Waffles!

I've loved waffles since I had a steaming hot one with cream on a rainy, cold day in Brussels last year. So I found myself in Chocolate Soup again, this time with P (holding my phone cos we were trying diff aperture settings on my camera) and decided to try out their yummy waffles this time with two scoops of vanilla ice-cream, caramel sauce and chocolate soup!

Once again I was not disappointed with Chocolate Soup's unique dessert menu: absolutely yummy and sweet but very, very messy (the caramel is sticky-as it should be) and not conducive to conversation at the same time as you have to eat the whole thing quickly before the ice-cream melts!

PS: P asked for a hot chocolate and instead he got a chocolate soup, same thing that happened to J few months back when she ordered a choc sundae and it was the same dude! plus he was just as rude as the last time, when we asked him where the hot choc was, he practically shouted at us pointing out to the big huge bowl of milk and chocolate. How the hell are we supposed to know? last time we checked hot chocolate was a drink and it came in a cup not a bowl. They really need to watch people's orders and their service especially if their drinks menu is so twisted, the least they can do is explain before they pour you a big bowl of sweet chocolate.

More Choc Soup shennanigans

So I decided to take my friends to Chocolate Soup, and this time we all got to experiment. I got the French toast, which aint nothin' like a French toast. It's more toast with cream cheese, and walnuts. Served with maple syrup (I heart maple syrup). Now I was in the mood for something sweet and the toastie was very savoury unless I dipped it completely in maple syrup, which I'm guessing was the idea (although not enough maple syrup) but probably more appropriate as breakfast and not as dessert. The guys got Fresh fruit fondue which was quite smashing, fruit was fresh (did not taste like out of a can), the choc was bitter (although some did not like that) and it also came with marshmallows and popcorn! trés cute! J asked for a choc-fudge sundae and they gave her choc soup instead. So not right! (Just the other day I was complaining about the crappy service in Ireland when it comes to food and am not happy to say that unfortunately choc soup aren't too big into their customer service either)

Anyway J asked twice if that was her sundae, and the bewildered manager told her (quite harshly) "Yes it's hot chocolate sundae" so J was like whatever, maybe she was wrong. Of course one spoonful and she knew that it was chocolate soup not sundae. She felt sick, cos 'eating' choc soup is like eating hot chocolate with a spoon. And copious amounts of whipped cream. How can you mix soup up with sundae? Duh!

An hour later, and the chocolate fondue in the cup had solidified, that's how cold it was. See JL looking bemused.

Everyone loved the location, one thing I hadn't noticed before was how you could walk on this see through glass strip on the floor oh, and the Habitat lights rock!

Next time I'm trying the Brownie-icecream sandwich! and their hot fudgalicious cake!

PS: L told me that apparently Haagen Dazs do fondue as well, and so do Brasserie 66, next stop...Fondue baby!

Chocolate soup...?

I happened to chance across a futuristic-looking* little cafe on Debenham's second floor on Henry Street the other day, called Chocolate Soup. What an odd name for a cafe I thought, soup and cholocate, weird combo or what?

One glance at the menu and I found out Chocolate soup is actually a dessert that this place specialised in. It's made of chocolate, cream and milk with different flavourings. But I tend to like my soups savoury (and less calorific) so I decided to forego the weird concoction (don't worry I'll be trying it tomorrow or one day) for one of the numerous other sweet delights they had on offer.

Usually cafes in Dublin offer tonnes of French pastries and scones with some stale, defrosted chocolate cake slices or below par cheescakes. But this place is not your ordinary cafe. Among the usual fare, they had, wait for it...chocolate fondue! (shrieks of Oh-my-god) , they had this brownie sandwich which is stuffed with ice-cream and sauce in the middle and they had french toast!

No ordinary French Toast, let me tell you. This French Toast was chock full of yummy-sweet goodness, with ice-cream and bananas and what not. Not only that, they seem to be one of the few places that actually do proper pancakes. And I mean pancakes not crepes. (Note to all European eateries, those flimsy, crispy things are not pancakes (And where's the maple syrup godammit?!)

So there I was standing in the middle of the queue my mind reeling with the various possibilitiesI had to send my taste buds into space, when a creamy demure looking piece of cake caught my eye. It sat next to the humdrum, ubiquitous chocolate cake (Borrrrinnng) and looked like it needed someone to believe in it. And you know what? I went for it. It was called Pear and Cookie cake. Really soft and fluffy, with fresh cream and juicy pears. There was no sign of cookie though. Which is just as well, as biscuits and cake should never meet as far as I'm concerned. Biscuit is cake's poor cousin and they should remain separate. Forever. (Unless it's biscuit and ice-cream or ice-cream and cake, and it's maybe OK for cheesecake but then again cheesecake ain't really cake is it now?)

That's probably one of the best cakes I've had in Dublin in a long time.

*And what's really chic and original about Chocolate Soup (apart from their left-of-field dessert menu) is their seating area: It's a long, narrow corridor slightly jutting out of the second-floor building that looks like it belongs in some trendy part of Tokyo or something.