Golosa

Can’t remember the chocolates I sampled, but I do remember they were delicious! Small, intimate place. When I was there (about 2 or 3 years ago) they only accepted cash, so be prepared. Nice date place and/​or girlfriend hang :)

Easily the best hot/​cold chocolate you’ve ever had. Oh and the red velvet isn’t half bad.

Chocolate heaven! The hot chocolate takes your breath away with the richness it has to offer. The consistency of the gelato so fantastic; light and creamy, just what you want your dessert to be like. I love how the biscotti and chocolate spread was presented, the chilly in the spread was a snarky sweet surprise. Can’t wait to come back again!

I am so sad that Golosa is closed.
We enjoyed European hot chocolates and Italian chocolate candies here long before they became a popular trend at Naked Chocolate and Philly Chocolate. (which are both now defunct). We kept saying that we would come back, but sadly never found the time.

Came here on a Saturday night, ordered red velvet cake, two truffles, and a cup of Golosi hot chocolate.
The Good: The chocolate is delicious! Our drinking chocolate was perfect, thick and topped with cream. The red velvet cake was incredible as well, cocoa-​y and sweet (but not too sweet). The light buttercream frosting was a perfect complement to the dense, moist cake. I don’t think I have ever enjoyed a simple slice of cake so much! Our truffles were rosemary & salt and 12-​year aged balsamic vinegar (we were feeling adventurous). The rosemary was a clear winner here, mildly sweet with a pleasant aftertaste. The vinegar truffle was surprisingly good as well, and the smooth chocolate brought out the flavor of the vinegar instead of the «bite».
The Bad: Call it intimate if you like, but the place is really tiny! If all the seats are taken then I guess you are SOL. I would have liked the drinking chocolate to be served a little hotter, it was almost lukewarm. Golosa definitely embraces the quality-​over-​quantity mentality. Even so, the prices are a bit too enthusiastic and the portions a bit too dainty, if you ask me. But let’s face it, your taste buds probably won’t care when they are taking a bath in chocolate.

Great spot for after-​dinner coffee, desert, and/​or syrupy chocolate cocaine in a cup.
The cakes are OK, but the main event are the hot/​cold chocolates. They paint your teeth brown, making your inevitable grin after taking the first sip… a little awkward. The hots are more consistent, but the cold are delicious too. Either one is a meal by itself. You probably don’t need cake or anything with it. My favorite is the Caffe’ & Menta.
⁴⁄₅ for so-​so seating area. A bit sparse by coffee shop standards. Still, a very unique place in Philly and one of my top-​picks for taking out-​of-​towners. Closed on Sundays, which is a bummer. Friendly staff.

I am normally not a proponent of chain restaurants because inevitably the quality of offerings and service and the overall appeal goes down. However if Golosa was to become a chain and the quality was cut in half, it would STILL be my favorite dessert bar ever. That is how amazing this place is. I want one in every city I visit. :)
I held a bridal shower here at this lovely intimate chocolate dessert café and I am so happy I did!
The chocolate truffles are incredible. I am not normally a daring truffle eater. I tend to stick with chocolate or caramel. Everything else gets bitten into then put back into the box. However at Golosa my palette didn’t know what to make of the eclectic array of options. Balsamic vinegar? Olive Oil? Rosemary? What had I gotten myself into?
Heaven. That’s what. I’d found heaven in a truffle… okay I’d found heaven in seven truffles.
And a piece of red velvet cake. What can I say?! I have sweet teeth! The red velvet cake was honestly the best I’ve ever had.
Go for the truffles, stay for the red velvet cake and perhaps more truffles. Wash everything down with a glass of Cardamomo & Pepe Bianco.
The owner Fabio is the absolute best! He was wonderful to work with. I highly recommend Golosa for your next special event!
The menu is seasonal so go back and go often. I cannot wait for my next trip to Philly so I can pay a visit to my new favorite dessert bar.

My fiancé and I randomly stumbled upon this place after having dinner at Little Fish on Friday night. Instantly became one of our favorite places in the city. It’s a byob dessert bar. The owner greeted us at the door and took about 5 minutes to explain the concept of his place and gave us a tour of the menu. The options are plentiful, including different types of cakes, cookies, and gelato. We ordered the tiramisu and a plate that came with 5 types of cookies/​biscottis and 2 orders of gelato, one coconut and one chocolate. Everything was simply amazing. The owner also brought us 2 hot chocolate shots on the house. You can also bring your own bottle of liquor (whiskey, rum, tequila, etc.) and they will make you different mixed dessert drinks. Looking forward to coming back.

This place has the best chocolates!!! They utilize local ingredients for the most part, from what I understand, and they will tell you all about each chocolate if you ask. I stop here for a truffle every now and then and have always been very happy, even though it is a bit pricey, the chocolate is worth every penny.
The service isn’t that bad, as everyone seems to want someone who is gushing over them, while I prefer to just ask if I need something and otherwise be left alone– especially in such a small environment. The best way to be completely satisfied is to just get your chocolates to go!
I’ve had the gelato and it is always amazing, too. I have yet to try the hot chocolate though– will definitely give it a whirl next time I’m in.
As others have stated, this place is cash-​only. Also, it’s BYOB, so bring on the frangelica!

The drinking chocolate was just as indulgently fantastic as its name suggested. The red velvet cake and burnt sugar gelato were perfectly sweet, rich and dense/​smooth. Even the server with chronic bitchface (she asked us how we were doing, but nodded and turned around before we got a chance to answer) did nothing to ruin our appetites, or our desire to go here again.

Took my 7 year old to Golosa as part of Dining with Friends — her school’s program. We are so glad Golosa participated. The red velvet cake and hot 56% chocolate with «shaken cream» on top were divine.
DD loved the red velvet cake so much we got a slice to go for tomorrow.
She also got a blood orange chocolate (truffle?) for $ 2.00.
We also tasted 4 different cookies ($ 4.00) and we liked the corn meal and cocoa sable the best.
An elegant, pricey, caloric, indulgence.
Worth it!
Love it here.
Cash only.

Disclaimer: I do not like chocolate. BUT, I do like red velvet cake.
RED VELVET CAKE, RED VELVET CAKE, RED VELVET CAKE; YUM, YUM, YUM! Moist, rich, sweet (but not too sweet), but with a distinct taste of coco.
In addition the gelato I tired was also really tasty. Great service, cosy atmosphere, but a bit cramped. Warning: CASH ONLY.

Had the hot chocolate drink. It strait tasted like it had been sitting in a crock pot too long and had that burnt chocolate taste… For the very high price they charged for this drink I was expecting excellence and instead got mediocre… My wife grabbed some treats to go, she had no complaints on the flavors of the things she bought.
Biggest gripe was the young girl behind the counter. Not friendly at all, not inviting. Was really put off that we just wanted to grab a few things to go… Being that it was a Friday night and the place was EMPTY you’d expect the staff to take time to make you love the place, instead she acted like we were such a pain in her ass and we didn’t belong there.

Husband loved this place enough to come again the next day on our very brief trip into Philly.
The first time we got a cookie sampler with dipping chocolate, and we chose the dipping chocolate with chili in it. It was sooo good! The cookies were good on their own, but the chocolate dipping sauce is what takes the cake! It was very sweet and had a thick chocolately taste, and just when you wanted to lick your lips that had a dab of chocolate left, the chili would remind you it was there!
The next day we came back to slowly sip on hot chocolate drinks. These chocolate drinks are VERY rich, and it would have been better if we shared them rather than got one for each of us. He got another chili chocolate, and I got the orange chocolate drink. Mine was definitely more thick and rich, and tasted like they took a chocolate orange ball and melted it down for my enjoyment. His was also very good, not as thick, but had that perfect chili kick. We also had a pumpkin cheesecake. It was good, but nothing much to write home about, especially after everything else I’ve had there.
Come again? YES!

We walked in a bit after 10pm. At first we were totally ignored by the staff. Then, when we finally got the young lady’s attention, she asked, «can I get you something to go?» And we were like, no thank you, we’d like a table. She said nothing and just pointed to one table near the front. Okay, so, we could tell from the beginning that she was not happy to have another table, she was trying to get people out of there, yet it wasn’t yet 45 minutes until the posted closing time.
If you go to a chocolate bar, you expect to open the door and be hit with the heavenly, exotic, heady aroma. This place smelled very strongly of Lysol or some other industrial cleaner. This made for a horrible experience. This is a café where you expect to savor every slowly melting dense chocolaty moment. This cleaner smell killed the experience.
That said, the salty chocolate tart was good. The gelato was delicious, the best dark chocolate gelato I’ve had. The cappuccino was fine.
As we were enjoying ourselves, the waitress came over and quickly snatched up our dishes, without asking, before we were entirely done, in as bitchy a manner as is possible to imagine. Maybe I *do* like to scrape the last few bits of chocolate off the plate, thank you. Keep in mind that there were two other parties larger than ours still in the place; one of the people running the place was sitting down and chatting with one of those parties, presumably friends of his. In short, the service was abysmally bad, largely due to the attitude of this one waitress.
I love the concept. It’s the chocolate. This should be a great place to take a date, especially if you’re looking for something late-​night and alcohol-​free. But work on the service, okay? It’s a huge component of the experience in a place like this.

Great intimate dessert bar. The Vanilla Carmel Chocolate Tart oozes yummy with Carmel pouring out off the center when you pull it apart. I paired it with the Beer Stout Gelato which was incredible! I’ve been here twice and the gelato seems to stand out each time. I would high recommend this place for the gelato if not anything else.
My only quarrel with this place is that it’s cash only. The nearest ATM is not that near. Prices are slightly above average but if the desserts wows you then I suppose it’s worth it. =]

Rave: Red Velvet Cake.
Get this.
The cake is dense and moist… it’s so thick it’s like twice the density of any standard cake, with twice the red velvet flavor (meaning it’s red with hints of cacao) and is perfectly moist to boot.
The cream cheese frosting is decidedly velvety and smooth. It’s sweeter on the outside of the cake than it is for the cream cheese streak running through the cake’s center. This is how frosting is supposed to be layered. The inner strip is more cream cheese than sugar; the outer is more cream and sugar than (cream) cheese.
ProTip: Serve this red velvet cake with some dark chocolate gelato to whomever you’re trying to impress, and it’s guaranteed that this slice of sybaritic scrumptiousness will ensure giant smiles and probably some smooches along the way.

Well it seems this chocolate bar is not for everyone as every has different tastes. To those who did not like it, I can only say that you are very uneducated to the REAL Italian concept of our way of chocolate. For us Italians, this chocolate can not be any better! (For those seeking ethnic foods, seek out what flavors they adore, and then you can really enjoy your food!)
I will always recommend this place to lovers, lovers of chocolate, and lovers of the Stile Italiano!
Grazie, Fabio! Sei un genio!

Oh. My. Godiva. After reading so many good reviews, I had to experience this place for myself. So glad I did!
We celebrated a birthday here, sweet style, first-​time guests. The outside is unpretentious– and once you nestle yourself in a comfy chair and get passed the owner Fabio’s welcoming Italian accent, the inside is really very cozy and alluring. It gets a little crowded, but the atmosphere yields a very intimate setting for a romantic date, girlfriend chatter, mother and daughter bonding or a casual meeting. It’s also a BYOB establishment– and though I haven’t tried it yet, evidently you can bring your own booze and chocolatier fairies in the back creates their own spin on it– all for your enjoyment.
Our favorite was the drinking chocolate. Had the Golosi (cream and chocolate) and the infamous chili and chocolate drink. Allow me to prepare you by saying that one cup (about 6 or 7 oz) would suffice for one person… perhaps two and not due to size but quality and share factor– and is enough to last about 45 minutes. If you are inclined to savor, only sip sparingly to cherish the taste (a rich one at that) and experience your company. They also carry red velvet, pistachio and other cakes, as well as unique blended chocolates (all imported from Italy) — but I would recommend that if consuming one of those to accompany the dessert with some tea (otherwise drinking chocolate and dessert would be quite an overload). Golosa has a good variety. I recommend the Moroccan mint, but the flowering teas are enticing and the whole place overall is a chocolate/​dessert parade of oooo’s and aaaaa’s.
They only accept cash, and are only open 5 days a week (Tues. — Sat. 5−11pm) so it’s pretty exclusive. Settled in a quiet part of the Italian district, it’s the perfect stop after a good meal or to have that periodic indulgence. Definitely want to get the word out to popularize this quaint little shop, while not wanting to spoil one of Philly’s last little treasures… however if you decide to make this your own discovery be assured– it will be a sweet success.

Even if Golosa hadn’t been a part of the December Elite event I would still give them 5 shining stars. Their hot drinking chocolates are the bomb (did I really just say that?). They have 7 different varieties to choose from, including one with red chili pepper. You won’t be disappointed (if you are, you are not human and therefore should be terminated immediately for your mysterious robot ways).
Golosa also has cakes and desserts like Tiramisu and Chocolate Crème Brulee. For a serious chocolate freak like myself, this place wins. Take your date here and expect to get some action later. It’s that good.