Locolat

1781 Florida Ave NW Ste A
(between N 18th St & N U St)
Washington, DC 20009

(202) 518-2570

www.belgiumlocolat.com

Pastry Chef Niel Piferoen (Citronelle, Restaurant Eve) greeted me with a warm smile as I walked in the door of Locolat and patiently waited for me as I stared amorously at the rows of tiny truffles on the shelves. I was happy to be there, I knew the shop had opened a few weeks earlier and couldn't wait to try it.

He excitedly described to me all the chocolate mousse tortes available, and I tried two, dark chocolate mousse with strawberries and white chocolate mousse with raspberries. I also had a raspberry cupcake and cup of hot dark chocolate.

The hot chocolate was delicious, so rich and flavorful. Both of the tortes were also excellent, my favorite one was the dark chocolate mousse with strawberries. I love dark chocolate, specially when it's not too sweet, and this mousse was exactly what I like. I unfortunately didn't love the cupcake, the frosting was perfect, but the cake was a little dry for me, more like a biscuit than a cupcake.

Raspberry White Chocolate Mousse Torte

Dark Hot Chocolate (milk and white chocolate also available)

I went back a couple days later early in the morning (they open at 7AM) and had one of their Belgium Wafles (that's how they spell it) with strawberry compote. The batter of the waffle was so yummy, rich and flavorful on its own, not as fluffy as you might be used to, but sooo much better. And the strawberry compote tasted as if he had just made it, specially for me from fresh berries. Oh and I had a cup of tea, I am a snob when it comes to tea, and he would've won my heart over if he had loose tea served in a JENAER GLAS teapot, but he had the second best thing, Mightly Leaf Tea in my favorite flavor, Mountain Spring Jasmine, the exact thing I wanted with a wafle. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the wafle, but don't worry, I'll be back for more.

That morning I also bought a whole triple mousse torte for a friend's birthday, and it was devoured within minutes of the candle being blown out. Everyone loved the crusty hazelnuty bottom, although for a second we stared at it thinking that it might be too pretty to cut into. In this case, we were right to judge the book by the cover.