Lupo Restaurant + Vinoteca – Desserts

Restaurant: Lupo Restaurant + Vinoteca – Dessert Review

Cuisine: Italian/Pacific Northwest/Casual fine dining
Last visited: January 16, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC (Yaletown/Downtown)
869 Hamilton Street
Price Range: $20-30 (for entrée)

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 3.5 Dessert: 4
Service: 5

Ambiance: 4

Overall: 4

Additional comments:

• Located in historical Victorian house
• Executive chef Julio Gonzalez Perini
• Italian chef
• Specializes in Italian
• Italian with West Coast influence
• Extensive wine list
• Casual fine dining
• Clean menu, nice selection
• Home made desserts
• Great presentation on the whole
• Very friendly service
• Cozy, intimate atmosphere
• Great for parties, private rooms available
• Dinner from 5pm
• 5-6:15pm 3 course set menus $28/$38 available

**Recommendation: Braised Beef Short Ribs, Lamb Ossobucco, Panettone Bread Pudding, Tiramisu

I came to Lupo Restaurant + Vinoteca for dinner and obviously I had to order dessert. I rarely skip dessert – it’s too important to my daily diet.

This review focuses just on the dessert; I posted the dinner review here. The dessert was either really good or really not so good. Everything was made in house and the presentation was really nice. They have seasonal dessert specials, but I know the tiramisu is permanent. The only dessert I didn’t try was the crème brulee.

On the table:

**Tiramisu 4.5/6

• About $7
• This is a pretty good tiramisu, but also not the best I’ve had. I think I need to do a hunt for the best Tiramisu in Vancouver one day.
• Anyways the mascarpone cream was right on. Not too sweet, rich, creamy, and I could taste the mascarpone without it being overpowering.
• The “cake” layer was lady fingers and they were soaked perfectly. They still kept their sponge cake like texture and I tasted more espresso than Rum flavour.
• The top layer of mascarpone was fine, but the bottom layer of mascarpone was looking a bit thin. It started to taste a bit dry because it was more cake than cream.
• Overall it was a quality Tiramisu, and even though it was very good, I also don’t think I will remember it in a week.
  
• I wanted more cocoa powder on top too.

**Panettone Bread Pudding 6/6

• About $7
• The best of the 3 desserts. This was very creative and smart. An Italian style bread pudding.
• Very moist and baked perfectly. It was a dome of Panettone bread pudding and it was soft in texture. The raisins were plump and plentiful and the dried fruits like candied orange and lemon and they weren’t too hard or fake tasting.
• The ice cream was very rich and ultra creamy…it almost tasted like a quadruple whipped cream ice cream. Very decadent. I think they should serve it with a mascarpone ice cream, which would be over the top good with the Panettone!
• Don’t let that wafer curl fool you. When you break it it’s very crispy, but then you bite it and it’s not crispy. It’s almost stale and chewy – I would much rather have a crispy wafer and it was quite deceiving. It tastes almost like a soft thin fortune cookie wafer, with a slight almond taste.

Toasted Pound Cake with Pears 1.5/6

• About $7
• This was not impressive and way too simple. It was a very small slice of regular pound cake that was toasted – it wasn’t dry, but the edges were crispy. I’m not sure how they did that actually. But the taste still wasn’t impressive although I’m curious about the method.
• The pears were very hard and not tender at all. I think they may have been poached in red wine, but the crunchiness was so distracting I couldn’t tell. They definitely were not caramelized enough.
• The ice cream was the best part – it was very tangy and light and I think it could have been a sour cream or crème fraiche gelato or sorbet.
• I didn't get a picture of the chocolate souffle, but it's the one in the back behind the Panettone bread pudding.

Chocolate Souffle 1.5/6

• About $7
• Soufflé is French not Italian.
• The soufflé should have been served in a soufflé dish and not on a plate and not with hazelnut gelato either. It was too heavy for a soufflé and they needed something like a cream l’anglaise. I love ice cream too, so for me to say this…it’s a big deal.
• They compared it to a molten lava cake, but I wouldn’t. It’s not a rich dense brownie that’s half cooked with a melted chocolate centre.
• It’s a soufflé, but it came across as an undercooked sponge cake. The problem with this one was that it was very soggy and a bit mushy and the chocolate taste was very light.