308 Darling St,
Balmain
M-F 8-4
S-S 9-5
Adriano Zumbo has received a lot of press lately, and this certainly increased as a result of MasterChef Australia with those magnificent sweet creations. Squeak and I have always been aware of this patisserie, but had never given it a go ( Note from Squeak : Buggles seems to forget the 3 lush desserts we purchased from the patisserie, the chocolate fondant so rich that my mum could not finish it & she is a confirmed chocoholic!)- which is strange considering my penchant for macaroons.
So, we decided try it out. We went to the Cafe Chocolat, which is just up a bit from the Patisserie, to sit down and sample some sweet treats.There are savoury items on offer, and some of our fellow diners were partaking of those, but we went straight for what we were really there for - dessert.
I ordered the 'It's not a hamburger... It's a macaron!' As the name suggests, this dessert is presented in the style of a hamburger made of chocolate macarons, filled with a dulce de leche gelato and chocolate sauce. The macarons are gorgeously chewy, and the gelato is sweet, 'caramelly' and delicious. All of this sits atop a banana and caramel rice pudding. I know this might sound a bit odd - but it really adds a different dimension. The rice pudding is soft, but still with a bit of bite to it. To finish off, there is some bitter chocolate 'soil' scattered over the top, which adds a nice bit of crunch. I also ordered a butterscotch milkshake which was perhaps ill-advised purely becuse it was all so rich, but those glugs of thick, soft caramel/butterscotch within the ice-cold milk were quite delicious. I couldn't finish it though, as it did become a bit much by the end of the meal.
