Chocolate Pavillion

Chocolate Pavillion! The ugly stepchild of the Southbank precinct's dessert bars! Check out their Urbanspoon, they've been slammed by nearly every other person who went there. It really makes for very interesting reading though. I had no idea of the reputation of this place when I went, every time I've been here is at the end of a meal with friends and we've been turned off by the line at Max Brenner and wanted a coffee to chat.

The following review is based off two trips there, one with my Dad, VGirl and my French Cousin, after we went to Char Char Yiros, as well as a visit with my Boyfriend, Lu., and Gill, after we went to Bamboo Basket.

Here is a link to their menu.

My French Cousin ordered the chocolate sandwich consisting of two layers of parfait between thin discs of chocolate, topped with crushed nuts, caramel sauce and tiny, crispy balls of milk, dark and white chocolate. The tiny chocolate balls tasted like Maltesers to be honest and they were absolutely everywhere in every dessert. I managed to take this picture mid fall, but other than that it was almost identical to the picture in the menu! He said it was tasty but unexpected.

VGirl ordered a mint and lychee granita, it was a faintly green tower of unending lychee ice. There was a strong and sweet flavour of lychee with a faint minty freshness from the mint. I gave myself a massive headache when I was drinking this. The gentle curvature of the cup made for deceptive drinking, as I drank and drank and the cup's volume barely changed.

Minty~

On the second occasion I went here, I picked the raspberry cheesecake. The plate was messily drizzled with a tart raspberry coulis, a small cheesecake with baked raspberries was in the centre, topped with more raspberry coulis and a drizzle of white chocolate sauce, a blob of double cream and some randomly scattered white chocolate crispy balls. The coulis was delicious! Sweet, tart and perfectly balanced, I really enjoyed the flavour of the sauce. The cheesecake was smooth, creamy and a good contrast to the sourness of the raspberries. The double cream had real little flecks of vanilla bean! All in all, I found this to be a good dessert wit a nice contrast of flavours.

My plate looks like a kid with red paint

Oozing interior

Gill., picked the sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce and vanilla double cream. It was a very rich, sticky and moist pudding with a great sauce. I really enjoyed the taste I had.

Lu., got the Ferraro Roche gelato which came drizzled in chocolate sauce and random chocolate crunchy balls. It was tasty, smooth, creamy with a pronounced chocolatey/hazelnutty flavour.

Chocolate Pavillion
Atmosphere: 5, its alright. It's cute. I guess. Yes, in reality, I didn't take particular notice of the place.
Service: 3, I really have to say that the service here is terrible. You're barely noticed, its hard to get someone's attention, dishes aren't cleared and you're promised water on a slow shift and nothing ever arrives. Our orders were correct though so a 3 is what they get.
Food: 5, the food looks exactly like the picture which is nice. Delicious for what you get, although a bit small and I still have no idea why those tiny crunchy balls were everywhere.