Have you heard of Bizu?

Location: Greenhills Promenade

Of course you've heard of Bizu. If you haven't you must be living under a rock. Or you don't care for desert. Either way, it's a shame.

I was never tempted to enter a Bizu establishment because I'm not one to indulge on cakes. I always felt the place is too extravagant to visit without a special occasion, and of course I'm too cheap. The special occasion arrived yesterday, and without planning it I found myself inside the bright, homey interior of Bizu Patisserie's branch in Greenhills. I was surprised to know that Bizu is open until 2:00AM on Fridays and Saturdays, and with good reason as I found out soon enough.

We arrived at Bizu past 10:00PM. The original plan was to head straight for desert, but I haven't had dinner so I decided to order an appetizer.

Hors d ' Oeuvres Sampler

The Hors d'Oeuvres Sampler consists of mushroom duxelle in vol-au-vent, prawn cakes, caramelized apples and brie croute and grilled feta, olives and cherry tomato skewer. We were also served complimentary bread basket, but it was dry, as though the same bread had been served since morning. Mushroom duxelle in vol-what? means coin shaped croissant topped with creamed mushrooms. I could taste a little sweetness and overwhelming butter in the cream. Not being a fan of cream-based dishes, I appreciated the prawn cakes which is crab cakes but made of shrimp and went well the tomato-herb salsa. The caramelized apple is apple chutney on top of brie and toasted pastry. It was too sweet and I couldn't taste the brie. My favorite was the tomato skewer with olive and feta-- simple and all natural.

We waited a while before asking for our cakes to be taken out. It was SO hard to choose! We ne picked 3: one fruit-based, one chocolate-based and guilt-free, and a third tried and tested concoction as a fallback. While letting the appetite build up, I observed the crowd that filled Bizu that night. At past 10:30PM, almost all the customers were just beginning to have dinner! Next to our table, a Chinese man over his fifties was on a date with his late twenty something daughter. They had just ordered burgers which were heartily consumed as soon as the huge plates landed on their table. The servings were very generous; each order comes with salad and fries on the side. At another table not far rom us, a group of rowdy friends aged 30-40 were enjoying their steaks. A few minutes later, a couple came in and started ordering main entrees! I felt sorry for the chef at the back. Either those people's body clocks are seriously screwed or it's their cheat day. I guessed it was the latter, and as our cakes arrived, I totally empathized with them.

Mango Chiboust

The Mango Chiboust is just a fancy name for mango cheesecake. I appreciated the art though, and the mangoes were perfectly sweet.

Naomi

My choice. Naomi is a sugarless and fourless cake made of sugarless milk & dark chocolate mousse between layers of chocolate cake sprayed with cocoa liqueur. Texture is very silky, taste is chocolatey but not too sweet. You can even tell there's liqueur. Seriously very good!

Amour

Something tried and tested to serve as our fallback. And isn't the name fitting too? Amour is a creation made of valrhona orange chocolate mousse in between layers of crème brulee and brownie. The thing that holds it up is white chocolate. I thought it's some plastic material you need to take out before eating. The brulee has a hint of orange, and the brownie is akin to fruitcake. When it starts getting too sweet, eat the dark chocolate bits on top of the cake.

I'd give the service 3 out of 5 stars. Kudos are in order for the pretty design of the cakes. Unfortunately for Bizu, I'm not a fan of fancy food names. A mango cheesecake is a mango cheesecake. There's only one thing left for me to come back for in Bizu-- the macaroons. Tell me what's so special about them!