Thursday, February 12, 2009

Butter Tart Cafe - Sticky, Sweet, and Boring

So we finally visited Butter Tart in Glassel Park today and I have to say I was quite disappointed. Part of the problem is that I don't think I had a clear understanding of what butter tarts are all about. Knew they were a popular Canadian thing, but didn't realize they'd be so sticky and gooey. I ordered one plain, one with bacon, and a coconut cupcake. Both tarts featured a nice tart shell filled with a boring, sickeningly sweet custardy/pudding filling.



To be fair, there's a lot of good stuff going on at Butter Tart. The ladies who helped me were friendly, helpful, and generous (two scones were on the house - it was the end of the day so they would have wound up in the trash) and the cafe was filled with natural light and a clean design. Loved the cardboard deer (or were they moose?) heads mounted on the walls - a nod to Canada perhaps? And the maple scone was not half bad.


My cousin just married a Canadian, who happens to be lovely, but these things are popular in Canada? Yuck! What are they thinking? And to build a whole cafe around the butter tart? It must be me because a lot of people seem to like them, especially the ones with bacon. My husband thought the plain one was one dimensional so he sprinkled a little fleur de sel on it and declared it improved.

The cupcake was fine, but in a city still cupcake crazy, you have to do better than this. Dense cake, slightly tangy cream cheese frosting, again, just ok.


Butter Tart Cafe
4126 Verdugo Road
Los Angeles, CA 90065
(323) 258-TART (8278)

No comments: