Frozen hot chocolate. The concept is a sweet mug of oxymoron served up daily at Serendipity 3 in New York City. For years I’ve been wearing Serendipitous, the chocolate-scented perfume by Serendipity 3 but last week was my first visit to the popular eatery.
I had read about hour wait times and long lines just to be seated in Serendipity 3. Reservations are only accepted for meals and not desserts. On a Wednesday afternoon around 3 p.m., I rolled the dice and showed up with visions of sundaes and frozen hot chocolate on my mind.
Lucky me! No waiting for a seat in the back where I looked out into the dining area and saw diners slurping up frozen hot chocolate from huge glass bowls. Colorful faux Tiffany lampshades hung from the ceiling adding pops of color in an otherwise white dining area – white tiles, white walls, white tables and chairs.
Sundae for One
Although I had my heart set on a frozen hot chocolate, I opted for the Caramel Drugstore Sundae – three scoops of ice cream with gobs of gooey caramel, whipped topping and a red cherry. ($9.50) It was presented to me in a large glass stemmed-bowl with caramel and whipped topping oozing over the edges and onto the plate below. I tried to capture the moment with the video below.
Service was OK. Call me paranoid but being a solo diner, I sometimes feel waiters don’t offer the service they should. Although my waiter checked on tables around me, he never stopped by to see how my dessert was.
Despite mediocre service, I’ll probably return to try the frozen hot chocolate and continue to wear their perfume.
Serendipity 3
225 East 60th Street
between 2nd and 3rd Avenues
New York, NY 10022
Tel: 212-838-3531
www.serendipity3.com
A limited number of reservations are accepted for lunch and dinner and not accepted for dessert. Serendipity 3 has a minimum table purchase of $8.95, which is pretty easy to spend, even for a solo diner.
Hours of operation:
Sun-Thur 11:30a.m. to midnight
Friday 11:30a.m. to 1 a.m.
Saturday 11:30a.m. to 2 a.m.
Disclosure: This post contains an affiliate link so you can smell like chocolate, too!
This post is part of the 2012 Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Check back daily for a different letter!
Amazing! I don’t do chocolate, but I do caramel and you had me drooling! I too, don’t care for shoddy service. I like good food, but shoddy service will make me not go back. I can find great food elsewhere where they appreciate my patronage. Thanks for dropping by my blog! I love yours!
That looks terrible.. Would never accept anything like that. I’m like you often a “lonely diner” and I would say the opposite – that I always get great attention from the waiting staff – there was been some bad moments too.
I’m suddenly craving ice cream!