Pt. 2 - we have to have dessert!!
After our delicious lunch at Chinatown Brassiere, I had wanted to take my friends to a dessert bar in the area that kept up with the asian dining theme of the day. I had heard about Spot Dessert Bar in the East Village from a television show and i was excited to try. Spot Dessert Bar bases itself as a place that has the typical "american" desserts with an asian twist. I guess this is what intrigued me to visit being you really don't associate asian cuisine with desserts. I was anxious to see how and to what level this was executed.
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| Yuzu Eskimo, White Miso Semi Fredo, Green Tea Lava |
Walking along St. Marks place, the restaurant can be easily missed. We walked pass twice without realizing the entrance is below street level at the bottom of a small set of stairs. In we went, the place itself is pretty small, seating for no more that 20 people (cramped). We sat down looked over the menu and discussed what we should order. On the menu they have categories of dessert- dessert tapas, cupcakes & pastries and ice creams/sorbets. We all decided to get 3 different dessert tapas.
We decided on Yuzu Eskimo, White Miso Semi Fredo, and the Green Tea Lava Cake. The presentations were all very pretty and simple. You could definitely tell that the colors of the desserts were taken into consideration when they were picking out plates. Everything popped out from the plate, looking even more appetizing.
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| Whte Miso Semifreddo, Raspberry Sorbet |
Its always said that you eat with your eyes and as you can see everything looked delicious. The white miso semifreddo was probably the most ordinary out of the three. It was vanilla cake with frozen custard layers. The custard was flavored with white miso in a vague way. I think the only reason why we pin-pointed the flavor was because we were looking for it. In my opinion it could have used a touch more. The sorbet that accompanied it was good- not bad and not outstanding.
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| Green Tea Lava Cake with Green Tea Ice Cream |
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| Green Tea White Chocolate oozing out |
Then it was the green tea lava cake. Now chocolate lava cake is on menus everywhere and is probably one of the most popular desserts so it makes perfect sense to have it at an actual dessert bar. I liked the variation of the the green tea white chocolate center even though it was a little too green (i hate un-natural colors in food. Green tea is really not all that green :). The cake was moist and the flavor of the green tea worked well- especially with the white chocolate because it balanced out the sweetness. The green tea ice cream tasted good- not chalky which tends to be the case with many things green tea flavored. Overall- a well executed dessert.
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| Yuzu Eskimo |
Now- saving the best for last. We all agreed that the Yuzu Eskimo was the best dessert out of the three. For people who dont know what yuzu is - (a japanese citrus fruit that taste like a cross between lime & grapefruit). Combined with what I know of a typical eskimo dessert-( marshmellow or vanilla ice cream covered with chocolate) I figured together the taste would be interesting to say the least. I was right, first you get the sour and acidic sweetness from the yuzu, then the creams mellows it out. The oreo crumbles add a bite of texture and breaks up the cream. The raspberry foam was like air- very light and tart with a hint of sweet. Great combination.
Now you would think with a review like this I would definitely go back to Spot Dessert Bar again right?? Wrong- I don't think I would ever go back all because of the service. Before going I did read a couple of negative reviews regarding the service and they were right. Our waitress/host was a little on the rude side having an attitude with many customers. Remember earlier how I said this place is small- so you would think that they would try to utilize all seats right- Ha, wrong. The table across from us could have sat six people but was occupied by an employees child. The little girl had her toys all over the table and not once did the other employees move her so customers could sit down. Let me also mention that there was a wait to get in. We watched at least 4 different parties leave because they were not allowed to sit at that table and when the hostess was questioned about that situation, she replied with an attitude "no, you have to wait for another table to open". Craziness. This is very unfortunate because I would have probably gone back just for the Yuzu Eskimo. Maybe for their sake they realized that good food & good service go hand in hand. You cant be fully successful without both. Oh well, onto the next one............
