Salt @ Rosalie for Dessert

Salt Food Wine Coffee
5 Nash St, Paddington



After finishing a gloriously heavy meal at Archive, what better to do than find somewhere to have dessert? Look, it's not because I'm piggy, alright? I haven't been out to eat in a long while. I have obligations as a food blogger. This is about doing it for Hungry Kittens! And not at all about my sweet tooth :D.



I've exhausted most of the 'dessert' places around Brisbane. It's a mark of how dedicated I am to finding new restaurants to write about that I resisted the temptation of going to Max Brenner. Where else then? With Freestyle out of the question (I've blogged that place twice now), there are limited options. Most cafes that specialize in desserts don't last long (I only just found out today that Room4Dessert has closed down) or have been visited already (Milany and Mud come to mind) so we thought we'd just find a random restaurant and try out their dessert menu.


Salt is located in an area I think of as Rosalie but for some reason is listed on Google as being in 'Paddington'. I suppose it's just definitional. Anyway, from the outside it looks like a regular Modern Australian, slightly expensive restaurant. We saw that yes, they did offer dessert and we took the gamble.

We sat in the 'outside' area of Salt which is actually still undercover. Thank goodness for that because the weather today was very wet.

The waiter asked if we'd like coffee to start with. Hien ordered a mocha (his usual) and I followed suit with a latte (my usual).

Latte

The coffee was our first shock of the night. They remind me of the Edith Piaf at Three Monkeys which is coffee served in a bowl. These are roughly the same size as those which is roughly the same size as your head. Well maybe not quite that big but close to it. The latte was excellent - a great coffee blend that was rich but not bitter.

Mocha

With Hien's mocha version, he also got a shot glass of chocolate syrup to adjust how sweet it was. He was warned by the lovely waitress not to shot it. Being the coffee noob that he is, he upended the whole lot into the coffee and proclaimed it was a great mocha.

Mars Bar Creme Brulee - with cream and ice-cream

Hien's dessert choice was the Mars Bar creme brulee, which was what I was also considering. It sounded novel in a way that it might not taste good but you still want to try it. It... well, I'll describe my impression of this dessert. Hien tried some and said 'OMG... you have to taste this'.

Layers of the brulee

I had a bit and thought 'WOW'. It was really something. Like a Mars Bar punch in the face with crunchy bits. I thought it was amazing but it was so rich and sweet that I dared not go for a second taste and had to wash down the flavor with some ice-cream (the ice-cream tasted like water compared to the brulee). Hien had to finish the whole thing and he was really struggling after 3 scoops. We think this is a great dessert but perhaps best served at 1/4 of the size and which a bigger amount of ice-cream/cream.

Fig and brandy pudding - with ice-cream, caramel sauce and banana

I tried my fig and brandy pudding AFTER I had a bit of the creme brulee and thought I might not be able to taste anything. Astonishingly, the pudding still held its own. It had an obvious fig flavor with a naughty alcoholic undertone that wasn't subtle or overbearing. I liked the crunchy exterior of the pudding and it went perfectly with the caramel sauce and smooth vanilla ice-cream.

Pudding texture

The inside texture was a bit too dry/cake-like and if it was moist like a sticky date, it would have been perfection. I was unenthusiastic about the banana until I tried some with the pudding... it is all just 'meant to be'.

To me, Salt was the ultimate 'lucky find'. We stumbled in not knowing what to expect and instead, found a lovely restaurant that does great coffee and dessert. Our waitress was so friendly and cheery... when she saw me straining to take photos of the restaurant over Hien's head, she thought I was trying to get a photo of us together and offered to take one for us. It was one of those occasions where everything from food and ambiance to service and price was on the ball.