Nectar Dining House, Dartmouth

Nectar Dining House was a success even before I got in the door. I parked behind a fiat 500 (adorable!) and it’s next door to Two If By Sea, a place I keep meaning to go to but was always intimidated to go because it was in Dartmouth all the way on the other side of the harbour.

I was pretty excited to go to Nectar, as it has been voted the best restaurant in Dartmouth before by The Coast. I had high hopes.

I ordered the chocolate extasy ($10). It’s a chocolate graham base crumb layer, with a thick chocolate ganache layer, topped with a layer of white chocolate mousse.

It was so rich, but so good. The raspberry puree was a nice touch. The chocolate graham crumb base was not as thick as I would have liked it to be and it tended to stick to the plate. But I just scooped it up, so I wasn’t really that put out. The chocolate ganache layer was heavenly and had a nice smooth texture. The white chocolate mousse was creamy and wasn’t overwhelmingly sweet (as I find some white chocolate things to be sometimes).

My boyfriend ordered the fritters coated in fennel sugar and served with a lemon curd ($9). He almost went for the creme brulee of the day ($9.50) which was lemon and thyme. But I’m glad he went with the fritters because they were amazing and I preferred them over my cake.

Story time: In England, everyone has car boot sales, as opposed to yard sales. You drive to a field somewhere and while avoiding the cow patties, walk around and buy things (or not) from the back of people’s cars. At particularly big car boot sales, there would sometimes be donut vans, almost like chip trucks, but better. They would sell bags of little deep-friend donuts for a quid or something. Since my dad likes to get up early and equally loves car boot sales on a Saturday morning, it could be possible this is where my penchant for dessert and fried goods for breakfast took shape.

These fritters tasted like those mini donuts, in the best way possible. The fried outside was warm and thick and crunchy and truly sugar-coated. The inside was hot and soft and just the right amount of chewiness. The lemon curd was amazing and the lemon zest in it gave it a really great texture. The blueberries were a nice touch and the presentation was great. I loved the fritters.

Nectar is definitely on the expensive side (not to mention the far side [of the harbour]), but it is worth the effort on both counts. If I can scrounge up the money I would really like to go back to Nectar for a full meal. And of course, some more fritters.