Photos: The chocolate cave buffet at Notch8 Restaurant was every chocoholic’s dream and more

by Tammy Kwan on February 15th, 2017 at 5:51 PM

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Notch8 Restaurant at Fairmont Hotel Vancouver (900 West Georgia Street) just wrapped up its second annual Valentine’s chocolate cave buffet.

When we wrote about it last week, we didn’t have any idea how much chocolate would be involved—until we got invited to check it out ourselves yesterday evening.

As soon as we sat down, our server brought us glasses of sparkling champagne and still water. The chocolate cave menu was placed on our table, and it included 27 different chocolate desserts with a line on the bottom that read “and more…”

Naturally, we were intrigued and wanted to get to the cave as quickly as possible.

Our server gave us simple enough directions to get to the chocolate buffet—which was located inside the restaurant’s private dining lounge—and that we would be eventually be able to smell out the location of the chocolate desserts.

The entrance of the chocolate cave buffet.

Tammy Kwan

Following her instructions, we weaved through other guests and dining tables until we reached the entrance of the “cave” before realizing how large and amazing it actually was.

Walking down a few steps, the entire lounge was transformed into an edible room. The walls were coated with white and dark chocolate, and countless tables, trays, and elevated platforms were filled with plates and dishes of chocolate creations.

Featured items included a chocolate fountain with fresh fruit on the side for dipping, Grand Marnier mousse, chocolate-dipped pretzel sticks, hazelnut cheesecake, black forest cake, chocolate pies, white cranberry almond barks, macarons, and much more.

The walls were covered in white and dark chocolate.

Tammy Kwan

The buffet-style dessert experience had guests coming back for a third, fourth, and fifth plates (we’re assuming that a person’s sugar intake can be written-off on Valentine’s Day).

The lighting in the cave was quite dark, so some dessert enthusiasts turned on their phone’s flashlight for a better look at the chocolate-themed pastries and sweets.

It’s hard to describe what it feels like when you’re in food heaven, so below are a collection of images from the event—because they say a picture is worth a thousand words.