Hit the "Spot"

Picture taken from the website

Restaurant Name: Spot Dessert Bar

Location: 13 St. Marks Place, New York

Website: http://www.spotdessertbar.com/

Price Range: Tapas are like $8.50 each (15% off with college I.D.)

JCL Rating: 9/10
JCL's Choice: Chocolate Green Tea Lava; Green Tea-ramisu


My friend had to review a dessert bar/bakery for his term paper. Spot was on the list, so here we were. The new pastry chef is Ian Chalermkittichai (Kittichai for short). Chef Ian Kittichai is a renowned chef that brought Thai cuisine to a new height. Spot is one of the few places in America that offers Classic American/French desserts with Asian twist. It is also a very "green" place. Most of their decors and packaging were made with recycled materials (Spot's Story, website). Spot offers a wide range of dessert tapas to ice creams/sorbets to pastries, brunch and beverages.


Spot is a small place, with maybe less than 25 seats, I have been here two times. As we enter, we were greeted warmly by the waitress. She was very professional and has an extensive knowledge about the menu. I asked her for recommendations on which desserts to order since it was my first time here. She asked if I liked more sweet or tart. I was never a fan of sweet stuff, so I said more tart than sweet. She recommended the Yuzu Eskimo. My friend had the Green tea-ramisu (tiramisu get it?). For drinks I had the black rose tea and he had a spicy hot chocolate. The second time I had the Chocolate Green Tea Lava cake and Jasmine green tea. 

The Yuzu Eskimo had the sweet and sour contrast. This dessert consisted of a very unique raspberry foam, fresh blackberries, chocolate pearls, oreo crumbs, yuzu ice cream with oreo crust and chocolate ganache. Yuzu is an Asian citrus fruit that is very similar to mandarin, very sour. But the oreo crust balanced out the tartness of the yuzu, it was a perfect marriage. The crunchiness from the oreo crumbs and chocolate pearls adds the extra texture to the dessert. As for the raspberry foam, it had a very interesting texture to the tongue. It goes great with the chocolate ganache. And the fresh blackberries adds on that extra refreshing feeling if you are not awaken by the yuzu ice cream yet. The plating was very contemporary as well. Perfectly executed. 

The Green Tea-ramisu was amazing. It also had a very interesting plating. It comes in a wooden cube with a small jug of green tea anglaise, matcha (green tea powder), and a wooden spoon. When they present you the dish, they will pour the green tea anglaise over the wooden cube then sift the matcha powder over it. I had a few spoons of it and I was amazed at how balanced the flavors were. This dessert consisted of the matcha, green tea anglaise, green tea madeleine (mini sponge cake), and white chocolate chunks. The green tea anglaise takes away the dryness of the sponge cake, and the powder adds a nice texture to the bite. The chunks of white chocolate gives you the crunchiness. There is a very strong of green tea flavor here but it was not bitter like the actual tea. Excellent dessert!

The black rose tea had a very nice floral scent. It is not your regular day tea, a very mild bitterness tea. Perfect tea to warm you up in a cold winter day! It goes great with the Yuzu Eskimo. 

As for the spicy hot chocolate, my friend said it was too overwhelming. The spices overpowered the chocolate. It was sweeter than the Green Tea-ramisu. I say he should have ordered the jasmine or green tea. He did say this spicy hot chocolate is great for a cold day though. 

The Chocolate Green Tea Lava cake was one of the most outstanding dessert I have ever tasted. It is accompanied by green tea ice cream, chocolate pearls, matcha powder and a thin cookie served on a black plate. The matcha powder high lights the lava cake on a black plate. Lava cake is a brownie with a runny inside. In this case, it is a mixture of green tea and chocolate ganache. What a perfect combo that is! Once you break the crust, the green tea and chocolate ganache pours out! It was so flavorful. It's like heaven in your mouth. A bite of the green tea ice cream cools you down  from the hot lava! What an incredible dessert. A sip of the jasmine tea sooth your palates and you will be ready for another bite of heaven!


What a wonderful place Spot is... and I am not even a dessert guy. Damn, this is such an amazing dessert bar. I highly recommend any person with a sweet tooth to go to Spot! From plating to flavors, they are on top of their game. Props to Chef Kittichai! This will be one dessert bar that I will repeatedly come back. Definitely. 

"Game" On

Restaurant Name: Henry's End

Location: 44 Henry Street, Brooklyn Heights, New York

Website: http://www.henrysend.com/

Price Range: Apps: $13 and under; Entrees: $20-40; Desserts: $8.50

JCL Rating: 9/10
JCL's Choice: Elk chop; stuffed quail; pomegranate lacquered duck; mixed game grill


Henry's End has got to be one of the best places I have ever dined in.  When we first walked in, we were greeted warmly by the servers. We even had a choice of which table we want to settle in since it was not busy at the time of our arrival (around 6PM). The ambiance was really mellow and comfortable. The lighting was very dim with a candle on each table. It was not a big place, maybe around 50 seats at most. As we were seated, menus were handed to us. Water followed shortly. We came to this restaurant with anticipation of trying the kangaroo dish, but according to the waiter they do not have it until maybe next month.


As disappointing as it was, we stayed. We looked at the other wild game menu items. We spent quiet some time examining the menu and deciding who gets what. As we read the menu, many questions came up regarding the dishes. Our server was there whenever we had any questions. And he answered everything thoroughly. He was extremely professional and knowledgeable. He can explain every dish from the cooking method to the sauces and sides. 

After a long debate we finally decided to order. Bread and butter were brought to our table immediately after the orders were taken. The bread basket consisted of white bread with raisins, bread stick, and whole wheat bread with poppy seed. The bread was very soft and the bread stick was hard and crunchy. So we started our meal with one appetizer, the buffalo ribs ravioli. It was topped with grated Parmesan cheese. The sauce must have been a demi glaze (liquid gold as we call it since it is so precious).  The waiter warned us that it only comes with 3 pieces as appetizers and suggested to us if we wanted one more since we have four people. The buffalo was tender and it was a perfect match with the demi glaze. The buffalo tasted like veal though. The pasta dough was not that great. It was a bit too thick and tough. Only down side of this dish.

As for entree, Eddie and I had the mixed game grill. This dish consisted of an elk chop, a piece of wild boar belly, and rabbit sausage. The presentation was really nice and elegant. The elk chop was "banging." It was cooked to rare. It was crusted with herbs, bread crumbs and Dijon mustard. The meat was extremely tender. The mustard and the meat was completely flawless. The wild boar belly was amazing. It was sprinkled by crushed pistachio and raisin. The fat melted in my mouth and the meat was cooked to perfection. Tastes very similar to regular pork. As for the rabbit sausage, it was good. But in comparison to the elk chop and boar belly, it was off. The fennel was overpowering the rabbit meat. So all I basically tasted was the fennel. With two such incredible meats, it makes the rabbit taste below par. 

Next up is the quail stuffed with andouille (grainy smoked pork sausage. For this dish's purpose it was grounded) and spinach with mushroom wild rice as the side that Frankie got. This dish comes with two stuffed quails. The andouille has a slight spice from the cayenne pepper which balanced out the semi sweet mushroom wild rice. The quail was tender and juicy. Eating the quail with the stuffing was marvelous. This dish is the perfect example of how each item on the dish relates to each other. This is cuisine to the finest. The flavor profile was perfect.

As for Sean, he had the pomegranate lacquered duck. Food lacquered gives the food a shine. The duck itself was probably roasted for the crunchy skin. This half of a duck was completely boneless. It was cooked to perfection. Really tender. The sauce was almost like a citrus gastrique (combine sugar, wine vinegar, citrus juice and zest. Reduce until thick). Orange flavor to be exact. A citrus gastrique's sweetness is one of the best sauces for duck to balance out the gamy flavor. A bite with the pomegranate's burst of juice was fantastic. This dish was excellent!

Go ahead and count the layers. Haha

After our entree plates were cleared, they handed us the dessert menu. A simple menu with dessert wine list. All the desserts are $8.50. I had the 21 layer crepe with a cream custard inside. Damn, that was some fantastic crepe. A bite of the crepe with the raspberry sauce is heaven. The fluffy custard with 21 different layers just splits in your mouth. 

Sean had the mud pie. I assume the name came from the components which is coffee and chocolate ice cream. Underneath the ice cream is an oreo cookie crust laid on top of a hot fudge espresso sauce. The chocolate and coffee ice cream was a wonderful combination. The crust added a nice crunch to the bite. The sauce was well balanced, not too sweet and a hit of coffee flavor. 

Eddie ordered the chocolate confusion. The name is indeed a good name for this dessert. Why is that? Well this dessert is both hot and cold. The cold vanilla ice cream was placed on top of the hot fudge chocolate brownie. A bite of hot and cold in your mouth, confusing combination, no? But that contrast was what really sells.

Crappy quality due to the dim lighting and flash

As for Frankie, he had the Persian lime pie. It taste... just like a regular lime pie. It was not bad, but it definitely was not that great. The presentation was interesting though. It was in a pudding bowl with a huge rosette of whipped cream on top. This was probably the worse dessert out of the four.

Each entree comes with string beans and rice. Except for Frankie's since he got the wild rice

Henry's End. People, if you have a big desire for great cuisine and fine dining service, this place is a must visit! This restaurant has been open for over 37 years and is still standing. The surrounding restaurants were empty, except for this restaurant and this sushi restaurant call Iron Chef House. That tells a lot. After the meal my curiosity came in. I asked the server who the chef was and found out that there are two main chefs. The one cooking tonight was Rob. The menu was designed by the Executive chef, Mark. I have yet to research more on these chefs. This menu was truly top notch cuisine with utmost complexity. It definitely takes a great chef to come up with this type of menu. I WILL DEFINITELY GO BACK, MAYBE IN A MONTH, TO TRY THE KANGAROO!!!!