Dessert at Cowch

Cowch Dessert and Cocktail Bar
http://cowch.com.au/ 

This must be one of the fastest hype-to-try reviews I've done in a long time. By that I mean in the space of a week, I first noticed this dessert bar with a group of girlfriends, heard everyone talking about it in person and on the internet (unrelated sources, I might add) the next day, and then went on to try it for myself a day later. At least my curiosity didn't have too long to develop.

We were considering having dessert at French Martini but Lilly mentioned that she heard there was a new dessert bar in Southbank. I quickly piped up that yes, I had seen it and everyone was talking about it and we were both keen to try it right away. Marc was less enthused because he wanted to get back to Origin but we overpowered him.

Cowch is spatially expansive and has plenty of seating variations including outdoor lounges, square tables and a long bench. We plonked ourselves down at one of the lounges. The menus look like magazines and if you take the time to leaf through, there are some cute illustrations of cows doing silly things.

There are lots of desserts and drinks on offer, including alcoholic drinks, frozen yoghurt, ice-cream and cakes. One of the things that caught my eye when I first noticed Cowch is their DIY paddlepop option where you can choose the flavour, dip it in some chocolate and cover it with a topping.

The system at Cowch is to order at the counter and then be given a table locator pad. We were instructed to put this at our table, ensuring it's flat, and I assume this lets the waiter know where we are sitting. I think this is a good idea for any venue that covers a lot of space because I've often seen waitstaff running around trying to find where their order goes.

Dip and Chill - with chocolate frozen yoghurt, M and Ms and churros

Marc's pick of the evening was the Dip and Chill. It was a huge serve of chocolate frozen yoghurt with some churros to use as dipping sticks. He was allowed one topping and being the big child that he is, he selected M and M's. None of us thought the churros looked any good and Marc confirmed that they were burnt and skinny and generally poor. What was more disappointing was that there was a chocolate and pistachio flavour and Marc didn't choose that (let me clarify this is Marc's fault not Cowch's fault).

Ice-cream with berry topping

Lilly spent some time at the ice-cream counter trying flavours. She ended up going for chocolate, plus the pineapple and basil. I've had enough positive experiences of basil with fruit to believe this would be a great mix. Lilly commented that it was a very refreshing taste.

Udder Puffs - with crunchy peanut butter ice-cream, toppings and chocolate sauce

My own pick was the Udder Puffs. I imagined a profiterole-like light puff filled with ice-cream and topping. The puff component was more like a Yorkshire pudding. It is supposedly cooked fresh but it tasted a bit soggy and chewy. The ice-cream itself was very yummy. I went for the first flavour that caught my eye, which was the crunchy peanut butter. It was very nice but perhaps too sweet. I had the choice of three toppings and I went for cookies and cream, tim tam and the crumble. Everything just became a mush of overly sweetness and without the nice puff element I was expecting, it was too much and I couldn't finish my dessert.

I really liked the vibe and decor at Cowch. A venue that offers such a comprehensive range of desserts PLUS booze is surely a winner for any after dinner excursion. My gripe is that the items we tasted weren't too amazing. I liked my ice-cream but it started tasting overbearingly sweet after a few mouthfuls. The puff in my dessert and Marc's churros were outright disappointing. I would like to go back and try their drinks though.