On a recent trip to Hillcrest, I spotted Chocolat and wanted to check it out. With my penchant for sweet and French desserts, I was immediately drawn towards the store.
I’ve seen two other dessert places occupy this location, and was surprised to see yet another new store occupying the space.
I wasn’t in the mood to take out my camera, so we relied on FH’s iphone for these pictures.
Once inside, I saw the funny cartoon cows and realized that this store must be related to the downtown Chocolat, which I had yet to check out but have been wanting to because people have raved about the gelato.
I’m not a big fan of cows, so the decor was not really my cup of tea. The logo is a funky cartoonish cow. The seats are decorated to look like cow skin.
We browsed the dessert menu briefly and I was a little taken aback by the high prices. Nothing looked particularly drool worthy. Then I spotted the large selection of gelato and was immediately sold.
I was happy to see some gelato flavors I haven’t seen offered at other gelato places like a macadamia nut. After sampling a few flavors, we opted to a get a medium gelato with two flavors: macadamia nut and nutella and cream.
The nutella and cream was delicious but slightly too sweet for me. I liked the combination of a sweet cream gelato with swirls of nutella mixed in. This was FH’s favorite. I preferred the macadamia nut which was less sweet and had a nice subtle macadamia nut flavor.
I’d come back here for the gelato, which are more reasonably priced (I think our medium was around $4) than their other menu offerings. I probably won’t check out the rest of the menu unless I hear some good things about them.
Chocolat
3896 5th Ave
San Diego, CA 92103
(619) 574-8500
https://chocolat-hillcrest.com/
I like their gelato but not as much as Pappalecco’s. Also, when my friends and I ordered food there, it took forever to get it (plus the pizza was burnt) and the restaurant wasn’t even crowded. I remember it being Mille Feuille before Chocolat and I liked that dessert place. 🙂
I liked Mille Feuille too, but only got to go once before they disappeared.
Try their sweet crepes with gelato which is pretty good. We also like that they offer coppa as you would get in Italy. Their downtown location is quite nice for midnight coppa after some cocktails. Overall the best gelato currently in SD. Pappalecco us also not bad but has consistency problems especially at their Hillcrest location.
I saw some good reviews on the crepes. I will definitely need to check them out.
How are you not a fan of cows 🙂 Especially when they’re so cute at this particular place (I can only imagine you cringing every time you saw their cow labels for items behind the glass).
I went to the downtown few years back and thought the gelato was ‘ok’. My favorite gelato ever is stracciatella (it’s like chocolate chip) but I haven’t been able to find one here in SD that I really really love.
I’m pretty sure you have nutella running thru your veins 24/7 🙂
Was there parking here?
No, you have to find parking on the street. We found some not too far away.
I like stracciatella flavor too. Where have you tried it at? My favorite place to get gelato is Pappalecco