I remembered feeling giddy as I had my taste of Dark Hot Chocolate at the Lindt Cafe at Darling Harbour when we visited Sydney. There's this unbelievable queue and I waited for almost 20mins just to get a cup of hot chocolate for take-away. It was insane but well worth the wait. The chocolate was intense, rich and smooth. I would have it at any time of the day. I left Sydney, saddened by the thought that there is no Lindt Cafe in Melbourne, albeit the fact that this is the home of Koko Black and other chocolate-themed cafes.
So when I read somewhere that Lindt Cafe is FINALLY opening in Melbourne, I was as ecstatic as the first time I saw the delicious Lindt signage back in Sydney. Aptly located along Collins Street, there is really no better (and posh) area to have it on.
Fortunately, there was no queue when we arrived, so we were seated in less than 2 minutes. Having settled on what to order, I got up and walked around the bars and bars of Lindt chocolates. They have the perfect flavor for every discerning chocolate lover, from dessert themed to fruit (Orange) to spices (Mint, Chilli and Ginger) to single-origins (Ecuador and Madagascar). There was the famous Lindt Lindor balls that comes with 6-7 different flavors. Truffles, specialty cakes and macarons (Delices) are all on display.
I shared a degustation plate with JL. The degustation plate consisted of the following:
Hazelnut Delise - This was my favorite. The macaron was light and chewy with just the right layer of crunch. The creamy hazelnut filling was scrumptuous without being too sweet or overwhelming. Top-knotch!
St. Mortiz cake - This one for me was a let-down. The cake layer was too wet though it held itself together well. There was no underlying or unique flavor that stood out.
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream with Chocolate Sauce - JL and I enjoyed this one very much because of the chocolate sauce. It was gooey and fudgy. We saw that a guy seated next to us added water to the sauce cup and drank it from there! He created his own chocolate drink out of the sauce and water. Not really a pleasant sight but it goes to show that the chocolate sauce was that good. 
Milk Chocolate Slabs with Hazelnut 
Wimbledon truffle for me - Strawberry and white chocolate truffle
Hazelnut truffle for JL
Overall, it was a pure chocolate indulgence. There were a few glitches. For example, when our degustation plate arrived, the server tipped the ice cream cup upside down, onto JL's cutlery! Good thing it didn't go directly onto JL's new scarf. The upside down vanilla bean ice cream was replaced with a new one. Another incident that happened was to PM. One server came by, asking how we girls are. The server suddenly became confused as to whether PM is a girl or a boy. It wasn't until PM laughed that she realized he's a boy. I think it was a really awkward experience, though we just laughed the uneasiness off our shoulders. It's a lesson learned for the server to use a slightly different and colloquial term instead of referring to everyone in the party as girls. Poor PM. Aside from those two glitches, everything went well. The service was good and friendly. We went away on sugar high.
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