Heavenly Desserts: The desserts are quite lovely, but the service is not

I arrived at Heavenly Desserts excited and hungry for some sweet treats with my sister - but left feeling a little disappointed.

The dessert restaurant which is located on Newgate Street in Newcastle, serves various dessert options and have recently launched a vegan menu, and a tapas menu.

As we flicked through the menu, we were impressed with the amount of options they had. I was also pleasantly surprised by their mocktail menu, and decided to order a passionfruit martini. It tasted just like the alcoholic version, but was even nicer with a sharp aftertaste. It was presented beautifully in a gorgeous martini glass with a passionfruit and floral toppings.

They also had a list of ‘shots’, which was basically dessert dipping sauces in a shot glass. My sister Brooke chose a Milk Chocolate and Pistachio shot, and I chose a White Chocolate and Biscoff. We tried to actually drink them as a shot, but they were too thick to do that. However, they did come with a mini ice cream cone that you could use to dip, so we did that. They were delicious.

When it came to the food, we decided to go for the tapas option, as it was new and very unique. You could choose three different plates for £12, or five different plates for £18 - which is very good value for money, especially considering the portion sizes. We went for both as together it equaled eight plates, and we planned to share them all.

The tapas plates we chose were; Croffle Bites, Butterscotch and Walnut Cookie Dough, Caramel S’mores Mini Tarts, Baklava Honey Bites, Chocolate and Hazelnut Mochi, Pistachio and Raspberry Macarons, Brownies, and Lemon Curd and Raspberry Mini Tarts.

For some reason we thought that we would eat all of that and still be hungry - but that was a completely bizarre thought concept as we actually had to take three untouched plates home. Definitely an ‘eyes bigger than your belly’ situation - the tapas plates were more than enough, I am still full a whole day later.

However, I will say that they were more sickly than filling - the sugar content seemed incredibly high and each dessert was quite heavy. I felt myself only managing one bite of certain things such as the Mochi, Macarons and S’mores, and kept going back to the Croffle Bites and dips, as they were lighter and not as sickly.

The presentation of the food was very beautiful. The tapas plates looked like food from M&S adverts - and it was definitely instagrammable. I feel that more care was put into the way the food looked rather than how it tasted - which wasn’t particularly bad, it was quite nice but it definitely could have been better.

The way the place was designed didn’t seem to fit the vibe of what the dessert place was supposed to be, I expected a lot of colour but instead it was neutral tones yet busy wallpaper, while also being quite industrial-looking. However, there was a counter where customers could see some of the food being made which I thought was a nice touch.

Unfortunately, the service was terrible. We were basically ignored, although they did watch us very closely and make comments to each other while we were eating which was a bit awkward. Worst of all though, one staff member was sat down at a nearby table and given what seemed like a formal disciplinary or telling off of some sort in front of all staff and customers.

Overall, the food was fairly nice and the presentation was fantastic but I would suggest that you go small, unless you’re a real sweet-toothed person. The service from the staff could most certainly be improved as that for sure is what I remember most from my experience rather than the food itself.