Melbourne: Om Nom Dessert Bar, CBD

After being featured a couple of times on Masterchef 2014, C+K made a mental note to visit Om Nom on their next visit to Melbourne. It was difficult to secure a booking but with a booking finishing earlier than expected, we managed to squeeze in despite our disorganisation.

Om Nom is a dessert bar in the Adelphi Hotel on Little Flinders Lane in Melbourne CBD headed by Christy Tania.  We were particularly drawn to this because of Christy's Asian heritage and use of Asian flavours in western desserts. We do not have a particularly strong sweet tooth and often prefer Asian desserts because they are less sweet so we thought we would give this a go.

Since we had an early dinner at Sugarbun (see previous post), we thought it justified to share 3 full sized desserts between the two of us (that logic works right?).

First up, we had the Raspberry Field which consists of raspberry sorbet, fresh lychees and raspberries, meringue and rosewater.

Raspberry Field

This was perfect and our tastebuds were excited. The flavours are subtle, nothing is overpowering but everything works together nicely. The rosewater isn't just some dribble of syrup on the plate...they are what looks like spherical jellies which bursts and floods your mouth with rosewater liquid when you bite into them. Follow the waitress' instructions and eat them in one bite otherwise you will lose some of the rosewater! A fun surprise to add to the theatre of the whole plate.

Next we had the Basil Garden being, a dark chocolate casing with dark chocolate dust, vanilla, olive oil, basil, honey, lime, white chocolate and meringue. This was probably the least impressive of the 3 desserts. The basil flavours were faint and at times missing and overall the flavours did not work together in the same way as the first. Admittedly, our expectations soared after the first dessert!

Basil Garden

Next up, we chose the Cendol - reminiscent of C's childhood and heritage. This dish is made up of a mango base, coconut, pandan balls, gula jawa (also known as gula melaka - i.e. palm sugar) and jackfruit. It is a refreshing dish with echos of familiar Asian dessert flavours. However, it lacked the surprise and punch of the Raspberry Field and in truth, we would probably have preferred just having a second serving of the Raspberry Field (yes, it was that good!).

Cendol

It was hard not to compare all the desserts to the first one we had but that Raspberry Field really blew us away and we would definitely recommend that to anyone who finds themselves at Om Nom.  The other were a little disappointing for us personally. After being featured on Masterchef, we are glad we tried it but overall, not in a rush to revisit.

Epilogue: Craving something a little more substantial and feeling the effects of an early dinner, we got a bit indulgent and decided to order room service and pig out on a wagyu burger and chips. In bed. Yummm.