Chester Street Bakery for Dessert

Chester Street Bakery and Bar
http://www.chesterstreet.com.au/

I'd heard about Chester Street Bakery on the food blog circuit since it's been on the Talk of The Town Urbanspoon page for what feels like months. I kept trying to find friends to go with me but no one baited so eventually I gave up. Thankfully, the food Gods were in my favour. Last week, I got an invite from the lovely guys at Lucid Media to try the new dessert offerings at Chester Street Bakery.

I asked Jenny to come along with me because we share the same extreme enthusiasm for sweet treats. She had also been to Chester Street for dessert not that long ago so I figured she would have good recommendations.

We arrived just after 7:30pm on a Monday, which probably isn't the most happening of hours of the week but it was rather quiet. Since I'd never been to Chester Street before, I was surprised by how remote it was. It was surrounded by warehouses and there weren't any other food places nearby. Jenny and I hypothesised that Chester Street Bakery is one of those places you go to if you know it's there rather than walk past and pop in.

The restaurant decor is cute and pretty, very suited to the term 'bakery' and invokes thoughts of eating home cooked food. The neon lights give it a bit of a night time zing. There are indoor seating options but we took up a table in the white picket fenced front section. The huge heaters made it pleasant even though it was a cool night.

Pimm's cup - pimm's fresh seasonal fruit, topped with lemonade and ginger ale

It's always cocktail hour in my eyes so I started my night with our waitress's recommendation of the Pimm's cup. It was so light and refreshing and not at all too sweet. I think this would be a great Sunday session drink and it's good to know that Chester Street offers it in jugs.

Chai latte

Jenny ordered the chai latte which was especially creamy and frothy. I used to order chai latte all the time at cafes and this made me question why I haven't done so recently. They're a delicious drink and great for the colder months.

Chocolate fondant - with malted milk ice-cream and ovaltine crunch

We decided to order try two desserts. Both the waitress and Jenny recommended the chocolate fondant so that's what I ended up getting. It arrived with the chocolate fondant as the centre feature and a side of icecream on a bed of malt crumble.

Molten chocolate centre

I dived straight into the chocolate cake, stabbing it apart with my fork and watching the ooze of chocolate lava. Delicioso. Jenny urged me to slow down and savour the cake with some of the other elements. The ice-cream was plain but welcomingly so and the crumble added the all important crunch factor.

Honeycomb parfait - with chocolate brownie and warm chocolate sauce

We were warned the honeycomb parfait would be huge and on that front, it surely fit the brief. Not only was the parfait itself big, there was also a generous chunk of decadent chocolate brownie. This is something that I would recommend to be shared between two. Or eaten as a main :D. We discussed what a parfait was and my understanding is that it's a frozen cream mixture that doesn't have air beaten into it like ice-cream does, giving it a much denser composition. There was a distinct honey comb flavour with the odd honeycomb piece. The whole log was smothered in a rich chocolate sauce. I was warmly reminded of how Crunchie Bars were my favourite childhood chooclate.

As sizeable as our desserts were, we managed to devour most of them. I pretty much had to go home immediately afterwards in a sugar coma of sleepiness. I think it's a mark of how well balanced the desserts were that we could actually eat so much of them. I'm normally the first person to cry "it's too sweet" but there wasn't an issure with cloying sweetness here, even though we ordered arguably two of the richest offerings.

I think that Chester Street has a nice vibe that transcends from day to night. Even though the look of the place is quintessentially 'brunchy', we were right at home munching on our sweets and sipping on cocktails. My picks of the night were the chocolate fondant and Pimm's cup cocktail.