Saturday, January 30, 2010

Dessert monster encountered at Benten Café

Having a huge sweet tooth (which inadvertently leads to a lot of toothaches), I’ve always had a soft spot for desserts, especially the incredibly sinful kind filled with ice cream and other sugary ingredients.

Despite all my dessert-chomping experiences though, nothing prepared me for the monster I faced at Benten Café, which serves up gargantuan desserts that are definitely not for the faint-hearted (nor the diet-watchers).

The ambiry babiru (if I remember the name correctly) is a huge, fishbowl worth of sweet delights, with just about anything imaginable thrown in. Amongst the immense mess (and mass) of the dish you can find cakes, fruits (cut in amazingly intricate patterns), whipped cream, biscuits and pudding, topped off with a copious load of corn flakes and ice cream.

Although the babiru looked messy and kinda disgusting, it is a godsend for those who crave something sugary after a meal (and be sure to make it a light one to leave space for this!). The fruits are ripe, the cake is tasty, the biscuits add a more solid crunch to the bite and the mixture of ice cream and cereal (flooded with chocolate and strawberry fudge) is amazingly addictive.

Of course, this Godzilla of a dessert is only meant for about four to five people to share, a fact which is reflected in its price - S$40 for a bowl. Despite the fact that it would set each person back about $10 though, it does provide immense satisfaction (followed by immense guilt, of course) and holds it own against similarly-priced desserts at other restaurants.

For smaller groups, the cafe does offer smaller servings (with proportionately fewer ingredients), in beer jugs for three people and even in individual cups for those on a solo binge.

Although it might a few months before I’d even contemplate tackling such a huge bowl of fat again (and I had it with three other friends), it was definitely worth my $10. Perfect for the sweet-lovers.

Rating: 4 of 5

Benten Café, #03 -20/20A
Jurong Point Shopping Centre
Tel: 6791 0882
Opening Hours: 11.30am - 10.00pm

(There seems to be another outlet at Iluma at Bugis. The Web site is down so I can’t confirm)