meei / Dessert

triple lamington-spotting mmm. is it me, or has the lamingtons at agnes curran grown smaller and less generous with the raspberry jam? not being accusatory, though, because to be fair, they haven't raised prices even after the GST hike and rising costs of commodity staples (shrug)

Clockwise from top left - blackcurrant & violet, pear & ginger, sticky date, manuka honey & hazelnut, licorice & milk chocolate, bitter chocolate. personal favourites are the bitter chocolate (only perennial offering out of the six we chose) and sticky date. probably the only macarons in nz that are good enough to compete with the ones at la renaissance of the rocks, sydney (which are the best i've ever personally tried).

could the presentation be any more whimsical? the tempura was rather forgettable, to be honest (batter was too thick and slightly undercooked), but the fig ice cream we ordered to go with (dish comes with a free scoop of ice cream by default) was phenomenal.

kohan hand makes all their ice creams (5-6 flavours in total, if my memory serves me correctly). their green tea was ohkay. a tad sweet for my liking, but i imagine a lot of people would like it this way.

looks deceptively run-of-the-mill, but this is absolute ace. even has a generous seam of THAT CHOCOLATE CARAMEL running along the top of the base layer.

but just because they're a chocolate shop, don't dismiss their other offerings just yet. this flan was just decent - definitely not the best i've tried; could be lighter, less heavy in texture or more delicate and refined in flavour. but THAT CHOCOLATE CARAMEL (see glossy lump of goodness in top right corner). they should sell this elixir by the jar. so, so good. chocolate caramel itself gets 10.5/10.

their infamous - comes scooped out of a large cauldron sitting stop the counter. comes in different varieties (spicy, regular, and a couple of other exciting variations i can't recall). we went for the standard - pretty good - milky and (if this makes sense) chocolate-y enough without being overly dense or cloying. i can see why it's a crowd favourite.

quite decent - rich, although a little sweeter than i'd usually like my chocolate (this obviously chalks up to personal preference, though)

perfection. peaches were tangy and didn't taste of canned fruit at all. beautiful location and some of the most genuinely warm hospitality we encountered in an eatery down south.

also quite faultless. light, the way most japanese desserts usually are.