The Oasis Cafe (Astoria, NYC) Review: A comprehensive running list of ALL pastries I've tried so far

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Since The Oasis Cafe‘s Astoria outpost has opened, most weeks I’ve set foot in the store at least twice a week. My cake budget is in a sorry state. I’ve just been too ecstatic for a new bakery opening in the area since the dessert scene in Astoria is so-so to me.

There are cafes and bakeries of differing quality in Astoria, though.

Since witnessing an employee at Paris Baguette drop a spatula on the ground and continue using it to ice a cake, I only (shamefully) go there for sugar emergencies (and always regret it).

Queens Bakehouse while good, is expensive: I don’t always want to spend $14 on a small piece of fancy cake, plus I’ve heard a rumor that they might be closed now they're permanently closed now.

Il Fornaio and New York Bakery are of similar quality and let’s just say I went once and only once.

Leli's Bakery & Pastry Shop was my favorite spot for black and white cookies, but it's changed since new ownership (so the rumor goes).

I am Sonbobs biggest cupcake fan ($3.50) though. And there was a time in my life when I was going to Yaya’s Bakery weekly for ekmek kataifi (baked kataifi covered with a layer of custard, a layer of whipped cream, and nuts) and amygdalota (Greek almond cookies). Cupcakes at Cakes by Nerwan is especially solid if you hate American buttercream and love Swiss/Italian buttercream.

And now I can add The Oasis Cafe to my monthly mix.

Most of the pastries are around $7 each. They make the pastries in-house and at the primary location in Flushing. The Oasis Cafe offers Greek favorites such as freddo espressos, cappuccinos, frappes, baklava, kourabiedes (crumbly, rose-water cookies covered in powdered sugar), and melomakarona (honey walnut cookies).

Everything I've tried so far, rated on a scale of 1 to 5 stars:

Pistachio raspberry mousse ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My kinda dessert exactly. Airy in texture, clear raspberry and pistachio flavors. My favorite sweet I've had at Oasis Cafe.

Raspberry mousse cake ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

They were new as of two weeks ago. The barista told me that these are her current favorite. It was so fresh it was frozen. After thawing, I found it was whipped cream and not whipped topping! The pucker of the jellied raspberry surface layer went well with the slight sweetness of the raspberry mousse layer.

Plain croissant ⭐️⭐️⭐️

$3.45. Good in a pinch! They’re so uniform and big I thought they were Costco croissants and even tried to persuade myself that they were, even though they didn’t smell like it. Throwing them in a warm oven (NOT microwave. The oven is worth the time) for a bit makes them perfect.

Banana cream mini pie ⭐️⭐️⭐️

$8.95. Very heavy pudding. The whipped cream is that fake whipped topping stuff. I would have preferred more banana in there, but my partner loved it. Graham cracker bottom. Would consider getting again.

Strawberry tres leches ⭐️⭐️

$6.95. Had a light sweetness, but the cream, strawberry, and cake were pretty flavorless. Would not get again.

Mini fruit tart and full-sized raspberry tart (NO STARS)

$2.45 mini, $5.75 large. SOGGY BOTTOMS! FLAVORLESS CRUST!

Mango cream cake ⭐️

$6.95. Flavorless. So dense I think the whipped topping must have been mixed with something cream cheese adjacent or something.

Fruit Napoleon ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

$6.95. When I went to The Oasis Cafe this time for a late afternoon treat, they were sold out of the lemon taco, so I settled on the fruit napoleon. Napoleons are always trouble to cut into. Powdered sugar and flakes of puff pastry litered my desk and pants. An appreciated liberal inch (at least!) of lightly sweetened custard/mousse/fruit was sandwiched between the puff pastry.

Lemon taco ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

(January 12, 2024) ($7) The Oasis Cafe Astoria location sells out of lemon tacos sometimes, so I took the opportunity to scoop one up.

It's a stylized lemon meringue tart. Instead of a sweet shortcrust tart shell, they've turned it into two half moons that hug zesty curd filling. A spine of meringue is piped atop then torched. I liked this one a lot, and I think anyone partial to lemon desserts would also like it.

Black forest ⭐️⭐️

(January 14, 2024) ($7) The presentation was very cute, but I'm pretty underwhelmed. This is my first taste of Oasis Cafe's chocolate cakes. The issue with chocolate is if quality chocolate isn't used or techniques to make the flavor of cheaper chocolate and cocoa powder bloom, the chocolate cake will end up tasting pretty bland and not chocolatey. I'm going to give a few other chocolate desserts of theirs a try though.

I could have done without the jelly film layer on the top of the cake because the cherry in it was undetectable. I ended up peeling it off and eating it all before the rest of the cake. I also wish there were a lot more cherries.

Unsurprisingly I really liked the chocolate mousse layer. Also, one of the super friendly women there is beginning to recognize me and slipped a surprise chocolate covered (I think) melomakarona and another melomakarona that wasn't chocolate covered into my box! She's really great.

Strawberry shortcake, Valentine's Day edition ⭐️⭐️⭐️

(February 16, 2024) ($6.50) It's been two days since Valentine's Day so let's hope these aren't too old...

If having a single sorta old glazed strawberry on a pink, fondant-glazed cake makes a cake a strawberry shortcake then sure: this was strawberry shortcake. Being school of thought that says strawberry shortcakes have lots more strawberries and actual whipped cream, this was not strawberry shortcake and the claim confused me.

The perimeter of the sponge was dry, especially where the icing or pour fondant/glaze did not cover the cake, but it was moister inside. The rosette of whipped cream was fake, the pink sprinkles waxy and tasting of bitter dye, and the mirror glaze had a slightly elastic texture, but the taste was fine. The cream inside was also thick and gelatin-heavy.

Almond cookies (Amygdalota) ⭐️⭐️⭐️

(February 16, 2024) ($1.50) I think I was given two for one since they were stuck together! They were chewy, but they can't beat Yaya's.

The verdict

My dessert preference is:

• Semi-sweet > sweet
• Fluffy > dense
• Fruit > chocolate

So I’m more suited to enjoy Asian-style bakeries, like Multisweet LIC (Long Island City NYC).

I’d hazard a guess and say most of the cakes are going to be too dense for me. If you like dense, sweet cakes, Oasis Cafe might be a good place for you.

While The Oasis Cafe’s quality was better than some bakeries of its size, it has the same issue as the others. The Oasis Cafe sells SO MUCH STUFF that it can’t all be fresh. And it isn’t. The older it gets, the more obvious it becomes. If I couldn’t tell by taste, I can tell from how thick the skin on the whipped topping is. I’d like to know what they do with their pastries after two or three days of sitting in the display case. I really hope they throw them away, give them away, or sell them through Too Good To Go.

I think the price is decent for the size you get though. I appreciate how sharable almost all of the pasteries The Oasis Cafe sells are. The people who work there are also always so warm and friendly.

TLDR: Improvement to access to cake in the neighborhood! Like any restuarant or bakery, some bangers, some misses.