Globe readers share their favorite restaurant desserts in honor of National Dessert Day
In honor of National Dessert Day on Oct. 14, we asked Globe readers about restaurant desserts they swear by. To be clear: We aren’t talking about Mike’s cannolis (though we love those, too) and ice cream shops or bakeries. We wanted to know: What gem at the bottom of a menu makes the entrée look like a warm-up act? Here are reader favorites.
Baked Alaska at Yvonne’s
Yes, it’s $45. But it feeds the whole table. And when it comes out, the server sets it on fire. Renee from Boston recommends Yvonne’s baked Alaska, and calls the speakeasy supper club “nostalgic . . . I love [Yvonne’s] because it reminds me of all of the history that space holds. My grandparents used to take me to Locke-Ober when I was young.” (After 137 years, Locke-Ober closed in 2012. Yvonne’s now occupies that space.)
Yvonne’s baked Alaska is a chocolate cake with vanilla semifreddo, candy bar nougat, pistachios, chocolate almonds, salted caramel, and meringue. One reviewer calls the dish the menu’s crown jewel, while TikTokers joke it’s “fire.”
Fried dough cachangas at Ruka
Of all the desserts we tried, the fried dough cachangas ($11) at the PeruvianJapanese-Chinese Ruka made our list of favorites. These crouton-size bites are chewy, with the inside like a cross between a croissant and a doughnut. Before testing, we anticipated dry, sweet, air-filled puffs — comforting, but nothing special. Instead, the dough bites were pleasantly crispy, and the caramelized pineapple ice cream complemented the miso-butterscotch glaze.
Colleen B. from Charlestown said, “This dessert is made up of little fried bites of happiness in a delicious misopudding butterscotch sauce. Smaller than doughnuts, these bites are served fresh and hot, perfect for sharing. They are one of my favorite desserts in Boston, and a must whenever I visit Ruka!”
Ten-layer carrot cake at Ocean Prime
Listed first on Ocean Prime’s dessert menu, the 10-layer carrot cake with cream cheese icing and pineapple syrup ($17) is a “guest favorite,” said
Ocean Prime spokesperson Juliana Bigler. They use carrot puree instead of shredded carrot, “which makes it soft and moist,” their executive pastry chef said in a video from 2018. The Tripadvisor reviews are glowing, with one person writing that one slice is enough to feed five people, and another celebrating the fact that it’s nut-free, a rarity among carrot cakes. Fun fact: it’s also DoorDashable.
Ashlee Wolfram from Medford recommended this dessert, writing, “I’m usually searching for chocolate on dessert menus but this caught my eye immediately. Ten layers? Yes. Each one delivering on that spiced carrot cake flavor with an even balance of cream cheese icing. It’s as visually appealing as it is tasty. Try it with the pineapple syrup for a nice flavor balance.”
Snow Egg at Ostra
Audrey Giannattasio from Chelsea calls Ostra’s Snow Egg ($17), “Delicious AND art on a plate!” The meringue, filled with a lemon curd mousse, sits on top of raspberries, a basil sauce at the base. It’s gluten-free. Online, the majority call the dessert “sensational” and a “standout.”
Biscotti Napoleon from Geppetto
After opening in 2021 in Cambridge, Geppetto’s pastry chef Brian Mercury told Eater, “Italian desserts are classically ‘less is more.’ . . . We’re making desserts that look beautiful but [are] simplistic and precise.” One of these desserts is “Biscotti Napoleon” ($18), which is meant to be shared by two or more.
Eric from Cambridge breaks it down. “It starts with a rectangular wafer, which is topped with whipped pistachio cream, followed by another wafer, topped with whipped vanilla cream, caramel, and fresh raspberries, topped by a third wafer covered in powdered sugar. I’ve had pistachio ice cream, but never whipped pistachio cream. The pairing of it — vanilla cream, caramel, and raspberries — was out of this world. The [tartness and] freshness of the raspberries [was] perfectly balanced [with] the vanilla and nutty creaminess. The dessert is almost all cream, and the wafer/cookies provided structure, crunch, and texture.”
Turkish-style profiteroles and baked Alaska at Oleana
Oleana took the prize for most recommended by readers.
Eliza Novick from Belmont says of their famed baked Alaska ($15) that it’s topped with a “sky-high cumulus cloud of meringue, artfully singed. Pillowy and marshmallowy and divine. … Flavors [are] bright and unique. Something I would never make at home, which makes it an extra special treat.”
The torched meringue outer layer encapsulates coconut ice cream, which sits on top of a coconut macaroon. At the base is a pool of passion fruit caramel sauce.
Kristina Fenn Silver from Arlington writes that the dessert “feels indulgent and refreshing at the same time.”
“The combination of creamy and tangy is perfect,” says Sarah from Charlestown.
Also a winner: Turkish-style profiteroles ($15). They’re bite-size cream puffs filled with tahini brown butter crème and drizzled with sesame caramel. A streusel of sesame caramel cashews and crumbled halva is sprinkled on top.
Adam from Sudbury says, “More desserts need to have halva in them. This has a lovely contrast of different textures. It’s sweet, creamy, [and] salty. I certainly love the baked Alaska, but I believe the profiteroles should be the dessert that Oleana is famous for.”
Bread pudding with salted caramel sauce at Spiga Ristorante
Co-owner of Spiga Ristorante Francesco Gargiulli said chef Marisa locco’s bread pudding “became legendary. She launched the recipe decades ago and it still [remains] the signature dessert of our restaurant.”
The dessert is specially baked in a brick oven, and many rave about the online. One reviewer called it the “pièce de résistance” and pinned the bread pudding as the culprit of their waistline growth. (It keeps well in the freezer.)
Patrick Griffin from Norwood says, “Bread pudding is one of those desserts that gets short shrift in many places, but the house-made bread is treated with immense care as it is formed into a delicious, rich, but not overwhelming delight at the end of a meal.”
Ricotta loukamades with halva caramel sauce at Sarma
The ricotta loukamades at Sarma ($9) are really good. They’re moist and cakey with a lemony tang, and they’re covered in powdered sugar. But adding the halva caramel sauce for $4 kicks them up a several notches.
Emily Lyons from Boston’s North End writes, “Adding the halva caramel makes it a decadent experience, and you can decide how much caramel you’d like on each loukamade. It melts in your mouth and you can taste the attention to detail, which I think sets it apart.”
Butterscotch pudding at Row 34
“It’s childhood in a glass, and yet still highly refined,” writes Matt DeMatteis from Milton.
While I’m not particularly a butterscotch pudding fan, I see what DeMatteis was getting at. Row 34 s butterscotch pudding ($11) is a thick whip that tastes a bit like pumpkin, or as my tasting partner said, like fall. It is sweet and has a nice consistency. Definitely share this one.
Cheesecake from 1928 Beacon Hill
This one has a hefty price tag — $15 per slice — but it’s worth it. Cheesecake is my favorite dessert, and when it’s on the menu, I order it. 1928 Beacon Hill’s nicely dense, creamy cheesecake is the best I’ve tried in Boston.