Sweet escape @ Chez Dré

Chez Dré Patisserie Boulangerie

Rear of 285-287 Coventry Street

South Melbourne VIC

www.chezdre.com.au

After reading an article from The AGE, I made a note to myself that Chez Dré is the definitely on my must visit cafe.  It had been on my list for a while until the day that I made a meal at The Albert Park Hotel.  Teddy and myself weren't satisfied with the food from the crab courses at The Albert Park Hotel and we were thinking about where else that we could go.  Then Teddy suggested to go to Chez Dré for our desserts, since we were in Albert Park, we would be in South Melbourne in no time...and our dessert craving would still be with us when we reach there.


Though I didn't get to try any savoury items from Chez Dré, but I managed to get my hands covered with sweet during my trip with Teddy.

 

We walked right into the funky high ceiling cafe with a semi-circle open kitchen.  The decor inside was quite unique with a sense of good mix and match of interior design, gave out a great vibe.  We chose the seating near the window just on the side of the kitchen because it was plenty of lighting and sunshine from a nice Sunday afternoon.  Teddy went to check out the cakes and pastries while I wandered around the place and got absorbed into the ambiance of Chez Dré.

After a couple of conversations passing between Teddy and myself, the waitresses spotted that we had yet been served, so one of them came and take our order.  I started off with Jasmin Pearls Tea ($4) and couple of cake slices.  Just right after the two cakes were ordered, the waitress was about to take her leave, we actually had to stop her and inform her that we still had more cakes to order.  With the puzzled look on her face, I gave back a big smile and told her that Teddy and myself were on a dessert crazy afternoon.  The order continued and we ended up with four cakes and three macarons to share between the two of us.

The parade of cakes slowly came out one after another.  First on the table was Jasmine Cake ($8.50). The cake texture was chocolate mousse, with jasmine jelly inside.  Also, on the top it was a jasmine jelly, which I found just a tad bit bitter.

Second on the cake parade was Salted Butter Caramel Eclair ($8.50).  Teddy and I agreed that this is our favourite cake of the day from Chez Dré.  The cake was so decadent and the texture of the mousse was creamy, smooth and kinda melted in the mouth.  With a divine pastry base - sorta like a choux pastry -  at the bottom, it made the whole cake even more enjoyable.

Next on the cake roll was Blackcurrent Mousse ($8.50) - its our second favorite cake for today.  The mousse itself had a very sweet berry smell.  The texture was consistently smooth and gave a mouthful of aroma burst.  Surprisingly, this cake wasn't tangy at all, rather, it gave out a well combination of the flavour and the black current wasn't over-powering the mousse at all.

Now moving onto the citrussy side, we got Blood Orange Cake ($8.50).  It was spongy mousse with fluffy texture that gave out a bit of a tanginess from the blood orange.  The aroma was fantastic, the burst of citrus just surged in with one mouthful of this cake.  Inside also had a layer of blood orange jelly which blended well with the mousse.

After 4 cake slides, we moved onto the colourful macarons from the display case.  We picked only 3 flavour - mainly the exotic ones - Kaffir Lime, Lime & Basil and Calamansi Orange ($3.00 each).  The macarons were lovely, but slightly mild on the exotic flavour.  The aroma from the kaffir lime leaf, basil and calamansi orange was good, but the mild flavour was a slightly let down for me.

After we finished & cleaned up the cake plates, the waitresses told us that we've done well to finish all the lovely cakes...I guess they have never seen cake crazy people like us whom just ordered nothing but cakes for one sitting!

+Disclaimer: The commentary contained in this blog is purely based on my own opinion and experience at the time of visit. Taste is a subjective and yours and mine can be differed.