Sugar Hits: Sofitel v Swissôtel

Every night during Good Food Month, selected Sydney hotels were offering a dessert plate and glass of Brown Brothers' dessert wine or Dewar's 12-year-old whisky for $15, 9-11pm. Food For Life (FFL) were able to attend two of these prestigious dessert indulgences. We chose Sofitel Wentworth for our first venture (who can go past crème brûlée?) and the Swissôtel as our second (and final) after a glowing recommendation from Timbo Kwok who confidently agreed to refund all our money (all 8 of us!) if we didn't find it up to standard. Suffice to say, expectations were quite high for both dessert plates.

Sofitel Wentworth

As we were shown to our seats (after being 30mins late), we marvelled at the beautiful glittering bar and the intimate ambience created by sparkling warm lights, the tinkling of piano keys and the soft murmur of conversation inside the elegant Sofitel lounge. Our wonderful waiter, Benoir, promptly asked if we were all having the dessert plate, to which we all replied heartily "of course!" This was what was on offer at the Sofitel:

Chocolate assiette - a delicious tasting plate consisting of white chocolate crème brulee, Valrhona bitter chocolate parfait and praline and a berry & milk chocolate terrine. With Brown Brothers Botrytis Reisling

The bitter parfait was a delicious hit with most of us - it was the perfect combination of dark and creamy. The berry and milk terrine was more of a miss than a hit with everyone but I personally, loved it. The berry complemented the milk chocolate giving it this extra kick of berry-sweetness but everyone else preferred less of the berry and more of the chocolate. (I must confess my love for all things berry-licious at this stage). When it came to the white chocolate crème brulee, the decision was unanimous. It was by far, the most sublime dessert on the plate, with some of us proclaiming it as one of the best crème brulee to have ever past our lips. We ate it slowly, savouring every morsel of this heavenly caramel-crusted goodness. The verdict: a huge thumbs up around the table and the night ended on a sugar high!

Swissôtel

After finding out the disappointing news that the Park Hyatt was pretty much booked out for the rest of the month and hearing the rhapsodic praises heaped on the Swissôtel from Timbo, I tentatively made a booking for eight. Tentative because it appeared that few, if any, food blogger had tasted this plate and given their verdict and also, we had no idea what quark mousse was. However, venturing into the unknown and taking calculated risks (ie. Timbo paying us all $15 back if it totally sucked) are mandates in the Food For Life Charter.

First disappointment of the night, we were led to the restaurant partition of the hotel as the Crossroads Bar was packed. Second disappointment- incompetent and slow wait staff. Third disappointment- the dessert plate. This was what was on offer:

Warm Lindt Ecuador Chocolate Torte with Wattle Seed-Quark Mousse and a Strawberry Shot Wine: Orange Muscat Aperitif: Dewar's 12 year old scotch whisky.

Our first visual impression was positive: a great-looking arrangement with perfect quantities. Now on to the quality side of the equation. The mousse (a cross between a cheesecake and a pannacotta) was, for lack of better adjective, tasteless. It was just a boring dessert leaving a blandness in your mouth that not even a yummy blueberry could amend. The strawberry shot wine was surprisingly delightful. Now before you start questioning that my bias for berries makes me inept at making objective observations, rest asured, that the other 7 agreed with me. The torte (aka fondant) was a hit with Patrick and a miss with everyone else. The rest of us complained at its bitterness enhanced by its dry centre, which we expected to look like this :

a yummy gooey Lindt centre that was only apparent in Patrick's and no one else's. It was such a shame, look at that photo, look at the potential that was not realised. And that sums up the Swissôtel Sugar Hit perfectly. Don't let appearances deceive you, the potential was there but they really should have spent more time polishing up the dessert plate. And not to mention, the service. Harsh but fair.

The verdict:

This is a bit of a no-brainer really, Sofitel hands-down. Each dessert complemented one another and the stand out was the divine mouth-watering crème brulee.