Swoon Dessert Bar

This was an artful experience. We have a dessert flight of the chefs choice. We were a bit nervous, but thought it would be a fun experience.
The chef came out with each course and explained the preparation and ingredients.
Would be a fun first date idea!
They also had delicious coffee and latte drinks.

Beautifully done desserts
The shiso tres leches was very yummy although not as strongly shiso-​flavored as we expected (hoped?). The dragon fruit dish (also with shiso gel, in addition to mango sorbet and togarashi) was even better — barely sweet, and absolutely delicious. The Indian blood peach dish was our least favorite, but still thought provoking and interesting.
We definitely enjoyed the fact that the dishes are not overbearingly sweet. Worth a try.

The owner of this place posted two weeks ago that he is closing their doors. This place is no longer in business.
From Facebook:
Thank you North Park, and San Diego for a fun 20 months. We tried doing something a little outside of the box. Some people didn’t quite get it, but a lot of you did. For that we are grateful.
We focused on being super seasonal. Changing with the crops, and not just 4 times a year.
The menu was changed over 60 times, due to the bounty of California’s excellent produce.
Chef Ian designed over 250 dishes.
But alas, it has come to an end. For those of you we have ruined for other dessert, we’re sorry? Thanks for all the love everyone.

Swoon! There were some desserts that I would have died to have again, and others I would have maybe appreciated more if I actually liked those particular flavor profiles. Though this place seemed pretty upscale, in the end, I do not think it is worth the price for the experience.
When me and my friend came in, we had NO clue what to order and just decided to get the Chef’s Choice, 3 desserts for $ 18. I don’t know about what others had, but I felt a little bit ripped off by our whole experience. I felt like we got a majority of things that others wouldn’t really order, but that is just me and hearing what everyone had around me.
/​/​First dessert/​/​-​it came in a small egg shaped glass bowl and with very eccentric things inside: strawberry sorbet, passionfruit, crumbles, sponge cake, condensed milk like green liquid. IT WAS REALLY TASTY! It got me and my friend’s hopes and expectations up since it was simply SO delicious. I would even say it was Swoon-​worthy. There was freshness, there was sweetness, there was softness, there was crunch… HEAVENLY. On a good roll right?
/​/​Second dessert/​/​-​mint ice cream on top of crust crumble with scorpion spice, torched marshmallow, and exacerbated strawberries. It would have been wonderful if it wasn’t for that CHOKING aspect of the spicy. We were warned it would be spicy– but this was not the kind of spice that would actually be enjoyable. We tried to eat mostly everything with much difficulty, leaving the spice overdosed pie crust on the plate. The star again was that mint ice cream, when there wasn’t little spicy particles of hell on it.
/​/​Third dessert/​/​-​bourbon pudding with bacon powder, cream of sorts, and the same crumble from the first dessert. This one… we could not thoroughly appreciate. You can tell that pudding was not laced with bourbon, IT WAS DRUNK ON BOURBON. That alcohol effect just HIT us like an anvil, and I was only able to sample the top before stopping. Me nor my friend was really used to that –haha yay underaged people-​! The thing that just turned me off about this dish wasn’t the pudding though– it was that bacon powder! When I tried it, it was more smoke than actual bacon– I wanted to see that bacon– and imagine how could actual chopped sprinkles of bacon would be with that crumble? It would be so good! The cream and the crumble were the only things that we were really able to finish on the entire plate.
WHAT WOULD MAKE THIS PLACE BETTER?
In my humble opinion, what would make this place more inviting would be some more personality! Though I saw the people preparing the meals since the chef was in view (behind me), I thought that the chef would see the two people he would choose desserts for– MAYBE EVEN TALK WITH THEM. It would give that personal touch. That would have been so nice– considering that this place is so small and we are in such close vicinity to each other. Though dietary restrictions were mentioned on the menu, I think it would have been nice if the servers/​chef would have asked about other restrictions/​preferences– such as alternatives for non-​alcoholics who never braved strong beverages or people who CAN NOT handle spicy food. It would have made this experience n times more enjoyable and worth it.

Came in to try some of the desserts and ended up getting the dessert flight. It’s chef’s choice but you can let them know if there is something you can’t eat so you don’t have to worry about that.
The first dish was a «fruit salad» which actually wasn’t on the menu for that evening. It was a mixture of summer fruit with honey comb, yogurt and edible flowers with a curry crumble on top. Everything blended surprisingly well and the curry crumble wasn’t over-​powering like I initially thought it might be.
The second dessert was a strawberry ice cream with a graham crumble, marshmallow fluff, chocolate and pieces of dried strawberries. The strawberry ice cream was very refreshing and had a very intense flavor. It mixed well with the marshmallow.
The last dessert was a basil ice cream topped with poprocks and sea salt over a sponge cake and strawberries sprinkled with scorpion pepper. The basil ice cream was my favorite of the night. Super light with the basil flavor but you could definitely tell what it was. It didn’t have an overpowering herb-​like flavor like you might think.
Overall I enjoyed the uniqueness of each dish here. The menu items change frequently so you can get a different taste each time you come here. They also have a really nice tea/​coffee selection.

If I can give this place 10 stars I would. Seriously the best dessert bar I’ve ever been too. The BEST DESSERT. It was magical. The cherry nectarine crisp is hands down the most amazing creation I have ever had the pleasure of eating.
The chef is very detailed and attentive and he should be called a sweet genius. His creation is pure genius.
Thankful that I didnt pass up on trying this place. Seriously made the mini vacation we had in San Diego unforgettable.
Recommended this place to all my friends and told them that if they ever go to SD to visit this place.

If you scream for ice scream, you will swoon for swoon! The place is really cool, located along a lively section of North Park, adjacent to a tiny, hip art gallery. The décor of the shop is really nice, artsy, and breaks away from other dessert bars and coffee shops. There is adequate seating, but it’s primarily for small groups. We had a large party when we arrived, but didn’t have to wait too long for their large table.
They serve locally roasted coffee (Bird Rock, Coffee/​Tea Collective, etc.), which is a win in my book! The presentation of their desserts and treats are really well done. Tantalizing for the eyes, they delicately craft all of their deserts to perfection.
While the eyes are treated as kings, the tongue is more like a valued customer. The overall reactions from our group were average when it came to how our desserts tasted. Enjoying a friend’s vanilla gelato, layered with thinly crisped strawberry slices. My affogato was a bit on the unbalanced side. It was cool that they had multiple espressos, and I was able to choose which one to use, but I guess I missed and chose a very tart espresso that, combined with the vanilla ice cream, was still a bit jarring to enjoy.
I would definitely love to come back to try more. It’s a fun place, and I would love to check out their savory and fusion desserts.

I always want ice cream. Always.
Sometimes the «want» increases, and becomes «I must have it now.» This is one of those times.
A couple of friends and I were walking around the area and our gelato antennas went up and we wound up here. It was not crowded, but not totally empty, on a Thursday night around 8:30pm. The ambiance is friendly but nice-​good for a date, to catch up with some friends, even to take parents.
The service was really good! I forgot our adorable server’s name, but i totally loved him. Even though we kept interrupting him, he was super friendly and patient. I freaking loved him.
I WAS SO HAPPY that they feature coffee and espresso from Café Virtuoso, Coffee & Tea Collective, and BirdRock Coffee Roasters. WELL DONE. Three top-​notch local roasters. So that means… you need to get an affogato.
Let me tangent for a minute: If you’ve never had an affogato, stop whatever you’re doing and go get one. Now. I don’t care what you’re doing – this is more important. It’s a scoop of ice cream (often vanilla) with a shot of espresso on top. Hallelujah! I couldn’t enjoy it last night since I had to sleep within the next 6 hours (my caffeine tolerance is oddly sensitive considering I basically inject caffeine straight into my veins in the morning), but you’d better believe I watched with eager anticipation as my friends ate it. DROOOLLL
We shared the 70% dark chocolate gelato/​marshmallow fluff/​graham cracker crumble (by shared, I mean I ate 80%), and it was soooo gooooddddd. It was the fanciest smores evar.
I would absolutely come back here for dessert. They change the menu frequently, so you can come back one hundred times and still eat new things! Perhaps that’s only a slight exaggeration. The price is a little high compared to what I am used to, but not too high for what you get. The affogato is $ 6 I think, and the smores thing was $ 9, and worth it 100%. It’s a steal compared to places like Extraordinary desserts, which is just okay but will charge you a lot more. Come here instead! ;)

My wife and I had some time to kill while my brother was flying back to town so we decided to get some dessert. Normally we go for ice cream but it was a litle late around 9:30pm. I found a coupon for swoon in my san diego entertainment book phone app so we gave them a shot. Parking was easy for us on a Wednesday.
Walking into the dessert bar I already feel like fancy pants. Living in North County you really don’t get to experience these type of dessert places often. My wife and I ordered the bourbon butterscotch pudding and the vanilla gelato. Chef Ian went over the dishes with us after they were made.
The vanilla gelato was our favorite. I am not really a fan of vanilla I kept going back for more bites. It was very light and I loved getting the hints of sea salt in it. Really delicious, I would definitely order it again. The butterscotch pudding was also tasty but not as memorable as the vanilla gelato for myself.
We came during off hours so the bar was empty except for us. We enjoyed talking with the chef Ian about other savory and sweet food places to try out. Our host was also very friendly.
Add swoon to your list of dessert places to try! I rec the vanilla gelato (under hybrid menu).

So most people go for their 3 course tasting menu for $ 18 but i had just come from a heavy dinner and just wanted a small something to end the night. The menu is divided into 2 parts, your normal more traditional desserts and then the creative out of bounds desserts. I decided on one of each, An 80% cacao chocolate gelato and a bay leaf gelato with beats. They were both very good but also very small. And by small i mean tiny. Basically a quenelle of gelato with other accompanying things, beats, a smear of this or that.
The 80% cacao Chocolate gelato was awesome, very smooth, not overly sweet, very chocolatey, it went very well with the black berries and black berry sauce, it had a jalapeño component to it but i could not taste any jalapeño.
The Sage gelato with beets was interesting, the sage ice cream was a trip, i liked the sage gelato but i wish there were less beets or wish they were cut thinner.
A lot of creativity and work goes into making each one, they are very labor intensive and each one has a lot of steps to it. I guess you have to appreciate the work that goes into it and creativity of the flavors that he puts together. But at around $ 8 for a small quenelle of gelato, its just too pricy for me.
Swoon is a place for hipsters who spend all their money on designer shoes, bags, and clothes and still live pay check to pay check. If you’re a cheap ass like me who likes to save his money for retirement so i don’t have to work till i die, its a place to splurge every once in awhile.
Unique, creative desserts 4 stars
Value 1 star

You heard it here, folks: Swoon is the BEST dessert spot in San Diego.
Forget those *other* overpriced tourist traps all over town, all of which claim to have «extraordinary» or «heavenly» desserts. The only thing that distinguishes those places are sky-​high prices and ridiculous lines.
Swoon, on the other hand, is the real deal: gourmet, unique desserts with amazing service and top-​quality product.
Two of us dropped by Swoon on a cold and rainy date night. We sat at the bar and opted for the tasting menu ($ 18), plus another dessert from the a la carte menu to waive the shared-​plate charge:
1) Amuse bouche — Strawberry gelato and citrus purée served on a soup spoon
2) Cocktail grapefruit sorbet with chamomile and shortbread
3) Vanilla gelato with hazelnut crunch, strawberry glass, Arbequina olive oil, and tangerine sea salt
4) Caramelized onion ice cream with turnip, radish, and mache (from the a la carte menu)
5) 70% dark chocolate gelato with roasted blackberries, pâté brisee, and scorpion pepper ganache
These desserts were all breathtaking. So much more unique and innovative than just about anything else the San Diego dessert scene has to offer. While dining here, I felt like I was in New York or Napa.
The most interesting item was the caramelized onion ice cream. This was a truly savory dish with the texture of a dessert — amazing!
My favorite was the vanilla gelato. I loved the pairing of vanilla with olive oil, and the dehydrated strawberry glass made for an amazing texture.
Service is pitch-​perfect. Our server was friendly, and the chef was nice enough to select the appropriate spot in the tasting menu to insert our extra a la carte plate.
What else can I say? Swoon is absolutely marvelous!

Sorry but uh, I really have to disagree with the 4 star Unilocal ratings here.
I had some pretty high expectations coming in so that was part of the big disappointment as well.
Ordered the dessert tasting $ 18 and 3 other desserts.
Amuse Bouche: Blueberry gelato with orange ice. Didn’t taste like blueberry to me =/​
First Course: Basically a french toast with beets, and kumquats. Aside from the fact that my beet looked like a chopped off alien head, none of the items meshed together. Kumquats are quite strong and easily overpowered the whole dish. It was also salty because of sea salt.
Second Course: Sage Gelato, Lemon Curd and Black Berries. Ugh, sage gelato, definitely not a fan– but that could just be my personal opinion. Way too earthy for me though. I did like the lemon curd…
Third Course: Carrot cake, with carrot and sage ganache, cream cheese, sprinkled with coarse sea salt. Ugh, what’s with the sea salt and sage!!! I understand the fact that they are going for some savor desserts, but I wouldn’t call this «savory». It’s just salty and sweet =/​. The carrot cake was good with the carrot ganache.
Onto the other desserts:
Apple Crisp: A gigantic scoop of sage gelato. :(:(:(Then the apples were spiced way too strong. Earthy spices + sage + apple = ??? I only took 2 bites and couldn’t finish the rest. $ 8.50 wasted.
This could have been a really, really good savory dessert if they did the apple pie normally with vanilla bean gelatto, and added their bacon powder as the savory element.
Yuzu Cheesecake: Hmm this one kinda worked., but looked like a huge mess. It was basically a yuzu cream with graham cracker crust sprinkled over. If you get this, you’ll need to eat the guava separately, because it totally kills the yuzu fragrance.
Chocolate Cake: Cake itself was fine, nothing special though. Star anise oranges, strong. Very, very strong.
Very cool concept, but unfortunately really poor execution in my opinion.
–Plating is messy, too much going on (explains why it takes so long).
–Many flavors do not go together (sage, star anise)
–Very expensive with an average price $ 8 per order.

PRO TIPS:
— Get the flights, sitting at the bar is nice. Allowing the chef to cater to you gives a certain intimacy to the experience and takes you out of your comfort zone. Also, sometimes, they’ll send out a bonus dessert for all kinds of reasons.
— This would be a great new date place, you could easily tell a lot about a person. Just be sure not to eat a big dinner first, eat like, half a dinner.
— If you’re weighing your options between here and Heaven Sent, just ask yourself, «do I feel like eating something traditional or something unique?» Both are good, but this is certainly a unique experience.
— Probably don’t bring your kids here, think you can get a grab and go dessert, or expect a ginormous serving size. This is fancy, y’all.
These guys are all super welcoming. We didn’t realize that they didn’t start serving until 6pm, so we grabbed some pour over coffees and waited out the last few minutes.
Clearly, as referenced in the pro tips, you’re going to see some attractive items on the menu, maybe you go for them, maybe you let the chef pick for you. It seems you can go as far as to pick one and say you’re vegetarian or gluten-​free before it gets to be not chef’s choice.
As this menu is always changing, I’m not going to give highlights, rather sum up the highs and lows (?). Their gelato textures are exceptionally smooth, not like a gelato shop (or any I’ve found). The sorbets are tart and capture the fruit beautifully. Also, there’s probably going to be salt somewhere in your dessert. Don’t be scared, it’s supposed to be there. I’d like to say there were lows… the chef said one of our desserts was incorrectly prepared, as in, we got a different element than intended. But it was so good it definitely didn’t matter as delivered. He brought us a sample of the missed element. If that’s a low… hehe
I can’t wait to return for a new menu, or maybe just more on this one.

My friend was excited to take me to this new dessert bar in town. It’s modern, chic, and trendy. It’s shares a wall with an art exhibit which I thought was neat. We decided to be adventurous and got the Chef’s Choice for $ 18.
The chef made:
–green garlic biscuit pudding
–tomato sorbet
–apple crisp
Disappointingly all three were on their savory dessert menu. The best one was the apple crisp. I didn’t really enjoy the other two. I suggest that if you’re craving sweet dessert to actually order from the menu and not go with the chef’s choice. I left disappointed but I want to come back and try something else.

A Halloweeneaque night (for the intense fog, not for the costumes) and the craving of coffee (like if I was not fully awake after agitating my retinas with the splash of colors from a graffiti event at nearby Queen Bee). So Swoon desserts seemed to be perfect for my caffeine needs and my friend tea’s wishes.
All servers were extremely friendly and did not look bad at us just because we said we could not understand absolutely anything of what was mentioned in the dessert menu! Too fancy for us, but we were eager to be educated. And we were, as we were offered complimentary pumpkin pie macarons as well as a couple of delicious sorbets totally improvised at the kitchen, with Japanese accents and some sweet-​spicy tartness. Loves it!
Another plus, I like the minimalist decoration, with those very Danish clean cut design tables and fancy lamp on the ceiling

My wife insisted on going here one night, beautiful desserts.
I would recommend this place over extraordinaire desserts any day.
A bit on the expensive side and i am turned off by the additional charge of sharing your dessert flight at the bar.
I am a type 1 diabetic so i cant have more than a tiny bite, for that i had to pay extra just to sit there with my wife.
The service is awesome, nice/​friendly service.
The guys behind the bar are pretty cool and put together exceptional little treats.

I’m thankful I couldn’t find parking near heaven sent desserts lol. I’m always ready for dessert and my husband encouraged me to walk in the opposite direction to check out a new place he had just found on Unilocal.I’m soooo glad we walked in here!
It’s fresh, it’s chic, it’s delicious and refreshing !
We sat at the bar, we were greeted right away by the chef and he offered to explain the menu.
I like the fact that the menu is simple and self explanatory. If you’d like to take my advice: just pick anything! You won’t regret it!
They have sweet, sweet and savory which was perfect because I’m a super sweet dessert lover and my husband is more of a savory person.
I had the carrot cake, sweet pea gelato and what caught my attention it had Bacon! I had a foodgasm!
This is my new favorite dessert place !

Swoon Desserts
SD: North Park
Sunday 2^nd June 2013
Four Stars
After a fun day drinking on this Sunday, we finished the night off with two different three course dessert tastings. All the desserts were hand crafted to order. Every plate was suddenly beautiful with some unique flavor combinations.
Course #1: Peach Sorbet with Crumble, Sea Salt, Sorrel
Course #2: Deconstructed Blue Berry Cheese Cake with Lavender
Course #3: Espresso, 70% Dark Chocolate, Rainier Cherries, and Blood Orange Salt
Course #4: Lavender Ice Cream with Dehydrated Chocolate Mouse, and Strawberries
Course #5: Brioche, Strawberry Jam, Peanut Dust, and little Wild Strawberries
Course #6: Thyme Four Ways
Plus a couple Extra Espresso Macarons!
They were all interesting. I enjoyed the savory Peanut Butter and Jelly Dessert best.

Dessert was NO bueno. Cool concept. Jay was an awesome server but ²⁄₃ diners said not their flavor :(
I feel REALLLLLLYYYY bad giving this place 2 stars… but we ordered 3 desserts to share and each of them did nothing for our sweet tooth.
I really appreciate the concept and ideas behind the dessert portion of the menu, but unfortunately my taste buds could care less.
We had a meal somewhere else and had heard about Swoon Dessert Bar so we decided to give it a try. There were a couple other tables when we arrived, but we were seated immediately.
Our server Jay was super nice and informative. He was so bubbly and happy that it really made me that much more excited to try the various desserts.
We ended up ordering 3 different teas, as well as the carrot cake, the peanut butter mousse, and the devils food cake. Everything was presented beautifully. Jay broke down everything on the plate for us when he dropped them off.
I’ve never, in the history of my life, left any bites of dessert on a plate, but sadly when these 3 dishes got picked up there was plenty left over.
I really do appreciate what the Chef is trying to do here, it just didn’t work for me and my dinner companions.
:(

I came here with my friend after browsing over some newly opened businesses on Unilocal.I’ve always had a sweet tooth, but I was never a fan of overly sweet desserts, such as Extraordinary Desserts in downtown SD. But since I saw a few four and five star reviews for this place, I decided to go with a friend.
During the weekends, (Friday through Sunday I think?) Swoon serves «Flights», which is a fixed dessert course, as well as other drinks such as coffee and tea. On the weekdays, I believe they serve desserts on a separate A La Carte menu. From what I’ve seen on their Facebook site, they change their Flights every week! Since we went on a Saturday, my friend and I ordered and shared a flight (before they initiated the $ 5 surcharge).
The presentation was classy and the desserts were amazing. When I had the first bite of the Amuse Bouche, I wished that I had ordered my own! Each «course» had just the right amount of sweetness. Although each «course» was small, there were so many unique ingredients that contribute to the overall deliciousness of the dish!
In addition to the flight, I also ordered the Affogato. I’m not a huge coffee addict or anything, but it was the first time that I could tell that the coffee was «nutty». Personally, it was a bit too bitter for my taste, but it wasn’t bad.
Although it is fairly expensive for the portion sizes, I would gladly come here again based on the quality of the food itself. I cannot stress how good the desserts are here!