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The Best Chocolate Treats in Melbourne to Try This World Chocolate Day
In Melbourne, World Chocolate Day is less a date than a lifestyle, thanks to Tarts Anon’s s’mores tart, Maison Bâtard’s trolley-side mousse and Calle Bakery’s hot chocolate croissant wheel.
Wondering where to find the best chocolate treats in Melbourne for World Chocolate Day, July 7? Start with Tarts Anon’s s’mores tart in Richmond and Collingwood, Maison Bâtard’s trolley-side chocolate mousse in the CBD and Calle Bakery’s hot chocolate croissant wheel in Carlton North and Northcote. Melbourne does chocolate with very little shame and excellent range: dark gâteau, flourless cake, olive oil mousse, molten custard and Valrhona pastry magic, all transforming dessert into something rather like a civic duty. Calendar excuse or not, this city is extremely good at cocoa.
Here’s our pick of the choc-top pack.
The S’mores Tart at Tarts Anon
Tarts Anon has taken the campfire s’more, sent it to finishing school and somehow made it even better. Its s’mores tart layers dark chocolate brownie, dark chocolate custard and smoky brown sugar marshmallow into one very serious little tart pretending to be nostalgic. It is rich, roasty, sticky, grown-up and not remotely interested in portion control. It is on for another month, which feels like a small act of mercy in the bleak midwinter trenches.
Richmond & Collingwood
Julietta’s Chocolate Mousse with Olive Oil & Sea Salt
Julietta’s chocolate mousse is simple in the way good Italian desserts often are: creamy, rich and left alone just enough. Olive oil and sea salt cut through the sweetness beautifully, keeping each spoonful soft, balanced and not at all heavy. A small South Yarra favourite right now, and one we keep thinking about.
220 Toorak Road, South Yarra
Cutler & Co’s Chocolate Gateau
Cutler & Co has never been shy about a final act. In Fitzroy, the Andrew McConnell dining room sends out its chocolate gâteau like a dark little monument: Valrhona-rich, layered, mousse-soft and serious enough to slow the table. It has that lovely Cutler precision, all restraint until the spoon goes in. Save room, book ahead and let dessert have the last word.
55-57 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy
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Morning Market’s New Flourless Chocolate Cake
Morning Market’s flourless chocolate cake is not here to be modest. Made with Belgian chocolate, a molten-sticky centre and just enough bitterness to keep things interesting, it has the audacity to masquerade as a civilised coffee companion. Do not be fooled. This is a rich, dark, beautifully behaved menace from the Fitzroy and Prahran counters, and it has every intention of ruining your afternoon in the best possible way.
Fitzroy & Prahran
Calle Bakery’s Hot Chocolate in a Croissant Wheel
Calle Bakery looked at a croissant and asked, quite reasonably, why it could not also be drinkware. Its hot chocolate croissant wheel is gloriously unserious: flaky pastry hollowed into a buttery ring, filled with thick Valrhona hot chocolate and capped with cream. Half breakfast, half dessert, half architectural experiment, it is exactly the type of maths we can get around. Even better, there’s a Dubai pistachio version right now, because restraint has left the building and sweet treats are in charge.
Carlton North & Northcote
Maison Batard
Maison Bâtard understands that chocolate mousse should make an entrance. In the Bourke Street dining room, dessert arrives by trolley: dark spoonfuls of mousse, soft cream and little shards of crunch assembled tableside with pleasing French drama. The mousse is dark, airy and lavish without tipping into heaviness, which makes it dangerously easy to justify after a very long lunch or early dinner.
23 Bourke Street, Melbourne
Puffy Bakehouse’s Dark Chocolate Cake
Puffy Bakehouse does not need to explain itself. On Friday and Saturday dessert nights inside Tomo’s Little Collins, the dark chocolate cake turns up glazed, ganached and parked beside vanilla ice cream, like it knows the argument is already over. It is dark without being punishing, soft in the middle and rich enough to make sharing feel legally dubious. World Chocolate Day may only get 24 hours, but this cake is clearly operating on its own after-hours calendar, so make time for it later this week. It’s only right.
Every Friday and Saturday, 5pm to 10pm
Inside Tomo’s, 382 Little Collins Street, Melbourne
Still hungry? Keep the sugar trail going with our guide to Melbourne’s best cinnamon scrolls, or go all-in with the city’s best desserts. Chocolate may have the calendar moment, but Melbourne’s sweet tooth has never been known to clock off quietly.
