Cascades

Fairmont restaurant with good sweets and business lunches Discuss this article

A warm and friendly welcome heralded our arrival at Cascades. We chose one of the tables nearest to the buffet, from where we got a great view of the goings-on in the open plan kitchen. We were delighted to find an immaculate display of desserts awaiting us. There were at least twenty miniature confections presented on mini glass and china dishes of all shapes and colours. There were some larger cakes and tarts as well. For the sake of ease, and so that we missed nothing in this pudding marathon, we systematically worked our way from one end of the buffet to the other.

We started with some freshly carved fruit (yes, it really was carved and not just chopped and sliced). Our first disappointment was the sumptuous looking fresh fruit savarin; the sugar syrup, which traditionally drenches a savarin, had not found its way to the centre of the cake leaving it too dry to enjoy. The small fresh fruit tartlets tasted good even though the pastry shells were out of a box and were not hand made by the resident pastry chef. The cheese platter beckoned to us but we resisted as we still had a lot of desserts to sample. Little Mouhalabia puddings (a traditional Arabic milk pudding), creme caramel, cheesecake, Linzer torte and a mixed nut tart were all enjoyed. Special credit has to be given to the very light tiramisu, which was set just enough to hold up in the heat of the room. The Lebanese basbous was also remarkably light and soft. Despite having almost reached saturation point we indulged in a little custard tart which was disappointingly soggy and bland. We left the Arabic pastries, apricot frangipan and ever-green ‘opera slice’ to try next time.

We ordered black coffee which, inexplicably, arrived with hot milk. The cafe latte was beautifully presented in a tall glass with a layer of milk on the bottom, coffee in the middle and another layer of milk on top. For pudding fanatics this is paradise, and is good value too. But beware! Never have dinner before you go thinking that this will just be a snack, it is serious meal in itself. We loved the simple, modern presentation. Just two of the little individual dishes will fit on your plate at one time, which may not seem very practical, as you are constantly getting up and down, but consider how vital the extra exercise is when consuming this many calories...

• Previous reviews
  • 01 May,2002- reviewed by Carolyn Robb
  • 01 March,2002- reviewed by Carolyn Robb

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