2am Dessert Bar

I've been wanting to try 2am Dessert Bar since it has been opened (which is VERY long ago), but the thing is that I've been told it's not worth it so expensive for a miniscule amount of food. And there was that time that Juilie told us to meet at Crystal Jade Kitchen (and the early people happily went in, sat down and started eating the appetisers) but she actually booked a place at 2am dessert bar. The following desserts are rated in order of prefrence.

Daily Special ($13++), which was Deconstructed Strawberry Cheesecake.
There are many parts to the deconstructed chesecake, and it starts with the ice cream. I think it's a rose sorbet. It was extremely aromatic. The intense floral taste from the rose permeates the whole mouth, and there's a sweet undertone to the flowery rose.
The 'base' is puffed rice with white chocolate, the white part is the decadantly creamy and cheesey layer. The pink thing is strawberry parfait (I think?) and the sugar coated maroon cubes on top is wild strawberry jelly, which is bursting with strawberry flavour. The little dots (there's red and clear dots) are hibiscus and ginger essence respectively. The rose petals are edible (but doesn't taste of anything).
Blackberry parfait, lychee air, basil, pine nut cake, lychee rose ice cream ($14++)
The lychee rose ice cream was painfully small (think of a small melon-baller sized, and it was partially melted cos the waiter was explaining how to eat this dish, and we had to take pictures after that). The blackberry parfait is cold, smooth and creamy, and goes well with the lychee foam. The pine nut cake is moist and crumbly. The way to eat this dessert (as explained by the waiter) is to put a bit of the dessert into your mouth, and sniff the sprig of thyme before eating it. Though I think the thyme smells nice, I couldn't really appreciate how the thyme combined the different tastes of the dessert - it did make my dessert last longer though, since I had to take a sniff after putting some dessert into my mouth.

Cheesecake Espuma ($14++)
I didn't manage to get the description of this, but it's very light and airy cheesecake (think whipped cream cheese) with some buttery biscuit (can't remember what the waiter said) and raspberries and blueberries. The translucent paper-like thing is exactly what I ate at Macaron. I still don't know what it is though.
Chocolate warm tart, wild nettle, salted caramel, blood orange sorbet ($14++)
From my peering at the counter (next time I must get counter seats!), the chocolate tart is flamed with a blowtorch. Not so sure what the flaming does to the texture, but the chocolate tart is fantastic. The chocolate has a slight acidic taste (maybe they use Valrhona?) and oozes once the tart is broken. The blood orange sorbet (I took a tiny pinch) reminds me of Redoxon (the effervescent Vitamin C drink), and is orangey as ever (I'm biased against this dessert cos of the orange sorbet, but the tart is really good).

My Orchid Oolong Tea ($6.50++), because I think desserts are best washed down by slightly bitter tea. They have other interesting teas such as "Morning Dew" (which is citrusy, so I didn't get it) and a daily special (hibiscus). Though the price's pretty steep, they give quite a bit of tea leaves (more than enough for 2 refills). Though I think that buying teabags from NTUC is more worth it.

Before we could tuck into our desserts (or start snapping away), the waiter/waitress will explain what each and every component of the dessert is, including the little tiny drops of "ginger essence" and "hibiscus essence" (which are as big as the the size of this O, as well as how to eat the dessert.

What I liked about the desserts is the visual feasting. It reminds me of Macaron (which has closed down), where the desserts are pieces of art. It' just like Japanese Kaiseki. Considering that it opens till late, it's in Holland Village, and it's serving unique one of a kind desserts, I'm willing to pay the price. Don't come here expecting a Swensen's Earthquake (synonomous to me as big volume little quality, average price, bleagh presentation). But of course, if you need your desserts big (like how I need my desserts to be sometimes), please don't come here. The ambience is pretty nice, and there are some sofa seats (if you book early enough) but I'll definitely request for counter seats next time. They also serve water for free :)

Another thing is that the service here isn't good. I called to make a reservation for 11pm somewhere in the afternoon, and was told I'll be given bar seats. Since I was booking for 6 people, I also requested that if they had tables available, we would prefer to get a table. (Even though I wanted bar seats cos that's where the action is). At 9pm, I was suddenly given a call and told that my reservation had not been confirmed, and they were confirming it with me now. And they didn't have a table till 11.15pm. Apparently I had been told that my reservation wasn't confirmed (which is stupid, since the person who took my call even told me see me there at 11pm!).

In the end, I called to change from 6pax to 4 pax, and for a later slot at 11.30pm. We ordered 3 desserts first, and then another one later. After eating our first dessert, we ordered the 4th one. The waiter (who took our orders previously) casually said "it's pretty small to share amongst 4 people", because he had completely forgotten our orders. In fact, our 2 other desserts did not come until the 4th one was out already. And they took really long to come. I think they should seriously consider hiring more staff - the dining experience would have been briliant if not for the screw-ups.

2am Dessert Bar

21A Lorong Liput

Holland Village (opposite subway)

Tel: 6291 9727

Mon-Sat: 6pm - 2am

(Closed on Sun)

I'm feeling super enthusiastic about dessert restaurants now :D