Jean Georges’ Warm Chocolate Cake, Vanilla Bean Ice Cream – $9

Nougatine at Jean Georges is on the first floor of Trump International Hotel at Colombus Circle, overlooking Central Park. Guests enjoy signature dishes from Michelin Starred restaurant Jean Georges in less formal setting. The signature Warm Chocolate Cake was part of our Three Course Brunch ($28), which can also be ordered as a dessert for $9. This chocolaty cake is crispy on the outside and filled with molten Valrhona chocolate. The cake was originally created by Jean-Georges Vongerichten himself, and copied all over the world.

1 Central Park West, New York, NY 10023

Phone: (212) 299-1000

Anmitsu

Sobaya is an authentic Japanese Teuchi Soba noodle restaurant in East Village. Soba is Japanese buckwheat noodles, and Teuchi means that noodles are hand-made at the restaurant. Sobaya is famous for its variety and authenticity of soba noodle dishes, but they offer other dishes and desserts as well.

Anmitsu is a popular Japanese dessert consisting agar jelly, sweet red bean paste, Shiratama (soft mochi ball), variety of fruits and often a scoop of ice cream. Pour some Kuromitsu (brown sugar syrup) over Anmitsu before eating!

229 East 9th St. New York, NY 10003
Phone: (212) 533-6966

http://www.sobaya-nyc.com

Chocolate Hazelnut Torte – $5.95 (1 slice)

Creamy, but not thick hazelnut chocolate ganache is sandwiched by a light hazelnut sponge cake. The sponge cake is airy providing a nice bounce with each bite into the cake. Finished with a hazelnut buttercream on the outside. The lightness of the ganache doesn’t make you thirst desperately after eating it, but a nice cup of tea or warm milk goes well with it.

92 Spruce Street, Providence, RI 02903
Phone: (401) 861-5190

Key Lime Pie – $8.00 (lunch)

For those who enjoy the combination of sweet and sour pie, you can add this to your repertoire of dessert must-haves. The Key Lime Pie’s filling is sour topped with whipped cream and a relatively thick gingersnap crust. The crust was done soft enough for your spoon to gently scoop up both crust and filling in every bite.

115 E Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL
Phone: (312) 475 1100

Macarons – $0.75 (each)

Often this French pastry gets confused with its American counterpart macaroon another sweet confectionery. L.A. Burdick is one of the few places in the Boston area that offers this yummy dessert. Although not the finest in the world, but definitely beats anything in Boston. It is basically sweet icing sugar sandwiched by chewy sweet almond cookies. The macarons come in a variety of flavors: ginger, chocolate, coffee, citrus, lavender, and raspberry. When I enjoy these cookies at this cafe, I prefer to enjoy a cup of tea to balance the sweetness of these macarons, personal preference.

52D Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA
Phone: (617) 491-4340

Milk Chocolate Jasmine Sweet Tofu – $9.00

Kyotofu is a specialist at tofu as you may notice in the restaurant’s play of the word tofu in its name. The restaurant’s dessert selection was my main motivator to seek out this unique destination. Their Milk Chocolate Jasmine Sweet Tofu is a delicate blend of Jasmine infused sweeten tofu and a soft gelatinous form of milk chocolate. The two quintessential  mixtures are layered together and still separated in a glass cup on a cold plate with genmai shortbread cookies. Extremely light and satisfying dessert for those who don’t want overdo. Tofu as a dessert is fairly common in Chinese cuisine, but at this Japanese fusion restaurant, they definitely take tofu to the next level.

705 9th Avenue, New York, NY
Phone: (212) 974-6012

Banana Mille-feuille

This French dessert is made with soft crispy pastry sandwiching banana and a sweet cream in a repeating pattern. On top of all the goodness is a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream with actual grainy vanilla bean  still apparent. The sweet cream and banana mixture is also cool in temperature giving you an all encompassing experience.

776 Boylston Street, Boston, MA
Phone: (617) 535-8800

Cupcakes – $2.75 each
Top Left Clockwise: Green Monster, Super Chocolate, Bananarama, Red Velvet, Movie Matinee, and Lucky Cupcake

Cupcakes from this interestingly named vendor are made with all natural ingredients for those more health conscious individuals. They claimed to use no preservatives, artificial flavors, hydrogenated oils, and trans fat. The cupcakes from Kickass Cupcakes are the most innovative in the Boston area. The mental assurance of more-healthy ingredients sure makes you feel better after eating one or two of these.

Note: Kickass Cupcakes has limited edition cupcakes that change every so often.

Ltd. Edition Green Monster – Chocolate cupcake with a chocolate beer ganache center and Sam Adams Cream Stout frosting
Super Chocolate – Chocolate brownie cupcake topped with bittersweet chocolate ganache and covered with chocolate shavings
Lucky Cupcake – luscious lemon cupcake with white chocolate buttercream and candied ginger, comes with a fortune
www.kickasscupcakes.com

378 Highland Avenue, Somerville, MA
Phone: (617) 628-2877

Crepes Suzette – $10.00

A thin and chewy crepe with sweet tangerine hot sauce, powdered sugar, and whip cream. The sauce is a made from liqueur, caramelized sugar, and some orange derivative, typically orange juice.  The final steps of preparation for this dessert is done in front of you where the sweet liquid concoction is lit on fire while the sauce is slowly poured onto your Crepes Suzette.

115 E Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL
Phone: (312) 475 1100

Crème Brûlée – $6.00

The dessert is made with bourbon-Madagascar vanilla with a few raspberries and blackberries. The custard has an extremely rich vanilla taste and it is still very airy. The caramelized crust is thin enough for you to break the crust into small pieces for every bite.

115 E Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL
Phone: (312) 475 1100

Chocolate Souffle – $7.00

The hard-to-make Chocolate Souffle has raspberry sauce and vanilla ice cream to accompany it. It has a crispy crust on top and filling chocolate cream mixture on the bottom. The preferable way to eat this is to break the souffle crust on top and pour the raspberry sauce in and dig into Chocolate Souffle with the vanilla ice cream.

Basement 1, 211 East 43rd Street, New York,  NY
Phone: (212) 953-7253

Cupcakes at Lulu’s Bake Shoppe are truly innovative. There are a variety of cupcakes with different ingredients such as peanut butter, butter cream, and marshmallows. One particular cupcakes at the joint that was memorable was the Lulu’s Cupcake. Moist chocolate, important to a good cupcake, and soft melted marshmallow inside.

Update: Lulu’s has closed for an unspecified amount of time due to changes.

227 Hanover Street, Boston, MA
Phone: (617) 720-2200

Macarons

These mouth sized pastries are uniquely French. Ladurée’s macarons have extremely crisp and soft outter shell that sandwiches a cooled sweet chewy creme. Any attempt to pick up the macaron will crack the outer shells. This pastry is perfect with Ladurée’s unique selection of tea. In the picture are a variety of flavors more than 20 offered, but I don’t remembered what I had picked.

Champs Elysées 2nd Floor, 75 Avenue des Champs Elysées – 75008 Paris, France

Baklava

The layers are very crisp with various nuts sandwiched in between. Baklava at Cafe Mangal is not extremely sweet because it is not drenched in corn syrup like most restaurants and cafes in Boston.

555 Washington Street, Wellesley, MA

Sydney’s Sinful Sundae: vanilla ice cream covered with chocolate fudge mixed with roasted coconut and finally topped with whip cream and strawberries

NOTE: This item is no longer on their menu, but some waiters/waitress still know how to make it (so ask)
Updated: Its back on the menu due to customer’s responses.

The roasted coconuts add so much to the texture of the otherwise plain vanilla sundae. This dessert is full of sweetness. If you don’t have much of a sweet tooth or you don’t want to stuff yourself with a big dessert, I recommend sharing with one other person.

720 W. Lake Cook Road, Buffalo Grove, IL