Bar 9 probably remains the most prominent specialty cafe in Adelaide, and what I love about this place is their “extracurricular” activities. They’ve hosted movie nights (Spirited Away and truffled popcorn), latte art competition (Jamdown ’14), and most recently, dessert nights!
They had 4 desserts on offer, and I managed to sample two of them. All desserts were $15, and I had no idea what to expect in terms of presentation or flavour (even though they previewed their menu on Facebook). The fewer expectations I have, the better!
Yoghurt mousse, blood orange curd soursop granita and thyme granita
This was the smallest of the desserts and full of tangy goodness. The dried orange and blood orange curd complemented the herby flavours of thyme and fennel, and the mousse was light and offset well with the crumbs underneath. There was a lovely citrus powder sprinkle around the dish that tasted great too! Even though there were so many sour elements, it wasn’t overpowering.
“Neapolitan”; vanilla bean ice cream, dark chocolate sorbet, melted strawberries and pistachio praline
What an amazing take on a classic ice cream flavour! There was a decent sized bar of vanilla bean ice cream that reminded me of ice cream bars I used to eat when I was young. Paired with the rich dark chocolate sorbet, this was quite a filling dish. There was a lime drizzle around the plate, which when mixed with the vanilla ice cream, reminded me of Splice ice creams – this was certainly a feast down memory lane!
The “melted strawberries” were not defrosted, as I had incorrectly concluded, but rather, a process where they were melted in a vac pac and macerated.
Though my visit was super short, it was a great excuse to have ice cream for dinner! My choice of coffee that night was their batch brew, which was an Ethiopian Ardi Sidama which was rich with chocolate notes.
It was rather a bad idea to consume coffee at 8PM at night, but totally worth it! The night was quite successful so hopefully there will be more of these to come!