Extraordinary Desserts

Extraordinary Desserts
1430 Union Street
San Diego, CA 92101
619-294-7001
www.extraordinarydesserts.com

Last weekend when my friends were visiting, Boyfriend and I tried to take them to Extraordinary Desserts, but the wait was too long.  This weekend, Photographer friend was back visiting San Diego because his wife was running a race in SD.  So we took him to Extraordinary Desserts.  Only, instead of attempting to go to the one in Hillcrest, we went to the one in Little Italy, which I had never been to before, but thought it might be less crowded because it's a bigger location.

The atmosphere at the Little Italy one is definitely different.  Whereas the one in Hillcrest has a homey-comfort feel to it, the Little Italy location looks much more trendy. It's a lot bigger and serves meals along with dessert. I'm not sure which location I like better, but I loved how there was no wait at the Little Italy location to order some stuff to go. 

I don't visit Extraordinary Desserts often.  Usually only when friends come, and occasionally on special occasions.  Their desserts are delicious, and beautiful, but oh so expensive!  A slice of cake is around $7-8.  They sell a variety of desserts: cakes, scones, cookies, handmade ice cream.  The desserts are definitely on the very rich and sweet side. Here are some of the desserts they were offering the night we went:

Their cakes are very beautiful, and use an array of edible flowers and gold flecks.  Here are some personalized cakes that were on display.  The pictures are a bit blurry because the glass was frosty.:

After perusing the desserts on display, we decided on our selection.

Boyfriend chose the Au Chocolat, a mousse torte.  The description of the cake is as follows: Rich and creamy Valrhona dark chocolate mousse tops a thick layer of chocolate cake soaked in cocoa and covered in dark chocolate ganache.

The mousse was very rich.  I would have enjoyed a cake that had more different layers and textures to it.  This was a little too one dimensional and too sweet.

I had a slice of the La Bete Noire. Description: Traditional vanilla creme brulee, chocolate mousse, and choclate truffle cream are layered in between dark chocolate cakes and moistened with Madagascar vanilla bean.

This cake is rich and sweet too, but I liked the different layers. It made it less sweet because the different layers had different amounts of sweetness.  I especially liked the vanilla creme brulee. I also liked the different textures between the cake, the mousse and the cream. I really enjoyed this.

Photographer Friend had the Dulce De Leche. Description: A crunchy milk chocolate confection is hidden between layers of chocolate cake and creamy chocolate mousse. Homemade dulce de leche finishes this over the top chocolate torte.

Out of the three cakes I samples, this was definitely the sweetest.  An already sweet chocolate cake topped with sweet caramel sauce.  It was hard for me to taste the cake because I found the caramel overwhelming.  But Photographer Friend really liked it.  Actually, everyone ended up thinking what they chose was the best, so I guess we all chose well.

I also ordered a few desserts to eat the next day.  I tried a raspberry strawberry scone:

The inside of the scone has layers of raspberry jam.  I didn't like the jam in it. 

I also ordered a chocolate bundt cake.

It is very sweet with a thick layer of chocolate ganache.  Pretty yummy though.

I've been really into edible flowers lately, so I was interested in tasting the different flower garnishes.  The rose petals didn't have much taste, and was slightly bitter.  Didn't really enjoy them.  The orchid was surprisingly crunchy and tasted like lettuce. I enjoyed eating it.

Next time I want to try their ice creams and chocolate croissant bread pudding.