Menu Tasting Testing : Chikalicious & Pommes Frites (II)

Chikalicious is amongst those new restaurants dedicated to desserts only. This one is more a bar with its open kitchen. This is a tiny place with table seats (around 10) and behind bar (10). For that concept, the best place to taste is behind bar in the open kitchen watching the chef plating your order. The choice is a prix fixe menu including amuse-bouches, one dessert and a couple of petits fours for a sum of $12 (+$7 with wine pairing)...
My wife chose the Cherry Soup with Corn Ice Cream and Polenta Cake dessert. I had Warm Chocolate Tart with Pink Peppercorn Ice Cream and Red Wine Sauce.

The mise en assiette was very precise just like in a sushi bar (the co-owner pastry chef is actually Japanese and graduates from The FCI). Personally, I found the open-kitchen concept very unique, customers spending their time just watching this theater (similar to watching pedestrians walking in the street when sitting at a terrace of a café parisien, ...).

Both desserts were very colorful and tasteful, little sugar being used allowing ingredients to express their full flavor. I thought that I would have like a larger quantity but my wife found it perfect portioning. We were pleased with the waiter very polite and full of attention with clients (I later found out that he was the co-owner of the bar). On the other, we would have enjoyed a more smiler and talkative pastry chef...

So, I would recommend this dessert bar mainly because I found this concept very new and interesting.

Just a quick word about one small place we went on the way to Chikalicious, another original concept specialized in just one dish : Pommes Frites (French, in fact Belgian, Fries) with more than 25 different sauces (we had Wasabi Mayo, Hot Chili Paste and Pomegranate Tariyaki).

Links :

http://www.chikalicious.com/index.htm

http://www.pommesfrites.ws/default.html