, but don’t come here for the pancakes!

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Blue Spoon Coffee Company

Rating: ★★★★☆ 76 Chambers St (between Broadway & Church St), New York, NY 10007 Website (212) 619-7230 Price: $ Hours: Mon-Fri 7 am – 6 pm Nearest Transit: City Hall (N, R) Chambers St (A, C) Park Pl (2, 3) Twitter // Facebook // Foursquare

Blue Spoon is an independent cafe that is very small, cute, and cozy. They have a total of five proper tables and a window counter that seats two. The service is very prompt and friendly. They offer Intelligentsia Coffee from Chicago, which is hard to find in the NYC. In addition to their caffeinated offerings, they also serve well regarded soups, sandwiches, and pastries.

I stopped into Blue Spoon for a cup of coffee because I had an hour to kill and found their coffee to be exceptionally good. Prices here are competitive and the free wifi is awesome. For you book worms out there, Blue Spoon sports a book swap section at the front of the store.