Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Pearl's Famous Hot Chocolate

631-633 Church Street, Richmond. Ph 03 9421 4599

Ok, now you might be thinking, "this guy is really struggling for something to review - he's writing about hot chocolate!"
Well, let me tell you, that this hot chocolate is too good NOT to write about!
Now that we're coming into the cooler months (although, in Melbourne you never really can tell), it's going to be time for sipping on hot drinks to get you through the chilli Autumn days.
Where better to do this, than sitting in the sleek surroundings of Pearl, at the bar on one of their new comfy couch type bar stools?
Pearl do their hot chocolate as classy as can be. You don't just get your hot chocolate and that's it - it's like a cup of tea, you get to adjust it as you like.
On your plate you'll get your hot chocolate glass which is lined with the sweet chocolate topping around the bottom and then covered in frothy hot milk. When the milk is poured over the chocolate topping, you get three layers, dark on the bottom, slightly chocolatey in the middle and frothy milk on top. (My photo was taken after I stirred the glass) With this, you also get a cup of frothy milk to adjust the chocolate to your liking and the best bit - the extended hot chocolate. Because you get a little cup of (what I think is Valrhona - I didn't check this) chocolate you can add the chocolate to your hot chocolate and make it even stronger and then add some of the extra milk and it's like having 2 hot chocolates!
I honestly haven't had a better hot chocolate anywhere in Melbourne and would like people to tell me if they know anywhere else that does a hot choccie as good as this.
At $6.50, it may be one of the most expensive hot chocolates in town, but you pay for what you get and in this case, it's perfection!!

While I'm here I'll tell you about the lamington I had there too... $5.
Nothing too different here, but I think the jam inside was home made, quite nice, but $5 was a little much for a lamington, but you do get to eat it at Pearl!


5 comments:

Cindy said...

I think hot chocolate is very review-worthy. :-) Will have to check Pearl out this winter...

Adski said...

If you get a chance, drop into Pearl for breakfast/brunch on a weekend. The prices are very reasonable and the food is fantastic. You can have a delicious hot choccie with your breakfast and you'll have a great day from there on!
Can you tell I have a Geoff Lindsay obsession recently??

thanh7580 said...

I agree that hot chocolate is review worthy. There was an article in The Age where they said that Brunetti's in Lygon had the best hot chocolate. Brunetti's hot chocolate are good I have to say, but they don't let you add MORE chocolate yourself so I must try this.

Adski said...

I've heard that brunetti's hot chocoloate is apparently the best too. I think it's their traditional italian one that's meant to be the good one. I've tried this and it's unbelievably rich and almost, almost undrinkable, quite like the hot chocolate I had on the weekend from the San Churro stall at the Melbourne Food and Wine festival. The Pearl one is my favourite so far. The Aztec hot chocolate from the San Churro store is pretty interesting - spicy and chilli! Maybe I should start a hot chocolate review blog!

Anonymous said...

Wow. $5 for a lamington. Served in what looks like an ashtray. :-D Looks like a good lamington though!