The Blue Duck Bakery Cafe

Blue Duck gets a bit more credit than usual, since (although making a comeback,) non-​supermarket independent bakeries are few and far between. I came to Blue Duck on … I think it was right on Memorial Day, after visiting the aquarium.
Immediately, I was confused by what was available. There were some beautiful pastries presented on the counter closest to the entrance, then further down the counter they had pre-​made sandwiches, and on the far end of the long counter I discovered chips and the espresso machine. Maybe I’m blind, but I didn’t see a menu other than a printout on a sign saying what pastries were available that day (didn’t really need that sign, the pastries spoke for themselves). There was a big display advertising a poetry event — that display should have had the menu. I don’t like places where it’s tough to order.
I think I had a chicken salad sandwich, which was good, and all of the pastries were good, better than passable, but not amazing. I will say I was impressed by two different turnover types — a shortbread (??? I probably have that wrong) type, and a flaky type (the kind I like).
I would come again, if only b/​c it’s easily walkable from the aquarium.

The bread is fine but everything else is disgusting.

Love the cheese danish and coffee cake! The staff is great and eager to assist. Highly recommend this place.

Will duck the Blue Duck so-​called bakery from now on … never to return
Went to this bakery in Riverhead on Christmas Eve for some Italian pastries because the reviews were generally positive. The staff is nice and friendly. But the quality & the prices are very bad.
Bought 12 mini canoli, 2 small almond horns and 6 raspberry rugala for $ 52! For that price they should have been excellent.
Instead of fresh, tasty & crispy, the canoli were chewy, tough, dry and odd-​tasting. The almond horns were also tough & chewy as were the rugala.
We were all very disappointed. Threw the entire bunch out. Waste of money.
Never tasted these type pastries to be so bad before at any bakery.

The best bakery in Riverhead. It’s very clean and the bread and desserts are always fresh. There is plenty of seating in the front of the shop. Staff is super nice. Prices are a little high for some items but you get what you pay for. Good consistent quality is worth the extra price.

Came by for a double espresso and wasn’t disappointed … Hit the spot. Very clean. Friendly staff. Very nice bakery selection

Had a few sweets from here and since they were on channel 12 I was expecting so much more. My husband and I ordered a key lime square, two rainbow cookies, and a jumbo chocolate chip cookie.
The key lime pie square tasted nothing of lime actually it had no flavor at all besides powered sugar. Don’t advertise a certain flavor and produce a bland, no flavor product! Not right!
The jumbo chocolate chip cookie was like any other cookie nothing great. I’d rather eat prepackaged than that. There wasn’t even many chocolate chips in it!
The rainbow cookies were very good they were more like mini cakes and for the price $ 20 per pound they better be damn good.
Wouldn’t come here again! Glad I didn’t eat everything since it was all a disappointment I’d rather save my calories on real sweets that taste good!
The atmosphere was very sterile as well. No warmth, no classic bakery smells either. The people behind the counter looked bored and annoyed. I would be too if I worked there with crappy pasteries surrounding me. The breads looked good but wouldn’t bother to try them now.

Tasty soup, onion spinach chicken orzo lemon w/​a nice roll. The turkey Avocado sand which has No Avo buyer beware. I won’t be back because the owner did nothing to adjust. Poor service.

We have been to the Southold, Riverhead, and Greenport locations.
Southold: You can’t park anywhere! A very small store. I like the chocolate bread.
Riverhead: Big store. You can sit at the 10 indoor tables for a quick snack — soup, croissants, coffee. We bought cookies — good. They said that they only bake the chocolate bread on the weekends.
Greenport: tiny store. You can sit at the 2 tables out on the porch. Bought carrot cake; tasted half stale. The cookies, good! Apparently the young girls don’t know how to make an espresso because a customer was complaining about how it was made. He left in a huff.
We also visited them at the Kings Park farmers market. Good bread and croissants.
Bottom line: stick with the chocolate bread and the other breads. Good cookies.

We went to the Blue Duck Bakery today, Clean and very friendly staff. We purchased two cakes. We had a piece of the smaller yellow cake and was very disappointed I found the butter cream to be super sweet and the cake was stale, (hard) not soft and moist as a just freshly baked cake .It was hard to cut as if it had been frozen. We tried it again when we got home, the taste was the same stale. We threw it out without finishing it. What a waste of money. The other cake is for a birthday. I hope it s not like the one we tried. It would be very embarrassing. I’m sorry to say we wont be going back to this bakery. :(also very high priced not worth the money.

…just a shout out from thousands of miles away in the PNW (Seattle, WA) to the Blue Duck Bakery Café and in particular Nancy for accommodating a very unusual request I made via FB Chat, from a total stranger like me, to have a birthday cake delivered to a very special friend and a valued client in her neighborhood. I knew it was a long shot with only a half-​day notice but she made it happen and not only delivered the most beautifully made cake to perfection and dropped it off right on time, from what I hearing, from a distance, it must be heavenly.
Thank you so much for making not only my day, and that of my dear friend and client You Rock!

I was married February 6 2015 at the Suffolk Theater in riverhead and choose Blue Duck Bakery being they were just a few stores down from our venue. I order a sheet cake with our own saying on cake and our cake topper and the cake was created 100 percent to the way i ordered. They delivered the cake on time. THE cake was the most fresh tasting cake I have ever eaten and my guests liked the cake too! thank you blue duck for helping make Sonny and My wedding cake perfect

Today we decided to just drive out a bit and randomly stop somewhere for lunch. We ended up at this great little café, similar to a Panera Bread I guess.
They had some excellent veggie & pesto sandwiches, a great butternut squash soup, and good/​fresh coffee.
The prices were good and the staff was very nice and helpful. We would definitely go back if we lived in the area and wanted some fresh sandwiches/​breads/​pastries/​

A real hometown-​type bakery and café. Our friends’ kids couldn’t get enough of what they were calling their TWITTER cookie! It’s a blue duck, actually but we will forever remember it as the twitter cookie. We took home 3 pies, seriously reminded us all of pies from Mom or Grandma. Flakey soft crust, big fruity insides. The coffee was just ok. Also the workers (or owners?) were super friendly.
Bring kids for the cookies or bring some cookies home to the kids.

This place has absolutely no character. You walk in and you are blasted by white and emptiness. It just feels cold and sterile, more like a morgue than a café. This place should be in a mall and not in downtown Riverhead, which is still lacking a true café setting and still desperately needs one. I had the worst latte I have ever drank. It wasn’t the quality of the espresso (or maybe it was, as all I tasted was milk), but more likely the knowledge or experience of the «barista». The only thing that saves this place with two stars, was the bread.

Met my uncle here for lunch yesterday. We split a quiche Lorraine. Mom had the soup. And we all had a couple of cookies. We enjoyed everything. Good prices, casual atmosphere, tasty food. Will be back.

I had just came from the aquarium and decided i was in the mood for some semolina bread.
The staff were friendly and service was fast.
the bread was just ok nothing to write home about.
if I was in the area I properly would go again

What a pleasant surprise right on Main St in Riverhead. Decided to stop on in after reading a few reviews on Unilocal.The store is bright and everything is sparkling and new. There are beautiful old-​fashioned «tin» tiles on the ceiling. The staff was incredibly accommodating and helpful. We ended up picking out a small sampling of cookies although everything looked great. The lace cookies are HUGE and delicious, the best I’ve ever had. The cookies are a little pricey but I would happily pay a little more for the quality. The bread looked AMAZING! I am so excited about picking up a loaf of Pain de chocolat at my next visit. Yes! Chocolate bread. Coffee and sandwiches too. Go!

Blue Duck Bakery in Riverhead is similar to the store in Southampton. Large store, lots of pies, cookies, pasteries.
They work hard to make them all look well iced, glazed etc.
Tried the apple turnover, the pumpkin pie and the fruit stollen.
The fruit stollen was done extremely well. The others were average. So if your a fruit cake, fruit stollen type, head on over and pick one up here because it really is good.

Had e-​mailed the proprietor months ago and then followed up with him recently and he responded on ¹¹⁄₁₇ with ‘We are having a soft opening Sunday ¹¹⁄₁₅ at 10 or 11 am, then will continue the soft opening Monday at 630am.’ — peculiar copy/​paste job. Then went ahead to call the Southold location on December 2 since there’s no web presence for the Riverhead location currently, who said they’ve opened.
Kind of a big fan of the space and the woman who helped us about 45 minutes before closing on a Sunday evening was friendly. When I took out my card to pay, she hesitated and said they don’t take cards yet (which isn’t unexpected) but then said they have to call them in to one of the other locations to process (not sure how this works with receipts/​etc.) but thought they’d already closed. Pulled out some cash to save the hassle but didn’t mean to catch her off-​guard (you care, I know).
$ 11.45 scored us 3 items:
Their flaky apple turnover (they had a trio of either type) was substantial — don’t normally entice me but nothing else struck me. Pretty tasty but uninnovative; well-​executed pastry, don’t know if these types of things are ever filled with seasonal or local apples, but wouldn’t advise against it.
The carrot cake was unremarkable but without flaws (though not flawless — well, semantically,…).
Sunflower loaf was hearty and inoffensive but didn’t leave the family looking to go back for that in particular.
Really appreciate that this East End now-​mini-​chain is aspirational about Riverhead’s rising. Like every other new business (it’s adjacent to the new Ralph’s) with a shimmer of hope in the area, I want The Blue Duck to make it despite any controversy
. Given the new hotels nearby that shockingly don’t seem as empty as I expected, maybe that’s not as quixotic as I initially thought.