The Blue Rooster Bakery & Cafe
A Cranbury, NJ Restaurant Rating and Review

The Blue Rooster Bakery & Cafe 17 North Main Street Cranbury, NJ 08512 (609) 235-7539
Price Moderate-Expensive Fare European-American Restaurant Ratings Food 3.0 Stars Service 2.0 Stars Decor 2.5 Stars Overall Rating 2.5 Stars	New Jersey Leisure guide is the largest single source of complete and impartial NJ restaurant reviews. Unlike other sources that review restaurants on the basis of a single visit by a restaurant critic, or on the basis of restaurant diners, our restaurant ratings and reviews take into account a wider audience and are the result of a compilation of many sources, including restaurant critics and diners who have eaten there. Learn more about the process we use to rate New Jersey restaurants.
Restaurant Review
The Blue Rooster Bakery and Cafe, located in the historic village of Cranbury in an attractive 1850 Victorian house, is an old fashioned bakery, café, and gourmet takeout shop, serving up fresh, healthy food and produce using the best local ingredients whenever possible. After corporate careers and living abroad, Karen Finigan and her husband Bob returned from Ireland to where she grew up in Cranbury to open the Rooster Bakery & Cafe in September, 2009. Karen Finigan handles the staff, patrons, and dining area with husband Bob supervising the baking, and Exec chef Lois Gullace, running the kitchen. The restaurants immediate success was attributable to serving up well prepared non-traditional breakfast, lunch, and four different afternoon tea services. Recently they have opened on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings for fine dining, well prepared dinner. The decor is set in two sunny, attractive, cozy dining rooms with gas fireplaces, hardwood floors, and bay windows, and a library for guests to relax with a book and a snack, and in the warmer months you can eat out on the columned front porch. The rooms are decorated with artwork on local scenes and inspirational words on how to respect cultures and communities. The Blue Rooster Bakery and cafe strives to use locally grown fruits and vegetables and features healthy, made-to-order breakfasts. Their baking is done in an oven using stone tiles and steam baking, imported from France. Their success is built on their preparation of exceptionally well prepared artisan breads and pastries, including, baguettes, cinnamon raisin, apricot walnut, pain de campagne, sourdough rye, fougasse, focaccia, and authentic Irish soda bread made from an old Finigan family recipe. The breakfast foods are not your franchise restaurant variety-- here you can find real maple syrup, organic eggs, real fruit preserves, and custom-roasted coffees and espresso. Their lunches feature homemade soups, gourmet salads and sandwiches. They also have a take out bakery and with bottles provided to allow you to take Italian oil and vinegar home and return for refills. Their fine dining BYOB dinner is offered with a menu that changes weekly and features duck, pork, chicken, seafood, fresh pasta, risotto as well as a variety of small dishes for those that enjoy menu sharing. Desserts are well prepared and made mostly in house. The Mocha Cheesecake is very popular, and when available, the “Opera Cake” from the notable Little Chef French bakery in Princeton. Be prepared to come, sit back, and relax, as the service at the Blue Rooster Bakery and Cafe tends to be slow, especially on weekends. Most of the wait staff consists of 18+ age staff with little professional training.