THE BEST: Chocolate Dessert in NYC

[ErinB]

I'm taking my friend out for her 30th birthday. She's a major chocoholic. Any picks for the best chocolate dessert at restaurants in the city ?

[sammy]

My old favorite, although I don't know if they still have it, was the "Chocolate Bag" at Manhattan Ocean Club. Late night with a glass of champagne was the bomb.

All of the other flourless chocolate cake type desserts fail to distinguish themselves.

My suggestion would be to go to the bar area of Daniel and order from their list of 5 chocolate desserts listed here.

[Fat Guy]

The molten-center Valrhona chocolate cake at Jean Georges is pretty much the gold standard for chocolate purists. And the rest of the food is good too.

Or you could go to Jacques Torres in Brooklyn and have a full chocolate meal.

[Beachfan]

The molten-center Valrhona chocolate cake at Jean Georges is pretty much the gold standard for chocolate purists. And the rest of the food is good too.

Or you could go to Jacques Torres in Brooklyn and have a full chocolate meal.

I prefer Bouley's Vahlrona chocolate souffle.

And you can't beat the price for lunch. You'll have money left over for a Broadway show!

[elyse]

I was going to suggest Torres' place, but they're not really in the city. Have they finished their expansion?

[Bux]

the "Chocolate Bag" at Manhattan Ocean Club. Late night with a glass of champagne was the bomb.

I'm not fond of dry Champagne with dessert and not particularly fond of even a demi-sec with chocolate, but many people like that combination. No less a chocolatier than Pierre Herme, served a fairly dry rose Champagne with his chocolate pastries at a party celebrating his chocolate cookbook last year. He also served a nice Banyuls, but his choice was the Champagne. I'm on the side of those who recommend Port, Banyuls, Maury, one of the sweeter wines from Jerez, etc. I may not change anyone's mind, but I'll suggest chocolate lovers try that combination.

[ErinB]

Hey - if the best chocolate dessert is outside of Manhattan, we'll go there.

[elyse]

Hey - if the best chocolate dessert is outside of Manhattan, we'll go there.

His spicy hot chocolate is fab. He's practically under the Brookly Bridge which should make for a lovely walk to the city if you're so inclined.

[Lesley C]

I was just at a dinner with Benoit Gouez, an "oenologue" of Dom Perignon, who said the absolute worst pairing for champagne is chocolate. It's too acidic.

He says to save the bubbly for the caviar and other salty foods. They served a 1992 Dom rosé with sauteed strawberries. Nice match.

[Steve Klc]

Erin--there's no such thing as the best chocolate dessert in NYC. There are so many talented pastry chefs working with chocolate in NYC restaurants that no one dessert can be called the best.

Two that have stood out on my palate in the past year, admittedly subjective, among many other equally excellent chocolate desserts in the city, were the "Rice Crispy, Peanut Ice Cream, Chocolate, Condensed Milk Cappuccino" by Jean-Francois Bonnet of Atelier and a salty chocolate caramel dessert by Yvan Lemoine of Fleur de Sel--but you'd also be hard-pressed to do worse at Daniel or Cafe Boulud or Citarella or ...well, you get the message. A few weeks ago I had the best presentation of mostly chocolate petits fours I've ever had in the city at Blue Hill in the hands of their newish pastry chef, Pierre Reboul, formerly pastry chef of Vong. Though we didn't have a chocolate dessert that night, I'd go just for his petits fours--even calling in advance and asking if you could request, at a surcharge, a special chocolate dessert tasting. Most good pastry chefs at the best restaurants will eagerly accomodate such a request and present you with a chocoholic's dream.

(Off-topic--I'm with Lesley, I've yet to have a good champagne-chocolate pairing. To me, the pairing seems to be about advertising cachet and positioning the two as luxury items.)

[Michael Laiskonis]

... and a salty chocolate caramel dessert by Yvan Lemoine of Fleur de Sel...

I'm so glad you mentioned that Steve. I did a four course dessert tasting at Fleur de Sel (after a hefty lunch at Nobu to boot) last month. I didn't get a chance to meet Yvan, though Cryril Renaud, the chef/owner was a most gracious and generous host. All of the desserts were simple, to the point, but extremely delicate, elegant, and, I believe, all of them contained fleur de sel...

I would also highly recommend the work of Patrick Coston, pastry chef at Ilo. Desserts at Blue Hill, after two visits, never matched the delicacy of the savory courses, in my opinion, though I'm happy to hear of the addition of a new pastry chef. Is Remy Funfrock still at Café Boulud? I understood that he left to open the Florida outpost, but never heard news of his replacement...

(Off-topic--I'm with Lesley, I've yet to have a good champagne-chocolate pairing...)

Me three.

[tan319]

My old favorite, although I don't know if they still have it, was the "Chocolate Bag" at Manhattan Ocean Club. Late night with a glass of champagne was the bomb.

All of the other flourless chocolate cake type desserts fail to distinguish themselves.

My suggestion would be to go to the bar area of Daniel and order from their list of 5 chocolate desserts listed here.

Banana and Manjari Chocolate Clafoutis

with Macadamia Nougat and Caramel Ice Cream

$13

This looks damn good!

[ErinB]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. We'll probably end up going to Jean-Georges or one of Boulud's places, now i just have to decide. That's going to be the hard part. I'll have to call and find out exactly what they can can do for us.

[docsconz]

Hey - if the best chocolate dessert is outside of Manhattan, we'll go there.

His spicy hot chocolate is fab. He's practically under the Brookly Bridge which should make for a lovely walk to the city if you're so inclined.

The best chocolate dessert I've ever had in NYC or elsewhere was a spicy hot chocolate at ILO. I actually had to have seconds and this was after a tasting menu!

[Bux]

Desserts at Blue Hill, after two visits, never matched the delicacy of the savory courses, in my opinion, though I'm happy to hear of the addition of a new pastry chef. Is Remy Funfrock still at Café Boulud? I understood that he left to open the Florida outpost, but never heard news of his replacement...

I think Michael hit the nail on the head regarding what was missing from the desserts at Blue Hill. I think they were always interesting and tasty, but they never matched the elegance or delicacy of the cuisine. The predesserts served as part of tasting menus, generally a simple fruit soup with an ice cream were always nice though. I've always been a fan of two of their opening desserts which were a simple, but still elegant rice pudding and a chocolate desserrt that I seem to recall was a chocolate bread pudding served with a chocolate ice cream or sorbet. I wonder if either is still served. Pierre has been offering a lively passion fruit souffle with ice cream. There's a conservative side to my tastes that balances my interest in avant garde food. I wonder it he'd do a chocolate variation on the souffle. Anyway, I've always thought Blue Hill was a destination restaurant in spite of the paper tablecloths. Pierre's desserts just make it more so.

Remy is in Palm Beach and I can't tell you much about the new chef as the last time I was in Cafe Boulud, I had the special poulet en vessie. Appetisers and a whole chicken split two ways with it's rich garnishes left me too full to do more than split a few orders of ice cream and sorbet with the table, but even the plain vanilla ice cream was outstanding.

[Michael Laiskonis]

Thanks for all of the suggestions.  We'll probably end up going to Jean-Georges or ...

I just spent two days in the kitchen of pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini at Jean Georges; a great choice, that is, if you haven't already embarked on this outing, Erin.

Johnny has an amazing resume, having spent a number of years in the Boulud camp under Payard, Haas, etc. and his own style is well developed now at Jean Georges. I believe all of the desserts at JG are multi-component tastings, while Nougatine, also under his direction, offers a more traditional, casual a la carte selection.

[pixelchef]

Is the frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity any good?

[tan319]

Thanks for all of the suggestions.  We'll probably end up going to Jean-Georges or ...

I just spent two days in the kitchen of pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini at Jean Georges; a great choice, that is, if you haven't already embarked on this outing, Erin.

Johnny has an amazing resume, having spent a number of years in the Boulud camp under Payard, Haas, etc. and his own style is well developed now at Jean Georges. I believe all of the desserts at JG are multi-component tastings, while Nougatine, also under his direction, offers a more traditional, casual a la carte selection.

Does Jean George still have a website?

I can't find it anymore,except for the Starchefs one, which doesn't really float my boat.

Would love to look at Johnnys menu.

[Michael Laiskonis]

I never saw it, but someone who is working on a site for me did say the JG site was down, after researching various other sites. And I never got a chance to closely peruse Johnny's menu, as I was doing my own work in his kitchen, but did catch a glimpse of a lot of the components that went into the desserts...

[mjc]

Does Jean George still have a website?

I can't find it anymore,except for the Starchefs one, which doesn't really float my boat.

Would love to look at Johnnys menu.

there is a website, but there are no menus

[tan319]

I never saw it, but someone who is working on a site for me did say the JG site was down, after researching various other sites.  And I never got a chance to closely peruse Johnny's menu, as I was doing my own work in his kitchen, but did catch a glimpse of a lot of the components that went into the desserts...

Did you see anything that you thought was particularly cool?

Interesting flavor combos?

And, is he American? Not that it matters, just curious

[elyse]

Is the frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity any good?

I never found it particularly exciting. But I haven't been there in a LONG time.

[rozrapp]

Desserts at Blue Hill, after two visits, never matched the delicacy of the savory courses, in my opinion, though I'm happy to hear of the addition of a new pastry chef. 

I think Michael hit the nail on the head regarding what was missing from the desserts at Blue Hill. I think they were always interesting and tasty, but they never matched the elegance or delicacy of the cuisine. The predesserts served as part of tasting menus, generally a simple fruit soup with an ice cream were always nice though. I've always been a fan of two of their opening desserts which were a simple, but still elegant rice pudding and a chocolate desserrt that I seem to recall was a chocolate bread pudding served with a chocolate ice cream or sorbet. I wonder if either is still served. Pierre has been offering a lively passion fruit souffle with ice cream. There's a conservative side to my tastes that balances my interest in avant garde food. I wonder it he'd do a chocolate variation on the souffle. Anyway, I've always thought Blue Hill was a destination restaurant in spite of the paper tablecloths. Pierre's desserts just make it more so.

Michael, When we ate at Blue Hill in May, I thought the desserts were every bit a match for the first and main courses we had. Since this was the first time I had dinner there, I cannot compare these to those of the previous pastry chef.

Bux, The chocolate bread pudding is still being served, though I don't know if the new chef has tweaked it in any way. As I wrote in my report, I ordered the Baba au Rhum, my husband ordered the mango creation, and we were comped the bread pudding. All three were quite beautifully presented and totally delicious. Although I love bread pudding, I had my doubts about ordering one made with chocolate and asked our server to describe it. Still unsure, I went with the Baba, but ended up being really glad that she brought the pudding. Actually, it was not like any bread pudding I have ever had before -- really more like a cake. Some chocolate desserts are too overpowering, but this one was perfect. Even my husband, who doesn't usually go for chocolate dessert, kept spooning away.

My full Blue Hill report can be seen here:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...ST&f=4&t=22641&

[Felonius]

My favorite chocolate dessert in NYC is the molten chocolate cake at Lutece. I think it's even better than the excellent one at Bouley. It seems like every restaurant does a take on molten chocolate cake, but for some reason I always find the version at Lutece the most satisfying. Their apple tart is also my favorite in New York. Maybe I like these because they are done in a simple, classic way without trying to throw in bizarre flavor combinations as many other places do. In my opinion, a perfectly executed chocolate cake or apple tart don't need things like basil sorbet or mango-mint puree getting in the way!

The rest of the food at Lutece isn't all that exciting. It's those two desserts that keep me coming back for lunch for the fairly reasonable prix-fixe menu.

[foodboy]

Is the frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity any good?

I think it's awesome. I actually enjoy it more than I've enjoyed dessert at places like Jean Georges and Bouley.

As for other great chocolate desserts, about 4 years ago, the chocolate souffle at La Caravelle was excellent.