The Lobby Lounge Take 4 ft. Anna's Mess

The pop up has finished, but I think Anna's Mess is still available from the Lobby Lounge at Shangri-La hotel. This is another place I frequently visit because of the desserts she makes. I actually had Anna's Mess earlier last year, before it rose to fame this year on MasterChef as a pressure test. This time I opted for the large one to share with friends (although it's actually not that large, and the small one is tiny). Last year was the Carrot Cake also featured on MC, and made everyone flock to this side of Sydney.

Anna's Mess (large)-$39.90

the waitress 'smashed' it with a spoon and fork, we could've done that ourselves. 

Even through they placed paper on the table, they didn't drop it down like on TV which really was anti-climatic. She didn't even tell us she was going to destroy it for us, and just went into it straight away. She just used a plan to squish it. What's worse was that plate and cutlery had heaps of the cake/cream on it, and she took it away from us immediately, didn't even have the chance to ask for her to leave it. Please, we're poor uni students, and want out money's worth. That stuff on the plate which she chucked/took away from us was probs worth a few dollars.

plate she took away in the background

The cake was just as good as I remembered. White choc is normally very sweet, and luckily this one wasn't. The raspberry curd dome, strawberry coulis, raspberry financier sponge, cara crunch, mascarpone and vanilla mousse inside all balanced perfectly. Loved the different textures as well. I didn't find any meringue kisses though, probably stuck on that mousse on that plate taken away, and no micro basil leaves like the one on MC. They did give you popping rocks (which wasn't there last year), making the dish fun to eat. Also first time eating off a mirror. Dessert was good, service wasn't that great for a place like this. Please ask before you do anything to our dessert next time.

pop up

earlier last year

Zumbo Take 10+

Every season or couple of months, Zumbo changes his cake and dessert range, and I try to get a few cakes each time. Another place I frequently come to for cakes and an exception to my 'no repeating places until I've completed (never-ending) my list to eat.'

Hello Taro: purple taro chiffon sponge, coconut and tapioca gel, cream cheese mousse, honey and coconut jelly-$9.50

Dr Apple and Nurse Pear: layers of pistachio dacquoise, apple and pear jelly, apple and pear milk curd, caramelised apples and pears, apple and pear mousse, apple and pear glacage-$9.50

I found the taro one to actually be sweeter. Was expecting more taro in it, and I thought there was a bit too much cream and white choc cheese mousse in comparison the the sponge. Luckily the white choc wasn't super sweet. Loved the tapioca gel and coconut jelly in it to give some texture.

The apple and pear one tasted similar to a cake from around 1-2 years ago 'Apple Maple Cheesecake.' The apple and pear balanced well, and loved the attention to detail with the gradient green white choc discs on the outside. Also would have liked more dacquoise in it and couldn't really taste the milk curd, but the acidity was there from the green apple with peer jelly.

Hazelnut Forest: hazelnut dacquoise, hazelnut crunch, cherry jam, milk curd, hazelnut mousse, hazelnut praline spray

details

layers on point

Super good cake choice and flavour from a friend to another friend. You would think hazelnut is really decadent and overpowering, but this cake was far from sweet and rich. There was a good amount of dacquoise balanced with a crunchy element of hazelnut on the bottom (slightly hard to cut into). The sourness from the cherry jam and milk curd made the mousse even less sweet but brought out the hazelnut flavour. Love those random twig chocolate detail on top, with some more cherry jelly and hazelnut.

Koi Take 2

Back again, this time for cakes only and not cakes+dinner+dessert. Lovely to still see Reynold working in the kitchen, and seeing super pretty and colourful cakes.

White peach and earl grey-$9

cracked choc ):

Love how this cake wasn't really sweet, and the flavour of the white peach came through. Would have liked more tea in it. Whole cake worked so well together with layers of mousse and sponge.

Mango Yuzu: mango mousse with yuzu curd, and salted almond sable-$9

inside

Well, this cake survived home after a whole day of carrying it. When I was here last time, they sold out of this one, and it's no wonder why it's one of their signatures. You get a massive hit of refreshing mango, then balanced with the slightly acidic yuzu flavour inside. The sable wasn't too hard to cut through either. Probably a bit too much chocolate with this cake, but it looks pretty and wrapped around the cake perfectly.

hi Reynold!

Koi Dessert Bar

The long awaited dessert bar is finally here! I have watched 7 years of MasterChef, and finally someone has opened a dessert bar in Sydney! Dessert is life (:  After last year's pop up Evening with Reynold, I couldn't wait for the dessert bar to open! Even though the closest I've come to him is just a photo from here, you can tell that he's a hardworking humble guy. He was there in the kitchen that night, so we know he wasn't partying on a Friday night...

The dessert bar is just behind Central Park, with fairly new restaurants around, didn't even know those places existed, so hope to go back again. 

building

drinks downstairs

cake display-they didn't have the green one ):

kitchen downstairs

Nomtella: Expresso, salted caramel, chocolate

Strawberry and lychee

I realised after I ate this, the flavours were very similar to the 'Nomtella' dessert, but just with different textures. There wasn't enough salted caramel in this though, but the espresso shone through yet didn't feel like you were just drinking coffee. Beautifully balanced with dark choc, and loved the edible gold on top.

Quite a refreshing cake with bits of lychee pieces, and some acidity from the strawberry. Biscuit base quite hard to cut since they only gave you forks, but it was another good hard element to balance the smooth mousse.

Both cakes were mousse cakes with a biscuit base. Surprisingly light and not really sweet but true to its flavours. Hope to be back to try the other cakes! 

stairs to upstairs dining

real flowers (:

We awkwardly made our way upstairs. The guy said we should have told him to go up anyways since out table was already booked. There's not much seating downstairs, so we'll know for next time to take our cakes up since we were having dinner there. Some friends said they were't really full from the dinner, hence we decided to try some cakes before our dinner.

 

menu

upstairs

Love, love, love the decor! Such a modern and spacious space (although that may change since more tables=more business....). Nice glass window at the front as well, and a mirror on the ceiling to make the space even bigger. There's a mix of normal chairs and lounges style seating.

soon to be bar

I think they said they would have a bar licence by February. Currently they offer iced drinks. We didn't order any specials since we had cakes beforehand. Tbh, it's more of a 5 course than 6 course dinner since the first one is a snack to share. They had a spicy-ish tomato in the previous weeks, but we got this snack.

Snacks

Barramundi

This smelt so fragrant when it was placed onto our table-I can still remember the smell. It's plated differently compared to the first weeks where they had a larger piece of fish on the plate. The sweet corn was the standout. So smooth and sweet like corn. The slight saltiness from 

Chicken

The espuma is kind of like a curry but super light like foam and not spicy. I could eat bowls of that super light stuff anyway. It was lovely flavoured with coconut, It ws smaller than it looked, but the chicken pieces were of decent size and were moist. Loved the different types of rice with some oats for  crunchiness.  

Cream cheese

First dessert reminded me a cheesecake but lighter, with the cream cheese filling and crumbly biscuit crumbs on the bottom. I thought the burnt orange was weird kind of like dried fruit and a weird type of orange lolly, not a big fan of it. However, the dehydrated orange was amazing-dry and crunchy yet weirdly full of juicy orange flavour. The cold white creme fraiche bits gave it another smooth textural element, and quite light in contrast with the cream cheese.

Chocolate, strawberry, raspberry

This dessert as inspired by the original Forbidden Fruit early in the MasterChef comp last year, where it was coated in red, but I guess when you make something for service, it was probably too hard to make. I guess the dusted gold on it makes up for it. Once cut into it, the raspberry oozed out similar to the chocolate log in the last time. Again, chocolate wasn’t really sweet, and the mousse went down smoothly. The dehydrated raspberries gave it some acidity, and the sweetness mainly came from the raspberry compote, but it melted too quickly. Ut was smaller than on tv, but  I guess that’s why it’s something similar, and the full size would be way too big…

White peach

Last dessert of the night was a peach sorbet. First spoonful and was again mindblower, The full flavour sweetness of the peach reminded me of a peach soft serve ice cream in Japan. These type of homemade ice creams are the best. The jellyfish gelatine transparent stuff was also peach favoured. My one didn’t have enough peach pieces though, but overall it was a nice sweet and refreshing dessert to finish,

Maybe when they start making cocktails, I’ll come back to try their dessert menu and other cakes. Yay for a dessert bar!