[Hong Kong] Cobo House by 2am: Dessert Bar

Rating: ❤❤❤❤

Singaporean dessert queen and two-time winner of Asia's Best Pastry Chef Janice Wong has descended into Hong Kong with Cobo House by 2am:dessertbar where she will be showcasing her signature edible art desserts along with a full-blown savory food menu for the first time! Located right next to Artisan Room in Shek Tong Tsui, the spacious restaurant embraces a chic and yet minimalist design with simple black and white color tones so diners can concentrate on the food right in front of them. The best seats in the house are probably at the dessert bar counter with front row seats to the pastry chefs in action but since I was with a big group of friends, we sat at one of the tables next to the floor-to-ceiling windows and ordered some snacks and desserts to share since we were there for afternoon tea. 

We ordered two snacks to share and while the Root Chips ($65) were certainly beautiful with its colorful seasonal root chips served with smoked black garlic dip, the chips were not crunchy enough and quite chewy actually while I couldn't taste the smoked garlic in the dip. 

We were instructed to squeeze a tube of truffle oil into the warm garlic aioli which served as a dip for the Chicharrons ($65) but the puffed pork skin with smoked paprika suffered the same fate as the root chips unfortunately as they were really chewy to eat. 

Fortunately, we moved onto desserts next which all proved to spectacular in both looks and taste starting with this Tsujirihei Green Tea Tart ($108) which is a lava matcha tart made with Kyoto green tea and served with jasmine rice sherbet. The matcha was rich with a slight bitter undertone which was nicely balanced by the lightly flavored sherbet. 

Shades of Green ($118) was inspired by the Nanyang breakfast of kaya toast and kuih bangik in Singapore with pistachio sponge cake, coconut mousse and pandan ice cream where the flavors of all ingredients were evident and came together cohesively. 

The aerated frozen Chocolate H2O ($128) was one of my favorite desserts here with 65% dark chocolate, Evian, salted caramel, Kochi yuzu sorbet as it was both pleasing to the eye and the taste buds. Inspired by dead coral on the coast of San Sebastián, the rich chocolate and caramel flavors were perfectly balanced by the refreshingly tart yuzu sorbet!

Inspired by cherry blossoms, the Cassis Plum ($138) is another must-try here with cassis bombe, elderflower yogurt foam, Choya granita and yuzu pearls. This edible piece of art was featured in MasterChef Australia and comprised of many layers of flavors and textures that came together perfectly like a sweets symphony!

The Popcorn ($78) was an interesting dessert with popcorn, yuzu parfait and passion fruit sorbet with a tube of real popcorn to arouse your sense of smell. I couldn't really taste the popcorn in the dessert though as the yuzu and passion flavors were both strong and overpowering (we did try the real popcorn in the tube which just tasted like normal popcorn).

The Hot Chocolate ($78) with 75% cacao was served with 3 pieces of homemade churros ( extra churros at $28 for 5 pcs), and initially we were confused as to how to eat this dessert as the bowl of hot chocolate was literally the drinkable kind and quite liquid so while we could dunk the churros in it, it didn't really do anything for the churros except made it soggy. The churros were quite good though with a crispy shell and moist center while the hot chocolate was pleasing to drink by itself so perhaps a happy medium would be to serve another real chocolate dip on the side for the churros as well as the hot chocolate drink. 

Verdict - I was impressed with the artistic presentations and creative flavors in most of the desserts here which are definitely worth a try for the reasonable prices, and I'd definitely be interesting in coming back to try the savory menu as well! Executive lunch sets start from $198 while dinner set starts from $428 along with a 13-course degustation menu at $1280.

Cobo House by 2am: Dessert Bar

8-12 South Lane, Shek Tong Tsui

Tel: +852 2656 3088
https://www.facebook.com/COBOHOUSEHK/

 


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