Cafe review: Koko Black

I’ve been out of town for a bit and was taken to Koko Black with promises of the best hot chocolate and chocolate related bits…. the price was too high and the hot chocolate and related bits were only ‘ok’. I expected more from what I had been told.

screamingly, unashamedly, pretentious

Um, JB, it’s a coffee 😉

Ah! The voice of reason.

I was there at the weekend, and the bit that niggled a little with me was that they told us about the 15 minute wait to be seated, which was fine, but they didn’t tell us about the 30 + minute wait for any orders until we sat down. I would have preferred that info at the same time as the seating delay info.

I like Koko Black and it’s a favourite meeting spot of mine. I particularly like the chocolate mousse and the soy hot chocolate is actually done properly.

Alternately, All Things Chocolate in Kingston has been around for much longer and it’s a local business! I only recently discovered this place and am a big fan. Unfortunately it’s a bit hard to find (it’s in one of the arcades) but well worth it.

Alternatively, you could ditch the designer cocoa and head over to All Things Chocolate in Kingston.

Blend 43 even!

So the don’t sell Blnd 43 then?

to me, some of the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had, but it’s pricey. then again i’d choose coffee 9 times out of 10 so it aint so bad once in a while.

I-filed++!

it’s okay, but it’s really nothing grand. the chocolate itself you can buy at the counter makes for a good chocolate mousse (and, of course, their in-house overpriced moussed isn’t so bad either), but everything else i’ve had there has been average at best. i’d expect a rich, sweet hot/iced chocolate, but it’s always milky and bland (that being said, i have quite a sweet tooth, so a richness to sate my expectations seems uncommon)

but yes. overpriced, overrated. the mousse is tasty, though.

i haven’t been back since their last round of price-hikes, though.

+1 for the chilli hot choc sentiments. Very tasty, especially if this weather keeps up.
Also +1 for the choc silken tart, even if it is $12/slice.

Pfft. Its not an experience. Its just a coffee house (or should that be chocolate house).

I find it not that dissimilar from Starbucks, just with nicer decor. I don’t think that there is anything pretentious about it. What’s so wrong with the staff dressing nicely and actually looking presentable? Better than most institutions that service customers. The kind of presentation and service they offer should be the standard, not above the norm.

Society just accepts mediocrity in our service industries, so when something of a high standard comes along its labeled pretentious. I don’t get it.

Experience!

Kokoblack is OK – but their chocolate is not nearly as good as they think, and far too expensive for what you’re getting. It’s medium-to-good quality, not top, and tastes a bit like compound chocolate – even though it supposedly isn’t. Top chocolate is still sourced from Europe – Kokoblack’s, I am reliably told, is sourced from a good brand, but a lesser grade of that brand, probably manufactured in Singapore.

Taken with my own fair hand I promise, and absolutely deliciously fiery.

“It’s only a model”