9 Desserts You Should Avoid Ordering At A Fancy Restaurant

For many, a night out at a fancy restaurant isn't finished without dessert. After all, who wouldn't want to enjoy a sweet treat they don't have to bake themselves? Desserts that are tough to master or take a long time to prepare can be the most fun to order when you're out and about; after all, you don't have to worry about sourcing ingredients, baking, or cleaning up. Even though a fancy restaurant's dessert menu might seem foolproof, don't fall for the notion that all restaurant desserts are one and the same. There are a few dishes that are notorious for not being made fresh or for simply not being worth ordering. 

To get the best idea of which restaurant desserts you should go for and which you should run far, far away from, we decided to bring in someone who knows the ins and outs of the dessert world better than anyone: a pastry chef. Chef and cookbook author Saura Kline told us everything you should know about restaurant dessert menus. These items are the things she herself would never order at a fancy restaurant. 

If you want a dessert that's guaranteed to be fresh, you really shouldn't order anything sold pre-sliced. That includes popular desserts like cakes, pies, and cheesecakes. Pastry chef Saura Kline shares that these items can last upwards of a week after they're sliced, which means that the piece of dessert you're ordering may not have been sliced fresh that day. Kline notes that it's more likely that the cake may have been baked a day earlier so that it could be sliced for service. If the last restaurant cake you ordered was a little stale, well, now you know why.

Unless the restaurant you're visiting is known for one of its freshly-made sliced desserts, you should avoid them. Though, you might get lucky every once in a while and get a slice that's relatively fresh, it's probably not worth the gamble — especially if the restaurant you're visiting really does keep its cakes around for close to a week.

Saura Kline cautions against ordering restaurant soufflés — though not on account of their quality. Rather, it's because they can take around 30 minutes to prepare. "A soufflé is always going to take the longest," says Kline. "It has to be cooked right before serving, otherwise it will have deflated completely." 

This doesn't necessarily mean that you need to avoid the soufflé entirely — they're not on this list because they're a notoriously bad dessert, only because they can take a fair amount of time to prepare. If you're expecting a dessert that will come out quickly after dinner, a soufflé may not be right for you. 

However, there is an exception to this rule. Some restaurants will offer the option of ordering a soufflé at the same time as your dinner. That way, the chefs will know that your table wants a soufflé and will be able to time it so it comes out after you finish your entrée. If the restaurant you're visiting offers this option, the staff will usually let you know before you order dinner so you have some time to decide which dessert you're going to get.

Saura Kline says that she would always avoid the flourless chocolate cake when dining out. "In my opinion, these cakes are only good if they're super freshly baked, and often are not," she says. 

You might think that most flourless chocolate cakes would be served fresh, since they're easy to make. Unfortunately, it's all too easy for a restaurant to make these cakes ahead of time, considering they're another batch-made, pre-sliced dessert (and you usually don't even have to keep a flourless chocolate cake in the fridge, either). A flourless chocolate cake can often lose a bit of its texture and moisture when it's not served fresh — and let's face it, when isn't a fresh cake better than a leftover one?

If you're dairy-free and are visiting a restaurant that has a lot of ice cream options, you might be tempted to choose the fancy dairy-free ice cream rather than a simple sorbet. After all, dairy-free ice cream often opens up more opportunities for flavor experimentation than sorbet. But unless you're at an ice cream shop, you really shouldn't go for it. Kline says that sorbet "will always taste better" than dairy-free ice cream served at a fancy restaurant.

Upscale restaurants often make sorbet in-house, which means you'll likely have a variety of seasonal options to pick from on the menu. Sorbet is often considered to be a fine dining classic, so your pastry chefs might have more experience with it than with dairy-free and vegan ice cream. Dairy substitutes can also be difficult when it comes to ice cream, which means that a seasonal sorbet flavor is likely a safer bet — especially if a restaurant doesn't specialize in dairy-free dishes. 

If you're gluten-free, you've probably struggled with finding gluten-free desserts at many restaurants before. Seeing a gluten-free dessert on a fancy restaurant's menu might have you jumping to try it, but you should take a second to think before you do, because Saura Kline recommends a few other options over the specifically gluten-free ones. She suggests ordering a custard-based dessert, as it's more likely to taste better than a dessert made with gluten-free flour.

It's true that restaurants often struggle to whip up a pleasant-tasting, gluten-free dessert. It takes more than just finding the right kind of flour for the recipe. So if you are gluten-free, you might have better luck with trying a different dessert. Look for items like flan, creme brûlée, or peruse the ice cream section of the menu. There's sure to be something interesting that isn't specifically labeled as a gluten-free dessert.

There's another dessert that Saura Kline will always stay away from no matter what: s'mores. "It's the safe, easy dessert that usually is never as good as the real thing." We're looking at you, deconstructed s'mores.

Not only are s'mores a super simple dessert to make yourself at home — which can admittedly limit the amount of satisfaction you might get from ordering dessert out — but they're honestly best when made fresh over a campfire (or, okay, maybe in the oven).

Saura Kline also notes that you should be wary of showy dishes when you visit a restaurant. "A tableside pour of a hot chocolate sauce over a sphere of chocolate is always just going to be for show, and what lies underneath is usually never that good," says Kline. If these aren't restaurant dessert words to live by, we don't know what is. 

You might have seen shows like these before — whether on social media or peering over from another table. If a chef or waiter is more focused on pouring your dessert artfully, lighting things on fire before serving it to you, or otherwise presenting it with an extensive visual show, you can probably guess that the looks are more important than the taste. You might also be paying more for the show than you are the food. In short, if it's got gold flakes, fancy melted chocolate pours, or a whole song and dance routine that comes with it, it's probably not the dessert you want.

If you're an ice cream lover, it might seem like there's no sweeter option than a fancy restaurant's ice cream. We're not saying you have to avoid this option 100% of the time, but it's a good idea to order with caution. You'll want to first consider if the menu mentions that the restaurant hand-makes the ice cream in-house. Or are you just ordering a basic vanilla ice cream with no description? Opting for an ice cream that is made by the restaurant itself will usually net you much more delicious results than going for a vanilla ice cream that could potentially be from anywhere.

Additionally, if the restaurant you're visiting is known for its delicious ice cream, then you're probably safe to order it. Great restaurants will also offer rotating, seasonal selections made with extra ingredients that take this frozen dessert a step up from what's found in the grocery store's freezer aisle.

The best restaurants will rotate their menus based on seasonality. You might not even have to worry about whether or not your dessert menu is in season if your restaurant does this. If you're not familiar with the restaurant you're visiting and aren't sure if they rotate their menu often, you can always ask your server. You can also look at the menu for clues. For example, are you seeing a lot of pumpkin desserts in autumn? Classic peach cobbler in the middle of summer? Fresh apple tarts available in September? If so, then you're probably looking at a menu that rotates its offerings based on what's growing.

On the other hand, desserts that are served out of season usually can't measure up to their in season counterparts. If you're thinking about ordering a fruit tart with strawberries in the dead of winter, know that the fruit might not be as sweet as what you're used to. Using out of season produce won't necessarily ruin a dessert that's otherwise made well, but there's bound to be better options listed on the menu. 

Keep in mind that some fruit desserts can circumvent this issue by using ingredients like jams or compotes. These fruit-based spreads are usually more consistent in flavor than whole fruit.