| rev:text
| - Overall, this place is a welcome addition to the dessert scene in Richmond Hill.
Pros: A cute, well-decorated dessert place with OK-to-good service that accepts reservations and call-aheads for made-to-order items (like soufflés, molten chocolate cake, and crème brûlée). Vanilla souffle is incredibly light and well-balanced. Decaf coffee is on offer.
Cons: Limited selection of mostly simple sweets and long waits for tables and made-to-order items. Macarons need improvement. Price for tea was slightly shocking at $4.25 for loose-leaf in a tea bag.
Came in on a Friday evening after reserving over the phone. They advised us there would still be a 15 minute wait after arrival. After we arrived to a nearly full place, we still waited 20-25 minutes. The minimalist decor is great with an exposed brick wall, hanging exposed bulbs, a window into the kitchen, and a blue-silver-turquoise-orange theme. Whoever did the graphic/interior design, thumbs up!
Besides their made-to-order items, they also offer some macarons (five flavours), milk-bottle puddings (three flavours), already-packaged butter cookies, and a cake of the day (tofu cheesecake when we were there). I found the selection a bit limited, as some of the items were quite simple and not that appealing to me (personal preference).
The vanilla soufflé ($8.75) itself was airy and light with a good balance of vanilla flavour and sweetness. It does begin to collapse very quickly and it is very easy to eat. They have various sauce flavours to go along with it, but both my dining companion and I preferred to eat it without the sauce (mango, which was very good).
We also ordered a miso-caramel-chocolate macaron ($2.50). The maracons are smooth, flattish and nearly 5 cm in diameter (too big for me). They're stored in the same fridge as the puddings and cake of the day, so they're not stored at the ideal temp for macarons. The macaron was overly chewy and you had to fight with your teeth to bite it off. The buttercream in the middle was great, and the flavour combination is inspired. I suspect letting the macaron come to temperature wouldn't have solved the hyper-chewy issue as the it was somewhat flat. I prefer Ruelo's macarons for their size as well as their texture.
They also serve teas and espresso-based drinks. I love that they offer decaf coffee. The espresso is made on a fully automatic Sacco machine (like Starbucks), so the only manual labour required is milk foaming (again, expect Starbucks-level skills, not third-wave indie coffee shop microfoam). It's not clear what kind of coffee beans they use. I had an acceptable small latte ($3.25) and my dining companion had an herbal tea ($4.25) which comes in an adorable set with a timer.
Service overall was good. There was a hiccup where a server went around offering hot water top-ups. She offered to top my nearly empty glass up, but I said I had room-temp water. She didn't pick up on the hint, so I had to ask another server to refill my water glass.
Overall, I would recommend this place and would go again, but I'm not dying to go back unless I'm craving a souffé. However, it's great to have another dessert place in Richmond Hill, especially when you just want something sweet as well as a cuppa tea or coffee.
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