But oh, the desserts. Pastry chef Megan Belle excels at textural and flavor contrast, with feather-light tuiles and dense cakes offset by fruit sauces and sorbets.
Narrow wedges of dark chocolate hazelnut ganache cake ($7) brought out both sweet and bitter notes in the chocolate, brightened by a swirl of passionfruit glaze and the crunch of candied hazelnuts.
Salted caramel set off a miniature chocolate cake ($7), balanced with raspberry fruit leather — basically the world’s fanciest fruit roll-up. With a glass of chilled Frangelico ($5) or Miles Malmsey Madeira ($6), the whole combination seemed at once gleefully childlike and elegantly adult.