This review is based solely on two of our favorite desserts in the city.
Chocolate Cake
Now it’s important to know that there are 2 sizes. There is the individual, which is meant for 1 person. Then there is the double, which is meant for 2 people. The individual is about $10 and the double is about $16. Most people get the double, which is what you tend to see in pictures. It obviously has more of the wow factor when presented – it’s really quite huge and it’s meant to be shared or saved for more than one go.
Anyway, I always get the double. Now I agree that the double is huge, but the bottom line is every single time I’ve gotten it, I’ve eaten every last bite of it myself and with ice cream added, too. Though, in fairness, I’ve never seen a chocolate cake that I haven’t been able to take down, so I’m not really a good measure. But I will say that definitely on average 2-4 people can split this. 2 people if they’re hungry and in the mood for dessert and 4 people if they just want something sweet to end on after the meal.
Now let me describe the cake. It’s a layered cake, alternating chocolate cake with chocolate ganache. It’s dark chocolate, so it is not too sweet. People confuse the words “sweet” and “rich” all the time and it’s nearly impossible to get a straight answer out of a server about whether the cake is actually “sweet”. People assume a large all-chocolate cake is sweet. Why? Because it has sugar in it? I get that all desserts are sweet to some extent, but there’s a huge difference between how sweet caramel or a crème brûlée is and how sweet a dark chocolate cake is. Dark chocolate isn’t sweet, but it can be rich. Ok, moving on from the digression.
So yes, it has alternating layers of chocolate cake and chocolate ganache with a solid and thick ganache layer on the very top of the cake. Honestly not too sweet in the best possible way. Well, the cake part is definitely not too sweet. The ganache is a little bit sweeter, and the part on top of the cake is particularly dense as well. The cake is moist, has a great flavor, not dry at all, but surprisingly it is not as rich and dense as other cakes I’ve had. Maybe this is why I could actually eat the double portion. It’s really not as heavy as it looks in pictures. Eating a flourless chocolate cake this size or something similar would be much more impossible. I wouldn’t say this was light – no. But it was surprisingly not too heavy. It’s just delicious and wonderful and despite the fact that this restaurant can be found outside of NYC, too, it’s still one of the classic chocolate cakes in the city. I love it.
Cheesecake
This is surprisingly one of the better cheesecakes in the city. Restaurant (as opposed to bakery) cheesecakes are generally just fine. This was great. It was a good portion (meant for 1) and it was creamy, substantial, not very sweet, and the right balance between light and heavy. Some cheesecakes are too airy and nearly melt by the time you finish them even though you eat them quickly. Some are so dense and heavy you feel like you’re eating fudge. This was just the right balance. We’d highly recommend. The cheesecake is served with a tart blueberry compote.
They also have a flourless chocolate cake and a carrot cake that look pretty good and given how good these two desserts are, I’d say the others are safe bets too.
