[dt_gap height=”10″ /]
Islamabad’s new dessert bar is simply creating a whole new level of dessert experience and innovating a new delight that could definitely make you feel guilty
[dt_gap height=”10″ /]
For decades, chocolates have been a symbol of pleasure and happiness. To take a break and to pamper myself, last week I headed to the swarming Centaurus Mall to explore this new eatery creating buzz in town with their insane flavors and innovative ice cream rolls.
Islamabad’s new tempting dessert bar, offering exquisite ice creamy experience, is rightly named Guilty Pleasures.
Located on the third floor of the Mall, with just enough space to manage the operations was the delightful, heavenly bar catering a huge number of people. I was surprised since you will not find many people rushing to an ice-cream parlor during the month of November in Islamabad.
I was stunned to see the way the outlet was designed in terms of the interiors and the way the menu was displayed on the LCD screens as there are not many eateries in town that blend with technology so easily. The chocolaty interior was very cozy and had a pleasingly elegant approach. Pretty impressive, I must say for a dessert bar to focus so much on the color tone and the costume of the employees.
On to the right corner is a color full notice board full of fluorescent sticky notes filled with comments from the visitors. For any eatery, having the comments/feedbacks displayed so openly is truly a very positive gesture encouraging and creating a tougher competition among the food industry.
I spent the next few minutes going through the menu that had almost 30 different flavors with around 10 different topping options. Now was my turn to order and see what exactly is driving the people of Islamabad so crazy over a petite dessert bar. I decided to go with Nutella with Fudge Brownie. You have the option of literally going with any combination you want, by anything I seriously mean anything. From cheese cakes to raspberries, from caramels to fruit fusions, you name and they were happily getting it done for you.
The raw ingredients were first poured on to a custom made sliver titanium tray and were mashed on the surface of the tray that had magically transformed the semi-solid, liquid and the solid ingredients into a frost like object. The mashing was done without engaging any machines or any blender or grinders. It was vigorously mashed and crushed by using simple but very sharp joint knives. After a good 6-8 minutes of mashing, all the ingredients had mixed perfectly and were transformed into beautiful and vivacious ice-cream rolls. All done, right in front of your eyes. Yes, that is indeed the most delightful thing that could happen to a foodie and especially for the ones with an extra bit of a sweeter tooth.
The topping was tough choice between caramel and chocolate. With so much delight in front of you one cannot just ignore the chocolate topping, and hence chocolate it was that was regaled all over.
The sinfully attractive ice-cream rolls were handed in a transparent plastic ice cream cup with my name mentioned on one side. The elegant yet sinful rolls were decorated by a small umbrella and other goodies as you can see in the picture. The first bite had triggered a lustful hunger inside me that wasn’t just letting me absorb the aroma that had taken over my mind and I could not stop myself and jumped on for a second. The crunches of the frozen brownie in my mouth were dissolving on their own while leaving a charismatic crunch that was nowhere to be found seconds later. The crunchiness was not of the frost that you would find in a typical ice cream, but was of the fudge brownie that was blended with other ingredients and was left their for the crunchiness. The Nutella was very well blended with the fudge brownie, every ingredient was preserved with the original taste.
[dt_gap height=”10″ /]
[dt_gap height=”10″ /]
The most important part of ice creams is the usage of artificial sweetening and to my surprise, the ice cream at Guilty Pleasures was just perfectly sweet. Not very sweet and not very dull, just carefully sweet enough to tickle and tempt your sweet buds. Unfortunately, not a single ice cream parlor had been able to create this combination or has even come half way close. I can gladly affirm that this is beyond combining a few things and coming up with a new dish or a recipe, Guilty Pleasures is simply creating a whole new level of experience that one cannot forget and innovating a new delight that could definitely make you feel guilty of bringing so much of pleasure to your taste buds.
While enjoying this delight I managed to had a quick chat with the owner and he was kind enough to share some insight on the upcoming goodies that would be offered to the general public soon.
You can savour Molten Lava cake served with desired ice-cream rolls as it would be available from next week.
Apart from ice creams, which Guilty Pleasures is known for, the eatery offers an irresistible variety of bakery goodies. “The Chocolate Brownie, Lemon Meringue pie and the Nutella Passion Tart are among the most favorite bakery desserts” according to Muhammad Rimmel, founder and COO of Guilty Pleasures.
[dt_gap height=”10″ /]
[dt_gap height=”10″ /]
The Nutella Passion Tart had a thick base that was baked well and the topping was absolutely fresh. The crust was however crumbly and firm, maintaining the intensity of freshness.
The Chocolate Brownie was also too good to be true, perfectly baked and tender enough to delight ones taste bud with the sensual feeling of baked chocolate. Indeed a taste that was never ever tantalized by countless desserts I have had over the years.
The Lemon Meringue pie, was a remarkable experience with a unique and rich taste of slightly sour but heavily sweet lemons with fresh meringue topping, reminding of the typical French desserts that are nowhere to be found in this part of the world. The Lemon Meringue pie was totally a paradise for the lovers of Meringue since it was baked with so much perfection that all the richness of the lemon was preserved and Meringue had maintained its color and taste without turning gloomy.
Over all experience was astonishing, since I had no clue that such delights could be so perfectly made and served by someone on such a scale. Hygiene factor was highly taken into consideration during all the processes and the freshness was guaranteed.
If you really want to treat someone special or just in a mood to pamper yourself, then Guilty Pleasures in Islamabad would be the most appropriate place. For those who have previously read about the dessert bar and haven’t visited yet, I would strongly recommend you to go out and have a feel of the ingeniously delightful desserts at the Guilty Pleasures, and as they say, Its worth the cheat.
[dt_gap height=”10″ /]
[dt_gap height=”10″ /]
Photo courtesy: Guilty Pleasures
[dt_gap height=”10″ /]