Kappy's Iced

Merkel returned to the comforting environs of Kappy's Café in Flinders Street for a lunch with his Myrtle. The shelves of glass tea canisters were there as well as the tables made of tea chests. The aquarium seemed to have disappeared since last time and there was some original art on the wall which added some colour to the walls.

For the benefit of his readers Merkel order the iced chocolate. This came in the signature stemmed glass that won Kappy's the Hall of Fame award in the 2009 Merkel awards. The iced chocolate was topped with crushed ice, vanilla ice cream and a sprinkle of chocolate powder. Merkel is not a fan of crushed ice in chocolate, but the flavour of the chocolate was good. The cost was $5.50. The hot chocolate will always be Merkel's favourite drink at Kappy's.

Short Black Espresso Bar

The name of this coffee shop is not immediately obvious from the outside. It was only after that Merkel looked up the address of 87 Hindley Street and worked out that the place was called Short Black Espresso Bar. It is a small place with five or six table inside and a couple of tables on the pavement, but the shop provides a few snacks and good coffee.

The standard hot chocolate at Short Black came in a glass without a napkin which was a bit hot on the fingertips and a long spoon which was a bit incongruous. A long spoon for a short glass is better than a short spoon for a long glass which has been encountered by your reviewer before. The hot chocolate was presented with a white froth and a liberal sprinkling of chocolate powder on top. The drink required a stir but was a good dark chocolate flavour and not too sweet.

Your reviewer made a special effort to return to Short Black Espress to try the Italian hot chocolate. This Café and Cibo refer to it as "Cioccolato Italiana". Unfortunatley it is not the same thick black hot chocolate as served in the Cibo venues. For $4.00 your reviewer got a hot chocolate with a good dark flavour but not the real thick European hot chocolate he was after.

Café Quisine

Café Quisine is a training restaurant for the private Quality Training & Hospitality College. The restaurant is a fine table service restaurant. The fact that this is a training restaurant means that the prices are reasonable and there are plenty of staff on hand although they are not necessarily as familiar with what to do as more experienced staff. The site of Café Quisine at 465 Pulteney Street was once a Fasta Pasta outlet. The Fasta Pasta outlet moved two doors South and has been reviewed earlier.

The hot chocolate came in a tall glass with a handle. It was finished with a white froth and sprinkle of chocolate powder. The chocolate had a good flavour with a creamy texture and it was sufficiently rich. This should have been a good pass for the trainee who provided this. It cost $3.50 but readers should note that Café Quisine does cheap coffees (and hopefully hot chocolates) between 10am and 11am.

Pinocchio Ristorante

The Pinocchio Italian Restaurant has only been open a week but its red signage already has a presence on Unley Road and it has its own web-site. It takes over from the old GGB's restaurant at 50 Unley Road, that was reviewed here earlier. It has the linen tablecloths and napkins that perhaps were used at GGB's and are one of the hallmarks of a fine restaurant. The owners are recently from Italy and have the challenge of setting up the restaurant and working out how to use local products.

Marco, the waiter volunteered to try to make Merkel a thick Italian hot chocolate. The attempt was not completely successful. While the flavour of the chocolate was good and rich, the consistency was thin. Marco also mentioned that he would normally top such a drink with a special whipped cream that was not available. Still, I will add this to my list of Italian hot chocolates as I believe he will go to some effort to perfect this in the future. The drink was three dollars and served in a Lavazza coffee cup.

Modka Café

Merkel and Mytle had lunch at the Modka café. This is at the North Terrace end of Stations Arcade. It is North of Station City Café and down the escalators. There is plenty of seating at Modka and a range of lunches available.

The hot chocolate was $3.30 and came with two white marshmallows. It was contained in a short-stemmed glass with a handle. The drink is topped with a white froth and a liberal sprinkle of chocolate powder. Through the walls of the glass it was evident that the drink needed a stir. The flavour was sweet and chocolaty.

Caffe Vagabondo

Caffe Vagabondo is Italian Restaurant has plenty of seating and friendly table service. It a few doors down from Najjar's at 41 O'Connell Street North Adelaide. There is plenty of seating.

The hot chocolate comes in an elegant glass like the one at Coffee Time complete with the "standard" pink and white marshmallows. It is topped with a tasty froth and sprinkle of chocolate powder. The drink is rich and flavoursome. This is one of the better standard hot chocolates in Adelaide.

Mamma Carmela, Vienna Hot Chocolate

Merkel and Myrtle returned to Mamma Carmela's on Unley Road. This time Merkel chose the Vienna hot chocolate. Sometimes the cream on top of a Vienna is overpowering but this time the whipped cream was light and had a good flavour. To compliment this the hot chocolate was not too sweet. This was a good Vienna hot chocolate for $4.30.