Pierre Roelofs’ dessert night at Café Rosamond

Dessert degustation at Café Rosamond, Fitzroy

Address: Rear 191A Smith Street, Fitzroy, VIC 3065

Phone: (03) 9419 2270

Open: Thursdays from 7-11pm

Everyone loves dessert and if they don’t, well, they should. Now I’m no dessert snob; you can please me as easily with melted Dairy Milk chocolate cascading down homebrand vanilla ice cream as you can with a stunning cake from Burch and Purchase or a delicate dessert from a fine dining establishment. 

With a mouthful of sweet teeth, it was only a matter of time before I attended one of Pierre Roelofs’ dessert evenings at Café Rosamond. Every Thursday night from 7pm until 11pm, queues of punters with a penchant for pudding and all things sugary line up outside this little Fitzroy café to eat dessert in place of dinner. We were there half an hour early and had no troubles snagging a spot. You can have one, two, three or four courses at $20, $30, $40 and $50 respectively. 

We started with the signature test tube dish, which is present at every dessert evening at Café Rosamond. Our test tubes on this particular occasion contained layers of fruit mince pie and were accompanied by a shot of creamy eggnog. It was all very timely, being just before Christmas and all. The test tube dessert set the bar high. Perhaps a little too high – the remaining three desserts simply didn’t compare. 

The second course was a combination of textures with flavours of raspberry, lavender and malt. A soft cube of raspberry marshmallow formed the centrepiece, while lavender mini meringues, malt crumbs and blobs of raspberry and malt purée were scattered deliberately around it. Although it was beautifully presented in a ‘too-small-for-its-plate-molecular-gastronomy’ kind of way, it was a touch too floral for my personal tastes. 

Next up was the most substantial dessert, served in a glass with layers of lemon foam, lemon jelly, hazelnut yoghurt, hazelnut crumble, coconut sago, sticky salted caramel and puffed corn. Individually, the elements were delicious, and while the collection of textures was orally exciting, I couldn’t stop myself from screwing up my face when the lemon and salted caramel joined together in a single mouthful. 

The final dessert, although not quite on par with the test tubes, was a saving grace. The balsamic panna cotta was presented on a narrow, slate-grey plate with South American ‘tres leche’; a three milk cake made with condensed milk, evaporated milk and cream over sponge, along with chocolate ice, chocolate chip cookie, dark chocolate soil, chocolate mousse and buttery blobs of balsamic reduction. My only qualm with this dessert was that the balsamic was overpowering. 

I enjoyed the dessert night at Café Rosamond, but I wouldn’t go back in a hurry. It's certainly an experience, albeit an expensive one. It’s worth giving it a go at least once, and if possible, I’d recommend lining up at the end of the year when they host their ‘best of’ Café Rosamond dessert nights, featuring a selection of the best creations from the year. It's also a great spot to take a food-lover on a date, although don’t be offended if they are still hungry afterwards and ask to stop at Nandos for a chicken burger like I did.