Puddin’: A New Shop on St. Mark’s Place Devoted to, Yep, Fancy-Pants Pudding

Puddin’, a new storefront at 102 St. Mark’s Place (212-477-3537), is continuing the trend of single-item foods, with this shop devoted to all things pudding-related. It opened earlier this month and seems to have had some hiccups in its opening days: The first four times we stopped by, it was closed because they’d run out of pudding. A visit yesterday, however, proved fruitful (although the pudding was being served only after 4 p.m.), and we were able to get our hands on the goods.

The menu is composed of plain puddings (chocolate, vanilla. banana, butterscotch, coffee, lemon, rice, and coconut) ranging from $5.50 for eight ounces to $12.50 for 20 ounces. Toppings (caramel sauce, brownie pieces, sprinkles, coconut-soaked lime cake, to name a few) are $1, or you can get ready-made parfaits, which include selected toppings. Those go for $6.50 for eight ounces or $9.25 for 12.

According to its website, Puddin’ uses milk, eggs, and butter from Battenkill Valley Creamery and 70 percent dark chocolate from Icelandic confectioner Noí Síríus. We opted for the caramel macchiato parfait (coffee and chocolate puddings, brownie pieces, and salted caramel sauce) and the banana cream dream parfait (banana pudding, graham cracker crumbs, banana cake, and whipped cream). An eight-ounce portion is on the small side, enough for a skimpy single serving.

The ingredients did taste top-notch, but we’re sad to admit that our pudding tasted, well, kind of grainy, especially the banana one. The caramel macchiato was the better of the two desserts, featuring cool, smooth chocolate pudding that tasted like the ideal version you spooned up as a kid. But the banana pudding was super-grainy, and even the coffee pudding had a five-minutes-too-long overcooked texture.

While this concept is definitely cute (though on the expensive side), given our somewhat underwhelming experience, we’d suggest waiting to pay a visit here until pudding chef Clio Goodman and her team have sorted out their opening jitters.