Astonish Patisserie
It seems this dessert café craze has taken Adelaide by storm. The latest to join the ranks is Astonish Patisserielocated on King William Street in Adelaide’s city.
Located in the quieter end of King William Street, the cafe front looks quite attractive and inviting.
As we entered the door, a very well dressed man kindly greeted us. Tash and I arrived relatively early at around 7pm, and understandably so, the restaurant was empty, the man saying it starts to get busy from 8pm onwards. He kindly gave us a tour of the café, and instantly I fell in love (with the café haha).
The inside is surprisingly spacious which is spread out over several rooms and featuring a courtyard at the back for those balmy summer nights. The rooms are beautifully decorated, with the “library” room being my favourite (see picture). Classy without being pretentious, spacious without being empty, the place makes you forget the outside world.
The dessert menu as two sections, a ‘dine in’ category, and a ‘cake, tart & mousse’ section, the latter on display as you enter the café. Obviously as we were dining in…we diverted our eyes straight to the dine-in category.
The waiter kindly took us through the menu explaining each dessert and giving us good recommendations. We both started off with a hot chocolate, mine with the addition of hazelnut.
The flavour was seamless, the chocolate and hazelnut mixed wonderfully, and even though it wasn’t piping hot, went down very pleasantly.
After much deliberation, I ultimately decided on the Warm Banana Cake, after Tash claimed the Pana Fire almost instantly.
My platter style dessert looked like a work of art. Served on a long wooden board featuring three slices of banana cake, caramelised bananas, a dash of cream and a small banana smoothie, you can clearly tell the chef takes pride in her dishes.
The banana cake was deliciously moist and fresh team flawlessly with the caramelised banana and cream. The smoothie was lovely and light….although, could have perhaps used a little more sweetness for my sugar addicted palate.
Tash’s Pana Fire was literally on fire! (well, kind of)
The waiter arrived at the table with the dessert tray and set the pistachio bomb-alaska alight. It was truly fascinating watching it burn.
The Pana Fire dessert tray featured the Pistachio bomb-alaska, vanilla panna cotta, rhubarb jelly, and a brandy snap. The bomb-alaska was unquestionably the star for me. Cooked to perfection the pistachio with the meringue tasted fantastic. The panna cotta was enjoyable too; I’m just not a massive panna cotta fan.
We finished each tray when the waiter offered us a “special creation” that he would like to share with us. There was no way we could refuse!
Not long after he brought back this banana profiterole creation.
I can’t quite remember the exact ingredients but it included the caramelised bananas I had on my first dessert, with the addition of some sort of cream. It looked heavenly!
We jumped right in, and understandably it crumbled right in front of us….my oh my it tasted amazing. Crunchy yet smooth, it was a blast of flavour that was truly addictive. I think both Tash and I agreed it was the standout dessert.
Still not content with our sugar cravings….we decided to sample some of their macaroons. I opted for the dark chocolate and pistachio while Tash chose the salted caramel.
They were nice. I found the dark chocolate a tad too light in flavor, although the pistachio was spot on. The texture on both was fantastic. Not too chewy, with the perfect amount of crunch.
Their prices might be a little on the higher side (dine in dessert ranging from $12-$18) but the quality of each dish is unquestionably high. Combine this with comfortable surroundings and friendly staff….Astonish Patisserieis on a winning formula.
Until next time, happy noms :)
