Saturday, June 03, 2006

Stay Away From Molten Lava

Few things have been more disappointing to me in recent memory than Chili’s chocolate molten lava cake.

Last night was supposed to be date night for Michelle & I.  We decided we’d go out for dessert.  We had $10 in gift cards to Chili’s so we thought we might venture over there for one of those delectable, if not normally overpriced, treats on the menu.

Well, things didn’t start well.  We ended up not having a baby sitter for Jared, and then we ended up waiting a little over ½ hour for a table, mingling among those who thought nothing of smoking around a pregnant woman and a two year old.

Ah, but all that melted away when we were seated and given the Chili’s dessert menus, or at least it was supposed to.  We both opted for their signature dessert: chocolate molten lava cake.  The dessert is chocolate cake (with an uncooked? “molten” center), with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, a hardened chocolate shell, and drizzled chocolate and caramel sauce.

Well, the hardened chocolate shell on the ice cream was good, but that’s about it.  The cake tasted 2nd rate (and who really prefers eating “hot” cake anyway?).  I think I prefer the center of my cake to be cooked too.  The ice cream was nothing spectacular, though the dessert was rich enough to ruin one’s appetite for anything else.  We ate more out of a sense of duty than for pleasure, and spent most of our time there trying to convince ourselves that it was good.  

Not until after we’d left were we brave enough to admit to be completely honest with each other about it. Disappointment is a nice way of describing it.

But not all was lost.  I made a quick stop at the nearby Target immediately afterward to pick up a 14 oz. bag of peanut M&M’s that, as fortune would have it, were on sale for 11 cents cheaper than when I’d last checked.

1 comment:

Matt Astle said...

We had a disappointing experience last time we went to Chili's too. I think it's been crossed off the list of places we'll consider patronizing.

Oh, and by the way. Aaron, you're the only person in the world who would be able to recognize that peanut M&Ms are 11 cents cheaper than last time you looked, aren't you?