The Australiafiles: Part 4- Max Brenner Chocolate Bar

A chocolate bar. A café for chocolate. What respectable glutton with a sweet tooth could stumble upon this place and not go in?

Situated in the Piazza area of Castle Towers shopping centre, this place is part café, part dessert bar and part chocolate shop: AKA my kind of place. My mum and I were pottering around the shops and it was nearly lunchtime- but I had to go in.

This guy Mr. Brenner clearly loves his chocolate. When I walked in there was a huge vat of melted chocolate churning away in a machine, and I was confronted by a cabinet of chocolate desserts and a counter of cakes, some of which were sliced as big as bricks. There was quite an extensive menu of more chocolatey things on the wall, including ice cream and waffle-based things, and a large variety of hot chocolates made with (of course) real chocolate.

'Ergh, calories', said mum, scrunching up her nose. It was my cousin's wedding in a couple of days' time and we wanted to look our best: but I didn't want to miss this opportunity, and I knew I probably wouldn't have time to go back to this place. So I compromised, avoiding the enormous cakes and large desserts, and settled for a little cupcake and a dark hot chocolate (and bribed mum's company with a cup of tea).

I loved how even my humble cupcake was dressed up with melted chocolate on the plate! The mug the chocolate came in was also quite cool (the 'hug mug', which you also have the option of buying in Max Brenner's gift shop- also situated on-site). I'll be brutally honest now, and say that the hot chocolate was disappointing- it was thin and weak compared to some of the better hot chocolates I've tried in other places here in London. It was alright- certainly miles better than hot chocolate made from powder- but not as good as I was expecting from a dedicated chocolate place. The cupcake was nice and fluffy and with good flavour though, so that (and the presentation) appeased me.

This is Smidgen by the way- I've had this little rainbow rabbit since I was a baby, and he's travelled everywhere I've travelled, from Scotland to Spain to Sydney. Every new country I go, Smidgen goes with me.

As well as actual chocolates, the gift shop also had a number of cool chocolate-related paraphernalia. I particularly like the fondue-for-one pot. They're a bit pricey, but if you have the money they'd make great gifts.

This time around I didn't really take advantage of the menu- if there's a next time, I'm going to make a point of having a 'dessert for lunch' day, and have one of the amazing-looking and enormous desserts that I saw other people ordering.