What Is Your Favorite Restaurant Dessert?

I am not a big dessert person. In fact I am not a big fan of sweets in general. I get my sugar from things like sweet tea. However, occasionally I feel like getting dessert when I go out to a nice meal. My choices are almost always the same. If there is something involving apple or pear that is probably first. Next is probably something like creme brulee. After that maybe some other fruit concoction (minus banana or coconut which I abhor). And after that, much farther down on the list are things like chocolate, peanut butter, etc. (unless I have had the place’s dessert and it rocks).

Long story short . . . what do you guys like? Why?

My go to is usually creme brulee with a selection of fresh berries, pots de creme or an assortment of cheeses. I most always finish with a bottle of sauternes so these selections work well for my tastes.

Seldom order dessert - unless there’s bread pudding or panna cotta on the menu, both of which which I find nigh impossible to resist. Also a bit of a sucker for the unusual-to-bizarre, like the (Japanese fermented) red bean (paste) ice cream at Repast or the black (Forbidden) rice pudding at Shaun’s.

I’m with you on the dessert at Repast Bob. MF has some excellent desserts as well. Lisa is a very gifted pastry chef. I really love the black sesame/green tea ice cream parfait thingie she does.

creme brulee
panna cotta

If neither of those are on the dessert menu I find it very easy to pass on dessert (I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but do have an insatiable salt tooth). If either of those are on the dessert menu, it’s virtually impossible for me to pass. I like that both of these options aren’t heavy, and I am a sucker for vanilla.

Or I’ll go with a cheese plate.

Cheese plate! If there’s a fig involved (or a medjool date) that’s a bonus.

I’ll join the crowd and also nominate a well-done cheese plate. Some restaurants really get into putting together nice selections of cheeses, whether from local farms & dairys or imported, and I almost always like to finish a meal like that.

Big sweet tooth here but not a chocolate fan. Baked Alaska or Bananas Foster or Pineapple Upsidedown Cake or Bread Pudding or well-made Souffle will all get my attention.

My wife usually goes for the triple-chocolate-lava-molten-eruption-thingie.

I go one of two ways. If there is a house pastry chef, I’ll order the things I can’t create: Mille-feuille, Tiramisu, Strudel, etc.

If there isn’t a pro on board, I pick the cheese plate.

First tasted at Brennen’s in Houston - still my favorite!

Best desert I’ve had in a good while are some hazelnut meringue cookie jobbers with burnt caramel and seasalt gelatto enjoyed with Madeira or Vin Santo.

Regularly on the menu at Perbacco. If it sounds at all good to you, do yourself a favor and try it. Two people can split it it, not too big, and damn, it’s that fucking good.

  1. Creme Brulee
  2. Creamy (not dry) Cheesecake (just plain - no funky flavors or swirls or toppings!)
  3. Grand Marnier Souffle
  4. if the above aren’t on the menu, a dish of vanilla ice cream will do just fine, thank you!

All of the above go well with Sauternes, Muscats or Tokay, which I most often finish a meal with.

If I’m having a vintage port at the end of the meal, nothing beats rich chocolate truffles!

It used to be stuff like Chocolate Souflee, or crepes w nutella and strawberries. But then last year I had really good flan, and now that has become my favorite… And before I used to despise flan. It was life-changing flan! Go figure.

Also, am a fan of specialty ice creams. There’s a restaurant that makes their own Caramel/ Fleur de Sel ice cream, and another that makes Spearmint Ice Cream with Vanilla bean. Pretty awesome.

do you enjoy it more because it is forbidden

Don’t know. Might be just as good, even better, if made with purple sticky rice or Himalayan red rice.

A cheese platter with Sauternes or Port.

Occasionally a rich chocolate or fruit dessert.

It really depends a lot on the restaurant.

Sold! pepsi

Whatever they have that goes with Sauternes.
Creme Brulee and cheese are usually my go-tos too.
Parcel 104 used to do an awesome tapioca pudding that went well too.

I don’t have a sweet tooth and almost never order dessert. That being said, there are two that stick out:

A mango creme brulee we had at The Beach House in Kauai while sipping on a '95 Yquem, and the truffled popcorn at The Kitchen in Sacramento.

I am not a Sauturnes guy. I would rather have Port or a dessert wine from somewhere like Austria or Germany. And any of those in lieu of dessert honestly.