By about seven on the last Friday of the month the open kitchen at The Welder has a row of plates lined up along the pass, a torch is browning a marshmallow top on something tall and pale, and the couple at the window table have already agreed to order two different desserts so that neither of them has to choose. If you've been hunting for Friday night date ideas in Christchurch that end somewhere warmer than a bar and quieter than a cinema, this is ours: a one-night menu of plated desserts Dhi has worked on all month, served from 6pm to 9pm, with no booking and no ticket.
A menu that only exists for one night
We plate desserts to order every evening until close, but the dessert evening is when Patisserie After Dark gets a menu of its own, built from experiments that haven't yet earned a place in the cabinet at our Christchurch cake shop. The next one is Friday 30 October, from 6pm to 9pm, and after that they fall on the last Friday of each month, with the date always posted on our late night desserts in Christchurch page, where you can also join the email list and get the menu the week before.
Past evenings are the best guide to what turns up. One brought a Roasted Plum Baked Alaska, roasted plum and vanilla ice cream over an almond crumble under a marshmallow top, with a spiced marsala sauce, and another a Crepe Suzette in its orange sauce, the sharpness of the citrus cut by a roasted almond and coconut crumble that clicks under the spoon. The Baked Alaska was made with no added gluten, although our kitchen is small and without exclusive production areas for all of our different recipes, so traces may occur and we can't call anything safe for severe coeliac disease.
Why the table works better with two
Most of what leaves the kitchen on these nights is built to be watched arriving, and the Signature Chocolate Fondue makes the case best: warm Belgian chocolate for dipping, with house-made toasted marshmallow, a golden mini croissant, cookie and brownie bites and fresh fruit, the sort of plate that keeps two people talking for most of an hour while the chocolate thickens at the edge of the pot. Order two different desserts and swap halfway, and between you you've tasted twice the menu, so the walk back to the car has something to argue about.
A group of friends who'd sooner spend a Friday comparing spoonfuls than shouting over a band fits our movable tables, which seat four to eight, and if there are six or more of you, arrive early in the evening, when it's easier to seat everyone together. Our earlier piece on date night dessert ideas has a second plan.
The three desserts that are there every night
If the one-night dish you had your eye on has gone, three made-to-order desserts stay on every evening. The Matilda Chocolate ($20) is warm dark chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream, dark chocolate crumble and hot chocolate sauce poured over the lot, so the ice cream melts into the crumb as you go and the last spoonful comes up gooier than the first. The Chocolate Lava Cake ($20) has a molten centre that only runs for a few minutes after it leaves the kitchen, while the S'more Cookie ($18) puts a warm double chocolate cookie under house-made marshmallow, vanilla ice cream and hot chocolate sauce, and most people end up sharing it.
The full list sits under our made-to-order desserts, and the chilled cabinet stays open too, with cake slices at $12 (the Brazilian Carrot is $9) if one of you would like something cold beside something hot.
What to drink when there's no bar
We don't serve alcohol, so the drinks run to a Dark Chocolate Thickshake ($14) dense enough to hold a straw upright, a Belgian hot chocolate from $5, a C4 flat white whose roast and bitterness reset the palate between spoonfuls of chocolate sauce, or a Zealong Teapot for One at $7, and most hot and cold drinks come with a dairy-free milk option. We've written about New York or Paris hot chocolate for anyone who orders the drink first.
We're inside The Welder, an 1880s building at 20–26 Welles Street, a block south of the Bus Interchange with parking across the road, and by nine the plants are dark against the old brick and the last plate on the pass holds a spoon and a smear of toasted marshmallow.
Walking in, and taking something home
The dessert evening is walk-in, so there's nothing to book: come any time in the evening, find a table and order. A group that wants the room to itself can arrange a private group dessert evening by enquiry through our group experiences page.
If the evening turns into planning a celebration, our birthday cakes in Christchurch and layer cakes need only two days' notice for most orders. The checkout date picker shows only the dates the kitchen can meet for what's in your cart, we're pickup only, and you collect from The Welder at the pickup time you choose. A gift card from $15 hands the idea on to someone else. We're open 10am to 9pm Tuesday to Saturday, closed Sunday and Monday.
