Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

iPad your iDessert

I wound up with a pistachio shell, chocolate cake, vanilla cream...

Every crust has its own aesthetic.
Every crust has its own aesthetic.
Place

iDessert

1608 India Street #104, San Diego

When I hear the words Little Italy and dessert, I think of gelato or tiramisu. After my first visit to iDessert, I don’t know what to think. The high-concept dessert spot is the brainchild of French pastry chef Jean-Philippe Maury, architect of the world’s largest chocolate fountain.

iPads give you a chance to mull over your custom dessert recipe.

The name reflects a modern era ordering system — specifically, a row of iPads loaded with a custom app allowing great flexibility in designing a dessert the likes of which you’ve never seen: a meringue or chocolate shell encapsulating a bed of cake and cream topped by gelato or sorbet, filled with a mixture of candied fruit, nuts, and/or candy.

Sponsored
Sponsored

You get a variety of options for each of the seven ingredients comprising the thing: 20 different shells ranging from fruity to nutty, at least eight kinds of ice cream, and five cakes, including a gluten-free option. You’ll find plenty of chocolate, vanilla, caramel, and coffee flavors. Fully loaded, it’ll cost about eight or nine bucks. For an extra $1.50, you get it in a Vegas Bowl, outfitted with dry ice so your dessert comes with a built-in smoke machine.

I like to think I can sum up most pictures in less than a thousand words, but my hubris does not extend to this creation — you must check the photos to believe it. While you mostly just see that outer shell, each of these 20 or so crusts features different aesthetic flourishes, whether crumbs, sprinkles, or hard candies.

Squeeze the ball to unleash some sweet sauce, then crack the whole thing open with the chisel-ended spoon.

The sauce is contained in a plastic eyedropper-like device that slides into a hole at the top of the shell, allowing you the option to squeeze the sweet goo inside or drizzle it around the outside. Either way, a hard plastic spoon with a chisel for a handle must be used to crack open the shell to get at the assortment of fillings.

My rookie mistake designing a dessert was trying not to repeat any flavors. So I wound up with a pistachio shell, chocolate cake, vanilla cream, strawberry sorbet, blueberry compote, and caramel sauce.

Dry ice fuels the showiness of the Vegas Bowl.

The result was the sweetest, most schizophrenic dessert I’ve eaten in years. I’m not complaining, but had I to do it over I would more carefully craft along the lines of chocolate peanut butter caramel, or strawberry vanilla nut, or some other complementary blend of two or three base flavors, max.

Where I can complain is the amount of plastic involved. Between the serving dish, plastic dripper, spoon, and Vegas bowl shell, this gaudy dessert is not eco-kind. Still, as a date location or family treat, the novelty of iDessert goes a long way in reconciling the goofiness of its name.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Seals hook up with Beaver

Salty’s Escape is a Mexican-Style cerveza brewed with corn and puffed Jasmine rice
Every crust has its own aesthetic.
Every crust has its own aesthetic.
Place

iDessert

1608 India Street #104, San Diego

When I hear the words Little Italy and dessert, I think of gelato or tiramisu. After my first visit to iDessert, I don’t know what to think. The high-concept dessert spot is the brainchild of French pastry chef Jean-Philippe Maury, architect of the world’s largest chocolate fountain.

iPads give you a chance to mull over your custom dessert recipe.

The name reflects a modern era ordering system — specifically, a row of iPads loaded with a custom app allowing great flexibility in designing a dessert the likes of which you’ve never seen: a meringue or chocolate shell encapsulating a bed of cake and cream topped by gelato or sorbet, filled with a mixture of candied fruit, nuts, and/or candy.

Sponsored
Sponsored

You get a variety of options for each of the seven ingredients comprising the thing: 20 different shells ranging from fruity to nutty, at least eight kinds of ice cream, and five cakes, including a gluten-free option. You’ll find plenty of chocolate, vanilla, caramel, and coffee flavors. Fully loaded, it’ll cost about eight or nine bucks. For an extra $1.50, you get it in a Vegas Bowl, outfitted with dry ice so your dessert comes with a built-in smoke machine.

I like to think I can sum up most pictures in less than a thousand words, but my hubris does not extend to this creation — you must check the photos to believe it. While you mostly just see that outer shell, each of these 20 or so crusts features different aesthetic flourishes, whether crumbs, sprinkles, or hard candies.

Squeeze the ball to unleash some sweet sauce, then crack the whole thing open with the chisel-ended spoon.

The sauce is contained in a plastic eyedropper-like device that slides into a hole at the top of the shell, allowing you the option to squeeze the sweet goo inside or drizzle it around the outside. Either way, a hard plastic spoon with a chisel for a handle must be used to crack open the shell to get at the assortment of fillings.

My rookie mistake designing a dessert was trying not to repeat any flavors. So I wound up with a pistachio shell, chocolate cake, vanilla cream, strawberry sorbet, blueberry compote, and caramel sauce.

Dry ice fuels the showiness of the Vegas Bowl.

The result was the sweetest, most schizophrenic dessert I’ve eaten in years. I’m not complaining, but had I to do it over I would more carefully craft along the lines of chocolate peanut butter caramel, or strawberry vanilla nut, or some other complementary blend of two or three base flavors, max.

Where I can complain is the amount of plastic involved. Between the serving dish, plastic dripper, spoon, and Vegas bowl shell, this gaudy dessert is not eco-kind. Still, as a date location or family treat, the novelty of iDessert goes a long way in reconciling the goofiness of its name.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Seals hook up with Beaver

Salty’s Escape is a Mexican-Style cerveza brewed with corn and puffed Jasmine rice
Next Article

San Diego Reader 2024 Music & Arts Issue

Favorite fakers: Baby Bushka, Fleetwood Max, Electric Waste Band, Oceans, Geezer – plus upcoming tribute schedule
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.