You may have heard or read alot of good things about The Chocolate Factory. Notably, it is helmed by Frenchman, Laurent Bernard, who has been a pastry chef and chocolatier in some of the world's most prestigious hotels for the past 18 years. Does this trendy chocolate cafe live up to its hype? We went on a Sunday evening to try out the desserts...
Ambience: Laid back, minimalist. The cafe has an open concept kitchen, so you can see Laurent Bernard and his staff at work mixing and melting the aromatic chocolate. Patrons dining alresco are welcome to bring their dogs along.
Flourless Chocolate Cake: Served with fresh cream, this cake is soft, light-weight and ... bland! The most subtle use of chocolate ever in a chocolate cake.
Chocolate Tart: While there were 3 different layers of chocolate, it was impossible to taste the distinct flavour of each because of the overwhelming, diabetes-inducing sweetness. Did they steal the recipe from Delifrance?
Handmade Dark Chocolates: Supposedly, Bernard uses chocolate made from top quality criollo beans - which accounts for only 1% of the cocoa beans in the world. The chocolates were much better than the cakes/pastry, but unexceptional for their "pedigree". They get a "W" rating, for "waste of scarce resources"... the cocoa beans died in vain.
Bottomline:
If you like your chocolate desserts to be full of flavour, rich and intense, then walk straight past The Chocolate Factory and head to the nearby Canele instead.
Note to Bloggers:
The cafe has a "no photos" policy, though this is not communicated upfront. Just take note of this, unless you want to be told (rather rudely) by the chef and his wife that they "do not like people to take photos of the food".
An update to this review, with Laurent Bernard's comments, can be found here.
The Chocolate Factory
80 Mohamed Sultan Road
#01-11, The Pier on Robertson Quay
Tel: 6235-9007
hmm, what's with this no photo taking policy :p..went to buko neru over the weekend and they too would prefer if photos were not taken :p
They're not in-tuned w the blogging rage. If your food is good, there's nothing to be afraid of. People may be able to copy the appearance of the dish but not often the taste. The kia-si mentality at work I guess.