One of the stops for the Dishcrawl in North Park tomorrow will be Swoon Dessert Bar. I was lucky enough to get a little preview of Swoon to see what kind of dessert offerings they have at this dessert bar. I was excited to try it out since I’ve been wanting to visit for quite awhile.
[scottish caramel tea]
I started off with a hot tea to ease into the dessert tasting that came a bit later. This was a Pu–erh tea called Scottish Caramel which had a lovely caramel flavor – but without all of the sugar. I enjoyed the aroma and deep, rich flavor of this tea along with the two tiny little cookies on my plate. The cookies tasted like macaron tops with a bit of sweetness and airiness, but with no filling. A nice little sweet crunch to go along with the tea.
[affogato]
Jake tried an Affogato – espresso pulled over a vanilla gelato. I had a little sip, which was quite interesting. You get the intense bitter taste from the espresso followed immediately by the sweet, creamy gelato. You taste both the bitter and the sweet separately but all at once. It was intense and truly a unique experience if you’ve never tried it before. It was maybe a bit too bitter for my own liking but luckily the gelato chased the bitterness away.
This is one of the very pretty desserts that we tried. This has little buttermilk panna cotta squares with lemon verbena “caviar”, cara cara oranges, and waffle cone bits. The little caviars popped a little in your mouth and the panna cotta squares had a gelatin-like structure with it. Good overall flavors but not my favorite of the bunch. I think the gelatin-like texture kind of weirds me out because I except it to be smooth and creamy, but it’s not. But I loved the waffle bits and the “caviar”.
This is an orange and rosemary sorbet with rosemary tuile cookies and orange slices. I love the pop of orange and rosemary in the sorbet – it was light and very refreshing. Eaten with the rosemary tuile cookies gave it an extra pop of rosemary. I’ve never really had herbs in my dessert before and I found it to be quite refreshing on my tongue. It was like having a hint of something savory in my dessert and I really liked it. The sorbet was my favorite of the three items we tried.
The last item we tried was a lavender ice cream with dehydrated chocolate mousse and strawberries. The dehydrated mousse was crunchy and wafer like – almost kind of like the malt middle of a whopper ball. There was some kind of citrus salt on the ice cream (I can’t remember what – orange or lemon salt). The lavender was quite pronounced in the ice cream and I really liked this one, too. I enjoy lavender flavored things and I found this to be luscious and smooth. The crunchy mousse served as another added texture to the dessert. Very yummy!
The menu at Swoon gets updated weekly. They have dessert tasting flights with an amuse bouche and three courses as well as a la carte desserts in sweet, hybrid, or savory. Swoon Dessert Bar definitely pushes the bar for desserts, incorporating different flavors into their desserts. It’s a place for adventurous eaters or someone who’s looking for something a little different from your normal cakes, cookies or other desserts. This is definitely not something you will find most places and North Park is a perfect fit for this little neighborhood dessert bar. I can’t wait to see what other desserts they come up with – and I’d really like to try the savory offerings in the future.
CC of Pink Candles at Ridgemont High has also dined here a few times as well as Kirbie of Kirbie’s Cravings if you’d like to see what other offerings they have!
Swoon Dessert Bar
3139 University Ave
San Diego, CA
619-528-0875
Disclaimer: Our desserts and drinks were complimentary by our host from Dishcrawl. I was not paid for this review and all opinions are my own.
ooo that orange & rosemary sorbet sounds really good 🙂
It was very good! You could definitely taste the rosemary in it but I thought that just made it seem more earthy and flavorful – which I like!
Oooh, looks like you guys had some of what we had from our last visit (my third one). I really liked that deyhydrated chocolate mousse and the panna cotta (not so much the herbal flavors though). The Scottish Pu-erh tea is a good choice too. I’ve had it before but at Shakespeare’s for tea….I don’t like the taste of green or black tea, so anything that’s fruit or chocolate or caramel tasting will convince me to drink tea. 🙂
I like how they’re on the outer edge of North Park too (not where the main crowds are).
Yeah, I know you don’t like the herb ones, but I dug them! haha! The tea was really good, I liked it a lot. I saw “caramel” and my eyes lit up. We went on a Sunday afternoon and parked right in front, so that was awesome. It was nice that it was a little further out. I’m curious to try the more “savory” items just to see what they are like. I should have grabbed a macaron on the way out for later but I didn’t since I had a bunch of treats from the bake sale – next time!