Brasserie Beck: Bread Pudding

Bill


Brasserie Beck's bread pudding is very unique.  Instead of the traditional rasins, it's dotted with chocolate and cherries.  It's topped with ice cream and swims in a pool of excellent creme anglais.

 

This dish creates a good combination of textures, most of which contrast only subtly.  With all those elements mixing in a tight dish, this dessert is changing while you watch.  The melted chocolate bursts and cherries punch through the soft, chewy, mildly-flavored bread.  The ice cream adds even more sweetness and a cold splash to tame the heat emanating from the chocolate.  This is the best bread pudding I've tried in DC, but its creativity may offend purists.  It deserves a great rating.

1101 K Street NW, Washington, DC 20005
(202) 408-1717 ‎

Google map & reviews (4/5)

Washington Post (Critic 2.5/4; Reader 1.5/4)

Washingtonian (2/4)

Yelp (4/5)

Open Table (4/5; Diners' Choice)

Trip Advisor (4/5; ranked 41 in DC)

ABC News Good Morning America (video)

Brasserie Beck: Carrot cake muffins with cream cheese filling

Bill


Brasserie Beck turned a muffin into a serious dessert. The muffin is lightly toasted and served warm, so a slightly crunchy layer covers the warm, moist cake. The first time I tried these muffins, a squeeze of sweet cream cheese filling spread out a bit around the muffin top, and poked about an inch into the core. The whole thing was topped off with a splash of powdered sugar. The interplay of the crunchy shell and nearly gooey inner muffin, with the decadent touch of cream cheese is excellent, and carrot cake isn't even one of my favorites.

Muffins usually suffer from a massive decrease in quality between the top and bottom, but this muffin's delightful core will draw you to start at the bottom. The first time I tried these, I would have preferred the cream cheese filling to extend through more of the muffin's depth. However, I went back the next day, in large part for more muffins, and Brasserie Beck corrected that. The restaurant now inserts the cream cheese from the bottom of the muffin. The picture is of the earlier version, where the filling was inserted from above and erupted over the top. That’s the only change. These muffins deserve a divine rating. If you don’t like carrot cake, you should try them anyway. If you like carrot cake, it is your destiny to know these muffins.


1101 K Street NW, Washington, DC 20005
(202) 408-1717

Google map and reviews (4/5)

Washingtonian (2/4; 2010 Best Restaurants Rank: 80, unranked in 2011)

Washington Post (Critic: 2.5/4; Readers: 1.5/4)

Washington Times

Yelp (4/5)

Brasserie Beck: Gateau of Chocolate

Josh

First a disclaimer... While I pride myself on my impartial journalism, ironically my very first entry to DCdesserts comes via a restaurant that a close friend works at. Nonetheless, it is my civic responsibility to report the truths about said desserts in the hope that our new-found blog will act as the checks and balances for the local culinary faire. Wild Bill and I share a passion for the sweeter things in life, in his case brownies and red velvet cake, and in mine milkshakes and donuts (quite exotic, I know!) To begin my inaugural voyage into the craft of food critiquing I was lucky enough to have been a VIP of sorts at the restaurant, who through my friend was given a few courses gratis! Dessert actually came as a surprise, sent out by the kitchen staff, to commemorate the pre-anniversary of my upcoming October 1, 2011 wedding. In terms of appealing to both mine and Wild Bill's tastes, they couldn't have chosen better...

The gateau of chocolate was a very brownie-like dessert.  It had a very nice presentation, highlighted by what appeared to be an artistic usage of fruit sauces. The gateau was rather tasty, with a strong hint of rasberry chocolate in the center... The highlight for me was a base layer of hardened chocolate that accentuated each bite with a crunch. This offset the natural gooeyness that is not typically my favorite aspect of any brownie-like substance... For perspective, imagine a brownie that appears to have true density to it, only to discover that in fact it is a lot more souffle than brick... The worst part of the experience occurs when you insert the fork for the first time, only to realize that the structure and mass are far less pronounced then they appear.

While tasty, and certainly appreciated, the raspberry seemed to overpower the milk chocolate base as each bite went along, and I grew a little weary and bored with it... 

1101 K Street NW, Washington, DC 20005

(202) 408-1717

Google map and reviews (4/5)

Washingtonian (2/4; Best Restaurants Rank: 80)

Washington Post (Critic: 2.5/4; Readers: 2.5/4)

Washington Times

Urban Spoon (88% like it)

Yelp (4/5)