Sweet battle of Waterloo

Who would have thought, in a suburb like this, within an area of one block, there were so many excellent and indulgent places!

Waterloo was once the industrial inner city suburb in a region that also includes Redfern, Zetland and Green Square, dotted with many warehouses and business centers. It had been through a great deal of residential development in recent years and its character had certainly shifted. Along Danks Street we noticed art galleries, boutiques, gourmet grocers, designer homeware shops, and most importantly, really REALLY funky eateries. Not knowing Waterloo, and initially puzzled at our CEO's choice of suburb, one quick Google took my uneasiness and had me looking forward to our destinations, and counting down the days.

The French House, located on the corner of Danks and Young St, has an unassuming exterior that looks like any cafe with a veranda outdoor seating. But once you get close enough to see the interior, I can't imagine anyone not being taken by it. This patisserie is adorned with beautiful chandeliers, with an extensive selection of cakes to choose from on one side, and tantalising bakery goods on the other. Oh what perfect place to start a divine dessert tour!

Raspberry and pistachio financier was like a good friand, though no firework for the tastebuds. Baked ricotta cheese cake with chocolate swirl was delicious, not a heavy New York baked cheese cake, but fluffy and easy to devour. Gluten free orange cake was very moist and lightly tangy, very refreshing and gorgeously presented. Tiramisu - wait, its not French!! The anally-retentive purist that I am, I wasn't happy seeing it there ... and despite it being a very good tiramisu (comparable to Napoli in Bocca) I still don't like seeing a proud French House with a traditionally Italian dessert on offer. Chocolate eclair - a disappointment, having just come out of the fridge it was too cold, the choux pastry had gone stiff, and with condensation on the chocolate it just wasn't appealing. Triple chocolate mousse - luscious, chocolatey, not too sweet, very enjoyable. Passionfruit mousse in white chocolate - the unanimously favourite - tangy, light and fluffy, mouth watering and leaves you wanting more!

By default I asked for a croissant and cafe au lait (in a bowl), my way of judging the quality of a boulangerie. Croissant was average, while the cafe au lait was a tad weak - I really think the barista ought to serve a double shot in a bowl of milk. Tea was served with a tea pot, mini milk jug, cube sugar all on a silver tray - a very lovely touch. Never mind it taking up all the room on the table! It felt luxurious. Espresso was average, I found it a tad on the bitter side. Another very nice touch is having everything served on fine bone china, that little added elegance makes the slightly higher price tag seem worthwhile.

Dragging ourselves away from this fantastic and relaxing location (both from the warm autumn sun, and after-feed sluggishness) we arrived at Patisse. Patisse chef Vincent Gadan has plucked traditional French recipes to provide traditional French favourites (such as macarons and creme brulee) as well as old fashioned pastries to cater for the likes of us, the DDT gluttons.

Salted caramel must be in fashion - since the "goo" at Newtown (May 2009) we have seen many salted caramel desserts, particularly in macarons, so how can we not order one when it is on offer? Also being a macaron freak I MUST inspect and critique macarons at every given opportunity - just like my default croissant order, and my inability to say no to creme brulee.

Hm.

A macaron needs to be crunchy on the outside, but only hard enough to be carefully handled, crumbles when you bite into it (or if you dare to share, must be skilled with the knife so you don't crumble the whole thing), and melt in your mouth. These macarons were none of the above. It was way overcooked - wasn't crunchy, it was hard! And probably baked on a higher temperature than is necessary, so it had a huge pocket in the macaron shell.

Sacrilege. I hate being disappointed by macarons.

Moving on... creme brulee. Love a rich, velvety creme brulee especially with aromas of vanilla. Or a more refreshing citrusy creme brulee with a light tang in the creme. First mouthful of my creme brulee from Patisse was "ahhh" but then  liquid started to accumulate - ie there was too much liquid content (citrus juice) than the creme and egg.

Sacrilege. I hate being disappointed by creme brulees.

Otherwise the other desserts were pleasant: Bread and butter pudding made and served in mini loaf tins (hearty); flourless pistachio cake with lemon icing (nice tang); and a most unusual combination of eclair with green tea custard, which didn't agree with my palate, but that was a matter of personal preference (KT LIKES :P). Bonus tasting 'stick' of chocolate cake was a little hard to swallow as we were full to our throat - butter icing greasy, the cake was a tad dry.

Moving on - yes, moving on, despite feeling heavy and lethargic, we arrived at Danks St Depot, an institution not famous for its desserts but for its slow food movement, and its sustainable and ethical principles in sourcing local produce for its ingredients. We were already stuffed by this point ... so we had a token home made sorbet trio of basil, berries and mango. Yes you read right, basil. It was full of the aroma and taste of basil, a pity that it was way too sweet, but the syrupy sweetness did not mask the basil at all. Both berry and mango sorbets were like eating frozen berries crushed up to a fine paste, but the mango was not as fragrant as we expected, maybe it was made with frozen mango, or maybe they needed a dash of lemon juice to perk up the flavour.

Red wine poached pear and vanilla seed panna cotta was light and delicious, soft "melting" pear as you put the fork through it, while panna cotta was ever-so-fragile wobbly. Just wondered about the vanilla seed though, I have seen vanilla panna cotta with vanilla seed throughout the panna cotta before... maybe that was a thicker panna cotta than this one.

With a heavy heart (and loaded belly) we decided to skip Cafe Sopra, which was always busy on a Saturday afternoon, and boasts an unusual selection of sweets on their menu. But with such great experience on a small block around Danks St, we vow to come back and repeat this experience some more!

CS

KT: Welcome, our first time dessert attendees Alske, Jessica, Wallace & Chaz!