Crab and Dessert @ Absinthe

[ Originally posted January 8, 2012.  Moving to blog now in honor of crab season! ]

Trying to make up for a crappy meal at Destino, we headed to the lounge at Absinthe, for dessert.  Adding to our night of failures, they were out of our #1 dessert choice.  So, we somehow ended up getting a whole crab instead (and a dessert of course).  It was crab season after all!

Overall it was all good, but nothing special.  But keep in mind that I'm spoiled because I've been feasting on crab every weekend at home with pretty much this same preparation for a fraction of the cost.  And the desserts I eat daily at work are better than this, particularly the chocolate mousses and German chocolate cakes.  So ... this just didn't strike me as worth it.

The lounge area was a nice mix of formal but comfortable, lively but quiet enough to hold a conversation, and offered the bar menu, the full menu, and dessert menu, so we could easily create our ridiculous "dessert" courses.  A nice mix, but as it is out of the way from places I normally frequent, I'm not sure when I'd really find myself back there.

Chilled Whole Dungeness Crab.  $30.

So we went for dessert.  And then when they were out of what we wanted, we had to improvise.  So ... we started with a whole crab, served with some delicious butter sauces and lemon wedges.

The crab was good, but at the end of the day, it was just a plain cooked crab, not really any different than what I get for 1/3 the price at the farmer's market every week. The warm butter sauce was fine, but again, I can have that at home. The other sauce (some kind of Béarnaise perhaps?) was pretty delicious and definitely a value add.

My favorite was the body meat, nice and sweet and delicious even without the sauce.  Mmm, crab!

German chocolate cake: milk chocolate mousse, pressed coconut, coconut whipped cream, candied pecans, caramel sauce.  $10.

This was listed on the menu as "German Chocolate Cake", but was totally not what we expected.  Sorry for the poor photo, we were too eager to dig into it for me to slow down and take a proper photo!

The white stuff is coconut whipped cream, and it was delicious.  The candied pecans were a nice touch,  as I'm a sucker for pecans.  And it is hard to see, but there is a delicious caramel sauce drizzled over it.

The main dessert was a layer of sweetened, pressed coconut, topped with a layer of chocolate cake, all generously enrobed in chocolate mousse.  The cake itself was forgettable, but the mousse was pretty awesome.

A very different take on German chocolate cake for sure, but all of the key flavors were still highlighted, and this was enjoyable.  But as I said, I'm spoiled, and get better chocolate cake and chocolate mousse at work pretty regularly.