Chocolate (64%) Dessert from Hot Chocolate
Item Purchased: Chocolate (64%) Dessert from Hot Chocolate
Location Purchased: Hot Chocolate / 1747 N. Damen / Chicago, IL
Price: $10.00 + tax
Review: Hot Chocolate is one of those establishments that is alluring because of a) its name, b) its specialty (hot chocolate) and c) its presentation. Accolades given to a place simply because it slings remixed sugar or makes your soon-to-be-eaten dinner look pretty always make me suspicious. I grew even more suspicious when the waiter asked my girlfriend and I if we wanted bottled water or tap water. Uh... Is that an attempt to upsell us? Tap water please.
Hot Chocolate is fancy. Fancy in decor, fancy in drink and fancy in eats. Regardless of all of this fance, the waiters dress in blue jeans and the tap water most definitely comes from a Chicago tap. It seems to be an establishment trying to hang with both crowds that live and dwell in the Wicker Park/Bucktown area. We were just trying to get some dessert.
The dessert my girlfriend and I picked to share was the Chocolate (64%) dish. It sounded simple and scrumptious enough. After a few minutes, we received an extremely oversized white plate with an edible minimalist sculpture in the middle of it. The sculpture consisted of a warm chocolate souffle tart, a dollop of salted caramel ice cream already melting down the sides and a wiry pretzel of sorts that crowned our dessert like the sinner's thorns we probably deserved. I'm just not sure whether the sin was what I paid for this dessert or the richness of the chocolate itself.
Mind you, paying ten dollars for a small dessert doesn't bother me every once in a while, but being the frugal person I am, there are certain expectations attached to such a purchase.
The souffle melted and stuck in our mouths, coating our glands with chocolate lusts I didn't know were possible in such a small bite. The caramel ice cream was better than most others I have tried, but the highlight was the pretzel topping. Thinner than any pretzel I have ever seen before, the brittle headpiece contained a strong dough flavor and overwhelming saltiness needed to combat the richness of the sugar underneath.
I don't know if it was worth $10.00, but it was a damn good dessert. (And yes, they have $5.00 milkshakes at Hot Chocolate as well.)
I doubt I will be going back anytime soon or frequently, but Hot Chocolate was a nice cap to a lazy Sunday spent lounging around with the woman I love. This restaurant could put a little less love into their foods' appearance and a give customers a little more quantity to love if they wanted to earn paying schlubs like me as a repeat customer.
Rating: 3.5 / 5
Location Purchased: Hot Chocolate / 1747 N. Damen / Chicago, IL
Price: $10.00 + tax
Review: Hot Chocolate is one of those establishments that is alluring because of a) its name, b) its specialty (hot chocolate) and c) its presentation. Accolades given to a place simply because it slings remixed sugar or makes your soon-to-be-eaten dinner look pretty always make me suspicious. I grew even more suspicious when the waiter asked my girlfriend and I if we wanted bottled water or tap water. Uh... Is that an attempt to upsell us? Tap water please.
Hot Chocolate is fancy. Fancy in decor, fancy in drink and fancy in eats. Regardless of all of this fance, the waiters dress in blue jeans and the tap water most definitely comes from a Chicago tap. It seems to be an establishment trying to hang with both crowds that live and dwell in the Wicker Park/Bucktown area. We were just trying to get some dessert.
The dessert my girlfriend and I picked to share was the Chocolate (64%) dish. It sounded simple and scrumptious enough. After a few minutes, we received an extremely oversized white plate with an edible minimalist sculpture in the middle of it. The sculpture consisted of a warm chocolate souffle tart, a dollop of salted caramel ice cream already melting down the sides and a wiry pretzel of sorts that crowned our dessert like the sinner's thorns we probably deserved. I'm just not sure whether the sin was what I paid for this dessert or the richness of the chocolate itself.
Mind you, paying ten dollars for a small dessert doesn't bother me every once in a while, but being the frugal person I am, there are certain expectations attached to such a purchase.
The souffle melted and stuck in our mouths, coating our glands with chocolate lusts I didn't know were possible in such a small bite. The caramel ice cream was better than most others I have tried, but the highlight was the pretzel topping. Thinner than any pretzel I have ever seen before, the brittle headpiece contained a strong dough flavor and overwhelming saltiness needed to combat the richness of the sugar underneath.
I don't know if it was worth $10.00, but it was a damn good dessert. (And yes, they have $5.00 milkshakes at Hot Chocolate as well.)
I doubt I will be going back anytime soon or frequently, but Hot Chocolate was a nice cap to a lazy Sunday spent lounging around with the woman I love. This restaurant could put a little less love into their foods' appearance and a give customers a little more quantity to love if they wanted to earn paying schlubs like me as a repeat customer.
Rating: 3.5 / 5
posted by Kevin | permalink |
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home