45 Bedford Road
Armonk, NY 10504 (Map)
Attendees: Sylvia, Jeff,Shelley,Pat
Sylvia
This isn’t your Home Depot garden center! The cafe at Mariani Gardens is much more enjoyable than the hot dog cart parked outside the Yonkers Home Depot. However, with such niceties, you do pay a price. The outdoor seating area was very nice. The furniture consisted of brightly colored outdoor chairs and a few larger tables to accomated larger parties. After making Jeffrey move three times, we finally settled on a table that was partially shaded by $1500 trees and a beautiful arrangement of hydrangeas ready for purchase and planting in your own home!
Breakfast here is served all day long, and the choices consist of various crepes, pancakes, omelettes, and French toast. I was contemplating a bike ride after this, so I wanted something lighter. I settled on the steel cut oatmeal with raspberries and wild blueberry. I also got the Harney and Sons Paris Oolong tea as my beverage of choice.
There were two guys working the cafe, one was the cook, and the other did everything else, so ordering took a little patience and waiting time since we were ordering right after a larger group.
After a little wait, the meals were brought out to us. Once my oatmeal was placed on the table, my heart instantly sank. What I thought were going to be fresh raspberries and blueberries (they are in season!), instead was a dollop of raspberry preserve (or jam, i couldn’t tell) and a blueberry jam right in the middle. There was also a nice dusting of granola and dried cranberries. I mixed in a touch of the jam and proceeded to scrape the rest to the side of the bowl. Now, I’ve never sweetened my oatmeal with jam before, and I have to say, after trying it, it’s not half bad. Maybe I’ll have to consider this in the dead of winter when fresh fruit isn’t as abundant. The granola and the dried cranberries also made the oatmeal quite good in the end. 
The tea was also a surprise. I knew I wanted tea that morning, but from thier selection, this was the only black tea available. It was smoky and after being tempered with a little skim milk, a little sweet too.
The czar says: I paid $10 and change for a large cup of tea and an oatmeal that didn’t meet my expectations, but proved to be pleasantly surprising. Given the ambiance and the really beautiful, sunny, but not hot day we were having, I’d say this particular visit was worth it. Would I come back? Maybe, for a nice laid back breakfast on a nice day with company I wouldn’t mind lingering with. Maybe I’ll try a crepe or the pancakes.
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Jeff
I arrived early as always. It’s a rather nice garden shop, for the incredibly wealthy. We sat next to a 1500 dollar tree. But we’re here to talk about the food.
I was in a rush to leave, so I had to quickly order the French toast. I liked it. The syrup was real maple syrup and the fruit on the side was nice and fresh. The coffee was decent. What really hit the spot was the smoothie afterwards. It was a pineapple mango smoothie with yogurt mixed in. The place is a little pricey, but it’s worth it to go at least once.
Shelley
When I first heard about the Mariani Gardens in Armonk, I was envisioning a mini Botanical Gardens, sprawling grounds through which you could stroll.
What I found instead was an overpriced, hoitey toitey landscaping/gardening center with an adjoining cafe. (Lest you think I’m being judgemental with my hoitey toitey call, check out this giant novelty watering can that can be yours for a mere $895.00) 
The prices of the food at the Mariani Cafe were not as inflated as the garden accessories. I decided to get a Western omelette, thinking I would compare this experience to the one I had at Rachel’s back on Fire Island. Now, although it was a lovely summer morning and the cafe was open and airy, there were several things about this morning’s breakfast that ruffled my feathers. First, there were only two people behind the counter, one cook and one other guy taking orders, ringing them up, and preparing beverages. The non-cook was multitasking, and while I felt kind of bad that he had to juggle so much, I was annoyed at the order in which he did some things. For example, it was clear that Pat, Sylvia, and I were part of the same group. However, instead of taking our orders in quick succession, the man stopped after each one to go prepare that person’s beverage before taking the next order, causing the line to back up and causing my annoyance to rise (since I was last in line). He also took his multitasking to a ridiculous level by even running to bring out other people’s drinks while my credit card transaction was processing, causing me to have to wait, again, for him to come running back to press OK on the computer screen and give me my receipt. I understand they were understaffed and busy, but at least finish up with someone’s transaction before scurrying off to attend to someone else.
So, after the ordering snafus we went outside to our shaded table and waited, and waited, and waited some more. Fortunately when our food finally arrived, it was at least fresh and still warm. It just took awhile to get there. My Western omelette was OK. While the ingredients were very fresh, and the red peppers provided a pretty burst of color, the fillings of the omelette were not cooked into the omelette and were instead sprinkled in the middle after the egg had been cooked. This caused all the bits to fall out every time I took a bite. It wasn’t a cohesive omelette. The omelette came served with a small mix of fresh fruit and some small slices of brioche toast.
The food was fine, not spectacular, and I didn’t think really worth $11. The omelette would have been better had the ingredients been cooked into the egg instead of added after the fact. And they’ve either got to get a third person to work behind the cafe counter on a busy weekend morning, or else review how to prioritize taking orders. There was nothing about Mariani Cafe that would draw me back anytime in the near future.
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Pat
- What I Had: Blueberry pancakes, coffee
- What It Cost: ~$13.00
- Worth It: …probably not
- The Rating: 3/5
The Details: I made a serious ordering mistake this weekend at the Mariani Cafe, a lovely small cafe attached to an upscale gardening supply store in Armonk. I saw the person in front of me order pancakes, and I saw the chef lay five small dollops of pancake batter on the griddle and my mouth started watering. My fate was secured a few minutes earlier, when Jeffrey let me taste his French toast and I realized that, yes, it was real maple syrup! I was all in on the pancake bandwagon.
What I didn’t realize was that because the cook was confined to cooking on a griddle designed for crepes, the pancakes couldn’t achieve the fluffiness that turns a good pancake into a great one. As a result, the pancakes, while tasty, were ultimately too small and texturally disappointing, and may have had the mass of 1.5 ordinary pancakes. And that’s not nearly enough for $10.25.
If I were to go back I’d order the crepes, which came in several varieties, both savory and sweet, at a more reasonable price. And what I’d have is an unusual breakfast in an unusually lovely setting, instead of an unsatisfying breakfast at an unacceptable price.
The Bottom Line: I wish I’d tried the crepes.
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