Mosquito @ Gastown

Mosquito

32 Water St, Vancouver, BC V6B 1A4 (604) 398-3188

Monday Closed Tuesday Closed

Wednesday 5–11PM Thursday 5–11PM Friday 5–12AM Saturday 5–12AM Sunday 5–11PM

After seeing an abundance of photos of their recent “Camp Fire” dessert on social media and passing by it on my Gastown strolls, I decided to pay this dessert restaurant a visit. I procrastinated my visit too long and the menu changed just the day before I went. I needed a pick me up so I thought that this place would do it with their desserts, instead of a mainstream dessert place. Mosquito boasts itself as Vancouver’s only champagne and dessert restaurant.

Mosquito has a great location along the brick walkways of Gastown, just across the Old Spaghetti Factory. The sign of the restaurant and its small, vertical stature makes it stands out among the densely packed buildings of Gastown.

The service was near excellent in my situation since I was just there to eat dessert and leave. I wasn’t really a high maintenance customer bringing in a huge party of people. The server would have a hard time forgetting you in the cozy interior of the restaurant. I was greeted and allowed to choose where I wanted to sit, being the first customer of the day. (There’s a blanket draped over a seat too!) I was given both the dessert menu and the bar menu. I was tempted to order a glass of Prosecco with my meal, but it’ll have to wait until I’m legal first. The dessert menu was as follows:

Peanut Butter Chocolate & Banana Bar - 14 sea buckthorn berry sauce, banana tuile, miso caramel ice cream Bergamot Exotic Baba - 12 soaked in Diplomatico rum, coconut chantilly, passion fruit caviar mango gel, coconut flakes Dark Chocolate Crémeux - 12 caramelia espuma, cocoa streusel, caramelia pearls, birch syrup Bounty Opera - 12 chocolate and coconut opera cake, passion fruit tapioca sauce, Tanzanie chocolate ice cream Apple & Hazelnut - 14 apple citrus crémeux, hazelnut praline chantilly, apple cider reduction caramel, vanilla sour cream ice cream Pumpkin Saffron CrèmeBrûlée - 12 orange liquor meringue, olive oil and orange blossom madeleines candied pumpkin seeds Chestnut, Candy Cap Mushroom & Maple - 12 candy cap mushroom mousse, chestnut sponge, huckleberry compote, maple caramel

I asked if I could order “Camp Fire” from last month’s menu to no luck, so I asked for the Peanut Butter and Banana Chocolate Bar. The sea buckthorn sauce and the miso caramel ice cream really drew me in, since looking at pictures of the other desserts and looking at their ingredients didn’t really shout out to me. I also decided to tr yasked for it to be extra fancy to which the waitress said it most definitely would be out of all the options on the menu.

Peanut Butter and Banana Chocolate Bar (w/ Sea Buckthorn Sauce x Banana Tuile x Miso Caramel Ice Cream)

I got my order pretty quick and I immediately tucked in, savouring every bite. I was not disappointed by the taste and I greatly enjoyed how all the flavours blended together quite well. The miso caramel ice cream acted as a smoky taste to counteract the sweetness of the peanut butter and chocolate bar, while the sea buckthorn berries added an element of freshness and lightened the flavor experience. Ever since I watched cooking shows based on Nordic cuisine, I’ve always wanted to try sea buckthorn. It’s not an ingredient you see very often or at all, despite Vancouver’s food scene being so large. Sea Buckthorn berries are bright orange and is loaded with antioxidants as well! Kudos to them for the extra large banana tuile, since tuiles are notoriously hard to make. The visual was good, but it wasn’t tremendously outstanding like I hoped.

The waitress recommended the Lavender and White Chocolate Macaron to me which I throughly enjoyed. The lavender masks the white chocolate but the intensity of it was just right. It’s served in a cute little dish paired with an edible flower and crunchy brown pebbles.