85 Degree

As soon as I heard about this new cake shop, I made sure I could check it out at the first opportunity. I believe this is a Taiwanese chain, whose philosophy is to bring 5-star hotel style cakes to the masses. Well, everyone else seem to have the same idea, when we got there, there was a line (apparently the line is constant and doesn't disappear). It took 30 minutes from when we started to line up 'til we walked away swinging the 2 little boxes of cake.

Taste

The limit for each customer is 2 cakes, so we got the:

• Hazelnut Chocolate ($4.00) - beautiful rich chocolate with a smooth mousse. The passionfruit mousse went surprisingly well with chocolate. A textural masterpiece.
• Strawberry Panna Cotta ($4.40) - the panna cotta tasted like passionfruit cream. It was nice, but it wasn't panna cotta. It was topped with some fresh berries.
• Coffee Brule ($3.60) - the only actual cake we have. The coffee sponge was soft, deep coffee tasting, but a tad dry. Never fear, the cream sandwiching the coffee layer together coats the cake well.
• Blackberry Vanilla Mousse ($3.80) - taste quite like the others, but with a jelly/juicy berry layer.

I actually wanted to get the Passionfruit Mousse and the Hokkaido Cheese, but it was a bit of hit and miss. They were constantly churning out the cakes in the back but it was constantly selling out, so you get what is available at the time of your order. Oh well, more excuses to come back later.

Just a note that the cakes cater very much to Asian taste. The cakes are not very sweet, very dainty and immaculately decorated. They also serve a range of Asian drinks like bubble teas.

Rating - 7.5

Look

There's a huge glass display outside, and they look absolutely beautiful and look mouth-watering. Each one carefully decorated, whether it's a little coffee bean or little "85 degree" branded flags. Luckily they taste as good as they look.

The reason why the line is so slow moving though, is that each cake is not only separated by clear plastic, they are placed in these adorable red boxes with little handle, that takes forever to assemble, especially when the packer has to try to fit the cakes and the forks into these tiny spaces AND close the lid. The shop itself is very small, you order, they give you a receipt, you wait. Their location right next to the George St Cinemas should see plenty of business.

Rating - 2.5

C-factor

We got there on the 2nd last day of their Grand Opening Promotions, where every cake was $2. After that, everything reverts back to the normal price. $2 was very good, and the wait was almost worth it, especially when they sent out some sample Grape Green Tea (a bit sweet). I would like to see how their business holds up when the special offer ends. For the labour intensive process in their business, their prices are not outrageous, comparing quite well to the prices they charge at cafes, although you get a much smaller cake here. Still, they should be applauded for bringing new concepts of food into Oz.

Rating - 1

Swiss Points - 11

Available At

Meriton Tower,
Shop 9
545-551 George St
Sydney
NSW 2000
Phone (02) 9798 8437