I’ve noticed that the restaurants around here charge around $5 - $6 plus for a dessert, and they are quite often absolute crap. I’m sure they tasted pretty good a couple days ago when they were fresh, but after sitting in the restaurant fridge for a couple of days, they taste like licking a fridge shelf. We don’t order dessert all that often, so I expect it to be a real treat when we do, and when we get a stale, dry, icky thing for so much money, I’m quite disappointed. One time I actually sent it back, it was so bad, and they gave me another piece of the same cake which was marginally less stale and fridge-y tasting. Thanks for almost nothing.
Am I out to lunch here, expecting a fresh, tasty dessert for $5 - $6? I don’t even want to take a chance on ordering dessert any more, because of the good possibility that it will be a bad-tasting rip-off. And they always look sooooo good in the pictures in the menu.
I don’t order dessert all that often, because it is expensive, but I can’t recall a time when it wasn’t excellent. You’re probably at the wrong restaurants.
I have found that restaurant seem to be in two categories. Those that take desert seriously(Cheesecake factory, Claim Jumper, any place that has a bakery side) and those that just have something cause they are expected to have something. But the places with good desert usually have huge deserts, and fairly filling main courses, so it usually ends up a split between 6 people, and if you only have one or two it gets passed on.
However, unlike what mom used to say, nobody gets smote or shunned for going in and skipping the meal and going straight to desert
Yeah, restaurant desserts usually suck. If I want dessert, I pay the bill for dinner, leave, and go to my favorite ice cream place.
By the way, if you don’t live in Cincinnati, you don’t have a Graeter’s Ice Cream to drive to, and therefore your life is just a little less worth living than those of us who do. I’m sorry.
I’ve rarely gotten a lousy dessert at a restaurant. However, I do doubt that the dessert I get is actually worth $5-6.
But even back home at the nearby greasy spoon, their dessert was fresh. They did have an awesome baker, though. Her name was Carmen, she was French, she was a short, fat old lady with dark glasses and the sweetest personality, and oh god her desserts were to die for. We’d spend all winter and spring anxiously awaiting strawberry season. She would only use the sweetest, juiciest, reddest strawberries… not once would you bite down and find a berry that was a little more bitter than the rest, or slightly less red, or the wrong texture.
Hoo. Sorry. Reminiscing.
Anyway, most restaurants I’ve gone to, I agree, usually overprice their desserts. But it’s rare that I am served up something stale or nasty. I often get a scrumptious piece of cake or cheesecake - the only thing lacking is MORE! I want MORE! I asked for a piece of cake! Do I look like Calista Flockhart? No! Give me a human sized piece! Even “fun size” will do!
The nearby Yankee Grill & Roaster usually serves up a huge sized bowl of cobbler (with or without ice cream). It’s gooooood. I can never finish it, there’s so much.
No, I don’t buy that. If anybody’s going to charge $6 for a slice of cake, it better be fresh, good cake, and I don’t care if it’s a Boston Pizza or McDonald’s. At that price, stale is simply not an option.
Heh, then the aforementioned Claim Jumper probably has your best bet: $9 for a wedge of SIX LAYER chocolate cake. It comes from a full cake that’s bigger than most people’s heads.
I think most restaurants (especially “chain-ish” ones, like Chili’s, etc.) have overdone yet unimaginative desserts. Lots of triple fudge mudslides, ubiquitous cheesecakes, and other gooey, unbelievably huge offerings (Oreo mousse - ugh!). I’m never tempted and I LOVE dessert. I want something really cool, especially at a nice restaurant. There is such a variety of dessert possibilities and I appreciate it when they branch out a little. I went to one place that had an array of delicate homemade cookies alongside a dip of homemade icecream. That was heaven. Or a truly interesting cake - coconut or orange, or a raspberry tart, warm, with some icecream. Or how about a couple of first rate chocolates with an espresso and a cordial glass of liqueur? Oh man, I’m getting hungry! Where’s the drooling smilie?
I just mean when I pay $6 for a piece of cake, I’d damn well better be getting a decent sized piece, and not the toothpick-sized sliver they like to dish out. Now, if I were only paying a coupla bucks, I wouldn’t complain. But for six bucks, I should be able to share that with at least one other person, if not two.
I’m sure that $9 wedge of six layer cake is probably worth every penny, but I’d have to bring my family to help me eat the thing. :eek:
Featherlou, pretty similar situation here. Not only that, it seems like all the restaurants have the same desserts. I suspect they all order them from the same place.
Chocolate Eruption cheesecake. Every damn restaurant. Of course, the first time I had it, it was good. Never again. Too long in the fridge, too old… something.
I had a friend who owned a pretty bad Mexican restaurant - she had a cheap-and-nasty method that people seemed to like, so she stuck to it. She said that desserts were where she made the greatest margin. She’d buy a catering company frozen cheesecake for £3, cut it into 12 bits, spray on some whipped cream and flog them for £3 each.
Exactly. Except the cakes aren’t frozen, they’re just refrigerated. For days, I’m sure.
Cyros, I think that’s what I’m talking about - they just don’t taste right. Maybe other people just don’t notice - my own husband doesn’t seem to notice when things are badly fridge-y tasting. I guess I really am complaining about nothing here - the easy, obvious solution is to not buy over-priced, stale desserts.
I’ve noticed a decline, mainly because of places like Cheesecake factory. Don’t get me wrong, I love their stuff. But it’s usually fresh. Other restaraunts, which used to have a pastry chef on staff, now buy in bulk from Cheesecake factory and other places and the quality isn’t nearly as good.
In my experience, most desserts are just not that good. Either the ice cream is a tiny scoop, rock hard (how long has it been in that freezer is always my first thought) or the cakes are indeed stale or just not fresh tasting.
I’ve sort of given up on desserts when eating out–I don’t really need or want it. I must confess to a hankering for “childish” desserts–I want brownies, ala mode with nuts (no whip cream or cherry, though). I am not interested in your nouvelle cuisine chocolate beef torte with a soupcon of cherry flambe or whatever. I’ll pass, thanks.
Also, most cakes don’t taste all that great unless their freshly made–even at home, no? Now, cheesecake–I can do that!
