Candy Bar just opened about a week ago. It’s in Western Addition area of SF, which I’m sure most of you know has a horrible problem with parking. We drove around for 40 minutes looking for parking. I’m no exaggerating either. We finally parked at Fulton and Masonic in the Lucky parking garage and took a cab down there since it was raining.

Their big idea is to do dessert with a new twist of flavors. A lot of those flavors ended up being savory. They have a dessert tasting menu as well as a very limited savory menu.

We had made a reservation when we called and asked if they had valet parking about 20 minutes prior. It was mostly full of people when we walked in on Friday around 8pm. Heston and I decided to each do the dessert tasting menu so we could try the most dishes. ($14/each) You each get to choose two desserts to try, plus an amuse and mignardise. Here is how it went:

Amuse - Sparkling Meyer lemonade- It tasted a bit minty kind of bubblegum like. Heston’s first reaction was a toothpaste taste. Not that impressive.

Chevre Cheesecake- Coconut sorbet, nicoise olive, caramel- This was the best thing all night, but it was still lacking. It definitely wasn’t cheesecake like. You expect there to be some sort of crumbly crust and there isn’t. It was more of a custard. The taste was unique though.

Warm Vanilla Cake- pickled mango with olive oil- It was just okay. Not much wow factor here. It was warm, which might have been the best part. The pickled mango was nice and added a very different contrast of flavor.

Chocolate Brioche- Balsamic, caramel ice cream, lime yogurt- Everyone is going to laugh, but this tasted totally burned. It looked great, but it did not deliver in your mouth at all! Something was just off. The flavor profile was not dessert like in the slightest.

Blood Orange Baked Alaska-candied fennel, hone comb- Surprising…ly good. Seemed a bit unfocused though. The candied blood orange was again a nice contrast. The fact that the entire thing was so cold took away from it.

Overall Candy Bar was just okay. I’m not sure if I’ll be back though.

Why is Candy Bar so festive?
(All ratings are out of 10.)

Food: 5

Drinks: 5.5

Atmosphere: 7.5

Price: $22/person

Summary- Check it out if you’re in the area!

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 26th, 2008 at 6:00 pm and is filed under Dessert, Drinks, Festive!, San Francisco. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.