Sticky toffee pudding at Fiddlehead Cafe

Recently, my fiance treated me to dinner at Fiddlhead Cafe-- his favorite Lincoln Square spot. The place had been on my list of must-eats for a while, and had I known I was missing out on one of the sweetest desserts on Chicago's North Side, it would have taken top priority.

After cooing over a bowl of steamed mussels with chorizo, veggies, wild rice and saffron broth ($11) and a cheese plate with one of my hard-to-find favorites from Yarra Valley Dairy, Australia ($3.50-$27) we probably should’ve called it quits. But, rare are the times that I dine out and skip dessert—one glance at a sugar-fueled menu usually does me in, and the list at Fiddlehead Café was no exception.

Choosing between the restaurant’s chocolate-fudge ganache cake, Tahitian vanilla bean crème brulee, apple-rum-caramel tart and tres leches cake was quite possibly the most difficult decision my guy and I have made together. Seriously, finding our apartment and choosing our wedding location was easier than settling on one of Fiddlhead’s desserts.

Bearing in mind that this was one of his favorite frequented spots, I agreed to his recommendation of the homemade sticky toffee pudding with Guinness ice cream ($7). When I tasted the Irish-inspired treat, I remembered that it was our discriminating palates that initially brought us together. I was falling in love again, but this time it was with Fiddlhead’s seductively sweet dessert menu.

This article was first published on Examiner.com
Photo: Fiddlehead Cafe's sticky toffee pudding, Stacy Warden.