Features / Riquiqui Dessert Bar

Riquiqui Dessert Bar

For the sweet-toothed among us, Riquiqui Dessert Bar’s tasting menu is just the ticket. The mellow private kitchen serves up some of the tastiest desserts around in an intimate second-floor space.

2/F, 12 Wellington Street, Central
Tel: 2868 3302

Text by Jason Spotts, photos by Happy Yuen

Riquiqui (meaning “tiny” in French) is inspired by popular New York city dessert bar ChikaLicious and the success of private kitchen Liberty Private Works, their friends from upstairs. They offer a dessert-only, three-course tasting menu constructed from dishes on their daily blackboard of à la carte creations.

The boutique dessert bar is the brainchild of cousins Amanda Cheung and Andrea Lau, who came up with the idea over dinner at LPW. Before they knew it, a plan had hatched into reality when the space below LPW was freed up.

Cheung trained as a dessert chef at the Culinary Institute of America and brings a condensed approach to dessert-making. “People in Hong Kong are happy with something good and simple,” she says. “I had planned to introduce more complex desserts, but customers seem to enjoy the balance of simple flavours.”

It is a thoughtful rotation of desserts at Riquiqui, neither too heavy nor too sweet. Cheung often uses tart, refreshing flavours with delicate skill to balance the flow of the tasting menu.

An amuse bouche is followed by a dessert entrée of your choice. The tasting menu concludes with homemade petit fours and coffee, dessert wine or prosecco. If you feel like treating yourself, add an extra à la carte dish for $100.

Riquiqui stays open until 1am on Fridays and Saturdays (when a $100 corkage applies), and reservations are encouraged.

BILL
	Dinner for Two
1) Tasting menu (including dishes 1,2 and 5) - $200 2) Mont Blanc with cherry compote - $100 3) Chocolate ganache cake and ice cream - $100
	1.	Malted chocolate mousse with chocolate covered Coco Puffs	$
	2.	Pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting and poached pears	$
	3.	Mont Blanc with cherry Compote	$100
	4.	Chocolate ganache cake with chocolate tea ice cream	$100
	5.	Petit fours	$
	Total		$400
	*Price subject to change without notice

Malted chocolate mousse with chocolate covered Coco Puffs

Cheung’s mousse leans to the light and fluffier side, but does not sacrifice the rich and smooth so critical in a good mousse. Its malty flavour just touches the palate without overwhelming too soon in the proceedings. After all, there are more courses to come. Chocolate-covered cereal puffs make a great first impression as a garnish of simplicity and nostalgia.

Pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting and poached pears

The cake’s flavours mingle so delicately that cream cheese frosting is just right to marry it all together. Yet, the crystalised ginger and sugared pumpkin seeds on top make this a winner. They offer sparkles of flavour and added texture to complement the buttery smooth cake. White wine-poached pears are seared in butter and served on the side.

Mont Blanc with cherry Compote

A beautifully airy meringue base is hollowed out and filled with moist sponge cake, then topped with whipped cream and crushed chestnuts. This dish is completed by a generous spiral of chestnut puree. It is perfect for those who enjoy the interplay between textures. A tart, contrasting cherry compote completes the flavour profile.

Chocolate ganache cake with chocolate tea ice cream

As good as the chocolate ganache cake is, the star of this dish is the earl grey chocolate ice cream. On top of adding some tannic bitterness and a refreshing flavour to the chocolate ice cream, it manages to lift the cake to another level. It lightens the cake to make you appreciate its rich chocolate flavour even more. Caramelised bananas served on the side.

Petit fours

A pleasant conclusion with textural balance. A delicately silky apricot shortbread melts in the mouth. Also included are homemade chewy coconut marshmallows with extra coconut shavings. But thehighlight of this stunner was the financier,a small and buttery almond cake witha smooth chocolate filling.

Riquiqui Dessert Bar

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