Co Co. Sala

I told you about that great day I had. But I didn't tell you what made it so sweet.

After a brief dim sum sampling at Ping Pong in observation of Chinese New Year, my friends and I had a hankering for something sweet. Using my handy smartphone (a real upgrade from almost two years of pay-as-you-go phones and thanks only to my sister and new brother-in-law), we Yelped for a dessert shop and were delighted to see such a highly ranked restaurant merely 0.2 miles away.

Behold: Co Co. Sala

Dark Chocolate Hot Cocoa

Caramel Hot Cocoa

We decided to make this a two-course dessert. After all, dim sum can only fill you up so much.  Sitting at the bar--by 4:30pm all the tables had been snagged with reservations for 5:00--we watched the restaurant quickly fill up as we sipped our hot cocoas. I ordered a dark chocolate hot cocoa from a rather cold, dark bartender. Not wanting to spoil a chocolate-coated opportunity with an ill-advised order, I inquired about the cocoa choices. Though she conceded that I should order the dark given my expressed interest in something richer than sweet, she handed down the advice as though it pained her. Sadly, her cool tone did not warm up as the evening progressed.  

Chocolate Onyx

Co Co. Sala has clearly made it. It has great reviews, it sits in a central location, and it had a full house at 5:00pm on the dot. But overconfidence can distort a restaurant just as much as it can distort a person. In addition to our sad server, we encountered a few other, albeit minor, signs that whispered "we're too good for you". The trivial details will bore you (and take away from the beauty of the chocolate), but the tone was too pervasive not to at least mention.

So why did we stay? The answer, below, should seem quite obvious. 

Chocolate Onyx - cinnamon toffee bon bon and dark chocolate sorbet

My friend and I split the Chocolate Onyx, a mysterious dessert that was listed on the menu in seven parts. "How can all of this chocolate diversity co-mingle in one dessert?" We asked ourselves. Simple. We were presented with three mini desserts masquerading as one. 

(I'm not complaining.) 

Chocolate Onyx - Chocolate mousse with vanilla creme brûlée, salted caramel, and crispy chocolate pearls

Isn't it breathtaking? This part was my favorite. The chocolate sorbet was a job well done. It brought back memories of Berthillon in Paris where every ice cream tastes exactly like its original flavor in ice cream form. At Co Co. Sala I was eating sorbet, not ice cream, so the texture and taste presented as less creamy and more icy, but the notion of an unaltered yet altered form of chocolate was alive and well. However, this chocolate mousse took the cake. Mousse plus creme brûlée plus salted caramel plus chocolate pearls seems like too much, but it was actually quite simple. This dessert was mousse at heart with a small pop of chocolate crunch toward the bottom bites, an infusion of vanilla creme brûlée at the center, and salted caramel pooled on top. I also dipped my spoon into the stream of caramel you see in the forefront, which doubled the intensity of the salted caramel accent. Beautiful.