Dolce 88 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★☆☆☆

Dolce 88, a deli and café located on the lobby level of Marriott Hong Kong, was once one of my favorite cake shops around town. But since the departure of executive pastry chef Jason Licker, the quality of their pastries has been on a steady decline.



I was hoping that they have things turned around but judging from what I've seen from their display today, perhaps I was getting a little too optimistic.



Whisky tonka bean cigar ($54) - I picked this strictly out of curiosity. What looked like a Cuban cigar was actually tonka bean cream wrapped with a sheet of delectable chocolate. The tonka bean cream was lightly flavored with whisky and filled with popping candy from top to bottom. This was pretty decent although I was expecting much stronger flavors from the whisky.



Praline chocolate choux ($54) - Less successful was the next pastry, praline chocolate choux. I had a bit of an accident on my way back and the pastry took the worse of it obviously.

I thought the choux pastry would be a little more crispy but this was more on the hard side. And I expected praline to play a bigger role in this but that wasn't the case at all. So the results turned out to be pretty disappointing for this one.



Sadly, Dolce 88 never seemed to get back on track since chef Licker left a few years ago. I am not entirely sure if I will give them another shot in the foreseeable future.




Food Rating: 4.5/10
Address: Lobby, JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong, Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, Admiralty, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Admiralty
Tel: +852 2810-8366
Website: www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/hkgdt-jw-marriott-hotel-hong-kong/